Metro Lance by theholychicken

made by theholychicken for LD29 (COMPO)

Rush through the underground Metro to blow up your target from below!

-----Controls-----
Movement: WASD Keys
Ride Tracks: S KEY
Fire Weapon: Mouse

-----Tips-----
The game is beatable! Here are some pointers:

- Machinegun fire is least dense in the middle of the tunnel. Try to stay in the middle by jumping regularly.

- Save your double jump! If you double jump too early you'll be vulnerable tanks on the ceiling, and you won't be able to avoid machinegun fire below you when you need the second jump.

- Not riding the rails make you slower but you regenerate your health twice as quickly. Being slower also gives you more time to react to machineguns.

- The tanks spawn on a timer, the slower you make progress, the more concentrated they will be! Don't stop moving forward or you'll face an impossible blockade!

See if you can get to the ending! Good luck!

V1.008:
-Bug fixed where the game continues after player dies.

Windows Download(GameJolt)	http://gamejolt.com/games/action/metro-lance/25771/
Source	https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgrgemvbusbn6hz/LudumDare29.zip
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=25095

Ratings

Coolness	81%	2
Overall	2.87	866

Audio	1.50	1022
Fun	3.20	401
Graphics	3.93	130
Humor	1.91	922
Innovation	2.59	912
Mood	2.41	1036
Theme	2.38	1094

Feedback

alvarop

28. Apr 2014 · 06:48 UTC

Hey, it's not a web link if I have to download it, eh? Heh...

jaxonf92

28. Apr 2014 · 06:53 UTC

Awesome artwork :)

Druid

28. Apr 2014 · 08:35 UTC

This game need some audio.
And this game looks like some crazy anime :D

Majsmanne

28. Apr 2014 · 08:44 UTC

You've got the basics of a cool game here, but it suffers heavily from the lack of music and sound effects. The connection to the theme is somewhat weak.

thristhart

28. Apr 2014 · 09:27 UTC

Great art style. Agreed that the game really needs audio - even crappy beeps would give a degree of feedback that's lacking. Don't see the connection to the theme myself, but I haven't beat it. Again, very pretty. Love the aesthetic.

gabbsson

28. Apr 2014 · 09:32 UTC

Neat artstyle! Wouldve been cool with some sound effects!
Also there seems to be a bug when i die that lets me just continue moving forward to the end!

madhoe

28. Apr 2014 · 09:33 UTC

Neat game with neat graphics. Agreed that it needs audio.

🎤 theholychicken

28. Apr 2014 · 09:53 UTC

Haha thanks for the comments guys,

The game is in an underground metro tunnel.. The idea is that the player penetrates the underground defenses and bomb the enemy headquarters. I ran out of time to do any in-game exposition so there it is...

If you get to the ending though it will make a *bit* more sense.

Audio effects is completely Greek to me right now. Something I came to believe a while ago is that crap is not always better than nothing.
It's definitely the next step for me to learn music and audio though. Right now I'm trying to get better at graphics.

PaperBlurt

28. Apr 2014 · 15:30 UTC

Most Awesome Weapon of Ludum Dare goes to....

Liked it.
A fun and addictive game according to me.

baykush_figtree

28. Apr 2014 · 19:05 UTC

I like fast paced games, but audio is an important part of feedback in this kind of game.
This game's got potention. Tweak it up :)

Also, bug report:
I've died midway and kept shooting AND walking

Dominator_101

28. Apr 2014 · 19:23 UTC

Great art, needs some sort of audio.

Also, maybe I'm the only one, but when I die I sort of keep going as a ghost...Like, the screen keeps scrolling, and shots still "hit" me (well, hit the air where my character would be) and I can beat the game if I wait until I reach the end...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff18/Dominator_101/LudumDare/metro3_zps26d7bcf4.gif
(gifs a bit zoomed in, and crappy framerate, but you should get the idea)

Kragnir

28. Apr 2014 · 20:53 UTC

Very nice graphics. The gamesegment is a bit dragged out it could be half as long without any problem. Actual gameplay seem to rely too much on simply being in the air all the time. It was nice that the game had an ending.

DrPrettyPatty

29. Apr 2014 · 19:11 UTC

I like it! Especially the graphics, and it's a fun bullet helly hard game!

Crazi456

29. Apr 2014 · 23:21 UTC

Very entertaining, loved the enemy sprites. Good work!

NukeTheBunnys

29. Apr 2014 · 23:24 UTC

IF you make a button (such as to shoot the gun) you should give players a reason to not press the button. you just hold it down all the time

🎤 theholychicken

29. Apr 2014 · 23:53 UTC

@ NukeTheBunnys
Interesting point, but I think it slightly strengthens the interaction between the player and the game to have to hold down something.
It's all about the perception of cause & effect. Players want to cause an effect in the game. If the game does something without player input it weakens the bond and sense of satisfaction.
Thats just my theory anyway :D

crocantidepollo

29. Apr 2014 · 23:57 UTC

Really nice gameplay there! I really like the camera work too. The lack of sound is such a pity. I got a bug were I died and still was able to keep playing as a floating explosion? ;)

HybridMind

30. Apr 2014 · 00:42 UTC

Very fun to shoot in this game. The game is a bit hard though and unclear what the bars at the top left of the screen are doing. Was riding the rails giving me health or draining me of health? Neither? I wasn't sure. There was also a really weird bug that when I died it just let me keep playing w/o a body and nothing could hurt me. Oh, also it messed up my mouse cursor (a funny scraggly blue line is now below it) after playing your game. Weird! :D

🎤 theholychicken

30. Apr 2014 · 01:11 UTC

@HybridMind
Your health(the blue bar) regenerates. Riding rails slows your regeneration by half.
The red one is the distance toward your goal.

P.S. That's odd about your mouse cursor. It's most likely a temporary glitch with Windows.

Sparrow

30. Apr 2014 · 01:18 UTC

Cool game! Love the graphics and the bullet hell gameplay. It's difficult but it should be. Also had the dying bug and then kept on running. I guess it gets pretty stale getting told over and over about the audio... so I'm looking forward to a post-compo version.

yo_milo

30. Apr 2014 · 02:26 UTC

Really good game, amazing... it feels smooth as butter. Sadly, it has no audio, which is really important for player feedback...

This games has all it needs to be a super Juicy game... If you do not know what I mean, look at this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg

Penguincat

30. Apr 2014 · 06:18 UTC

Awesome graphics and fun gameplay. It'd definitely benefit a lot from some music and/or sound effects, but in the meantime, given the art style, I've been playing it to the Tron Legacy soundtrack. It's a good combo!

mimic

30. Apr 2014 · 22:40 UTC

Visuals are pretty nice and it feels really smooth but it didn't really play that well. Needs some audio too!

Dreii

30. Apr 2014 · 22:45 UTC

Looks very nice, although It seems pretty buggy, I died in like 3 seconds due to the bullet...stream? But after the character died I was able to keep playing, with an invisible and invincible character lol...

🎤 theholychicken

01. May 2014 · 00:59 UTC

I just fixed the bug where the screen and weapon continues after you died.
Now you see an death screen and have an option to restart.
Bug fixes are allowed after compo so I think this is fine :D

eerongal

01. May 2014 · 02:14 UTC

Taking the idea of a "rail shooter" a little seriously, huh? :)

Fun game, though! Good work!

Coin Flip Games

01. May 2014 · 02:18 UTC

Pretty good game!

kirbytails7

01. May 2014 · 03:42 UTC

Pretty simple, but still fun. Agreed that a bit of audio would have been really nice.

mjrevel

01. May 2014 · 03:45 UTC

I beat it, YAY!!!! Fun game, wish it wasn't missing audio

Dietrich Epp

01. May 2014 · 03:57 UTC

Fun action, but it gets a bit long. Also kind of un-fun for three machine guns to spawn back to back.

BauhausGamesSyndicate

01. May 2014 · 12:57 UTC

WOW, I am stunned that you played our game with such effort.
You can beat the game if you kill around 1200, or was it 2000 (?), enemies at the sun temple.
We were also surprised that you can actually beat it. However the game crashes if you win :-D

Big thank you for testing our game with that depth. <3

Moosefly

01. May 2014 · 14:33 UTC

Really needed some fast paced music to make it feel better, just listened to some random fast techno song from youtube while playing :P. I also agree with what yo_milo said about the juicyness. This could feel so damn epic if polished. Could use some balancing, just staying at the middle most of the time with double jump was too easy. Finished it on my second try. Cool ending.

Anssi@MooseflyGames

trueyomic

03. May 2014 · 17:01 UTC

Neat on rails (and off) shooter. I kind of felt I would have had more fun being able to take out the enemies (with explosion sounds!) rather than just jump through the middle of them all only taking out some of the smaller bots. I loved the graphics. I think with some sound, music, and a little balancing this would have improved it greatly. Nonetheless, it's a good game.

praporomsk

03. May 2014 · 22:55 UTC

The most dynamic game on this LD so far :) Bravo!

shadow64

18. May 2014 · 06:55 UTC

I enjoyed this a lot. It's a little too difficult, but that's okay. I like a challenge and once I figured out the controls it wasn't so bad at all. :)

I also agree with the people who have said the game needs audio. If you had been able to use a song generator to create a cool cyber punk tune I would've been REALLY into it.

I could definitely see this being a longer game you've set things up nicely and the art style is great.

Thanks for sharing! :)