Barricade by AdamHarte

[raw]
made by AdamHarte for LD27 (COMPO)
Robots are attacking, and they are after the mainframe.
Luckily there is a glitch in their programming which means they need to reboot every 10,000 milliseconds.
Use this to your advantage and keep them out at all costs.

I used Haxe on OpenFL and HaxeFlixel, Pyxel for graphics, DAME for the levels, and Bfxr for sound effects.

Ratings

Coolness 64% 3
Overall 3.82 57
Audio 3.20 199
Fun 3.81 41
Graphics 4.05 61
Humor 2.42 453
Innovation 3.19 391
Mood 3.36 160
Theme 3.79 87

Feedback

Steve
26. Aug 2013 · 02:56 UTC
Very nice! Cool graphics, nice idea, nice sound. Very responsive controls.
justicegames
26. Aug 2013 · 07:33 UTC
Nice i like this game alot
Temich
26. Aug 2013 · 07:34 UTC
Such a nice game :>
nicotuason
26. Aug 2013 · 08:24 UTC
Ok my hand really hurts now. Blasting the robots is fun and I love it when they explode, but I wish you could just hold down the keys to keep shooting.
mrspeaker
26. Aug 2013 · 11:35 UTC
Nah, holding down keys to shoot would be a cop-out... the frantic key smashing is the best bit!
netguy204
26. Aug 2013 · 11:45 UTC
Nicely done! Everything is clean and tight and simple and feels good. It turns out that needing to reboot every 10 seconds is a heck of a weakness so the game itself wasn't very challenging.
Katamori
26. Aug 2013 · 12:27 UTC
Overall: my newest favourite in the repertoir! So much awesomeness that I can't even summarize it!

Innovation: robots turn on and off in every 10 seconds...amazing!

Fun: a bit short, but levels are challanging - i could finish all of them with the same tactics, though. (camper-style) Couldn't stop playing it 'til the end.

Theme: instafive.

Graphics: great pixelart work with moderate details. The amount of particles (like robot collapse and projectile particles when hit) makes it 5/5.

Audio: great sound effects, now only some kind of fast actionful music is missing!

Humor: there's no humor. But who cares?!

Mood: You are teh protector!
🎤 AdamHarte
26. Aug 2013 · 21:46 UTC
Wow thanks for the responses people :D It is great to get this feedback.

@nicotuason & @mrspeaker
I did actually add "hold to keep firing" and it took the frantic, button bashing feeling away, so made the call to stick with how it is.

@netguy204
Did you get all the way through? I made the first levels easy so you can learn how it all works, but I feel it does get kinda challenging. Maybe I underestimated some Ludum Dare'iens gaming skills ;)

@Katamori
Thank you so much for your comments, and thanks for taking the time to give some great feedback. Always appreciated.
pighead10
26. Aug 2013 · 22:50 UTC
Responsive controls, feels good to play. Great graphics.
goyal
26. Aug 2013 · 23:54 UTC
Great game. Finished it!
barcode
27. Aug 2013 · 02:34 UTC
Challenging and a lot of clicking. Neat idea. Fun
borden
27. Aug 2013 · 02:39 UTC
Love those robot gibs.
Addictive!
mysticstv
27. Aug 2013 · 02:53 UTC
Much fun - controls are very wonky
zillix
27. Aug 2013 · 02:53 UTC
Fantastic! Simple and fun gameplay, and well executed.
Dooleus
27. Aug 2013 · 03:08 UTC
The art and sound effects are good. Needs some pumping music, possibly with a more subdued version for when the enemies get deactivated. Not a fan of the button mashing weapon firing, though - definitely a repetitive strain issue which is a big dealbreaker for me. I would much rather be able to hold down a direction to fire, and it wouldn't compromise the gameplay at all.

The concept is pretty interesting but I think it could have been explored in more engaging ways - every level seems to play out the same: mash attack at choke points until the enemies are deactivated, then kill as many as you can before they reactivate and you resume mashing attack at the same choke point. Maybe if there were two kinds of enemies and when one was active the other would be deactivated would be more interesting. Anyways, it's got a certain charm to it but I really just can't get past the control scheme.
flyingbear
27. Aug 2013 · 03:52 UTC
I had fun playing this! The early levels were a bit trivial feeling, where you just stood at a chokepoint while the enemies were activated but later levels changed this up, thankfully. Once I perfected my "quickly alternate between left and right arrow" technique the enemies stood no chance!
matthias_zarzecki
27. Aug 2013 · 06:30 UTC
I haven't seen this combination of elements before, nice work!
grayhaze
27. Aug 2013 · 08:26 UTC
A brilliant example of using the theme effectively. Excellent stuff!
@TeddyNashor
27. Aug 2013 · 10:34 UTC
wow, very impressive!
Sanguine
27. Aug 2013 · 10:51 UTC
The graphics and the way theme fits into the game are nice, but the shooting could really be improved by being able to hold the key down instead of having to press it every time. It would make the game more tactical.
Zuige
27. Aug 2013 · 10:51 UTC
Brilliant! I did quite enjoy this one. Love the rebooting idea. :) Made me want to get a turbo controller ;)
Jorqell
27. Aug 2013 · 11:40 UTC
Incredibly good game, but killed my weak old hands in a couple of minutes. A shame really, I'd have enjoyed playing it more.
ghRibacki
27. Aug 2013 · 12:57 UTC
Very fun action game, pixel art and sound both fit very well! I like the shutdown effect! =D
Manage to finish with 61160 points, is that good? =)
SaintHeiser
27. Aug 2013 · 13:49 UTC
Very good!
So addictive gameplay with lovely draw pixelart!
Moment with enemy countdown make me smile =)
deammer
27. Aug 2013 · 15:32 UTC
That was really fun, great use of the ten seconds mechanic. I'd love to see more weapons in there to spice up the gameplay.
torvik88
27. Aug 2013 · 16:17 UTC
Nice idea, nice game, nice graphics, nice effects....really love the game.
moonmagic
27. Aug 2013 · 16:51 UTC
Really liked the confined feeling of the rooms. Would have enjoyed some kind of hard to use shot (like a "hold to charge" area-of-effect blast? melee? something) that left you vulnerable for a bit? And then many many more enemies. As it is I can just button-mash my way to victory and it doesn't feel as dangerous as I want it to be.
rxi
27. Aug 2013 · 17:32 UTC
Love it. Really enjoyed the high speed firing, the clutter of enemies and the particles. The WASD + Arrow keys movement / shooting system is something I hadn't seen done before, but I really liked it.

The graphics felt quirky in a good way, chunky pixels and cute little characters. The sound effects were fun. The use of the theme was really well done, an integral part of the game play and "story line".

It felt like an overall simple game but with a nice selection of levels. It was over before it got boring or gave me RSI which is probably for the best.

Nice work!
tripleVisionGames
27. Aug 2013 · 20:06 UTC
Amazing art, love the animations. I found most levels I could complete by picking a spot and hammering the right arrow but when I forced myself not to it was a fun game!
01010111
28. Aug 2013 · 03:11 UTC
Really cool game, but now my right arm is out of commission. Great work, the pixel art was fantastic!
Sebastian
28. Aug 2013 · 04:48 UTC
Finally a game with perfect controls :D
Awesome graphics and I thought the levels were nicely balanced. Only thing that bugged once or twice was being unable to quickly differentiate between the alive creatures and the carcasses of the dead ones.
Sinuath
28. Aug 2013 · 04:48 UTC
Really enjoyed it!

The only thing i'd suggest is changing the robots graphic so they look less like the mutant ninja turtles, made things a little confusing.
Angrycrow
28. Aug 2013 · 05:02 UTC
Quite nice game! I really enjoyed it! Please rate me back!
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-27/?action=preview&uid=5288
Nick Weihs
28. Aug 2013 · 06:59 UTC
Destroying the robots feels really good and the whole powering up and down every 10 secs is a cool take on it : ) Good stuff!
Blizzil
28. Aug 2013 · 09:14 UTC
Awesome game! The graphics are nice and it is simple but fun to play.
rogueNoodle
28. Aug 2013 · 16:21 UTC
Love the chunky pixels, and it was so satisfying blowing up the bad guys!
Andrew Shouldice
29. Aug 2013 · 02:08 UTC
Screen shake! Particles! :)

A polished little entry with charm. There's something satisfying about wasting a whole bunch of robots in a line when they're sleeping.
savethejets1
29. Aug 2013 · 05:31 UTC
Cool, stuff.

Sort of a platformer + tower defensy game. Which is a cool idea.

I like that the particles have physics attached to them, and the screen shake is another nice effect.

Great work!
Colapsydo
29. Aug 2013 · 09:39 UTC
Nice use of particles, it gives a serious mayhem side to the game.
Venturelli
29. Aug 2013 · 13:26 UTC
Like the use of the theme and the overall feel of shooting things, nicely done!
lekochen
30. Aug 2013 · 01:38 UTC
Completed! Now I need physical therapy.
Hayawi
30. Aug 2013 · 06:00 UTC
Overall great game. The 10 second reboot (i think someone already mentioned this) is too big of a weakness...perhaps you shoul move slower or suffer some other side-effect of a sort during those 10 seconds too to make things more challenging?
PeaCe
30. Aug 2013 · 08:19 UTC
Great work! It gets repetitive after some levels but it's ok.
Orni
30. Aug 2013 · 08:39 UTC
this is amazing
I mean - sideview shooters and retro graphics are always amazing, but this one is even better than that
loved it
TobiasW
31. Aug 2013 · 13:35 UTC
The graphics and animations are great! The sound effects work really well too. The gameplay is fun, but gets repetitive pretty fast.

I'm missing music! If you can't make any yourself, http://abundant-music.com does the generating job pretty well - and GXSCC can make the resulting MIDIs sound pretty chiptune.
canvapps
01. Sep 2013 · 09:31 UTC
this game is dynamic and fast, not so many of the games I've seen are.
great work!
GaTechGrad
03. Sep 2013 · 03:19 UTC
Neat game. I like the abundance of enemies and the particle effects when they die. It would have been nice if there were some powerups and different types of weapons and enemies. It also seemed near impossible to lose, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. My final score was 61140.
Antidote
03. Sep 2013 · 04:32 UTC
Awesome! Controls working very nice, really cool graphics, good mechanics :) for a 48 hour compo entry it's impressive.
Chinchilla
03. Sep 2013 · 07:47 UTC
Pew Pew Pew!! Die you froggy robot things! Good fun, though I do have RSI now. Would be great to have some area of effect weapons now and again, and to be able to hold down to shoot.
spitfire87
03. Sep 2013 · 08:56 UTC
Fingerpain! The concept is great and the execution is perfect for a 48h entry. Now it needs a bit more variety of enemies/weapons and more levels ! It looks promising.
Sestren
03. Sep 2013 · 09:10 UTC
The graphics are well done, and the on/off mechanic is kinda cool. Having to press the shoot button repeatedly got a little tedious, though. I think a little more variety in weaponry and enemies would go a long way toward making this an awesome game. I'd like to see a Post-Compo version, for sure!
Dir3kt
03. Sep 2013 · 10:30 UTC
Very good game! I liked the smooth controls and the overall feel of the game. It's also nice how the two modes influence the gameplay. When the bots are active I tend to stay and fire as much as I can (my arm hurt), when they are inactive I'm pushed to travel the map in order to hunt them down.

Will definitively be checking updates on that one.
KristinnEs
03. Sep 2013 · 11:36 UTC
Great game :) The only fault I could find was that it would have been nice to be able to click and hold to keep firing instead of the clickfest.

Apart from that, this was one of my favorite entries :)
lesterpig
03. Sep 2013 · 13:48 UTC
Nice game, but controls are really... unusual. Pretty simple to stay and kill robots ;)
jujule
03. Sep 2013 · 13:55 UTC
Very polished on all levels. Very slick. I like it.
graytest
03. Sep 2013 · 17:04 UTC
Love the graphics. Sound is good. Really wish I could hold the button down for shooting. Also wish the aiming worked a bit differently.
Jupiter_Hadley
03. Sep 2013 · 17:29 UTC
Really nice game, loved it. One of the best I've played! I featured it in my Ludum dare compilation video series, if you'd like to check it out :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp9ky-3J3J4
iambored2006
04. Sep 2013 · 08:53 UTC
Awesome! Needs some balancing, but overall amazing!
Lokarunith
05. Sep 2013 · 20:37 UTC
The idea of putting you through hell having robots apearing from every direction and then for 10 seconds pause the enemies is pure genius, I had a lot of fun with your game.
xrm0
07. Sep 2013 · 11:43 UTC
Good graphics
gravyhands
10. Sep 2013 · 02:37 UTC
I have massive carpal tunnel now.
xhunterko
11. Sep 2013 · 05:25 UTC
Wow very good! I was a little put off by the firing controls but I got used to it eventually. Great job!
theholychicken
16. Sep 2013 · 00:28 UTC
The 4 direction shooting makes it really difficult to hit bots on the middle steps, but considering the decision to use button mashing I guess there's no better way to do it(mouse mashing would have been terrible).
Gameplay is hectic and very awesome!
jay griffin
17. Sep 2013 · 00:21 UTC
Oh man, this is a LOT of fun to play. It rapidly descends into some pretty hilarious chaos with all that gunfire and robot limbs flying around. Small but perfectly formed.