Pixel Arena by Curlystraw

[raw]
made by Curlystraw for LD26 (COMPO)
Probably a total of about 24 hours of pure work or so (including idea-making). I feel like I could have done more with it, but I kept going in so many directions for gameplay I had to settle on this!

The goal is pretty simple, keep your swarm of pixels alive and eliminate the other swarms by attacking them. The swarm follows your cursor around and you have to eat food dropped by large, white pixels to increase your swarm's size. The best part of the game is the menu that lets you determine how easy it is to produce new pixels, how much damage pixels do to each other, and a couple of other factors! You can try different blends of reproduction % vs damage to mix up the combat, or just give yourself an incredible challenge.

All three of the sound effects were created using sfxr.

Really enjoyed my first Ludum Dare, and I hope you enjoy the game!

Ratings

Coolness 39% 1564
Overall 3.08 653
Audio 1.79 999
Fun 2.92 618
Graphics 2.30 1095
Innovation 3.29 419
Mood 2.33 1053
Theme 3.20 874

Feedback

theomnis
29. Apr 2013 · 16:04 UTC
Fun to watch and play!
aare
29. Apr 2013 · 21:43 UTC
I remember playing similar game on linux, but you were starting with fully grown army.
stevejohnson
29. Apr 2013 · 21:44 UTC
Surprisingly engrossing, great job. I wish the color trails would fade slowly. I also found it really hard to win on the default settings since the AI has so much of an advantage.
TheSambassador
29. Apr 2013 · 21:45 UTC
It seems like this game had potential, but in its current state it is a bit dull. There's not really a ton of strategy here, you just eat white stuff until you're big, then you go off and kill the blue/red stuff.

I'm also not really a fan of being locked to only 4 directions... was there a reason for this design choice?

Overall it feels unfinished.. more stuff will make it better!
Cheshyr
29. Apr 2013 · 21:58 UTC
I really enjoyed this. :-)
Exergy
30. Apr 2013 · 22:01 UTC
Interesting game. Good job!
chowdy
30. Apr 2013 · 22:09 UTC
Fun game, but I couldn't win :( I loved watching the pixels swam!
alwaysinbeta
30. Apr 2013 · 22:21 UTC
Very absorbing and fun.
dreamlogician
01. May 2013 · 00:29 UTC
I can definitely see this developing into something even more interesting in the future, after the concept has spent just a little more time in the oven. You have a strong basis for expansion here with the control mechanism and the swarm behavior, I think the actual implementation just needs a little more refinement to really find the fun.
whitetigle
01. May 2013 · 07:42 UTC
It was actually fun to play and quite challenging and I do not like these reds when they're eating me alive!! ;)
Husky
02. May 2013 · 08:49 UTC
It's really a cool idea!
Good job!
Ernyz
06. May 2013 · 17:20 UTC
This is really fun :) it reminds me of AI challange, where people had to program ant armies' logic and then to compete with each other with those armies.
someone
06. May 2013 · 17:37 UTC
Nice idea. Challenging game.
The trails were cool, but it would be better if they faded out after a while.
robotality
07. May 2013 · 17:42 UTC
Like the concept, and the growth idea is neat. However, it felt really easy and the AI wasn't exactly challenging. With some more work this could be a lot of fun!
Make A Game
19. May 2013 · 10:30 UTC
It's a well done game/simulation, a visual experience by itself. Good and fun concept!