Goatstar by shinD

[raw]
made by shinD for LD25 (COMPO)
Goatstar is a reverse bullet hell shmup, where you play the boss and face against the absolutely most terrible bullet hell players the world has known. That is to say, the AI is kinda bad, but it makes up for it with infinite lives. Rack up kills until you die!

Written in python with pyglet. I was so rusty... need to code more, need time to code more. So terrible.

Usual tools, sfxr, renoise, NI massive & damage, notepad++

It's python, so in theory it should work on any platform by running via source as long as you have pyglet installed. I haven't tested it, sorry about that.

http://www.pyglet.org

http://www.digitalcheeseplate.com

Ratings

Coolness 64% 3
Overall 2.97 371
Audio 3.19 122
Fun 2.76 412
Graphics 3.59 142
Humor 2.34 422
Innovation 2.82 380
Mood 2.81 345
Theme 3.71 147

Feedback

singpolyma
16. Dec 2012 路 23:17 UTC
On Ubuntu 12.10. I had to install python-pyglet of course, but then I still get:

$ python main.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 2, in <module>
from world import World
File "/tmp/shinD-goatstar-ld25-src/world.py", line 1, in <module>
from npc import NPC
File "/tmp/shinD-goatstar-ld25-src/npc.py", line 4, in <module>
class NPC:
File "/tmp/shinD-goatstar-ld25-src/npc.py", line 5, in NPC
ship = pyglet.resource.image("othership.png")
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pyglet/resource.py", line 492, in image
identity = self._cached_images[name] = self._alloc_image(name)
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pyglet/resource.py", line 437, in _alloc_image
img = pyglet.image.load(name, file=file)
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pyglet/image/__init__.py", line 194, in load
raise first_exception
pyglet.image.codecs.ImageDecodeException: Unable to load: othership.png
馃帳 shinD
17. Dec 2012 路 00:47 UTC
Alright, good to know. I'll see if I can do something about that.
fishbrain
17. Dec 2012 路 18:46 UTC
I love the literal interpretation of the theme! ...The 16 bit bad guy is superb, and really enjoyed this retro experience!
soupy
18. Dec 2012 路 00:51 UTC
Intro was so cool, but controls did not work for me :( I could move but not shoot. I'm running Windows 7 on an HP Pavillion g4, if that helps.
timtipgames
19. Dec 2012 路 17:30 UTC
Same for me here. Couldn't shoot. I'm on a german keyboard layout (y and z are swapped) but that shouldn't be the reason I am unable to shoot at all right? I mean I think I shot twice, but It felt really undeterministic and it could just have been an random event ;) I'll revisit to see if you were able to find the reason for this.
Aslai
19. Dec 2012 路 17:57 UTC
Well I do agree that the shooting mechanism isn't very straightforward. You have to hold down a key and wait for about a second before you start firing. Also, it would be less game breaking if weapons went on cooldown after using them too much. C is just OP.
shaneshanekavanagh
19. Dec 2012 路 18:04 UTC
Couldn't get it to load. WinXP
gameXcore
19. Dec 2012 路 18:26 UTC
So far the best reverse-shmup I've come across while rating, however would have been much better without the input lag & some sort of recoil when I was hit.
h.attila
19. Dec 2012 路 20:05 UTC
I got this when I tried to start (on Windows 8 x64):
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "_ctypes/callbacks.c", line 313, in 'calling callback function'
File "pyglet\window\win32\__init__.pyc", line 849, in _wnd_proc
File "pyglet\window\win32\__init__.pyc", line 918, in _event_key
File "pyglet\window\__init__.pyc", line 1219, in dispatch_event
File "pyglet\event.pyc", line 349, in dispatch_event
File "main.py", line 37, in on_key_press
File "world.pyc", line 26, in __init__
File "pyglet\resource.pyc", line 587, in media
File "pyglet\media\__init__.pyc", line 1386, in load
File "pyglet\media\riff.pyc", line 202, in __init__
pyglet.media.riff.WAVEFormatException: AVbin is required to decode compressed me
dia
someone
19. Dec 2012 路 20:22 UTC
Interesting. Good interpretation of the theme.
I got the same error as singpolyma on openSUSE 12.1 but the windows binary worked in Wine.
The intro feels seems a bit long, and some kind of score would be good.
Maple
19. Dec 2012 路 20:29 UTC
This is pretty good. Love the whole intro thing, makes me feel like a real boss! I would have liked a little more room for movement, but bosses don't usually get that, do they? Nice game, and nice graphics.
dansludumdare
19. Dec 2012 路 22:12 UTC
I like it. The robot vowel guy in the music was funny too.

I found my C gun was by far the most effective.
BipolarMike
20. Dec 2012 路 01:45 UTC
It was neat to play the boss, wish there was more of this one!
JFlegle
20. Dec 2012 路 02:14 UTC
Love the graphics and music. This game makes me feel like a giant battleship and I like it.
TwilightFlandre
20. Dec 2012 路 04:03 UTC
It was fun to play the boss and glad that someone else, besides me, made a shmup! The use of theme was also nice. And while you admit the ai is lacking I think with some more polish this could be something great.
馃帳 shinD
20. Dec 2012 路 13:55 UTC
Yes, you have to hold the fire keys to shoot - something I realized later is not really the optimal solution! (the whole input handling is a bit thrown together and bad) Dev blindness, I know how it works, so it didn't occur to me to clarify that.

I tried looking into the imagedecodeexception, but on Ubuntu 12.10 it loads just fine for me, so dunno what's up with that. Weird. I'll keep looking.

Thanks for the comments, I'll see if I can whip up a post-compo version with some improvements!
BrothersT
22. Dec 2012 路 01:29 UTC
Preety good. Got a bit samey after a while. I think if the player had better control over the direction of the bullets it would be more fun :) There should be a way to skip the intro too I think.
ceronman
23. Dec 2012 路 17:15 UTC
Very nice game. I wanted a bit more controls over the attacks, but the game is fun.
zenmumbler
31. Dec 2012 路 00:28 UTC
Couldn't get it to work on Mac OS X 10.8 (even when I inserted the 1.2alpha of pyglet needed, no window appears) but worked on WinXP.

Good atmosphere through the visuals, music and scene buildup but then it's basically Z FTW. I like the ship graphic and the music is great.

Like others, I too thought controls were broken until I read the comment that they start after a timeout, which is very true to how these bosses operate, they don't just fire all kinds of attacks randomly but it would merit a mention somewhere that this is the case.