The Evolution of Flight by AaronYip
Controls: WASD/Arrow Keys + Mouse
"N" key on the intro screen: Reset
Note: your starting aircraft can't fire while moving, the second aircraft can move up/down very easily, and each of the others have their unique limitations and advantages. I attempted to design the stages to let you go just a bit further with each aircraft until you ultimately win. :)
I had fun with the idea of evolving gameplay as a parallel to the evolution of aviation itself. In our modern day, it's easy to take the security and comfort of modern airplanes for granted--like how the WASD controls and overwhelming firepower for a shoot'em up has become pretty much standard. So I attempted to hark back to humble beginnings to show the limitations and frustrations of earlier aircraft and how aviation became what it is now.
Oh, and there's a boss at the end somewhere.
[Tip: To dodge the double attack, I've been going right then left (or vice versa depending on his position), cutting between bullets with the glider. For other ships, circling around the boss is possibly an option--though not all ships might be agile enough to do that.]
Final note: I'm sorry if it's either too easy or too hard. This was my first shmup, haha. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it! :D
"N" key on the intro screen: Reset
Note: your starting aircraft can't fire while moving, the second aircraft can move up/down very easily, and each of the others have their unique limitations and advantages. I attempted to design the stages to let you go just a bit further with each aircraft until you ultimately win. :)
I had fun with the idea of evolving gameplay as a parallel to the evolution of aviation itself. In our modern day, it's easy to take the security and comfort of modern airplanes for granted--like how the WASD controls and overwhelming firepower for a shoot'em up has become pretty much standard. So I attempted to hark back to humble beginnings to show the limitations and frustrations of earlier aircraft and how aviation became what it is now.
Oh, and there's a boss at the end somewhere.
[Tip: To dodge the double attack, I've been going right then left (or vice versa depending on his position), cutting between bullets with the glider. For other ships, circling around the boss is possibly an option--though not all ships might be agile enough to do that.]
Final note: I'm sorry if it's either too easy or too hard. This was my first shmup, haha. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it! :D
| Flash | https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38986055/LD48_Flight.swf |
| Source | https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38986055/LD48_FlightSource.zip |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=4897 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 73% | 3 |
| Overall | 3.55 | 97 |
| Audio | 2.42 | 372 |
| Fun | 3.45 | 96 |
| Graphics | 3.29 | 230 |
| Humor | 2.69 | 184 |
| Innovation | 3.05 | 288 |
| Mood | 2.93 | 226 |
| Theme | 3.26 | 230 |
I'm going to check your code :D
@Mesene, it's a bit of a mess and far far far from optimized, haha, and if you need any help sorting through it, I'll be glad to answer questions. :)
Great work!
The boss was a bit hard :) I was put off by the un-dodgeable double attack, but that's a minor criticism at best :P
Overall though, very nicely done. I like your take on the theme.
@mdkess
To dodge the double attack, I've been going right then left (or vice versa depending on his position), cutting between bullets with the glider. For other ships, circling around the boss is possibly an option--though I agree, not all ships might have been agile enough to do that.
loved the music and the particle effects!
some little things like sound effects (sfxr) and screen shakes would make this even more fun
I was getting REALLY annoyed with the first ship before I realized the goal of ships was just to use them until you have enough money to get the next one...
Anyway, really good little game. My one complaint is that when a ship explodes, the red of the explosion looks a lot like the red of a bullet, so that confuses me a bit.
Other than that, fun! Good work.
but i too think that the balance is rather off, throwing to many gameplay parameters around that would require to fundamentally change the game environment.
- with the glider i find my best bet to not move at all while i can, while dodging a straight down bullet with the zeppelin is almost impossible.
- the first plane i can oddly run into the screen border or circle numbly to avoid bullets in a handlable way.
- the second plane is finally making proper use of the enemy and camera behaviours, even making the level kinda simple, which was of course necessary for it to be somewhat playable with those other control schemes.
hope you don't mind my elaborate feedback, just trying to point out what i think this quite bold design choice entails. great effort and brave take all in all!
@Walt,
I agree with you and Cracky that the ships and the difficulty curve could have been adjusted more. Haha, I actually designed levels to be annoying for the earlier ships: after a few levels, aliens appeared vertically to target the glider's inability to dodge horizontal bullets while rewarding the zeppelin's vertical mobility; then sneaky aliens were sent in from the back as an attempt to get at the zeppelin's weak spot. The first plane fares pretty well against all aliens since it naturally dodges bullets, but the boss fight's barrages were meant to keep it from winning. And finally, the last plane returns to typical WASD controls and lets you quickly breeze through everything. :)
Few tips I would give : The glider isn't fun at all to play, I know it's intentional and it shouldn't change, but maybe you should decrease the price of the first upgrade to 500, just to be sure anyone can get the balloon after his first flight. Here, in the LD, we're ok to spend some time on the game, just to rate it well, but outside the LD, people will quit if they get bored after 30 seconds
Second tip : another easy change : enemies' bullets looks like ennemies' explosions (same colour), that can get confusing sometimes.
Anyway, great game and impressive work for 48h!
@Pierrec: Wonderful insight about the first upgrade cost. I was puzzling over that problem for a while, and I never considered just reducing the cost. Haha, thanks! And yup, I totally regret not doing a double take over the colrs of the death particles. I really appreciate the helpful feedback :)
Great mechanics and good execution (except music). Balance is a tad off but good enough for a 48 hours effort =)
Gfx are cool too but what is this experimental music? A standard breakbeat drumloop with fast hats?
Next time please use a color for the bullets that can bee seen on the background. Red on blue is not very good and I have even mistook it with a particle once. Yellow would be a better choice maybe.