"Natural" Selection by r4m0n

[raw]
made by r4m0n for LD24 (COMPO)
Controls:
WASD/Arrows to move (hold shift for precision movement with high engine upgrades)
Space to fire

The enemies will evolve based on which ones survive, and which ones cause most damage to the player.

Edit: Added a "Turbo edition" based on feedback, it's exactly like the base game, with a coupe of engine upgrades at the start.
Judge the game with the base Web version, and play the Turbo if you like it but it feels too slow :-)

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 2.46 626
Audio 1.80 534
Fun 2.21 619
Graphics 1.57 745
Humor 1.27 610
Innovation 2.03 680
Mood 1.87 654
Theme 2.73 436

Feedback

Porpentine
27. Aug 2012 路 02:18 UTC
I like the idea of enemies adapting--two design tweaks would help this though:

1) faster movement is better for a game like this both (controls should feel good + hard to strategize when you can't move meaningful distances)
2) the pew-pew sound effects are a bit grating, something easier for long-term listening would be better
pardue
27. Aug 2012 路 12:36 UTC
The enemies upgrading was a nice touch. I played once on Hard/Ultra and was dispatched quickly. :)
SteelRaven7
27. Aug 2012 路 13:32 UTC
Faster ships would make the game more enjoyable!
馃帳 r4m0n
27. Aug 2012 路 14:03 UTC
There are some engine upgrades there, but I agree that the initial ship speed is too low. After a couple of engine upgrades, the controls are quite a bit more enjoyable.
madpew
27. Aug 2012 路 14:32 UTC
250, then the game started to stutter and I died. Anyways a good game. Some different Enemy-sprites, different sounds and music would have made this even better. Well done.
celeron55
27. Aug 2012 路 14:38 UTC
The feel isn't spot-on, and the idea behind the game isn't very visible. However, this is quite a solid game. Fits the theme very well.

It's kind of a sibling of my entry.
Th3dz
27. Aug 2012 路 15:05 UTC
Good. It felt a bit slow in movement. Angled bullets would have been a game changer here.
Thurig
28. Aug 2012 路 16:02 UTC
Fun basic shooter.
leafo
28. Aug 2012 路 22:41 UTC
Interesting concept with the enemies. Couldn't really see the mutations happening to my disadvantage, just seemed like the enemies were changing randomly. Faster starting movement speed would have been nice.
Colapsydo
29. Aug 2012 路 08:38 UTC
I like the enemies moves patterns.
The game should have been directly in Hard/ultra/turbo, there it's challenging.
Teknik
31. Aug 2012 路 19:36 UTC
would have been more interesting if the ship moved faster, otherwise great game
Lawrence Esswood
01. Sep 2012 路 12:23 UTC
I got a score of 568. However, I never really saw any upgrades (I got a lazer at one point). In terms of naturel selection, If I killed the stream at the top, they would go down the bottom, and the other way round. There should really be something to stop me just flying through the middle.
hgcummings
01. Sep 2012 路 13:27 UTC
I like the idea for the use of the theme, although it was hard to tell how effective it was. Was the group behaviour of ships part of their evolution? They tended to cluster in unassailable groups at the top of the screen, which meant they survived, but didn't pose much threat either. Agree with others that the controls felt a bit sluggish - the turbo version was definitely an improvement.
Josh @ Dreamland
01. Sep 2012 路 14:01 UTC
The enemies "adapted" to spawning at the bottom of the screen where I can't hurt them without getting hurt. Still kind of neat; just not the challenge I was looking for.
juaxix
01. Sep 2012 路 15:33 UTC
Uhm...are the fireballs evolving?...I dont get the point... played both versions...
Is this another Asteroids?
馃帳 r4m0n
01. Sep 2012 路 17:53 UTC
@hgcummings: yes, the group behavior was evolving too.
This clumping behavior is a byproduct of my definition of "fittest": damage to the player+bonus for surviving. If you don't stop them, they survive and get a bonus, so they end up in a mess of ships and shots, and you can't get there to kill them XD
I should have made the ships leaving the screen alive give a score penalty to the player, then you would have a better reason to avoid that (after all, you are a single ship trying to stop an invasion, gotta work hard there :-P)
Gama11
09. Sep 2012 路 08:52 UTC
Hm... Sorry, but this is just another horizontal space shooter without any innovation at all. Movement doesn't feel good and is way too slow, sfx are annoying more than anything else. It's an interesting take on the evolution theme, but doesn't work that well right now - one of the problems is that enemies just always look the same. :(
michax
11. Sep 2012 路 01:09 UTC
Moving seems a little to slow. But otherwise nice game!