LudumData

Save the World by Derek

[raw]
made by Derek for LD23 (COMPO)
Save the world by attacking the spaceships with your roller-tank. Be warned however, that by shooting you also propel the world in the opposite direction, try not to go off the edge of the screen!

Desktop is recommended, as android has no multitouch at the moment (it was a quick port).

--CONTROLS--
A and D to move the hover-tank.
W files the hover-tank's cannon.

--WARNING--
There have been reports of ghost ships. Ships that you can't see and can't shoot but will still kill you. It has been rumoured that if you download and decompile the jar, you can change setRender(false) to setRender(true) in one of the source files to see these strange and deadly ships.

Desktop https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24503782/games/savetheworld.jar
Android https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24503782/games/savetheworld.apk
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5832

Ratings

Coolness 73% 3
Overall 3.18 308
Audio 2.31 496
Fun 3.18 232
Graphics 3.08 335
Humor 2.13 480
Innovation 3.53 153
Mood 2.63 468
Theme 3.33 264

Feedback

Dragon174
21. Apr 2012 · 19:25 UTC
I'd much prefer if the controls for this game used the mouse, since its hard to rotate the cannon around the world fast enough to stop yourself.
SuperDisk
21. Apr 2012 · 23:49 UTC
Pretty ingenious idea in my opinion. Fun game.
HeuGamer
25. Apr 2012 · 21:02 UTC
Challenging and fun!
AdventureIslands
27. Apr 2012 · 22:17 UTC
This was pretty cool, quite hard though, but I think it was great idea that you move the planet by shooting. Nice job!
namuol
01. May 2012 · 23:45 UTC
Potential for great fun but is way too difficult on Android. Maybe if there was something to slow down the planet gradually or if it could turn faster. Pretty innovative design -- you should definitely polish the gameplay difficulty and try putting it on the Market!
barigorokarl
07. May 2012 · 20:16 UTC
Solid game. Controling the cannon is really a bit hard and I didn't figure how much aliens the earth can take. I only know it's deadly to leave the map.
caranha
08. May 2012 · 15:34 UTC
Very good controls! At first I was like "oh no, not another cannon around the tiny world", but when the earth started moving! Having to control the earth's movement while shooting the enemies in this way gave a very nice twist to an otherwise beaten-to-death theme in this LD.

One thing that would improve your game immensely is the addition of some sort of score. Also, some sort of indication of how many "lifes" you have would be nice too, but less important. Maybe the "boom" sound gets louder as you get closer to dying?

Cheers!
Alexandre
08. May 2012 · 16:26 UTC
Nice concept!
The game is fun to play and interesting.
Endurion
08. May 2012 · 18:29 UTC
Nice! There's innovation with the combined play elements of shooting and having to stay on screen.
Direly missing is a score counter and maybe mouse controls. The cannon is a bit too slow to go to the other side fast enough.
AngelDE98
08. May 2012 · 19:04 UTC
Pretty cool , mouse would be kinda better than WASD .

I also would suggest a highscore system for your post-mortem . Not only because it's challenging .

So I can say the game is as-is , it's good but as any other game : improvement here and there should do big things ;)
Robert Swan
08. May 2012 · 19:35 UTC
Nice small little game. A bit of tweaking to make it a bit easier would have gone a long way. Or maybe I'm just rubbish, which is very likely.
rvmook
08. May 2012 · 19:53 UTC
A bit hard but nonetheless very fun to play. Before I knew it I was playing it for 30 minutes. Nice concept maybe some kind of powerup/upgrade system would be cool for a post compo version.
minimicro
08. May 2012 · 20:21 UTC
Nice ;)
SidetrackGames
08. May 2012 · 20:23 UTC
Overall an interesting game. Increasingly boring after a while, but a very cool idea! Certainly a new twist from similar asteroid-type games.
PaulSB
08. May 2012 · 22:30 UTC
Fun :) Nice mechanic balance of having to keep the world stable while shooting at the ships.
Hazematman
08. May 2012 · 23:37 UTC
Very fun! I think this was a great idea but it could have used more work in the controls. Using the keys was kinda hard to control the cannon, the mouse would have been a much better choice. Very interesting idea for a game, and it fits the theme extremely well!
Wampus
09. May 2012 · 00:14 UTC
Cute. Does the difficulty scale? I lasted a long time and ended up committing suicide by hurling the world into the sun.
johannhat
09. May 2012 · 01:19 UTC
I wasn't sure what to think initially, but I got hooked trying to ward off the enemies while keeping myself in the bounds. With a little touch on the controls and a high score board, I could definitely see myself getting lost in this. Good job!
caranha
09. May 2012 · 01:45 UTC
Oh yeah, a simple suggestion to improve the controls -- instead of A,D,W make it A,D, Space, or even A, D, Arrows, Space, W -- so we can shoot with one hand and control the cannon with another.
cobrajs
09. May 2012 · 02:13 UTC
Great game! The controls and physics felt solid, but it is missing a damage display so you know how many hits the planet can take, and maybe some kind of scoring or progress system. Other than that, very fun.
Thotep
09. May 2012 · 07:04 UTC
This is a really interesting idea! I think it would be better with mouse controls though.
dick_claus
09. May 2012 · 17:44 UTC
The idea is very cool.
But without measurement of how long you survive it becomes boring very quick.
Gremlin
09. May 2012 · 17:50 UTC
Maneuvering the world while defending it is a very tricky balancing act. I love the idea, even if I never last more than a minute or so.
Evil Sandwich Studios
09. May 2012 · 20:01 UTC
Quite a nice and simple game, I have a question, though... why 'j' to save the world?
oldtopman
09. May 2012 · 20:46 UTC
I love the game, and very innovative with the sliding planet! 4/5
asfdfdfd
09. May 2012 · 20:50 UTC
Nice concept but game is pretty hard. :)
robcozzens
10. May 2012 · 09:00 UTC
Pretty cool idea. Although it doesn't really make sense that going off the screen would kill you.
ericdpitts
10. May 2012 · 23:25 UTC
Very nice, simple little game! I liked the idea of the shots propelling the earth around, very interesting.
JaJ
12. May 2012 · 15:13 UTC
Having mouse controls would improve this game, the concept is very smart though and there is a lot of potential, not that it wasn't fun already!

I did miss a score system.
ehtd
12. May 2012 · 18:27 UTC
Cool idea, I agree with using the mouse to control the rotation. Very nice.
JellyFame
12. May 2012 · 18:36 UTC
There are actually 2 modes of play: destroy and avoid. Great game
egerlach
12. May 2012 · 21:26 UTC
Really fun. Would have loved a score so I knew how well I did.
Dramble
12. May 2012 · 23:15 UTC
I must say I preferred the shooting moves you mechanic in this to gunbrick. This could be expanded in to a pretty cool game in my opinion.