LudumData

MODE_SHIFT by RyanNielson

[raw]
made by RyanNielson for LD35 (JAM)
The year is 2356.

A massive alien fleet is heading towards Earth with the intention of destroying civilization. Armed with Earth Gov's latest model of space combat vehicle, dubbed "The S.H.I.F.T.E.R.", humanity's best pilots head towards the alien fleet, hoping to buy Earth Gov enough time to organize an evacuation.


Gameplay:

Survive for as long as possible, while collecting energy dropped by enemies to improve your weaponry. Your ship's energy level decreases over time and requires a constant resupply. Use your MODE_SHIFT ability to re-orient your ship into a vertically shooting position to destroy more enemies. This game is all about beating your old high scores, so practice makes perfect.

This game plays best with a gamepad, but supports keyboard and mouse input as well. Using a keyboard for movement and a mouse for shooting and transforming is the second best input method.


Controls:

Move: WASD, Arrow keys, Left analog (gamepad)
Shoot: Left mouse click, Space bar, A/B (gamepad)
Execute MODE_SHIFT (Shapeshift): Right mouse click, E, X/Y (gamepad)
Fullscreen: Alt + Enter


If you post a comment consider including your high score along with it. We're really interested to see how long people last.

Keywords: Windows, OSX, GameMaker, SHMUP, mode shift
Windows https://ryannielson.itch.io/mode-shift
OSX https://ryannielson.itch.io/mode-shift
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=13891

Ratings

Coolness 75% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.79 115
Audio(Jam) 4.09 32
Fun(Jam) 3.96 47
Graphics(Jam) 3.68 350
Innovation(Jam) 2.57 908
Theme(Jam) 2.87 855

Feedback

dtap
18. Apr 2016 · 13:39 UTC
Solid game. It's nice to be able to change up the direction of shooting, and the audio and art style are very nice.
TerraCottaFrog
18. Apr 2016 · 15:32 UTC
Easily the best game I've played so far
Very fun and I love the build up of the gauge mechanic
The shapeshifting may be a little bit to small a part of the game, but everything else more than makes up for that. Great work.

I have an arcade joystick, and the joystick (which simulates a d-pad) does not work? Could you add d-pad support?
ignacioq
18. Apr 2016 · 16:40 UTC
Great Game, I don't know where is the shapeshift mode, but I really like the way it moves the spaceship
Anikki
18. Apr 2016 · 17:06 UTC
So far the LD35 game I've enjoyed the longest.
nicso
18. Apr 2016 · 17:19 UTC
Really cool game, had lot of fun.
A little bit hard to get level 1 upgrade but after that it become quit satisfying.
nicso
18. Apr 2016 · 17:20 UTC
Oh and my score was arround 50 seconds (yeah i suck at shmups)
Djapz30
18. Apr 2016 · 17:23 UTC
Awesome work!
gameplay is solid and the Sound/Art is pretty good!

As for the score... well... I kinda died a lot trying to build up the power meter --" (+-20~25 Secs)
seanarooni
18. Apr 2016 · 18:03 UTC
Very much enjoyed this! The upgraded weapons feel great to use. Enjoyed the art and sound very much.
Hempuli
18. Apr 2016 · 18:26 UTC
Very enjoyable! I completely overlooked the shapeshifting feature the first time around, and I'm not totally sure how useful it is in general, but I had good fun playing this. 44 seconds!
Jungle
18. Apr 2016 · 20:49 UTC
Very cool game. The second form remembers me Boba Fet's ship... heehue. 56.03s record. Very fun! Congrats! Keep the project on!
Phaix
19. Apr 2016 · 11:27 UTC
Great Game! Have it on my list to play it again. :)
glaze_96
19. Apr 2016 · 14:45 UTC
Got 42 seconds! :D

Really fun and hard game; hard in a good way!
bigbatardyt
19. Apr 2016 · 17:33 UTC
Really cool shmup, it flows, it's easy to pickup and pixel art and sounbdtrack are cool !
Goutye
19. Apr 2016 · 18:07 UTC
47sec at best, but was able to fully upgrade two times the shots! Solid game
qu2
19. Apr 2016 · 19:18 UTC
A solid shmup. I like it. Hard though (but I never was any good at shmups).
plantprogrammer
19. Apr 2016 · 19:21 UTC
I am not nearly skilled enough for this kind of game, but in the 20some seconds of survival, I really enjoyed graphics and sound.
Well done :)
Garazbolg
19. Apr 2016 · 19:33 UTC
Couldn't get past 39s, damn ! But your game is real good, it's clean, its fun, its understandable. And the animations are really nice. I just wish there were more to go with the theme.
Saiodin
19. Apr 2016 · 21:38 UTC
Good audio, great music and art! Controls with controller are extremely responsive. The game is pretty hard. It's really risky to go for the energy pickups, but they are so worth it (the 3rd weapon stage is crazy). The mechanic with turning the ship is the shapeshift part I guess, far stretched but neat mechanic. I had a blast playing! My max time was around 35 seconds :X
serp
19. Apr 2016 · 22:00 UTC
ah its so hard xD
Petya
19. Apr 2016 · 23:07 UTC
I loved the music a lot. Very difficult and fun game. I thought the MODE_SHIFTing mechanic could be expounded on more though.
Omiya Games
19. Apr 2016 · 23:41 UTC
Had a lot of fun playing through the game. Vertical shooting is really useful, but since you can shoot in 2 directions there, why not make the horizontal shooting also shoot backwards? The gold as power-ups was visually not obvious, but I did eventually figure out their function.
djfariel
20. Apr 2016 · 00:26 UTC
Just under a minute. Dammit.
Oh, and I lied. I said I'd get to this right away, but I got immediately pulled away from my computer. So I played it now!

This is absolutely fantastic. You hit everything necessary - feedback (both audio and visual) for everything, fun music, addicting gameplay. Can't ask for any more, unless you're wanting to add in more weapons and gameplay. Nothing negative to say! :D
cakeknuckles
20. Apr 2016 · 02:16 UTC
game has a really good feel to it, and the quick restart makes it addictive! overall, a STELLAR game! haha
Manou
20. Apr 2016 · 09:08 UTC
39s with keyboard.
Loved the retro feeling.
The title screen is well done!
randomhuman
21. Apr 2016 · 19:45 UTC
Oh man, I suck at shmups. This was solid though, I liked it.
hadesfury
23. Apr 2016 · 14:28 UTC
Really hard but also quite fun ! my score was 34s
Freank
24. Apr 2016 · 13:54 UTC
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
Jupiter_Hadley
27. Apr 2016 · 16:02 UTC
Nice, well made game! I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/1j0YT8wm6Kc
schw3de
27. Apr 2016 · 18:31 UTC
A good solid game!
WERT Studio
27. Apr 2016 · 19:49 UTC
Neat game. Pretty hard tough
Reisen
28. Apr 2016 · 02:48 UTC
A really fun shmup. Music is awesome.

Energy system feels like a slippery slope, as in if you can't get to level 3 before a certain point, you're out. Once you get it rolling though, that's where the fun begins.

Energy pickups doesn't move left when they appears, so it feels like the game is punishing the player for being good. (In-universe, they are static objects, and the player is moving to the right, so... yeah.)

86.62 seconds.
Xanjos
28. Apr 2016 · 20:45 UTC
Managed to last nearly a minute before dying but I like the mode shifting mechanic a lot.
AnaGF
28. Apr 2016 · 21:49 UTC
Cool game and polished entry. It is pretty addictive!
Aaranos
30. Apr 2016 · 19:19 UTC
I don't think it fits the theme. Decent shmup.
3T3A
03. May 2016 · 18:57 UTC
I think it's one of the funniest game i played. It's fast, it's simple, it's enjoyable. And the music is pretty good for the arcad style of the ludum dare.
oxysoft
06. May 2016 · 23:11 UTC
the player spaceship moves a bit slow but a fun shmup nonetheless, music was great also
drazil100
07. May 2016 · 18:19 UTC
Your ship animation and title were on point. The shots that the smaller ship shot were the same speed as the ship.Which meant that if you kill a ship right infront of you, he might have a bullet inside if him that kills you immediatly.
TheMeorch
07. May 2016 · 18:59 UTC
Super well made shmup with lovely pixel art and pumping music!

I absolutely love how the energy system encourages you to play aggressively.

Given how quickly most of the enemies move horizontally, I found myself very rarely using the vertical shooting mode. The UFOs that stop in place give you a good reason to use that mode, so more enemies like that would be great.

Great work!
Ironhead
07. May 2016 · 19:22 UTC
Great game. Fun but difficult. Art was great, Sounds were on point, and mechanics worked well. Great job!

PS: Thanks again for playing and rating my game on your stream! Great feedback for me to use in my game dev learning endeavors.
Tselmek
07. May 2016 · 19:25 UTC
Really nice and juicy shooter, the beginning feels a little too grindy after as we keep on trying btu other than that I have no complaint. The experience is very polished. I could reach 59.26s on the second try but couldn't go over 30s after that. On a side note, the game works really well with the gamepad controls.
pixelpotions
07. May 2016 · 20:56 UTC
Fun shoot em up! Liked the music though I don't understand how rotation equates to shapeshifting?
Siegfried Croes
08. May 2016 · 20:01 UTC
Very nicely polished game. I only got to 44.23s, I'm not that great at this type of games ^^'
abuzreq
09. May 2016 · 16:10 UTC
Awesome game.. I loved the visual effects .
The shape shift weren't much beneficial though
The game was fun and had a cool mood .