Spacebrick and the Window to the Stars by Toeofdoom

made by Toeofdoom for LD19 (COMPO)

You are the captain of the SPACEBRICK - Smashology research vessel. Your mission is to discover new things to smash, new ways to smash them and new places to smother in the debris of smashed everything.

Use WASD or the arrow keys to move - space bar is boost, once you discover it. Smashing a spacewindow sends you to another planet, but you can't go back the same way!

Thanks to Six for the inspiration! :D

EDIT 22/12/10: I uploaded a new version of the windows and OSX downloadable versions which supports pressing the escape key to quit. If you feel this gives me an "unfair advantage", feel free to use Alt-F4 or Cmd-Q or whatever to quit instead and grumble in the comments ;) I also uploaded a few images of what happens when you get a little too many upgrades.

EDIT 23/12/10: I also started work on a post compo version, no downloadables available and it may change without warning. A few hours extra work so far, but I think it may be noticeably better? I'll need to test, I guess :)

Web (Unity)	http://toeofdoom.com/ludumdare/19/index.shtml
Windows	http://toeofdoom.com/ludumdare/19/Spacebrick_Win32.zip
OS/X	http://toeofdoom.com/ludumdare/19/Spacebrick_OSX.zip
Source	http://toeofdoom.com/ludumdare/19/Spacebrick_Source.zip
Post-Compo	http://toeofdoom.com/ludumdare/19/postcompo.shtml
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-19/?action=preview&uid=2397

Ratings

Coolness	8%	70
Overall	3.56	33

Audio	2.53	105
Community	3.86	21
Fun	3.50	33
Graphics	3.56	38
Humor	3.14	34
Innovation	3.17	75
Theme	3.44	65

Feedback

ladron

20. Dec 2010 · 23:43 UTC

Interesting game! I like the "claymation" art style, and the "bumper cars" mechanic.

Dark Acre Jack

21. Dec 2010 · 10:02 UTC

Very nice, I'm a sucker for upgrade-driven progression. Was a bit confusing at first, as I didn't seem to be able to smash anything, until I realized I needed a longer running start.

Congrats on finishing!

🎤 Toeofdoom

21. Dec 2010 · 11:50 UTC

Heh, thanks guys. There was a point where I didn't know if I would even get the upgrade system in but I think it worked out well.

I think I might make a bit of a post-compo version with more enemies and upgrade types... maybe a hint of balance. I should also fix the rather major bug in the downloadable versions of "not having an exit button".

ThatSnail

21. Dec 2010 · 20:22 UTC

Still laughing a little.

Great game.

tonic

23. Dec 2010 · 20:38 UTC

It was a nice surprise that you can bump at the enemies. The controls feel slightly sluggish, but not too bad.

Endurion

26. Dec 2010 · 08:22 UTC

Cute!
The smashing mechanic is neat and the upgrades quite sensible. I couldn't decipher the display on the bottom, it is related to health and boost I guess.

🎤 Toeofdoom

26. Dec 2010 · 09:40 UTC

Indeed, the bottom bar is health and the top bar is "energy", which only really controls boost. In the post compo version I'll be adding more abilities that use energy too.

It does occur to me that a numeric display for those bars would be useful, though it would also be handy to make their purpose clearer.

ranklar

27. Dec 2010 · 02:32 UTC

I love the idea of flying a brick through space! :) I wish I could "kill" some of the ships, they just kept blasting me, so I did not have as much fun as I would have liked... of course I did not find any upgrades, so that might have made it a bit tougher for me. Good job mate. Oh needs some good audio :)

Jerm

01. Jan 2011 · 09:51 UTC

Nice fun game. Although probably too easy. I found you can just circle slowly around the planet researching the upgrade while the enemies shoot each other and keep missing you. I liked the graphics, but the music didn't really fit the game.

The game gets pretty intense after a while (like in your screenshots) but it takes a while to get that far. Although maybe that's a good thing because when there were heaps of enemies, the game basically freezes up until enough enemies have died that you can move again.

🎤 Toeofdoom

02. Jan 2011 · 05:51 UTC

Indeed, I've actually been working on the post-compo version quite a bit and it addresses a bunch of that stuff. The music is gone (working on some better stuff) and it's much harder later on. With all the changes, the circling strategy will eventually get you killed.

Although the post-compo version itself is a work in progress. Thanks for playing!