I <3 Tractor Beams by drakfyre
WINDOWS PORT NOW AVAILABLE!
Your triangular transport ship has entered an asteroid field! You have no weapons or drilling equipment, and so must use your trusty tractor beam to defend yourself. GO FOR THE KILL SCREEN!
Arrow keys move, pressing and holding Z activates your tractor beam. The beam is auto targeting and will grab the nearest enemy. While the beam is on, it is locked at a specific length.
Technical notes: This was made using the following libraries: Box2d, OpenGL, SDL, SDL_image, and SDL_mixer. It was compiled on a Mac using XCode for the Mac version, and compiled on a Mac using a mingw port of g++ for the Windows version. I have included the original source and the updated source for the PC port. The only difference is that I changed the c files specifically to cpp files (I was compiling them as such in the Xcode project but I didn't want the hassle when dealing with g++) and changed the mix channels to 2 (4 was causing a crash for some reason)). I have included the Windows makefile but I don't even know where to get that mingw toolchain anymore, so I can't really provide support there, however, if you want to compile it for windows on a windows machine, I can probably help you get set up. If you get the game compiling, and it doesn't work when you try to run it, remember it requires some game assets that are available in the game zip file. Also remember it requires SDL, SDL_image, and SDL_mixer, so you may need to install the runtime libraries or include them in the app file (Mac) or the project directory (Windows).
(Dev notes: Procrastinated too much, especially considering that I decided mid-development to try implementing Box2d for the first time. It was actually very easy to add and use but it cost me time. I still like the game, and I hope you all do too, but I wish I had more enemy types. And yes, the game has a kill screen, and crashes nicely if you reach it. I haven't pulled it off yet because I get too greedy in the game and have too much fun spinning enemies around.)
Your triangular transport ship has entered an asteroid field! You have no weapons or drilling equipment, and so must use your trusty tractor beam to defend yourself. GO FOR THE KILL SCREEN!
Arrow keys move, pressing and holding Z activates your tractor beam. The beam is auto targeting and will grab the nearest enemy. While the beam is on, it is locked at a specific length.
Technical notes: This was made using the following libraries: Box2d, OpenGL, SDL, SDL_image, and SDL_mixer. It was compiled on a Mac using XCode for the Mac version, and compiled on a Mac using a mingw port of g++ for the Windows version. I have included the original source and the updated source for the PC port. The only difference is that I changed the c files specifically to cpp files (I was compiling them as such in the Xcode project but I didn't want the hassle when dealing with g++) and changed the mix channels to 2 (4 was causing a crash for some reason)). I have included the Windows makefile but I don't even know where to get that mingw toolchain anymore, so I can't really provide support there, however, if you want to compile it for windows on a windows machine, I can probably help you get set up. If you get the game compiling, and it doesn't work when you try to run it, remember it requires some game assets that are available in the game zip file. Also remember it requires SDL, SDL_image, and SDL_mixer, so you may need to install the runtime libraries or include them in the app file (Mac) or the project directory (Windows).
(Dev notes: Procrastinated too much, especially considering that I decided mid-development to try implementing Box2d for the first time. It was actually very easy to add and use but it cost me time. I still like the game, and I hope you all do too, but I wish I had more enemy types. And yes, the game has a kill screen, and crashes nicely if you reach it. I haven't pulled it off yet because I get too greedy in the game and have too much fun spinning enemies around.)
Ratings
| Coolness | 2% | 139 |
| Overall | 2.64 | 109 |
| Audio | 2.62 | 57 |
| Community | 1.14 | 167 |
| Fun | 2.90 | 64 |
| Graphics | 1.82 | 154 |
| Humor | 1.46 | 141 |
| Innovation | 2.52 | 134 |
| Theme | 3.55 | 56 |
It's a fun concept, and very satisfying spinning a box around and knocking all the rest out of the way.
I think it would have benefited from mouse control, it was hard getting the ship to move in the right way to start the box spinning.
The highpitched 'ping' sound when the boxes died was very satisfying.
As someone said, there wasn't an actual challenge, but it was fun to swing and fire asteroids around. Not sure if you got a huge bonus for sling-shotting, but there should have been (I could only hit things while swinging). Some flying saucers with lasers might have improved the experience and given more incentive to grab an asteroid.
I would have preferred a larger window with pixellated graphics, but it was surprisingly playable in spite of that.
Really like the physics in this one though and it is cool to get an enemy swinging around like a psycho morning star.
Would be fun if developed further.