ok, 74500 points (100 after dying), forgot what wave i was on but nevertheless

5 stars for innovation with respect to how the ship is formed and the way that you fling everything in

if this had powerups then you'd get 5 stars for fun, seeing as it doesn't, you don't, also it's kinda tricky to play strategically but simple enough to play without thinking much

good job with the theme, you did an interesting take on it (i did the ol' faithful pick-up-and-throw)

graphics are 5 stars, they work so flippin' well

now, audio... there's too much silence and not enough variance, but what's there works... that click is irritating though, but i'm not going to mark you down for it

haven't spotted any attempts at humour so N/A for that

overall... if you're familiar with Allegro and can code in C then you should hurry up and port it because this is the exact type of game that'd be just so appropriate done with Allegro

community effort is kinda bad (i just check journals as i can't really stay in touch) though i like how you posted a sketch so this gets you more than 1 star, i wonder how much effort you put into this as if you weren't working your butt off then i don't think it's really that excusable, otherwise i'm fine

The graphics do this game a hindrance - it's quite hard to tell whether you're facing forward or backward. Personally, I don't think Asteroids-style controls work well with the flinging mechanic - being able to move sideways, parallel to the flinging-wire, would make this fun.

Agree with L... Most of the time I couldn't make head or tails... contracting/expanding should be faster; I think, for quicker pickups...
Other than that, interesting mechanics! :)

5 stars for innovation, the flinging mechanic is quite cool! I just had a hard time figuring out which way enemies will fling when I hit them - so marked graphics down a bit for that...

I had to stick with the game for 5 minutes before I started getting the hang of it, but once I did it was quite fun. Community effort was low, but overall a good effort - well done!

A novel concept, 5 stars for innovation! I agree with L & Covenant about the controls. I would have 4 keys for directional movement, and 4 keys for expand/contract (up & down) and rotate(left & right).

Man, this game is hard! It's fun though, and would be great with more variation. The one thing I would want changed is that it's hard to tell what's the front and the back on the pods (which way will I go if I press up?). some kind of graphics indication for this would help. Also, the controls are pretty difficult, but maybe they get better with some practice and the graphics indicator. Other than that the bouncing ships were very fast, so they feel kinda random if they hit you? I dunno.

Overall a very nice game :)

This is tough to get used to, but a pretty neat idea!

couldnt vote on audio sorry, no speaker on this comp

once i figured out how to play this game, i was determined to destroy the things, never did tho :(

Very good game!

cool game! nice and sleek. controls were kind of weird, it was hard to tell which direction you are facing..

I love it, my one main criticism is how easy it is. Once i found out you get your HP back after each wave, stretching out to maximum and flying over all the bases beat them 100% of the time. i got to wave 15 before i forced myself to with over 100k points.
It made it boring for me!

I found the control scheme to be a bit difficult.

I noticed that sometimes I'd fling an enemy into the edge of the screen and it'd bounce back and hurt me. I'd prefer it if that wasn't possible.

Like others, I found that the only way I could get anywhere without dying very quickly was expanding out and rotating.

Very original concept and with a bit of tweaking of the controls and making it obvious which way you were facing, could be a fun game.

Cool game Switchbreak!

Aside from the controls, I was a bit confused by which direction the enemies would shoot out of. Sometimes they'd go forward and other times backward. I later realized they'd go the opposite way you last travelled.

I think a simpler, more intuitive mechanic would be that they reflect of your line. No matter what direction you're moving, they'll always bounce off you.

Great job!

Very hard to control, but a great concept!

Cool new mechanic. It was really hard to figure which way my ship was pointing. Also I figured the best strategy is to just sit on the enemy bases.

I really liked the innovative idea. Unfortunately I found that the fun was let down by confusing controls and mechanics - which is a shame because I believe the problems I observed could be fixed fairly easily.

It took me a long time to figure out which direction an enemy would get flung in. At first it seemed totally random, but eventually I worked out that if you last thrusted forwards, then the enemy gets flung in the opposite direction to the direction you're currently facing, and that if you last thrusted backwards the enemy gets flung in the direction you're currently facing. I'm not sure I can even explain those rules to another human being, so you might want to consider simplifying them. My preferred choice would be to fling enemies in the direction the player is facing.

I don't agree with L that Asteroids-style controls are inappropriate. Actually I found the controls confusing because they were insufficiently Asteroids-like in the space setting. I wasn't expecting turning the ship to immediately change my direction of travel, and it took me a while to figure out what was going on. I think I would have been happy with Robotron-style controls or Asteroids-style, but I struggled with it as it is.

I'd also consider fixing the size of the ship. I didn't find much use in changing it, except to 'cheat' by making it really big and spinning around in the centre and over the bases.

You said on your blog that you're somewhat embarrassed by the code. I don't see why. I took a look and it looks perfectly reasonable to me. For two days' work it is remarkably clear and well-documented.