Nice consistency with the graphics / gameplay / sounds! Felt just like an arcade game

Really nice! The graphics are great, I especially like the starfield background - you went with colour which is so rare. The only thing I would change is the introduction of lives and controller support. Otherwise, top notch!

Cool idea! The bullet pathing mechanic was really interesting but the quick pace of the game made it difficult to use in practice. Any time I was concentrating on what sort of path to create I was distracting myself from the core gameplay. Personally having established cooldown areas to record paths or a menu would make more sense to me. The core gameplay was a bit tough for me and the minimum movement I could make seemed too large to make quick small dodging maneuvers but that could just be lack of experience in this genre as well. Also the story seems really interesting but I didn't really see how it connects with the game at all.

Overall it's a really neat concept for a shooter and it's off to a good start. I loved the graphics and would enjoy seeing more of the story in-game. It could even just be in small in-between sections between levels, or in upgrade menus or something. I'd be interested in seeing different ways to expand the idea of customizable bullet trajectories cause I really think there is a lot of potential there. Good work!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.

@starspell, This was my first Ludum Dare and we were constrained to 48 hours instead of 72 due to personal reasons, so we missed out on a lot that we wanted to do, including controller support. I have started implementing it, so I might be able to upload a second version in addition to the Jam one for people to try with some improvements for people to come back to play.

@Itpats, Thank you for all the detailed critique. Most of that we realized, but simply didn't have time to do. We had started creating a particle effect for you to actually collect the planets for your exhibit after you shrunk them enough and the score would be related to the quality of the museum, but that is all unfinished. And I agree completely about the bullet mechanic and difficulty. We had so little content we made it hard just so it wouldn't be incredibly boring and repetitive, but it is way too hard right now. We had wanted to have a planet with rings/moons that would prevent you from attacking it head-on to provide a time and a reason to use the pathing, but again, we ran out of time. A quick menu for pre-made paths is a really good idea though. The problems that you brought up about the minimum distance moved for tight controls would be solved by a controller where you could move at a slower speed to adjust distance with more control, so I'll work on implementing that too if/when I get to the controller support.

I played this on Livestream Today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr-ZBj_dJa4

This was really well done, I had a few thoughts on the lack of Invulnerability Frames and maybe taking a second look at how health is assigned. But otherwise, a very solid game with really good pixel art. (Was the boss bullet style inspired by Undertale?)

@occultone, Thanks for all the advise. I think we do have invulnerability frames, but it is probably way too short or it might be buggy. I know our tells and visual cues are pretty lacking, but I believe you become transparent and invincible for 2 seconds after being hit. We ran out of time to balance it much, so all of your suggestions are a big help.

And no, that boss wan't based on Undertale. Although I want to, I've never played Undertale, and I programmed most of it. Odd coincidence.

Really nice space shooter, the art is on point, really good job on that, I like the "boss planets" but it was rather easy to deal with them ;), overall great entry!

Good game, I don't know what to say, simply nice game.

A kind of "little world". I liked the animation and sound

That arcade style is the best!

A classic and well done gameplay. The art and music are fantastics. Congratulations for this nice work guys :smile:

This is excellently done. The graphics are very nice, the mechanic is cool, and music, although not yours, was a perfect choice.
Well done!

Super lovely pixel art.

It would be nice to get some weapon upgrades or powerups since it's not very satisfying to have a screen full of destructible asteroids that you can't destroy and have to let float past you. Also it doesn't really look like I'm "collecting" the planets so much as outright destroying them....

Overall though it's just an incredibly polished and fun experience.

I really like arcade games. It's one of them!
Nice work.

So awesome! It reminds me of an old DSi game I used to play called 99 Bullets. The graphics are so nice, combined with the great parallax. I really liked the screenshake at the end when the scores, it kinda looked like a glitch at first, but it's awesome!

It is really hard, but after a bunch of tries I got 139. It is really addicting.

Great game!

A very solid smup! The flare gun mechanic was a little confusing at first, but it made for a very interesting mechanic! The only gripe I had was that the controls for the flare gun felt very un-intuitive. Perhaps it would be better if the flare followed the player's movement, reducing the game to 4 buttons? The only problem with this would be that the player could mess up his projectiles because he/she needed to dodge an enemy while firing a flare.

Awesome! I adore the pixel art and music choice, really nice job. The idea to change the bullet path is quite unique and cool, but at first it's a little hard to control the flare while worrying about enemies. I think letting the game go in slow-mo for the path-setting would be an interesting dynamic... maybe put the flare on cooldown so it can't be abused for the slow-motion. Really cool otherwise, good luck on taking it to the next level!

The bullet pathing is a great idea, but there's never a convenient time to do it. I think it would be easier with better controls, since I found myself looking down and moving my hands to the WASD keys to make a flare path.

I am the curator! And I will curate this world!

Really nice bullet hell game, the controls are solid and responsive. The enemies and attacks are varied, with the world doing a number of different attack patterns. In combination with other enemies which may be on screen at the same time, it's difficult but fun.

One bit of silly behaviour I noticed had to do with the invulnerability timer, where if I hit an enemy, the invulnerability would wear off at the exact same time as the next wave of enemies reached me. I would have expected it to last past one wave or stop much before the enemies reached me.

Well executed classic arcade style game. First time I got hit by that massively shaking wall of fire from the first boss I thought it was actually a bug, but then I realized that perhaps that was the easiest attack of all. I'm not very skilled with these sorts of games, but at least I got to second boss. I liked the way you handled the theme in it and enjoyed the graphics.

I love the smiling scary vicious planets! Made me jump when they started shooting at me.

The flares thing is weird and interesting, feels like there could be puzzles or set pieces or some kind designed to use it better though. I just set it to wiggle up and down, and never touched it again...

Really nice and tight execution