DEFEND YOUR SMALLEST OF WORLDS by Ben McEldowney

[raw]
made by Ben McEldowney for LD 38 (JAM)

Here's our entry into Ludum Dare 38.

https://bmceldowney.github.io/ludumdare38/

Screen Shot 2017-04-24 at 2.29.45 PM.png

Your planet is small and it's under assault. Aliens have shown up and are trying to trash your planet, DON'T LET THEM.

Your defenses? An ultra-powerful slingshot that you will use to destroy the alien vessels with the only things that make sense: cows, cars and coal plants.

We made this in Phaser with all original art (except the UI). The software used: - Atom.io - cfxr - GIMP - Phaser - EZGUI - Pyxel Edit - Piskel

Assets: - Buch's awesome Golden UI - DL Sounds Fantasy Game Loop

Ratings

Overall 537th 3.1⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 364th 3.2⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 321th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 401th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 559th 2.947⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 390th 2.833⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 219th 3.105⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 540th 2.947⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

Psilon
12. May 2017 · 19:54 UTC
Very unique concept. At first not too oblivious what sould i do. The gam a little hard, the earth destoroyed very soon. I had a bug, the try again button doesn't worked for me for the second time.
Skruffye
12. May 2017 · 21:55 UTC
Apparently I'm very successful at lobbing cows and coal-fire power stations at aliens. :D

Neat little game, although I'm not really sure about the logistics of getting a power station into space... The mechanics and the art all worked well together and it was genuinely rather fun, if somewhat unforgiving. I'd probably recommend giving the player more chances to react where the aliens stop to hover before they finally get bored and apply for a visa.

My main issue would probably be with the music. Not to say that it was bad or that there was anything wrong with it in and of itself, but it really didn't feel like it fit with the game very well and sort of threw off the overall mood.

Anyway, good job overall: keep it up!

-Skruffye
Nimbus
14. May 2017 · 08:22 UTC
Yay, I barely survived! The game goes very fast, which makes it hard to even notice if your shot hit or not sometimes... I think the game would improve simply by reducing the speed to like 75% of what it is now.

But overall you did a good job :thumbsup:
Kate Kligman
14. May 2017 · 23:31 UTC
- I liked being able to toss unicorn-cows? at the aliens.
- Struggled a little at first to figure out how to play.
- I liked the friendly fire concept with the gameplay. Early on I shot a car into a space cow and watched it tumble away.
- I could keep playing sort of (in the background) after I killed the earth with my lack of space sling-shot competence.

Overall, good job, this is a fun casual game.
feltip
15. May 2017 · 19:34 UTC
Took a little while for me to work out how to play. Difficult but great little entry. Good work, keep working on it :)
alexDonazzan
16. May 2017 · 11:25 UTC
Nice job however, pictures could be an arrow or weapon because throw a nuclear industry is weired.
Random-storykeeper
16. May 2017 · 19:23 UTC
GAH, they turned the Earth into Mars!

Heh, I haven't seen that many games use slingshots for self defense. It's quite hard, having to aim opposite yourself to hit targets. The game has a humourous concept, and I like how you have the most random items to throw, from a car to a factory? to a cow. I felt like the UFO ships are too small, especially when starting out with such inconsistently sized items. Aiming was quite a pain, especially with the rapid speed the UFOs moved at. I also feel there would have been more of a sense of progression if all the items you threw were more or less the same size to start with, then changing it up gradually as the game goes along. Different sized UFOs too, would have been great. Well, maybe that's something to consider for a post jam.

And, I hate to break it to you, but I don't think an entry can [opt in](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/rules) for audio if they use a royalty free loop, which appears to be what you've done. Granted, it's a nice sounding loop (very reminiscent of Pebble Dash) but as someone said above, it doesn't really go for the right tone. It is very "nighttime" sounding, but nighttime music does not necessarily fit into the space theme. I think your sound effects were fine, but unfortunately, I don't think rating audio is proper even if you generated your sound effects because you got the music from somewhere else. (You could, however, remove the music entirely, next time in an entry so you can be rated in audio.)

Also I know this sounds weird, but I like your UI. :stuck_out_tongue:
Bomb-X
17. May 2017 · 18:18 UTC
Nice game !
I don't if you're aware of it, but instead of using the weapong like a sling, you could just grab the cow/car/anything you launch until it's just behind the alienship and the game becomes a million times easier !
I liked the concept, and physics is pretty much well executed !
I had the feeling that music didn't feat with the atmosphere though, didn't really feel like alien invasion, but more like "space heaven"
Anyway you did a nice job here !
Odefus
17. May 2017 · 20:17 UTC
I can understand the nuclear plants and the cars, but the cows, man? Think of the cows...
Maximo Pech
17. May 2017 · 22:11 UTC
Nice, but a bit hard.
Coffee Bland
18. May 2017 · 02:14 UTC
Pretty cool! I'm not sure having the factory come out first if you don't have anything out was the best idea balance-wise. Kinda felt like just making sure to throw the factory before the next one spawned worked a bit too well.
marbles
18. May 2017 · 06:18 UTC
nice concept!
Gaël PHILIPPE
18. May 2017 · 09:04 UTC
So weird. I like weird.