PLASMAGUN! by yuigoto
PLASMAGUN!
A game by Fabio Y. Goto

Hello, Soldier! Welcome to our 100 room training program!
You're here to gain proficiency in using our latest model of weaponry and dashing gadgets, all powered by the magnificent plasma! What's plasma? Well, you don't need to know, leave it for the scientists! :wink:
For this training, all you have to do is use our specially-made morphing training grounds and pass through 100 rooms, hitting our training bots and making use of our special equipment! Easy, right? That's what we think so! Because...wait...telephone ringing...technical staff...just a moment...
...
Oh...well, looks like we ran out of equipment! BUT we do have a prototype pack you can JUST USE, save for the fact that the plasma tank might be leaking a little bit so you'll have to rugh, but I don't think it's a problem, right? Nice! :smile:
And to you, there, looking at us right now. Yeah, YOU on the chair! To help us test this stuff here you'll have to use your mouse + keyboard or an X360 controller (no endorsements here).
The controls are: - WASD or Left Analog: Move; - Mouse or Right Analog: Aim; - Left Click or Right Trigger: Shoot; - Right Click or Left Trigger: Dash (yeah, we know this left/right thing's confusing); - Spacebar, Enter or A Button (I don't remember very well) start the game or jump text/cutscenes;
That's it! We're counting on you! Our bots won't hurt you (too much), but don't die in there!
Tools Used
In making this game, the following tools were used: - Engine: GameMaker Studio 2 + GameMaker Studio 1 for prototyping; - Graphics: Aseprite + Affinity Designer; - Audio: Sound Forge Music Studio, Wavosaur, FL Studio, iPad 2 + Ampkit, Old Guitar + Onerr GEP50 Pedal; - Food: Lots!
Thanks
Dedicated, as always, to my fiancée, Glauce Fernandes, for the Patience and Love. ♥
Changelog
- 2017/07/31 - 22:17 GMT -0300 (17min after LD ended here in São Paulo): fixed some large numbers I used for stage generation, which could crash browsers on more low-end computers, also fixed "Return to Title" not working after a game over;
- 2017/07/31 - 22:32 GMT -0300: increased some numberd for stage generation which made the game sometimes jump stages (since it didn't generate enemies), fixed the crosshair disappearing;
- 2017/08/01 - 14:32 GMT -0300: fixed clicks not advancing text on cutscenes and the game not advancing to the next level on the HTML port;
- 2017/08/01 - 14:45 GMT -0300: updated game description with a proper one;
- 2017/08/01 - 16:30 GMT -0300: fixed mouse clicks not advancing again, because I forgot a statement :(;
- 2017/08/01 - 22:48 GMT -0300: fixed the audio not looping when advancing to further levels by adding a loop, I hope this is ok, sorry again for the inconvenience;
- 2017/08/02 - 13:59 GMT -0300: there was a deactivate debug object that allowed you to go fullscreen, which I deactivated on export, but I re-added it so it's possible to play on HTML/Windows in fullscreen, by pressing F10, sorry again :sweat_smile:;
That's it! No more editing òó._
| HTML5 (web) | http://sixsided.com.br/projects/ld39-plasmagun/ |
| Windows | http://sixsided.com.br/projects/ld39-plasmagun/ld39-plasmagun.zip |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/plasmagun |
Ratings
| Overall | 306th | 3.533⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 201th | 3.533⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 631th | 2.7⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 397th | 3.517⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 294th | 3.85⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 147th | 3.678⭐ | 61🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 156th | 3.2⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 315th | 3.431⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 101🗳️ | 82🗨️ |
One annoying thing is if you stand next to a down-facing wall, or (by the perspective) looking around a corner,
and try to shoot, the plasma gets discarded straight away. Also my title screen did not look like the screenshot on here - gotta make sure you bundle the web fonts or something. Also had to play at 2x zoom because it was so small with no fullscreen option.
Nice jam entry. :thumbsup:
@bombjack thanks for playing and having fun with the game! :D
@gwinnell sorry about the bugs, I attempted to fix the sound looping and fullscreen, but couldn't fix the font-size on HTML export, since it should scale. The fonts are included as sprites and should scale on render, but GM just won't for me :(.
The plasma being discarded well, because of time, I did some pretty poor collision (one of the last things I properly did, like music too). And the game goes up to level 100. :P
Thanks for playing and giving feedback! Really! :D
Sometimes, I guess when standing near wall, my gun just wouldn't shoot, or the bullets were disappearing, but I guess it's just neglible collider issue. The view was for me a bit confusing, as I could see my whole character, but walls just from top. Some balancing is needed. Bots take 3hp, which basically allows me to win level just by headbutting into the bots :D And as gwinell said before, I also didn't feel need to use dash - bots should outspeed you if we are ever to use it. And don't get discouraged, all those issues can be easily fixed.
Camera movement, and camera shake is great though. It fits theme, and it's climatic on it's own way. Explosion effects are also very cool.
Edit: it's always nice to hear someone using own music, especially of this genre ;)
It's a nice game, well done!
It really has the feel of a nuclear throne weapon testing area! haha!
The level generator is awesome and the feel of the controls, the screen shaking, the great music even though I've played to the last level it did not annoy me, the graphics were nice too! I really like your game! :0)
Good job! haha!
First I've thought the text on the screen could get disturbing but after I started moving I didn't saw it anymore! haha! I think it was a good idea to place it where it was. :0)
But one thought while I played was, why do I have a health bar. :0) Even if I ran into all the enemies in most levels I couldn't get killed, because the enemies did not make enough harm. But that was no big problem. :0) Because, the mechanics worked nontheless. It wasn't possible to just ran into all enemies without shooting because I needed the plasma! haha! Or else I wouldn't have the time to search for the last missing robot! haha!
Thank you for this game! It's really awesome and fun!
@solah Thanks for playing and pointing the problem and sorry for that! I just realized that in some PCs aiming just became hard and had bugs! I'm gonna check and test to fix that ASAP! And yeah, visibility is quite bad, specially if you aim too distant from the character sometimes! I'm gonna remake it into a better game after judging ends! :)
@ruerob-hyky Dude! Thanks again, one more time! The idea is to have the feeling of a training area, but I do have a lot to improve, like the healthbar/damage issue! I kinda needed to balance better the dash/headbutting enemies/shooting/plasma tank thing, so gameplay could be challenging and also about managing resources and actions properly. Thanks for all the tips and sincere feedback! :D
@piscythe Thanks! And I totally get what you're saying! After a few minutes it does get dull and repetitive and has a lot of room for improvement, the enemies and collision were really done in the most fast possible way, since it was rushed because of lots of factors. I do appreciate the feedback and I'm hoping to improve it later! I wanted to add a bit of humor in the intro, but it ended up a bit dull too. Thanks again!
@chadivision Thanks! What you pointed out was part of my intention! And the text, yeah, I wanted to make it a bit fancier, but this solution was all I could think about at the time! :P But I did wanted to make it a bit frantic, but not so chaotic and not-so-polished as I made. I will make sure to improve it on the post-jam version! But thanks for checking it out! For Real! :D
@peter-sheehan Thanks for checking the game and the post! Really! I do LOVE games like Nuclear Throne and Dungeon Souls, so I was inspired by them for the gameplay style, and I totally get what you felt when playing the game and the way you didn't see the replay factor. I do find it fun, and I do have a replay factor, but I also made the game, so it's different! :P I'll try my best to improve it in a later moment and balance the HP/Plasma/Rushing into crowds of robots thing! :D
@rodobodolfo Thank you for playing the game and for the feedback! And I totally understand the repetition thing! I did wanted randomly generated levels to get rid of it, but this "maze + 30 robots or so" ended up becoming too repetitive! I'll try to improve on it a later! Thanks for checking!
Really, thanks everyone for the sincere feedback! I know people sometimes don't like criticism, but I love it! Since it also leads to improvement in all possible aspects! So thanks for playing and checking the game!
Cheers and Good Luck for Everyone!
The game's kinda influenced by Nuclear Throne, but I wanted to make things a bit different on the style of levels. Audio was the last thing, so I quickly recorded some sounds and made that track. :D
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! All feedback is pretty much appreciated! ;)
You rocked this ! This is so dynamic and addictive i played like too much time without seeing time pass !
The game kind of reminded me about Nuclear Thrones in the gameplay, which i LOVE !
Music and audio dialogues are very cool too, well done guys !
I lost every time at Level 3 because I can't find enemies. Probably the marker to the closest enemy can solve it.
The theme of the jam is also followed in a really good way, nice work and keep going!
Camera movement and screen-shakes on explosion should be more subtle IMO.
@linver Thanks! That's how I wanted the game to feel a bit rushed, but in the end I ended up rushing to finish it, so a lot of things (like the marker you mentioned) didn't make it, I plan on fixing all these soon, in a post-jam version! :) Thanks for playing and pointing it out! :D
@teddydd Thanks! I'll take note of that! The original bar was actually a circular bar, but it was kinda heavy (since the walls are all objects, I felt it was heavy enough), so I ended up using text. Will make it into a proper meter in a post-jam version! :D
@daniel-kartafla Thanks! The death animation was one of the quickest ones I built (and only thanks to how GMS2 handles sprite editing). The game truly feels a bit boring with only a single weapon and only these enemies (and they all look like some brand of vacuum cleaners :P), and I plan on fixing that in a post version! :D Thanks for pointing things out and playing the game!
@dege Yeah, the crosshair is kinda one of the things I didn't work too much on (so BOTH keyboard and gamepad are working at the same time) and the colliders for the canisters I wanted to add a bit of 2.5 depth here, but ended up with small hitboxes :/. I wanted to add some particles for feedback, among other things, but was so on time that I kinda rushed to publish it. :P Thanks for playing and pointing things out! I'm planning on adding more challenges and make it a bit less repetitive too, refining controls, effects and other things. But really, thanks! :D
@blk-dragon Thanks for playing! The camera movement and screenshakes I kinda took from a tutorial during development (as the level generator), since I kinda didn't practice too much in the last few months because of work. But I'm really happy to check your feedback here! ;) Thanks!
@david-allen Thanks! I kinda wanted to add more juice, but ran out of time :/, but I'd like to increase challenges, reduce the repetition and add more features that make it more a pleasing experience to play. Thanks for checking and playing! I really did enjoy playing Inverteb too! It was some amazing teamwork! :D
Stopped at level 3 after the first death. Thanks for the game!
Gameplay wise, the core of the game is good, but there isn't much supporting it. The difficulty doesn't ramp as you progress and the enemies die in one hit, so the fact that your gun has a fast fire rate doesn't really play much of a role, neither does the dodge mechanic.
A pretty good game otherwise.
I also like the fact that the gun's range is limited so that you have to wait for the last moment not to waste plasma.
My only issue is that I had to switch to QWERTY for the game to be playable. Consider adding the arrow keys for controls (also, I'm left-handed, so I prefer that).
Also, are there really 100 levels?! I gave up after the second one. :stuck_out_tongue:
The constantly spinning UI was kind of annoying, I could never quite read it properly. Also, I was sent all the way back to level 1 when I died, so I never progressed far into the game.
The music and occasional voices were also a good touch.
That was my only real problem though, and if there truly are 100 levels, thats insane! I barely got past the first one. Nice job though!
Just as a bit of polish, the shooting doesn't have a good "feel" to it(I almost didn't notice I was shooting for a while), but this is excellent. And kudos for making it on HTML5, makes it a lot easier to play and rate! :)
@tim-eriksen Thanks! I did wanted to include more talking and more humor here, which I ended up doing on the remake I built for LOWREZJAM last week. The explosion was quite rushed, so I do plan on making it better in a future version of this! :D
@coauctor Thanks! I planned for more cutscenes and funny stuff here, but it ended up like small bits of sound only. I plan on making a better version based on this concept and improving the remake I built of this game for another jam on last week. :)
@sumgamstudio Thanks for playing and commenting here! ;)
@drury Yes, on some PCs it runs quite slow. It kinda went a bit untested in this part, here it runs just fine though (i7 2400k, 8gb, R7 250). I do need to improve a lot, specially on the replayability factor, collisions and challenge. Thanks for checking out! :)
@natrium729 Thanks! I did wanted to focus more on some sounds, voice acting and cutscenes, but things were kinda rushed here. The idea was to limit the gun range, but also to make the player spray the gun as soon as he found a swarm of robots. I'll really include better controls and make things more accessible in future versions! And YES, there are 100 levels (though the game was kinda made with the intention of never getting there :P).
@ectucker1 Thanks, I do need to improve on some effects and that spinning text there. You will always go back to level 1 because it's a permadeath, kinda roguelike, so it's one of the core mechanics. ;) Thanks for playing the game! :)
@galaxstudios Thanks! Really nice that you like the game! It makes me really happy!
@carsen-d Thanks, the wobbling text was my way of trying to make the UI a bit juicy, but it renders unreadable sometimes, I did consider bars, but these were last-minute additions and I was kinda in a rush. :P There are 100 levels, but I plan on balancing that out, so it doesn't sound so insane and cumbersome. Thanks for checking!
@ddsfloko Thanks! Knowing your opinion does make me happy!
@garethjenkins Thank you! I do need to improve on colliders, particles and more player feedback, since it's kinda missing on these points. But thanks for checking and pointing that out! :)
@drachmor Thanks! I did wanted to focus a bit more on humor, but in the end I didn't have the time to do that. Colliders were a big problem, after all, and I do plan on making them better in future versions. The mouse problem with browsers is something I'll have to figure out in GameMaker, I'm kinda lost on how to do it here. But really, thanks for playing my game!
@brazmogu Thanks! I was in a rush and couldn't make the art better, but good to see your feedback here! I do need to polish on a LOT of things here, and I plan on doing that, but thanks for checking my project here!
@jaimuepe I did wanted to make the intro better, and with more humor, but couldn't because of the limited time. I do need to balance the challenge better here, and I need to test things more before releasing, but good to see your opinion on everything! Music was a last minute addition! :P Thanks for playing this! Really!
Also, thanks to everyone who played and rated (or not)! ;)
All in all, great work!