Powering Down by jwin

[raw]
made by jwin for LD 39 (JAM)

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You're piloting a highly-adaptable ship through an underground base full of hostile drones and turrets. You'll need to adjust power to your ships system while destroying or avoiding the base's defenses.

Thrusters, shields, weapons, and anti-grav all pull from the same pool of energy. Turning all systems on full makes you nearly invincible, but winning a battle doesn't matter if you can't make it to the next charging station.


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Controls: * WASD - move * Mouse - aim * Left Mouse - fire * Space - open systems menu

Ratings

Overall 26th 4.231⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Fun 55th 3.974⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 106th 3.711⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 16th 4.359⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 111th 4.3⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Audio 216th 3.486⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Mood 106th 3.897⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Given 51🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

Kevin Borrell
01. Aug 2017 · 21:37 UTC
You made a great job!! I really enjoyed playing the game, it perfectly fits in the ludum's theme. Allowing you to manage and choose which systems you want to turn on/off in order to be more powerful or saving energy is challenging and fun. The graphics are awesome, i love how it looks with the lights, particles and glows that the enemies have. And the sounds are great, but i miss some kind of background music to increase the feeling of epicness! Congratulations!
Pelaik
01. Aug 2017 · 22:03 UTC
Great work!!! I've really loved the idea of having to disable systems to pass zones.
tgiant
02. Aug 2017 · 06:00 UTC
Awesome game.
Pedro Miranda
02. Aug 2017 · 11:01 UTC
Very good game! You could bind the shield, thruster, HUD and gravity to keyboard keys so the player didn't have to pause so often. But had a lot of fun playing it!, great job!
MufinMcFlufin
02. Aug 2017 · 20:37 UTC
Overall, this was a game that had a solid concept (well suited for the jam) and stuck to it well. The mechanics all lead to interesting decisions for the player to make to better dodge shots, tank hits, or do whatever to their power consumption to make sure they have enough power to get to the next recharge station.

I agree with Pedro, the controls felt a bit clunky because of having to pause to change systems around, but this was otherwise a great game, and I'd love to see more to this than could be made during the jam.
AugusteTheClown
03. Aug 2017 · 00:09 UTC
I really enjoyed the game. The mechanics were interesting, though frustrating at times (namely that drop past all the turrets, I ended up speeding past all the enemies). It looks good, it plays well, and while I agree with the small consensus that hotkeys would be useful for toggling systems, the menu didn't feel too bad for me. Overall I really liked it, and you got high marks from me.
duskpn
03. Aug 2017 · 03:33 UTC
Amazing! Really solid gameplay, very well polished, great graphics, well balanced.

Really, the only suggestion I give is giving the player a way to change the energy without pausing, but other than that...congratulations!
rEaX
03. Aug 2017 · 06:24 UTC
One of the best games. Excellent job!
Rune_Drawer
03. Aug 2017 · 18:50 UTC
impressive game (´ヮ`) i've spent half an hour in it. would like to see evolution of this ideas to the full game =)
obidubi
04. Aug 2017 · 03:21 UTC
This is a very impressive game! Great job on the graphics and sound as well as the mechanics of the game like the attacking AI and the area triggers for the doors and turrets. The game was very entertaining and I had a lot of fun trying out different combinations to either brute force my way past enemies or just make a run for it and hope for the best. I found the game to be solid and well polished with my only exception being that it was dark, which made it difficult to see the surrounding terrain, but it wasn't too bad. Overall, I think this is a great concept and I would really like to see where it goes!
davideperozzi
04. Aug 2017 · 17:21 UTC
Great game! Looks very polished and the graphics + effects are amazing. Very good work for this short time! :)
MEOWStudios
05. Aug 2017 · 14:43 UTC
I really enjoyed your game! Despite being a short game I really liked the ability to tweak the player and I great potential in expanding this game. -Bliss
haette
05. Aug 2017 · 19:21 UTC
Seriously impressive work, looks and sounds great and you did a good job of exploring your mechanics. The super-shield turret pachinko was a particularly fun idea. I think there's a lot of potential here if you're willing to expand on it!
TheFlyingKeyboard
05. Aug 2017 · 19:21 UTC
Really fun game, but a bit too short. Really nice light effects, sounds eeffects could be better but are not bad. Great job!
vulpineblazeyt
05. Aug 2017 · 21:01 UTC
I loved the crap out of this game and would have played this on steam
joebeard
07. Aug 2017 · 06:40 UTC
A nice idea; it was a bit difficult to switch between the ship systems - I agree with the other poster above about maybe having bound them to key presses. Other than that I feel that a wee bit of ambient sound might be a good addition.
Cardinal90
07. Aug 2017 · 11:04 UTC
One of the best games in this jam.
MestreRothLD
07. Aug 2017 · 23:43 UTC
Great game! I didn't like the aspect of tuning the ship, since I prefer action on small games. Everything else: absolutely awesome! I'll keep an eye on your games. Congratulations!
DeadlyAlive
10. Aug 2017 · 22:04 UTC
Very cool graphics and atmosphere! I liked a lot the power mechanic and the gameplay overall is very suiting to the theme! Good job!
icxon
13. Aug 2017 · 18:05 UTC
Game is very short, but it plays really good. Another key binds idea - `Z, X, C, ...` - to select a sub-system, `1, 2, 3, ...` - to set a specific mode for this sub-system. Like pressing `Z` will open thrusters configuration, and `1, 2, 3` - high, low, off. You could keep `SPACE` dialog in this case too.

Also I'd recommend to limit bullets range, so player won't be able to shoot targets out of the screen (unless this is a feature in some cases).

Here is my playthrough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penrR5z-_f4
bluellama
13. Aug 2017 · 19:24 UTC
Genuinely enjoyed playing this game, good use of time as a core concept. Well balanced, with immersive sound design.
RNGSilvercraft
14. Aug 2017 · 16:31 UTC
wow...it looks REALLY good...
Crown Games
16. Aug 2017 · 04:07 UTC
This game was really good, and the graphics make it hard to believe that it was only made in 48 hours. Good job!
Rothens91
16. Aug 2017 · 06:29 UTC
Wow! I loved it! Very massive game! :)
PjchardtTheSecond
16. Aug 2017 · 07:40 UTC
Balancing resources in a fast action game is a nice twist. I did find many times speeding through was a better strategy than balancing my resources. Would be interesting to see more variation in the level to force player to seriously consider resources.
HuvaaKoodia
16. Aug 2017 · 09:52 UTC
Excellent work!

The graphics are amazing, the controls just right and the power toggling system very thematic. I always turn off HUD elements whenever possible and here I even get a reward for it. Great!

Reminds me of Solar Jetman, a classic Rare oldie from back in the days. The only thing missing here, in comparison, is a grappling hook to haul massive :gem:s around and fiendish difficulty (hitting a wall should take away energy. *Ramp up the stakes!*)

Excellent work! (:bear: :bear: :bear:...)
Manumeq
19. Aug 2017 · 02:01 UTC
Simply excellent work. The effects and visuals are outstanding and the gameply feels fluid and responsive all the time. I love how the game core mechanics make the player choose how they are going to face each area and with what advantages and disadvantages. Fun and impressive, wonderful job!
Aurel300
20. Aug 2017 · 20:18 UTC
We streamed your game with Danae plays on Twitch. :) Here's a link:

[Danae streams Ludum Dare 39: Day 3, part 2: Powering Down](https://youtu.be/xNYgWLuDa-Q?t=22m14s)

This was a lot of fun to play, even though I tried to go as low-energy as possible all the time :) The momentum-based movement and how the enemies would be pushed back by my bullets felt amazingly satisfying. Same goes for the sounds. The graphics were also very pretty. I wish there was just a bit more to the game, maybe more enemies, more challenges, power ups, etc. ?

Great job overall!
buttonmasherbros
22. Aug 2017 · 16:07 UTC
You've been featured on today's Ludum Dare to Believe! Check it out here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4mbNxYUt7A
Jupiter_Hadley
03. Sep 2017 · 17:16 UTC
Very fun, well made game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMCKWv94MN0