Nuclear Arms 6: Waste Wizard's Tricks by Logicon211





Craig Killbane is back! He has been abducted by the sinister Waste Wizard for destroying his Trash Star. Craig needs to survive the Wizard's arena by facing off against waves of Trash Bots. Only then will he be able to fight the Waste Wizard directly and escape from the arena!
As Craig, you'll fight against waves of enemies to make it to the final fight with the Wizard at the end:
- WASD or Arrow keys to move
- Mouse to aim
- Left Click to attack
- Hold right click to Charge up a punch
- Releasing it causes you to surge forward, pushing and damaging everything in your way
Pickup powerups for various effects!
Avoid falling garbage!
- Garbage will clutter up the arena, blocking you in. You'll need to fight your way through it to get to your enemies
- Destroying garbage may spawn powerups for you to use.
This game follows the adventures of Craig Killbane. You can check out the previous game in the series in our last Ludum Dare submission here:
Or the entire list of Nuclear Arms games from my profile here
It was a busy weekend for us all. We had the usual crew this time around. The earlier start time gave us all a bit more of a window for work on the first day, but most of the team was exhausted by Sunday. Still, the quality of our work is improving with every game and we have a good time coming up with ideas for Craig Killbane and his next game. We hope you enjoy!
Credits
@Logan Marks - Programming (Enemies, Player, Effects, Implementing Assets), Art/Animations (Enemies, powerups, effects), Voice (Announcer)
@Brodie Beaman - Programming (Tilemap, Obstacle Spawner, Boss Attack), Sound Editing (Announcer, Wizard), Level creation
@Chad Gerein - Programming (Enemies, Powerup Spawners, Game/Scene Controller, Cutscenes)
@Mitchell Maclean - Programming (Player, Camera, Slide Transitions, Wizard and Wizard Fight), Voice (Wizard, Senator Swill), Humor Consultant, Game Design
@Brenden Roach - Story Board, Slide Art, Craig Sprites, Wizard Sprites, Humor Consultant
@Taylor Seely - Sound Finder
**Additional credits for free assets are in the project source
NOTE: IF PLAYING THE WEB VERSION, PLAY IN FULLSCREEN OR YOUR MOUSE WON'T BE TRACKED IF YOU MOVED OFF SCREEN
| Source code | https://github.com/Logicon211/LudumDare42 |
| HTML5 (web) | https://logicon211.itch.io/nuclear-arms-6-waste-wizards-tricks |
| Windows | https://goo.gl/3niZYt |
| macOS | https://goo.gl/JJfBj7 |
| Linux | https://goo.gl/gQZzGy |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/nuclear-arms-6-waste-wizards-tricks |
Ratings
| Overall | 113th | 3.915⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 90th | 3.858⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 414th | 3.358⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 226th | 3.933⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 582th | 3.462⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 27th | 4.16⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 164th | 3.7⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 64🗳️ | 47🗨️ |
A more visible cursor could be fine (for chosing direction)
@wavertron Sorry it was a bit hard! The random element can make the game much easier or much harder depending on which powerups you get. And I agree the music is great! But since we didn't make it we didn't want to be rated on it.
@arch We're glad to be back! And also that you enjoyed the game. It's always great to see a fan :D. Trying to balance this one was hard to get it to feel just right due to how we decided to spawn powerups. But we did indeed have a good time trying to figure it out.
Usually I've managed a win in something like a half dozen tries. But this time... Well, they say that surfing is a demanding activity, and I surfed so much I can still feel the soreness from the tension in my neck as I battled those trashbots again and again. I came SO CLOSE so many times.
The design is dense with good ideas. The larger basic trashbot forces you to learn to dash if you don't want to take hits, and while he seems like he can be ignored when lots of trash is around, he is relentlessly pushing it toward you, closing gaps and boxing you in. Then his buddy comes, with those damned rockets that ignore the trash obstacles! If not for him, you could shield yourself in a trash igloo and ignore all but what's right in front of you. But no. And overall there is a wonderful tension between taking care to avoid hits, and the gradual accumulation of trash on the battelfield acting as a clock and forcing you to play briskly. The end boss has a wonderful escalation of the tension between trying to hit him and trying to clear space to not keep eating the trash-skipping rockets coming at you. (Tho I really wished for a better indication of when he was allowed to be hit vs not, it felt a little raw that this escalated his difficulty so much)
How you find these balances, I don't pretend to understand. But once again your ideas have come together into a blast of a game that really tested me.
That's why, when I finally saw the Wizard's face erupt into a series of explosions, my hands shot up in victory. YES!! I DID IT!!
It was at this moment, in this pose, hands held high and off the keyboard/mouse, that one last rocket hit me in the back and killed me. That's right... no meltdown. Just more surfing.
That would not do, and so I rolled up my sleeves and buckled down to get a REAL meltdown. I had to learn the ways. This was when I figured out how to master the dash to attack the big bots (I could have used a little on-character animation cue to indicate a full charge btw), and I learned that the shadows predict where fists and trash will fall, and must be avoided. I studied my kung fu, and upped my game.
And finally, I earned it -- a REAL meltdown.
I have to say that I've enjoyed your previous entries, but this one steps it up a level in quality. Some of that punk-rock basement rawness and minor technical issues you used to have seem replaced by a growing skill level in terms of tech chops and little details. The art and sound are all working together with the gameplay toward a really cohesive package, and all of the interactions felt good.
I'm not quite sure what the guy says when you speed up and he says "He's so fast! Thanks, _____ _____" But the game is metal enough that I decided it must be "Judas Priest." I also cracked up when Killbane was like "What trashstar?" What a guy.
I think maybe the knife's edge tipped a little way toward the difficult side this time, so I made you a little present:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ7PcQSOSTM
@pkenney At this point, we always look forward to your reviews. Sorry that bug slipped past and stole your first meltdown, but I'm so glad you managed to get past it.
We always appreciate your review. Especially that you managed to power through and make a 20 minute gameplay video for us. You definitely earned that meltdown
BTW, watching that video now. Once you've figured out the dash you become a real pro ;D.
Edit: Oh man that ending.
I did run into a weird bug: towards the end of my run, the controls didn't seem to want to work properly anymore. Other than that, loved the combat and the announcer voice.
(Voice Acting has done wonders for this rough gem)
The aiming with the dash was a bit hard to pick up on, but it felt really good when it worked
Please rate us back <3
If so I'd suggest giving it a try in fullscreen. That should solve the issue.
You already played our game: The legend of the looter and the incredible backpack that never runs out of space, so we can't do anything but thank you. 」( ̄▽ ̄」)