Planet Domination by Sir Magic

[raw]
made by Sir Magic for LD 38 (JAM)

A game in which spaceships compete to take the most planets possible!

1.png 3.png

Controls

Use WASD to move and space to fire. Space is also used once to start the game.

Links

Web (HTML) Windows 64-bit Windows 32-bit

(The game is also INCREDIBLY LOUD so please turn the game's volume down in the Volume Mixer.)

EDIT: Player spaceship now has 1 second of invulnerability after being hit. This is there to prevent the respawn glitch that affected 50% of players and prevented them from even having a chance of winning as they would respawn into a ship which would cause them to die and respawn again forever.

Have fun!

Ratings

Overall 567th 3.074⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 390th 3.148⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 569th 2.778⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 571th 3⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 350th 3.63⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 414th 2.731⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 648th 2.64⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

G4m3M4ni4c
25. Apr 2017 · 19:58 UTC
Very good. Ships should have a little more durability, and a few seconds of invincibility when re-spawning. But overall the idea for the game is creative and fun.
🎤 Sir Magic
26. Apr 2017 · 19:49 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! I definitely agree with you on the durability and the invisibility. I think a few seconds to prevent "spawn-killing" would be useful.
Kodiqi
27. Apr 2017 · 07:05 UTC
Fun game but pretty challenging. With the graphics and sound effects I get a definite Space Invaders vibe. Maybe a power-up or shield would add to the replay value.
xmatos
27. Apr 2017 · 09:15 UTC
Well done, that was fun!
The first game I got stuck on a loop for the last half, there was a ship on my spawn, and I kept dying and re-spawning. Getting invulnerability when you spawn would fix this.
The second game I played I managed to win, but it felt like a back and forward game, not too easy and not too hard.
The planets, background, ships all look great, the sound, even though loud, fit the game.
Congrats!
drazil100
29. Apr 2017 · 00:40 UTC
I loved the concept of this game and the game controlled pretty well. Unfortunately the game is a little too difficult due to the fact that you have no cover from enemy fire and every planet is equal distance apart. Also the fact that you could have an enemy stand over your spawn and just kill you until the end of time the millisecond you spawn in is probably something you should address in some way or another.
caterein
03. May 2017 · 20:22 UTC
Really like the gameplay and art style. I agree with the comment that some re-spawning cover would be great, but overall, I think you made a great game. Well done :)
KunoNoOni
03. May 2017 · 21:00 UTC
I love the art style of this game! I liked the idea behind the game as it was simple. Try to collect more planets than your opponents. I like that there was an AI to play against. Something I've not really done in my games. I did find it a bit frustrating that I could really dodge enemy fire that well and that I didn't have that much health.

All in all it was a good solid game and was fun to play!
those-30-ninjas
03. May 2017 · 21:03 UTC
Art all looks good. Yes the sound was too loud. Gameplay wise there really wasn't a ton of incentive to do anything except wait until the last 20 seconds and just fly over and capture a planet. Maybe power ups or something when you capture a planet would help? How did you manage to hurt your arm during a jam?! Solid entry. If you get a chance check out mine https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/down-the-rabbit-hole
Wheffle
03. May 2017 · 21:15 UTC
Simple and elegant. Even though it's essentially a 2D game I love that it's rendered in 3D. The only thing I would add would maybe be a side-strafe option (or maybe even a "roll" move star fox style) so that dodging could be a little easier. I can imagine future plans involving power-ups and maybe even multiplayer later on. Overall nice work!
Iluvatar
03. May 2017 · 21:21 UTC
I liked it very much. Simple and fun. The only thing that bothered me a little, was that spawning area was accessible by enemy shots, therefore I died a lot just the second I spawned. But this is just a minor thing. Overall it was cool.
_for_science
03. May 2017 · 21:56 UTC
Simple and fun. It took me a while to notice that I only had to briefly touch the planets in order to conquer them. I had somehow expected I had to stay on there for a few seconds. Does it just count the planets you control in the very end? Or the number of takeovers you have performed during the game?

A score, and some feedback would have been helpful. It is also really easy to just snipe the enemies from a distance before they even notice you. Maybe opening up the third dimension would make the gameplay more engaging? It is space after all...

Overall, a fun little game with a nice voxel art style. :thumbsup:
🎤 Sir Magic
04. May 2017 · 06:39 UTC
Hi, thanks for the feedback guys!
It counts the number of planets captured by each team at the end. I decided to stay away from using the third dimension for movement as I always found that it can make shooting other ships extremely difficult in other games due to all the other axis of rotation.
pixlark
04. May 2017 · 12:23 UTC
Hey, sorry for taking so long to leave feedback after playing it on-stream, but here I am. I played a bit of it after the stream and I still can't manage to win lol. Fun game with very pretty graphics and a solid concept. I haven't encountered a single bug so I suppose that my only complaint would be the difficulty. Although, as always, that may just be me sucking at video games.
NueboMundo
08. May 2017 · 00:33 UTC
Sadly, it's a very unfair game, that severely lacks depth and relies almost exclusively in luck. It's fun to shoot other space ships and move around (although in a very limited fashion -XY axes only-), but trying to fulfill the objective of the game it's just a gamble. All shots look the same and are difficult to dodge, the movement of the ship is slow and you can't go any faster, you are essentially alone against everyone else, your health is low and the unfortunate re-spawn of an enemy often means an automatic game over, and back to the beginning...

One solution would be focusing in the combat and making the movement feel good first and foremost, so "capturing the flag" is enjoyable and satisfying. Being able to "run", team colored shots, different ways of attacking (slow shots, long shots, spread shots... depending in the time you press the button, for example), equal number of ships in each team, Z axis (not necessary at all, but has great potential if done correctly. However, sometimes potential is worse than simplicity, so choosing correctly between the two is key for a fun, engaging game) ...just some ideas!
Teslov
10. May 2017 · 19:23 UTC
![win.PNG](///raw/058/3/z/42d0.png)
On my first try 8)

### How to win
Like in every possible capture the point game. Best tactic is to wait and attack when the time is nearly over. Boom, win.
Also, you can shoot as fast as you can press spacebar. You can literally kill whole team of enemies in one shot.

### Now, the game
Woah, graphics. I love voxels. I love good voxels even more. These voxels were god-tier voxels.
Spaceship design was top-notch. Flying my Red Eagle was amazing.

But I would be a lot happier if it could strafe, not only rotate :C
the controls were a main issue here.

Audio was typical laser sound, fitting perfectly.

### What would I add?
AI teammates and strafing. Everything else is perfect for what it is.
A simple and quick capture the point shooter.
🎤 Sir Magic
10. May 2017 · 19:51 UTC
@teslov Thanks for the extremely detailed feedback! And congratulations on winning first try! Many people can't ever finish the game...
Landon
11. May 2017 · 00:23 UTC
This game was a lot of fun! I think it would be cool though if there was some kind of roll or dash to go faster or dodge bullets! But awesome job over all!
mwcz
11. May 2017 · 00:58 UTC
graphics are great. i love how competitive it is
Pete
11. May 2017 · 07:41 UTC
Great game, but I miss some more movement options like strafe. It also seems to me like the planets are too close to the spawns, making it very hard to hold any planet for more than a small time. The ship and planets designs I very much like, they fit very much together.
Louspirit
11. May 2017 · 18:21 UTC
I put the volume at maximum, then I lost my ears :dizzy_face: but you warned :laughing:! Beautiful graphics and enjoyable gameplay ! I won on my first try. The kind of 2D space is strange but does the trick.
It would be a better challenge I think if the color of planet would change slowly with the color of the team that controls. At the end, the team that has the highest percentage of control of the planet wins.

To finish, the game would be soooooo funny in multiplayer :rofl: Please do it !
philomory
12. May 2017 · 20:16 UTC
This seems pretty neat, but I have to agree that it's hard to hold the planets in any meaningful way. With the current scoring system, it feels like only the last 30 seconds or so of gameplay matters; I'd suggest that instead of who has the most planets at the 2-minute mark, each team gets 1 point per planet they hold per second, and at the end of 2 minutes whoever had the most points wins; that way, it's more about who can hold the planets the longest, rather than who can snatch the planets right at the last second.

Some further comments:
* The graphics are very nice! Simple, but effective. Audio isn't bad either.
* There should not be the same number of teams as planets, makes it too easy to tie (with the current scoring system, anyway).
* Player movement seems pretty slow.
* Is it just me, or do the Blue and Green teams get multiple ships at once while the Red team gets only one? That seems a bit unfair.
* I think a cool way to improve the gameplay loop here would be to have the planets actually in motion relative to the spawn points, maybe orbiting a star or something; if you're near enough to a planet, you automatically move with it, otherwise you retain your fixed frame of reference. No idea how feasible that is to implement, though.
* It'd be neat to have different kind of ships to choose from, maybe one moves faster but has less shields, one fires missiles, I dunno. A lot of ways you could go with that if you decided to expand it post-Jam.

In any case, congratulations on finishing, hope to see you back in a future Jam!
diptoman
16. May 2017 · 18:28 UTC
Graphics are cool, would have loved a bit more "juicyness" for turning (like just the spaceship tilting smoothly would have added to it) - but I guess there's not enough time for that in a jam. The gameplay itself, while simple and fun - lacks depth to an extent (or I was just a terrible player), because it felt reliant on luck about when a random bullet would take away my health (like a random Hanzo scatter arrow). I also feel having auto-shoot instead of tapping to shoot would have been nice. Good stuff overall though!