LudumData

Surface Tension by mahalis

[raw]
made by mahalis for LD 38 (COMPO)

Defend your tiny, toroidal world. Built in 48 hours using Unreal Engine 4, Cinema 4D, and, at the literal last minute, GarageBand.

preview image

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaBrdryRF2E

This is the first time I’ve tried a 3D project for Ludum Dare—turns out to be a lot more work, particularly when you’re doing funky things with camera math. Didn’t have time to make music, and it’s short some world detail and an effect or two, but overall I’m really happy with the result. Thanks for checking it out—hope you enjoy!

Download

(unfortunately, the Mac version has some visual downgrades because without them the frame rate made it unplayable)

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/surface-tension

Ratings

Overall 233th 3.409⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 299th 3.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 139th 3.5⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 181th 3.636⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 30th 4.318⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 357th 2.368⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 7🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

Vony256
24. Apr 2017 · 02:41 UTC
Pretty cool idea, love the graphics and its fairly challenging, my top score was 24. Sometimes the enemy spawned right on top of me however.
good work!
cottontshirtz
27. Apr 2017 · 00:41 UTC
How did you handle movement, physics, and control for your game? I did a similar idea (shooter on a torus) and I'd like to compare notes.
🎤 mahalis
28. Apr 2017 · 04:09 UTC
@cottontshirtz: It’s effectively 2D—all of the movement and whatnot is on an x/y plane that wraps around on both edges. The first day or so of work was getting the math needed to map between that space and Unreal’s 3D coordinate system, but once that was in place it was pretty straightforward. Planning to write up more details on that in a postmortem sometime soon.
cottontshirtz
28. Apr 2017 · 22:49 UTC
@mahalis Cool, that's similar to how I handled it. I'm also planning in doing a write-up on a few aspects of my entry. Did you have to write an integrator for your physics?
cottontshirtz
30. Apr 2017 · 22:36 UTC
@mahalis
If you're interested in comparing notes, I've just finished my retrospective.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/planetorus/p-l-a-n-e-t-o-r-u-s-retrospectivve
JOrbits
01. May 2017 · 14:47 UTC
I was able to get a score of 36. The graphics are very good. The sounds could be better, maybe a soundtrack. And more playerfeedback when destroying enemys would've been cool.
MartensCedric
06. May 2017 · 21:51 UTC
Interesting game I like how you used a torus in a jam. Good work!
little-burrito
06. May 2017 · 22:01 UTC
I made a video review of your game:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LBmTkP0tYjY

Really cool! Thanks a lot.
somethinboutgames
06. May 2017 · 22:08 UTC
Looks amazing, unfortunately my pc is too weak to run it at a playable frame rate, sorry :/
Rongo Matane
06. May 2017 · 22:09 UTC
Neat game, I went to 68 (then quit, i guess i could go on for an hour :D). The visuals are really nice, some music would have been good too i guess. The torus is really cool - moving around is kind of mind fucky. So i figured just sit in one place and shoot, which worked very well ;)

Cool entry!
yoanndeplo
06. May 2017 · 22:47 UTC
Good entry. I like the concept of the "donut world", but I think the movement's speed with W or S is too high, or the donut isn't thick enough. My best score is only 20 ^^.
LorenzoS
06. May 2017 · 23:11 UTC
Amazing graphics for a first-time 3D project! We went 3D for the first time also in our entry, but working with voxel made life simpler for our ex-pixel-artists :)

The torus idea is nice, and it make dodging enemies really challenging. As said by others, maybe the up-down moviment could be more slow.

Unfortunately I'm not really good at it, and I'm ashamed to post my highest score XD
spacewarp
13. May 2017 · 17:47 UTC
Neat little game, with very nice graphics. Controls were a bit fast, but in particular the camera was all over the place. Would probably have benefited from a camera attached to the player. Good entry either way :)
BitOfGold
14. May 2017 · 16:47 UTC
The toroidal world, it is really innovative.
Very high quality graphics, with cool camera movement around!
I think you will get very good rates on graphics.

Shooting with mouse button would be better I think.

If you have the time, please try and rate my little game:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/three-of-you
garethiw
17. May 2017 · 08:32 UTC
Lovely artwork and an interesting idea to have a torus as a platfield. I found it quite risky to move around the side as the camera took a while to catch up, so I could never be sure if I was going to hit something. Movement was a bit floaty but okay once I got used to it. Would have liked a faster fire rate purely for gamefeel, but as all the enemies were one-hit-kill it didn't matter too much.

Highest score was 26. Solid entry.
PaperclipBadger
17. May 2017 · 09:04 UTC
The framerate tanked on my laptop, and possibly as a result the game often wouldn't register my clicks.
Moonleaf
17. May 2017 · 09:11 UTC
Cool concept, cool execution. I enjoyed a lot until I figured out the strategy to stay still or move away from enemies, then easily got a 60. Great game!
Tygrak
17. May 2017 · 09:31 UTC
I love the concept of a toroidal world - that must have taken a while to implement. The graphics are awesome and the gameplay is simple but fun.