LudumData

Haywire by DrewG8

[raw]
made by DrewG8 for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

Art, Code by Drew Genel, Music by Matt Eyles, some sounds from royalty free sites

Robotic Jomon parasites have laid siege to the reactor that powers Muroya City in an attempt to siphon off power for themselves. In the chaos, they destroyed the regulator that keeps the core temperature in check. As a lowly drone tasked with maintaining the reactor, can you hold off the invading hoard with your tiny blaster while also keeping the reactor's temperature in check?

How to Play:

  • Use the mouse to guide the drone and avoid red Jomon bullets

  • Hold the left mouse button to fire

  • Watch the temperature gauge on the lower right-hand side! If it gets too hot or too cold, the reactor will start to die. If it's health reaches 0, you lose!

  • Click the arrows at the bottom of the screen to switch which direction the temperature is moving (but it will cost you five points)

  • The hotter it gets, the faster enemies will spawn and the faster their bullets will travel, but your blaster will also grow more powerful

  • As it gets colder, enemies will spawn slower, and their bullets will travel slower, but your blaster will grow weaker

screenshot_1.png

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screenshot_2.png

Youtube https://drewg8.itch.io/haywire
Youtube https://drewg8.itch.io/haywire
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/haywire

Ratings

Overall 614th 3.75⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 947th 3.452⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1540th 3.125⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1849th 3.338⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 199th 4.381⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Audio 465th 3.695⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Mood 690th 3.675⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 56🗨️

Feedback

Soulcube
21. Apr 2020 · 02:36 UTC
Yoooo, this games polish stands out massively in the sea of entries! Very clean visual style & minimalist game design. Nice little take on a galaga style game. Impressive!
Uncle_J0ker
21. Apr 2020 · 02:45 UTC
i like the concept and the aesthetic but the heat and cold feature is buggy
Purrseus
21. Apr 2020 · 03:10 UTC
This is one very polished entry! The aesthetics are incredible, the sound design evokes the right emotions too, you get absorbed into the game! The auto-fire/following mechanic is interesting, everything really works quite well.

Awesome job!
No Grapes Games
21. Apr 2020 · 03:23 UTC
Cool, I really like how the game looks! Was it fun? For me, no. Mainly because the game doesn't change much. Was this a good Ludum Dare entry? Yes, very much so.
Hueson
21. Apr 2020 · 04:05 UTC
The palette choice is a quality one. The whole of the art comes together really well.
dummydojo
21. Apr 2020 · 05:07 UTC
Looks great and polished! Unfortunately, the cold/hot controls didn't seem to work for me (html). Also, I felt like the movement controls were a bit too floaty for me to get used to.
🎤 DrewG8
21. Apr 2020 · 05:21 UTC
@dummydojo On HTML5 the controls are 'W' and 'S' instead of the arrow keys, due to a problem with arrow keys scrolling down on the page. Sorry for the confusion.
dummydojo
21. Apr 2020 · 05:45 UTC
@drewg8 Ah okay. I was trying that earlier as well, but after reloading the page again, it seems to work now! I gave it another shot. Seems like a cool mechanic for balancing the cost/benefit. A suggestion I have would be to allow the player to move at the same time as changing the temperature to allow for more fluid gameplay.
yarpoplar
21. Apr 2020 · 08:00 UTC
Really great art style! As someone mentioned before, controls are a little bit too floaty - I don't feel like I'm in full control of my player. Idea with cold/hot is pretty cool, but it's barely noticeable, like it's not the main feature of the game - cold/hot bar is too small and located somewhere outside and overall impact in changes cold/hot doesn't noticeable (at least for me) too.
But I like overall game, I'm a huge fan of shmups, so I definitely would like to play a full release!
3LSTMsInATrenchcoat
21. Apr 2020 · 08:27 UTC
Nice and polished. The lack of progression makes it a bit boring after a while, and everything is a bit small & hard-to-see, but otherwise it's one of the better ones.
Kenta
21. Apr 2020 · 20:42 UTC
Very cool art style, but the mechanica that makes you stop everytime you have to change the temperature is... Well, I think that I shouldn´t stop moving in a bullethell. Good work.
21. Apr 2020 · 20:44 UTC
what a beautiful game! I think that my only feedback is that the bullets are quite small, is kinda of hard to see them, maybe if it had a trail or something it would be nicer to see them
sodap
21. Apr 2020 · 23:09 UTC
Cool game, nice art and sound!. It was a bit hard to understand at first, and I would have preferred that bullets were bigger on the screen.
Joe Wright
22. Apr 2020 · 00:45 UTC
Gorgeous to look at!
Big_Chalupa
22. Apr 2020 · 04:43 UTC
I love the concept. The art is very good and the game has a great level of polish. Good job!
DemKimos
22. Apr 2020 · 08:53 UTC
The art is effective and the gameplay is very interesting. I had to keep an eye on many things while playing though there's not a lot of pressure on the temperature which is one of the innovations of the game. Great concept.
Natalie Sodomkova
22. Apr 2020 · 17:30 UTC
Love the colors of this pixelart. Enjoyed, thanks!
MoweMax
22. Apr 2020 · 20:49 UTC
I like visuals and audio, great concept! Mouse movement feel a bit to much 'eased', lacks responsiveness, but aint huge deal for me.
JazzatheFOSS
23. Apr 2020 · 03:23 UTC
This game is very polished. I particularly like the sound and animation when the enemies drop. I wish I could have made the game window bigger.
causalpigeon
23. Apr 2020 · 20:37 UTC
fun game but the controls felt a bit sloppy i'm pretty sure that's because the screen is so small i wish it was bigger but pretty fun game otherwize and the arts really cool
nsadie
24. Apr 2020 · 09:07 UTC
A very polished entry with some very nice pixel art!
SamLeCreator
24. Apr 2020 · 10:51 UTC
An entry polished to this level is always a welcome find - but even behind the polish this is some tight game design.

Drew: Surprisingly calming and not too over-the-top visual style, makes the game that much more replayable.

Matt: Got really into the music, wish more people tried their hand at a 5-beat track :)
Wolfrug
24. Apr 2020 · 10:53 UTC
Nice work, and very good looking. It does break some fundamental rules of bullet hells though, specifically -> the basic enemies have too much health, they should die in one hit (or two) and -> you shouldn't have to stop to adjust the temperature. But otherwise...nice work!
JUSTCAMH
24. Apr 2020 · 11:07 UTC
Wow, what an interesting game! Sound design and graphics are absolutely on point. I dunno bout the temperature thing tho... I can't say it added much more than something else to think about. Maybe I'm wrong, I only played a few games, and maybe there's some meta to keeping the temperature high or low or something, but both felt roughly the same difficulty, and switching the temp just felt like busy work. I still enjoyed the game, the shooting and moving was very responsive, and the enemies are neat. Great game! :heart:
ctrble
25. Apr 2020 · 00:34 UTC
This was excellent! I love the art and sound, straightforward gameplay, and all very well executed. This is a solid game! I don't think I was very good at figuring out how to manage my power very well though, maybe a bit more color in the UI to indicate hot, cold, and fine would help. That said, really job and I hope you continue to work on it!
Finn_Tr
25. Apr 2020 · 08:54 UTC
Love the art style! Very clean UI, music and sound are great! I think the control with the mouse could be a little more responsive and I'm not sure about changing the temperature mid-game with the mouse, maybe another button could work! Other than that, really well polished game. Great job!
BoxedMeatRevolution
25. Apr 2020 · 14:15 UTC
Beautiful art and and sound design! The ship moved a bit slowly for my liking, and I wish I could "aim" my shots towards the mouse. Needing to keep an eye on the temperature was a neat idea, and I like how the player is forced to stop shooting when they want to change it (adds tension). Great entry!
ColeSlaughter
26. Apr 2020 · 02:47 UTC
Glad I stuck with this one for a couple of deaths. :) You have a really cool concept here, and I think if your systems were just conveyed a little better to the player, you'd have a dynamite game on your hands!

Once I figured out how the bars impacted each other, and how to manage them, it was really cool trying to split my brain between managing 2 different resources (my life bar and the core's life bar). However, it took me a long time to figure out how to even interact with those systems. The buttons don't provide much feedback, and especially for a SHMUP-y game like this, you're going to want some sort of visual feedback that can be noticed in a player's peripheries (the reddening of the screen when a core is approaching overheating is a nice touch).

The visual style of this game is excellent, so I have no doubt you'll be able to channel that visual flair into player feedback and make something truly spectacular. :)
Pietro Ferrantelli
26. Apr 2020 · 20:46 UTC
One of my favorite entries so far ! The pixel art style is excellent and inspiring, I love how everything looks so clean, you also nailed the audio and the gameplay. The concept is interesting and well executed, I had a blast playing it, minimalism at is finest. Solid entry all around, congratulations !
Rikitaner
28. Apr 2020 · 17:01 UTC
I love the idea here, as it allows you to play how you preffer it! It is very difficult and doesn't allow mistakes, which is fine with me. The graphics are very nice to look at. I'd also preffer being able to move a bit faster, as it is quite tricky to dodge the bullets. Overall very good game, one of the better entries!
Vesper
28. Apr 2020 · 21:19 UTC
The game looked very polished, but I was thrown by the heat/core control feature - though I see in one of your replies to an earlier comment that the controls are different in the html version, so that'll be why they weren't working XD.

Nonetheless, overall I was impressed by how smooth the movements were and appreciated how well everything was put together. A very nice entry, well done.
Jupiter_Hadley
04. May 2020 · 15:17 UTC
Lovely graphics, challenging game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/SML2NB40RxM
🎤 DrewG8
10. May 2020 · 06:34 UTC
@jupiter-hadley Thank you so much! And thank you for all the work you do!