Space Jam by ReallyQbert

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

Keep your ship alive as long as possible by evading or shooting the aliens that seem to threaten to swarm you every now and then. Keep an eye on your energy, because shooting and colliding with aliens reduces your energy. Once it turns zero, you won't be able to shoot and a single hit will kill you. Luckily, shooting aliens tend to drop an energy booster, which will replenish your energy if picked up.

There is no music because I couldn't find a decent royalty free music to use in the game. The sound fx I've generated using Bfxr. All of the crappy art (except background) was done by yours truly.

Since this is my first ever gam jam (let alone Ludum Dare) entry, please be gentle.

Despite the simplistic nature of the game, I hope it's fun even if only for a brief while.

Controls

W, A, S, D to move

Mouse to rotate and shoot

The game is playable in the browser as well as a windows game (no mac build, sorry!).

Changes: Fixed spelling mistake in the main menu (you're -> your). Added windows build.

Other credits:

Space background: https://itch.io/queue/c/322720/space?game_id=217389

Fonts: Orbitron Black, SaucerBB from https://www.1001fonts.com/science-fiction-fonts.html

Ratings

Overall 1944th 3.167⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1316th 3.271⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 2521th 2.083⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 2245th 2.979⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1469th 2.609⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

Kyle Bowman
21. Apr 2020 · 05:25 UTC
Really reminds me of the classic asteroid shooter. Pretty enjoyable. I like the energy mechanic, it prevents me from spamming randomly. Great job on your first jam!
LeReveur
21. Apr 2020 · 15:45 UTC
Nice for a first time! And don't worry about being kind, I'm doing this for more than 7 years, and I never saw any harsh comment on an entry, this community is one of the kindest of the web :wink: *(except on those who have obviously cheated the rate system, but never about the game itself)*
This was fun to play, and I was about to say that you may have just add a timer to bring a goal, until I discover, while I wanted to die and see a potential ending screen, that it is actually impossible to lose, because of the aliens giving enough power when they crash on the ship :laughing:
JoAMD
22. Apr 2020 · 18:06 UTC
Nice game, i agree with the end screen comment and also the energy mechanic.
Although I feel that maybe WASD according to the ships rotation may have been better
That is W cause the ship to move towards the mouse position. :thinking: Im not sure how it would play tho
But the mechanic is good
OrdiNeu
23. Apr 2020 · 16:15 UTC
Good entry! A bit too easy (it seems impossible to die if you just ram your ship into everything, since the enemies drop energy pretty often), but it was fun for a few minutes! Well done!
Super Hadoken
23. Apr 2020 · 16:48 UTC
I actually liked the WASD controls. The feel of the ship was nice and the game plays really well.
Like the others have said I found it really easy. If you don't shoot then you never really feel like you're in danger, you can just avoid most of the enemies.

Ways you can make it more exciting:
Have a type of enemy that will chase your ship.
Have the energy slowly deplete.
Have some enemies shoot back at you.

I wouldn't have enemies spawn in the middle of the field unless you give the player an indication that it will happen.

You've got the makings of a solid game here.
Yolziii
24. Apr 2020 · 06:10 UTC
I like your fluent gameplay. Nice job!
J-Star
26. Apr 2020 · 07:30 UTC
Good job on your first LD entry! It is impossible to die (except if you shoot all the time without hitting), so you might want to improve that, or add a timer so that it ends at some point.

Really liked the way the controls work, it feels great. I am sure that with the feedback from all these other amazing people you will be able to make an even better game next time! I'm really happy that you joined the community :)
Juhani Koskinen
26. Apr 2020 · 08:31 UTC
I really love to see simple games made with great polish, like this one! Also, I think I had an unfair advantage, since my mouse sometimes registers one click as two clicks :joy:
BandanaBanana
26. Apr 2020 · 11:27 UTC
it was a fun game but with the controlls I found it a bit too easy. The sound of the exploding enemies where a lot louder than the other audio for me.
gimblll
26. Apr 2020 · 11:39 UTC
Nothing wrong with a little asteroids style space shooter, great entry for a first time jam! :)
CaptCunnuk
26. Apr 2020 · 11:42 UTC
The game is good but i find that the audio for the explosions are too loud. Also I didn't see a health bar and running into the enemies causes them to die and for them to potentially drop more energy so I saw no poiont in shooting and started ramming everything
alexbljack
08. May 2020 · 18:34 UTC
It's very hard too loose ) Making damage 3-4 times higher could make game more challenging.
Really liked pilots mumbling - greatly creates atmosphere and moood.
Simple and clean - good work!
blaster391
09. May 2020 · 14:06 UTC
This was a neat bullet hell game - I found that since the energy lost from shooting wasn't that much less than being hit I just never bothered shooting.

I think the main problem was that enemies dropped health even when they ran into you, which meant that I could stand still and tank attacks and actually gain health! Maybe the enemies should only drop health if you shoot them? It would make the game much harder, but also give you a good reason to shoot sometimes.

This was a really good entry for a first time jammer, complete with audio and cool explosion effects :)
jaybaus
09. May 2020 · 14:29 UTC
I'm impressed that you did all of this yourself! The controls feel quite smooth and I like that you took a familiar style of game and added the twist of shooting depleting the player's energy meter. I think a small but significant improvement could be if the enemies didn't drop energy boosts when they crash into you, only if you shoot and kill them. This would improve the risk/reward of shooting and more of an incentive to avoid the enemies, as currently it's easy to stay at 100% energy if you don't move and let the enemies crash into you. Overall, a solid foundation though and it felt good to play :) Good job!
chaotikza
10. May 2020 · 09:43 UTC
Much better than my first LD attempt - heck probably thank my first three LD attempts! So great job!

Did find it a little bit too easy: once I stopped dodging and taking potshots to just spam shots at large clusters of enemies I could generally still easily find enough energy to keep myself comfortably alive. Also discovered that colliding with aliens often recharged energy as they still drop energy on death.

Something extra to shoot for like a number of kills or high score would've been nice to motivate players to keep going a bit longer.
sztrovacsek
10. May 2020 · 15:26 UTC
Good game for a first entry, keep it up! :slight_smile:
NurkkaCthulhu
11. May 2020 · 20:28 UTC
The controls felt amazing, the movement was so smooth! My other favourite thing was that the bullet did not disappear as it killed an enemy, it was enjoyable to try killing multiple enemies at once. The game was pretty easy so I had to purposely kill myself to end it, but other than that 5/5 game. Great job!