Below the belt by kill0u

[raw]
made by kill0u for LD34 (COMPO)
Theme: "Two button controls"

The enemy's EMP has messed up your systems pretty bad. You managed to put your ships on autopilot, and the only thing you can still do by yourself is dive in the asteroid belt or go back to the battlefield.

Controls:
Hold X to dive with your pink ship, and C for your green ship.

While hiding in the asteroid belt, the enemy cannot hurt you. However, the dirt is damaging your engines, so you can't stay there too long or your engines would explode.


Special shot:
Your ships can fire a special shot (the skull-shaped bullet) instead of basic bullets, under certain circumstances:
- They have to be really close to each other
- Both ships have to be in the battlefield
- They must be going forward


---
Sorry about the lack of sound, I know it would have been a lot better with some. I actually managed to get some time to do the sounds during the compo, but sunvox wouldn't recognise my sound card so I gave up after a few minutes.

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 3.44 320
Fun 3.33 344
Graphics 3.62 225
Humor 2.36 480
Innovation 3.69 177
Mood 2.85 565
Theme 4.05 204

Feedback

fluidvolt
14. Dec 2015 · 23:12 UTC
This is a really neat idea. I love how it looks. Diving your ships beneath the asteroids is neat, and that combo-skull attack is awesome! I have no idea how to reproduce it though, it just happens sometimes. Add some sounds and music and this would be a pretty sweet little game. Good job.
esayitch
15. Dec 2015 · 15:42 UTC
This could really use some music and at least some sound effects. Also, the game felt a bit like a 1 button game for two players :P

Aside from those two points, the entry is very solid, cool concept and well-executed. I liked the art and the game was pretty fun.

Good luck in the compo!
Drauthius
15. Dec 2015 · 20:37 UTC
I like the idea, i really had hard controlling both ships so i usually just dove with both at the same time.
But it could really use some music and sounds.
TomenLuca
15. Dec 2015 · 22:10 UTC
First two button game I liked. Nice use of the theme in the mechanics. Cool bosses, well done!
Gamepopper
16. Dec 2015 · 13:27 UTC
Like the idea of multi-tasking between two ships, although it would've been nice if you had a bit more control.
justinooncx
16. Dec 2015 · 14:01 UTC
Pretty cool game, although there wasn't a lot of control... And it got really difficult near the end.
pokipsy
16. Dec 2015 · 19:22 UTC
Very nice entry, you managed to make an innovative shmup which not so easy. I'm not a huge fan of shmups usually but I enjoyed playing this one !
tribrain
16. Dec 2015 · 22:14 UTC
sometimes less is more and this is one of that case, love the game really fun, love the SKULL!
LeReveur
16. Dec 2015 · 23:53 UTC
Clever idea, and good use of the theme ! Well done. :)
blackmagic
17. Dec 2015 · 10:30 UTC
Really nice, good mechanic, gc stalls around 8k and sound would just make it awesome :). Very cool entry !
Efuvex
17. Dec 2015 · 10:34 UTC
Neat graphics. Also really cool concept both mechanics wise and backstory ahaha :)
🎤 kill0u
17. Dec 2015 · 10:37 UTC
Thanks! :)
What do you mean, "gc stalls around 8k"? There's a (kinda messed up :P) slow-mo effect on power-ups, but the game runs smoothly on my laptop at least 'till 1M points (yeah, dev cheat codes :D)
PaulJs
17. Dec 2015 · 14:35 UTC
Nice idea !
francoisvn
17. Dec 2015 · 20:07 UTC
Cool idea. Seems like you forgot to include the source code (a compo requirement) :)
RevelBase
17. Dec 2015 · 21:48 UTC
Really nice art and concept :)
Galan
18. Dec 2015 · 13:03 UTC
Really cool idea. It would have been nice if there'd been time to build some challenges geared toward the control scheme. As it is everything feels random.
Husky
18. Dec 2015 · 13:05 UTC
This is really good! I like this idea, it's very solid and challenging, and it feels so smooth.
Well done!
kmakai
18. Dec 2015 · 13:06 UTC
Really like this one. My score was 33.007, I had a lot of fun playing it! The art for the ships is perfect, and I really appreciated all of the variety in the ship/shot patterns! Great job.
Gipzo
19. Dec 2015 · 10:22 UTC
Great idea, nice implementation :)
crucknuk
20. Dec 2015 · 20:54 UTC
Nice entry! Despite the lack of sound, it is really polished and funny to play! Good work ;)
Hot Box Games
20. Dec 2015 · 21:00 UTC
Really great concept. Personally, I would have preferred one ship with maybe a duck and shoot button, as I found it hard to control two ships at the same time - nevertheless this was an impressive little entry that I had to keep playing for 10-15 minutes! :D Great work
XenosNS
22. Dec 2015 · 19:54 UTC
Great mechanic, liked how you used two ships. Sometimes felt like you didn't need to bother dodging for long periods of time.
markusfisch
23. Dec 2015 · 21:35 UTC
Nice concept! I like that you can play it alone or with a friend. That's a very rare quality.
freaknarf
02. Jan 2016 · 19:01 UTC
Nice game !
Good job with the original gameplay, the special shot introduces a cool but hard mechanic. The game becomes so hard at some point that sometimes it feels like diving is as punishing as being shooted :)
Neat pixel art, and great enemies design !
Good job ! Cheers !