SAVE THE DINOS! by marcusnystrand
SAVE THE DINOS!
Fierce meteorites hail down on Dino Land and the Dinos need to repopulate quickly before they all go down in history.
PLAY IN YOUR BROWSER
https://marcusnystrand.itch.io/save-the-dinos
CONTROLS
Click meteorites to shoot them with your laser
Click Dinos to make them dash in their opposite direction
Spacebar = pause/play
Made by me in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 46.
Website: https://marcusnystrand.se/
Thanks to my friend Morgan who apparently is very good at making dinosaur sounds. Also thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the game!

CHANGELOG
1.2 Fixed bug where laser hits sometimes didn't register
1.1 Fixed bug where players can shoot meteors while game is paused
1.0 Ludum Dare edition
| Youtube | https://marcusnystrand.itch.io/save-the-dinos |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/save-the-dinos |
Ratings
| Overall | 735th | 3.694⭐ | 188🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 564th | 3.655⭐ | 189🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1185th | 3.305⭐ | 187🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 329th | 4.102⭐ | 188🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1145th | 3.688⭐ | 188🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 890th | 3.358⭐ | 185🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 688th | 3.323⭐ | 183🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1259th | 3.378⭐ | 183🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 410🗳️ | 313🗨️ |
I found that you can shoot lasers in the pause screen. I got a time of 1:32 without cheating!
I like the fact that it trains your mouse pointing skills haha
Great job !
It took me a while to realize I can click the dinosaurs to change their direction, which changed everything. I kept them all near the side of the screen, but eventually one single fast big asteroid wiped them all up.
The destruction of the comets felt a little unresponsive or off. I wasnt'r really sure where the hitbox was, so I always aimed a little down. Still, the feedback could be better and more satisfying. Maybe adding a slight camera shake, more sounds effects and better shooting graphics would help.
all in all, a nice little shooter.

Nice work!
But I did not encounter any bugs or strange behavior - the game is well-polished! So, good job!
Art looks great. You have added a nice touch with dinos reproducing.
Cheers!
Cute animations and sounds :muscle:
Good luck!
The pixel art was good, the dino really reminds me of the chrome "no internet" game dino but just more detailed and with colors. Really lion kingish color scheme, I dig it! The particle effects and sound were kinda bland though. It was nice that the asteroid click area was very generous. So many people do exact pixel perfect colliders and hit checks without understanding the fact that those make stuff seem unfair.
The bigger asteroids requiring multiple clicks was bit of a curveball. And because you didn't give any feedback about the clicks, it kinda felt like a bug. Maybe a better idea would be split the asteroid to two smaller ones on click and they could move diagonal. Another things that seem more like a bug instead of a feature was the trees blocking the asteroids. I think the trees should do some kind of a shake or something when they block an asteroid or something along those lines to make it more clear that it is a feature of the game.
The balancing between clicking asteroids and dinos seemed impossible. For my simple monkey brain at least it was just better to focus on either or. And at this point I of course remembered the space pause thing and went to try it out. Sadly it did not work at all on macOS Chrome at least. Ability to quickly pause and unpause with a press of a key would have most likely made it lot easier and more strategic to play. Albeit a lot less actiony. I'm playing on touchpad so especially would have helped here because quick and accurate movements aren't the best with it. The fullscreen was borked too. It kept the game size the same but just had it in a black void.
Anyways, good job! :thumbsup:
Gameplay was fun, but hard with my touchpad, haha
Really enjoyed the graphics and the sound fit really well with the gameplay. Thanks for the experience :D
I like the pixelated look of it and the audio works well. I had fun trying to keep them dinos alive!
Overall fun little game!
Get frantic fairly quickly.
I love the visual style. Great color pallet and texture.
And I really like the general idea in making the species alive by protecting at least one dino for each gender.
Congrats!
Here Is my Playthrough enjoy :)
I enjoyed playing it. It looks so cute - the background is amazing!
Also the sound fits on point - I like the retro style all over the game.
Damn! After about one minute it gets quite hard. Nice job!
Well done!
Wish the difficulty ramped a little slower, but I had fun with what I played ^.^
1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo:
Há um misto de sensações ao jogar; (especialmente na versão de navegador) há certa dificuldade em controlar o cursor do mouse (porque ele tem potencial para sair da tela de jogo). Talvez seja uma boa pausar o jogo quando isso acontece, não sei qual seria a melhor forma de resolver isso. Hahahah.
O jogo é simples, mantenha os dinossauros vivos (eles vão reproduzindo enquanto isso). Destrua os meteoritos (etc) enquanto suporta a passagem do tempo.
Há um detalhe, como os dinossauros podem ser fêmeas ou machos, então há momentos em que é preciso tomar rápidas decisões em "qual deixar morrer". Mas o passo do jogo é muito rápido, fica bem difícil tomar essa decisão importante tão rápido.
Acho que seria bom diminuir a frequência dos meteoritos no começo e nos primeiros minutos, para que o jogador possa se acostumar (mesmo que isso implique em demorar mais para os dinossauros reproduzirem). Quem sabe eles possam botar ovo (o que daria uma variação a mais em termos de "proteger algo parado").
Aprender a jogar foi fácil e intuitivo. Tornar-me bom no jogo é outra coisa.
O fluxo de jogo escala muito rápido e com o descontrole do cursor (deve ser culpa do meu mouse e de jogar no navegador), acaba gerando certa ansiedade.
Ser possível pausar o jogo é algo interessante para pensar (não sei se foi o objetivo da equipe).
2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa:
Os gráficos ficaram muito agradáveis, parabéns.
A música também ficou numa batida interessante.
A narrativa é simples e direta: mantenha os dinossauros vivos, ajude destruindo meteoritos.
3 - Cultura:
O jogo tem muito sobre "dinossauros", "extinção", "proteção", "reprodução", "arcade", "clicks".
O jogo mistura esses estilos, podendo ser polido para alcançar melhor esse cruzamento de temáticas.
4 - Monetização:
Creio que seja um jogo arcade, poderia vender com propagandas para smartphones.
Ou poderia ser vendido a alguma ferramenta online, que pode embutir no download do aplicativo para os usuários jogarem se a Internet falhar (hahahahah, referências).
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
There are mixed feelings when playing; (especially in the browser version) there is some difficulty in controlling the mouse cursor (because it has the potential to exit the game screen). It might be a good idea to pause the game when that happens, I don't know what the best way to solve this would be. Hahahah.
The game is simple, keep the dinosaurs alive (they will reproduce in the meantime). Destroy meteorites (etc.) while supporting the passage of time.
There is a detail, how dinosaurs can be female or male, so there are times when you have to make quick decisions about "which to let die". But the pace of the game is very fast, it is very difficult to make this important decision so quickly.
I think it would be good to decrease the frequency of meteorites at the beginning and in the first few minutes, so that the player can get used to it (even if it means taking longer for the dinosaurs to reproduce). Who knows, they may lay eggs (which would give an extra variation in terms of "protecting something stopped").
Learning to play was easy and intuitive. Becoming good at the game is another thing.
The game flow scales very fast and with the uncontrolled cursor (it must be the fault of my mouse and playing in the browser), it ends up generating some anxiety.
Being able to pause the game is something interesting to think about (I don't know if it was the team's goal).
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative:
The graphics were very nice, congratulations.
The song was also an interesting beat.
The narrative is simple and straightforward: keep the dinosaurs alive, help by destroying meteorites.
3 - Culture:
The game has a lot about "dinosaurs", "extinction", "protection", "reproduction", "arcade", "clicks".
The game mixes these styles and can be polished to better achieve this crossing of themes.
4 - Monetization:
I believe it is an arcade game, it could sell with advertisements for smartphones.
Or it could be sold to some online tool, which can be embedded in the application download for users to play if the Internet fails (hahahahah, references).
I think if you expand this game in the future, you could maybe design it so that the dinosaurs give you a certain currency, and the more dinosaurs you have the more of that currency you have, and that currency can help you buy upgrades or equipment, and that equipment can help you defend against the meteors more, or something like that.
Overall it’s a fun mini game, and I liked it :D also the fact that you can pause is a nice feature as well, so many games don’t have it [including mine :p], so I like that you added it!
The music similarly keeps the pace, getting more frantic over time. You also made me realize I should start including mute buttons in my games.
Despite its simple architecture and straightforward gameplay, the game is greater than the sum of its parts. The mating system adds complexity and gives use to a mechanic which might seem useless at first: pushing the dinosaurs. How to strike a balance between too many and too few isn't immediate apparent. The player is now micro-managing two separate systems, which elevates the game from a slog to a challenge which requires attention. The environment props give the player relief while breaking up the monotony. Each thoughtful detail adds up to a comprehensive arcade experience which could have been a hit a few decades ago.
How to improve? I think a destructible environment would have been cool. Maybe the trees heal over time, but a continued barrage destroys them. A point system would help the player feel a greater sense of achievement than a simple number would. Adding/subtracting for dinosaur death/births, meteors destroyed/missed, etc. And just to increase variety with little effort, perhaps a simple powerup/item system where the player can do things like momentarily freeze time, add more environment props, extra points, etc
Overall, great game with a lot of polish. I enjoyed it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhXLQHA-5Z4
Started at timecode:
3:21:15