Heavy Machinery by LDJam user 375087

[raw]
made by LDJam user 375087 for Ludum Dare 54 (COMPO)

This game fits with the theme of Limited Space by being set in space and being limited by the amount of weight that your spaceship can pull. The more weapons you load on, the harder it is to control.

You can drag weapons onto your ship in the ship editing menu with the mouse. When you unlock an upgrade, a new part will appear in the yellow box that you can attach to any side of the ship.

WASD to move.

Updated 2/10/23 to fix getting randomly stuck on edge of screen ld_screenshot3.png

Ratings

Given 0🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 377116
02. Oct 2023 · 01:45 UTC
I always liked ship building games like captain forever, however most of them get clunky really quickly. The moment i need to think more than a minute on how to construct my ship it kills the joy and i need a break.
I want to congratulate you on finding a simple concept that makes it very fun and arcady to construct your ship! The pacing is awesome. Thank you very much i think this is the most fun i had so far! Well done!

And triple shotgun was insane

![02-10-2023_03-42-24.png](///raw/c11/c5/z/5cfc2.png)
LDJam user 336676
02. Oct 2023 · 04:19 UTC
fantastic game, though I did get sucked in and stuck against the top of the screen after a bit lol
bmacintosh
02. Oct 2023 · 06:29 UTC
I scored 14435. The game has a nice sense of progression from early on when you have to carefully aim to later when aiming is irrelevant and dodging is all-important. I also ended up with the left input "stuck down" at a couple of points.
Ackbad
02. Oct 2023 · 10:31 UTC
Very cool game with a lot of room to expand as well. I quite enjoy assembling a custom ship even with the limited options available, if the game were expanded I could see my self spending a lot of time playing it. It was kind of easy to get stuck in the walls though. The right wall was the easiest but it happened with the top wall as well.
Rezistor
02. Oct 2023 · 10:46 UTC
Fun idea =D I like that ship became heavier to handle during acquiring weapons
hotaloca
02. Oct 2023 · 11:23 UTC
I think this is a really sweet idea. Controlling the ship felt really cool it's super fast. And I loved that you can get different kind of weapons it really felt I'm the boss of spaceships. I also liked the balance - more guns, slower ship. The game has one bug which might worth correction - if the spaceship goes to the edge of screen it gets stuck. Also in the begining it was not clear to me why you cannot turn the gun? I was looking for options when I realized it's fixed. If the gun is fixed, I would have imagined to be facing the ship's direction. But I assume this would have made it too easy to win... But maybe in this case you can turn gun, and if you have more guns, you slow down how fast the guns can turn? Anyhow nice game, great job!
🎤 LDJam user 375087
02. Oct 2023 · 11:58 UTC
@ackbad @bmacintosh @rezistor @hotaloca @soloadventurergames @2thegamechanger Thanks for all of the positive feedback!
🎤 LDJam user 375087
02. Oct 2023 · 11:59 UTC
@ackbad @bmacintosh @hotaloca @soloadventurergames Sorry about the bug with getting stuck, it should be patched now!
zundou
02. Oct 2023 · 13:45 UTC
I love the exhilarating feeling as the attacks become more and more spectacular!
With multiple ways the parts can attack and the freedom to arrange them as I please, the customizability really tickles my fancy and adds to the fun. :)
greenphox
02. Oct 2023 · 13:48 UTC
really nice bullet hell, very satisfying!
1) Adding particle effects would make it a LOT better, imagine all this bullets having a trail!
2) I didn't even understand the speed change when equipping weapons, I am not sure if it was necessary.
Well done!
Sentmoraap
02. Oct 2023 · 14:05 UTC
I kept replaying a lot of time to try getting a higher score so it must be fun. Nice power-up system, I like that at the end you have to balance firepower and move speed.

I don’t like inertia in shmups expect for Asteroid/Gravitar-likes. The slowdown mechanic could have worked without inertia.

I had to switch to QWERTY to have correct WASD controls but I don’t know if HTML5 games can have scancode-based inputs.

PB: 32920.
LDJam user 372425
02. Oct 2023 · 14:35 UTC
I like the balancing. At first, the slowdown from the parts was actually good for me, the ship with only a single weapon felt too fast so I kept running into enemies. Then there was a sweet spot where I could maneuver well and firepower was good. I decided to just keep adding as much as I could. At that point the non-shooty ships couldn't get close enough to damage me, but the shooty ships got me because I couldn't dodge the projectiles anymore. I had a lot of fun with this one!
LittleBear
02. Oct 2023 · 15:10 UTC
This was a fun and cool idea, the main problem for me was not the space but the speed if there are to many weapons on the ship. The background soundtrack does become a little repetitive but you are so focused on staying alive that it does melt into the background. Thanks for making it, it was fun to play.
LDJam user 3808
02. Oct 2023 · 17:06 UTC
HS: ~20k

First I thought that the ship was too fast but after few upgrades it felt just right. Around 10k sounds started to blur together and I had to lower the volume quite a bit. But same time ship full of weapons was quite fun to fly around.

Some improvements:
- Add feedback showing the hits. When you have some many weapons you wish to see the impact
- Little slower ship at the start so you do not just horde all the weapons. Limited space would effect more dramatically

Thanks for the game!
LDJam user 377116
02. Oct 2023 · 17:07 UTC
IMMA FIRIN MAH' LAZAAAAAAA!

![02-10-2023_19-05-36.png](///raw/c11/c5/z/5d600.png)
LDJam user 352490
03. Oct 2023 · 01:35 UTC
A lot of fun strategizing for a game with only 12 slots and 3 weapons! High score of 17622 after two attempts.
LelulaGames
05. Oct 2023 · 01:13 UTC
That was a unique take on smups, I adore it. Loved the graphics. The only thing I would suggest is maybe slowing the movement on the ship down a little so it's easier to control. But the chaos of random weapons was awesome!
snesgaard
06. Oct 2023 · 16:53 UTC
Very good smup! Really loved the weapon customization and trade-off between installs and speed. Would love to see this expanded with more weapons, shields etc.
Harmadillo
08. Oct 2023 · 16:27 UTC
Fun game. Nice variety on the weapons and enemies.
quasilyte
10. Oct 2023 · 17:23 UTC
I noticed that the game title is different. :D
Heavy Weaponary vs Heavy Machinery.

I think the lasers turned out to be my favorite weapon.
I wish there was a bit more customization involved, but it was a good little experience for a compo game.

The controls feel so jarring in the beginning.
I got used to them after a couple of runs, but I still find them weird.
It's neither a free-control where you could turn freely and it's not a 4-directional movement either: it's a mix of those two. If you want to keep this movement system, some polish may be required to make it feel less janky.

I have a feeling that I had a higher high score after the 3rd run, but I don't remember it because the game just quits to the main menu. Does the highscore in the main menu properly update if you managed to beat your previous score?

![hiscore.png](///raw/53b/b5/z/6020b.png)
LDJam user 372085
12. Oct 2023 · 00:31 UTC
solid little arcade game. i like the music!