Tank Planet by MrNyarlathotep

[raw]
made by MrNyarlathotep for LD34 (COMPO)
A mouse only (2 buttons!) controlled wave based shoot 'em up, that is set on a tiny planet because I had no time to implement the growing part (lucky only one theme is compulsory!)

All assets made by me, I'll throw them up on OpenGameArt in a few days if anyone wants them.

My first actually game complete compo entry!

Tools used:
Game Engine: Unity (http://unity3d.com/get-unity)
2D stuffs - Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 (http://www.adobe.com/)
3D stuffs - Blender (https://www.blender.org/)
Sound Effects - BFXR (http://www.bfxr.net/)
Music - LMMS (https://lmms.io/)
Fonts Used: Grammatika-Regular and Ricasso-Regular under the Open Font Licence (https://fontlibrary.org/en)
Skybox made with Spacescape (http://alexcpeterson.com/spacescape/)

***PLEASE NOTE***
Game is best played in Firefox or Chrome, as you really need to see your crosshair, and it doesn't appear in Edge

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 2.89 767
Audio 2.71 440
Fun 2.64 795
Graphics 3.44 304
Humor 2.25 539
Innovation 2.40 852
Mood 2.72 658
Theme 2.97 877

Feedback

Aerohand
14. Dec 2015 · 18:30 UTC
Well I think for two button control, moving the mouse to aim is kind of cheating. I like the graphics and audio, but there's almost no innovation in this game.
Tasteslikefuture
14. Dec 2015 · 20:05 UTC
Very unique game, definitely liked the style you were going for. Was a bit hard to see enemies coming up from behind you. Controls were a bit wuzzy at first, but once you get the hang of them its pretty easy to move and shoot. Good job!
zguerrero
14. Dec 2015 · 20:13 UTC
Great game! but a bit hard for me. the turret is not very responsive, and the projectils could be faster. but graphics and sounds are great!
Cake_Catastrophe
14. Dec 2015 · 20:26 UTC
Liked the models - they've got a sorta Halo vibe to them. I found that the aiming could be a little temperamental - shots didn't always go in the direction I expected. Also when the fast enemies show up and you can't outrun the off screen ones by moving, not sure how to deal with that. Got a score of 198.
limered
15. Dec 2015 · 12:44 UTC
Oh man, the soundtrack gets on your nerves ;) Graphics are awesome even specular reflection and shit! Shots should curve around planet.
Concept is a solid shooter. If you get into the controls, it's even fun. Except for the enemies, that come from behind XD
SadSmile
15. Dec 2015 · 13:59 UTC
Mouse is cheating xD
justinooncx
15. Dec 2015 · 14:11 UTC
Controls really well, but it's rather difficult. Good job, either way!
MisterAddy
15. Dec 2015 · 14:22 UTC
Really amazing graphics. Would prefer it if the lasers curved across the surface rather than going off into the air. Also perhaps move the camera further back so you can see enemies coming at you from behind.
Firellon
15. Dec 2015 · 14:54 UTC
Nice style, controls are hurting your game pretty badly, and there are more than 2 controls, as Aeroband said. Actually I liked the concept, but it need some polish. It would be better if you could control tank and tower separately, and if your enemies could not sneak you from behind (I mean there's no way for me to see what's going on at my back, so I have to shoot blindly).
pjimmy
15. Dec 2015 · 16:44 UTC
nice visuals. It's very challenging, sometimes I find it hard to dodge the enemies, especially when they sneak up from behind. well done
tanjent
15. Dec 2015 · 19:30 UTC
Argh, my Mouse Gesture Extension in firefox did a lot of bad things to my browser when holding down the right button and dragging around :) I think this needs a little in game radar so you are not surprised by the enemies coming in from behind.
jerry111zhang
15. Dec 2015 · 19:56 UTC
Great idea and graphics! Aiming with mouse sometimes not so accurate
tayl1r
15. Dec 2015 · 22:06 UTC
Those are some nice models! I only got 300 points, which I imagine is not very good.
SSJMetroid
16. Dec 2015 · 03:09 UTC
Yeah mouse movement is cheating dude sorry lol.. It was a little too hard too.
qwetro
16. Dec 2015 · 03:18 UTC
Oh, man, I really need a gun point backward, this alien is kicking my ass!!
Fun!
aplomb
16. Dec 2015 · 03:20 UTC
Very cool. Love the graphics, explosion effects, sound. The gameplay can be pretty frustrating. The tank often seems to fire in a direction very far from the crosshair. And some indicator of someone coming up behind you would be helpful.
🎤 MrNyarlathotep
16. Dec 2015 · 14:22 UTC
Hey, I dunno if any of you ever go back to a gamepage after commenting to see if your feedback is addressed (I do!), but....

First off, thank you to everyone who commented instead of just submitting a rating :)

re: mouseaim being cheating... well, I obviously didn't think so, and its not really actually mouse aim, but its been mentioned enough that in retrospect I probably should have just had firing be automatic (as there's really not a lot of point NOT just holding down LMB)

re: controls; bad design on my part, as they're fairly elaborate 'on the back end', but the fancy stuff is invisible to a player.
The turret only rotates left and right, and fires directly forward (although the crosshair implies differently) and theres a bug I left unfixed where it only rotates if the mouse os over the planet model.

For the tank itself, I created a virtual analogue stick, so there's a dead zone in the centre of the screen where you move directly forward to stop turning being too twitchy, and the further from centre the mouse i, the sharper your turning circle; at the very edge of the screen you can almost turn on the spot.
Like I say, this is probably poor design (or at least poorly explained in the instructions) because the code for this is quite fancy, but I get the feeling people just assume its just using mouselook steering.

re: difficulty - yeah, balance tweaking is definitely not something I found time for.
The purple guys spawn in waves, and all move slower than the player, but after 30 seconds they 'enrage' to red guys that move faster than the player, so optimal strategy is to hunt down enemies rather than wait for them to come to you. Better signposting of 'enrage' states would be helpful here - maybe lerping them over time from purple to red so you can see which enemies you should take out first before they enrage would have helped.

re: annoying music... compo entry, and my lack of musical skills is the fault XD

Again, many thanks to all of you that commented!