Signal Blast by smilewood

[raw]
made by smilewood for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

Dropped on a planet with a barely functioning remote-controlled "mech", charge up signal towers to improve your battle capabilities and unlock permanent upgrades.

splash.PNG

Instructions:

WASD to move. Left click to fire charged blaster at mouse.

Primary Weapon: Charged blaster. Blaster builds up charges while not firing to unleash a burst when needed.

Arrows around the player point to beacons. Stay in the beacon area to charge them. Charging blue beacons will offer a choice of passive weapons or upgrades. Each is paired with an enemy type, either introducing a new type or increasing the frequency of an already active one when chosen as the increased control signal draws them in. Charging yellow beacons will award additional Signal Points to use for upgrades.

Passive Weapons:

Nano Swarm: Damage Aura, low but consistent damage to everything in a close area. Very strong against swarming enemies.

Auto-Turret: Fires automatically in several directions. Does high damage per shot but hard to aim.

No promises about any aspect ratios other than 16:9, All these years and I still don't have the hang on Unitiy's UI system.

Made following the compo rules but in the 72-hour time frame for the jam (I like sleeping).

Tools used: Just Unity. I gave up on doing art this time, and I think the game itself is better for it.

Ratings

Overall 800th 2.762⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 612th 3.071⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 852th 1.714⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 829th 2.125⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 668th 1.575⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 833th 2.167⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

SHU WEN
Apr 21st · 03:47 UTC
so where is singal? just a typical game
Isaac Hisey
Apr 21st · 03:57 UTC
I do like me some vampire survivor / bullet heaven games. Good start to one!
🎤 smilewood
Apr 21st · 04:08 UTC
@shu-wen Sometimes the real signal is the friends we made along the way. I am not an artist and I decided to spend the most of a day I would have taken to make art making the game work better. The thought for the theme (as explained in the description) is that the remote-control character needs to assemble/charge signal booster towers to improve the available options. The theme was an inspiration for the game, rather than being the core mechanic. Sorry if that disappoints you.

@isaac-hisey Thanks! I spent a bunch of time doing core system setup, it was very satisfying seeing it come together into the game I envisioned by the end. A little more UI and I think it would stand up to any (72 hour) game in the genre ;)
Theogen
Apr 21st · 05:31 UTC
This sucked me in for a good hour! What this game lacks in visuals, it more than makes up for with gameplay. I like the idea that every upgrade comes with a new enemy or increases the occurrence of existing ones - I haven't seen that in any survivor-like games before. Beacons as permanent upgrade paths are an interesting idea too. Great job making such a complete survivor-like in only 72 hours!
bearcage
Apr 21st · 07:27 UTC
Solid entry — roguelite upgrade system + a working survivors-like with a few upgrade paths, and some baddie behavior variety, nice work! I def got myself in trouble with speed stars before I had the speed to outrun 'em myself, but other than that little difficulty bump I felt like I stayed right at the sweet spot all the time I spent with the game.

I sorta wished there were a few impact effects (a tiny knockback on hit, shake/wiggle on death, cam-shake on your own death) to give the presentation a little bit more oomph — I liked the simple shapes and thought they read clearly, but I think it'd help to make the damage boost etc upgrades read a little more if they tied in to something like that.

I already sunk a bit of time in and I'm looking forward to another run to flesh out my upgrades!
gryxitl
Apr 23rd · 02:11 UTC
I just played this game for way too long. Great job haha!
woopwoopwoop
Apr 23rd · 02:30 UTC
Fun concept! I had a lot of trouble getting the runs started but I loved it when I could amass a bunch of circle enemies and then clear them all out
MaggardJosh
Apr 23rd · 04:04 UTC
Ah I'm a sucker for vampire survivor-likes definitely played this one for a bit :smile: very fun. I think the upgrade system including new enemy types is a cool idea. Great entry!
hammerfrenzy
Apr 24th · 04:00 UTC
I like the idea of your upgrade choice affects how the difficulty increases. Would have liked to see how charged your blaster is, especially since it seems to be the primary weapon.
shadow64
Apr 27th · 12:05 UTC
741 enemies killed. 11 signal points. Really nice job! Surprising you got so much of the gameplay of a survivor-like in the three days! It really felt solid. Thanks again for playing and reviewing Please Press Button.
Alexanrd
Apr 29th · 16:42 UTC
The roguelike mechanics are cool, and as for the visuals, I think you understand everything yourself
Itero Proto
Apr 29th · 17:02 UTC
There is almost nothing 😢
LDJam user 430734
May 08th · 02:42 UTC
reminds me a lot of glock penguin!