Yet Another Shmup by AssertFailure

[raw]
made by AssertFailure for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

Classic shoot 'em up made from scratch in about 20 hours for the 48th Ludum Dare Compo. My first LD ever! Use weapon and shield powerups to infiltrate deep into enemy lines with your mighty spacecraft.

Fixes

  • 2021-04-29: I quickly ported the game to WebAssembly, so if you don't like downloading random binaries you can now play directly from your browser! The code was completely cross-platform anyway, so porting required literally only couple edited lines. All features are the same.
  • 2021-04-29: Lowered the fire rate of enemies. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

shmup1.png

Ratings

Overall 512th 3.375⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 424th 3.359⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 867th 2.203⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 769th 2.922⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 485th 3.391⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 389th 3.25⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 50🗨️

Feedback

Justin_C
26. Apr 2021 · 11:47 UTC
I really enjoyed this game for the few runs I put into it.

I'd say the difficulty is a bit too high early on. The enemies move and shoot too fast when you are starting out, so it is really difficult to take them out with the staring weapon without taking damage yourself. I'd say slow them down a bit, and make them shoot less frequently.
Vederant
26. Apr 2021 · 14:22 UTC
The game is quite enjoyable. A solid base for a shmup. One thing though, there is a punishment for using your gun too much, but not for avoiding enemies really. And especially the first ones leave almost no room to shoot them, which turns it from a shmup into avoid-em-up ;)
phealsout
26. Apr 2021 · 21:33 UTC
I suck at these games but it is nicely made
phealsout
26. Apr 2021 · 21:33 UTC
Also I like how fast it boots, like bam ur in there and playing
Vasco Freitas
27. Apr 2021 · 00:52 UTC
It's kind of hard to hit some enemies without taking damage since they have such a high rate of fire. I would suggest having them shoot much less frequently and increasing the difficulty by other means, such as increasing the number of enemies or making bullets take away more health.

Other than that it's a good basis for a shmup, I like how you limit how long you can shoot to give more meaning to the shoot button, and the ship designs and particles effects are great.
thebmxeur
27. Apr 2021 · 19:12 UTC
When you get some weapons it gets interesting. I wish the movement were faster following the mouse. And a different color for enemies bullets as it's sometimes hard to see them with upgraded weapons.
cppchriscpp
28. Apr 2021 · 03:01 UTC
I really liked the graphics on your entry, and the method of controlling the ship was really welcome. I do have to echo the feedback of some of the other players around the early area being tough, but I managed to at least get to the second set of ships. I also got to massively upgrade my weapons early on due to some good luck, so that was pretty fun.

This is a really impressive base, especially for 20 hours. Nicely done!
Fatebreak
28. Apr 2021 · 13:08 UTC
Nice little game. I've never been much a fan of move mouse to move but it worked ok here. Also the enemies at the beginning have a too high rate of fire. It's almost impossible to beat them without taking damage yourself. Art and effects look really nice! Well done!
nicholassoen
29. Apr 2021 · 09:42 UTC
Great audio & visuals + addictive gameplay loop.
michaelyount
29. Apr 2021 · 12:52 UTC
I am a fan of these kind of games and you did it well, thanks.
Vimlark
29. Apr 2021 · 22:23 UTC
Great work! Game my little bit of feedback on stream.
Numex
29. Apr 2021 · 22:24 UTC
Pretty nice game, I like it. You got this in just 20 hours? Nice :thumbsup:
James Tugman
29. Apr 2021 · 22:29 UTC
I really liked this. Super simple, sharp scope that is easy to pick up and play. Thanks for making it!
Brad Make Games
29. Apr 2021 · 22:33 UTC
I want to start by saying that the art for this game is really good! I think adding music would have helped the game out a lot in the long run. Although, the sound effects all worked well. The gameplay was fun, but I think the movement was a bit awkward and not satisfying to use. The way it slowed down as it got close to the mouse made it hard to get the ship to do any kind of precise movements, and anything near the edge of the screen was very difficult. Overall this was a solid entry and a great game.
oc1d
01. May 2021 · 08:05 UTC
Nice! I like classic style shmups! This is the first one where I had to manage shooting energy as a resource... :D Liked that. Made it like 2675km into the level. Was missing some (S) Powerups later on. Is it pure random or do you control how many/when (S) and (W) Powerups are spawning? S for Ship? Quite nice little entry, liked that you put sound in and That you can play completely with the mouse. The ghost ship/preview is really nice!!
oc1d
01. May 2021 · 08:09 UTC
![yas.JPG](///raw/e3a/b3/z/41e2b.jpg)
🎤 AssertFailure
01. May 2021 · 15:00 UTC
I want to thank everyone so far for playing and for giving valuable feedback, it's really appreciated! :)

@oc1d To answer your questions: Powerups are basically random every time you destroy an enemy ship. Red enemy ships have higher probability to drop a weapon powerup than other ships. If you want you can check Game.cpp row 615 from the sources to see how throwing a powerup is determined when an enemy is destroyed. (S) was for shields and (W) was for weapon, but "ship" works as well :) Also, you basically made it into the end game as The Core is the last stage and it only gets harder but never ends. I think 3400 km or something is the best I've seen.
tanis
01. May 2021 · 16:30 UTC
Simple but addictive. Good old gameplay is always working ;)
It would benefit from some more different powerups. Sometimes it feels like the random number generator is really playing against you when it comes to shield recharge :)
Fonics
01. May 2021 · 16:48 UTC
Fun and simple, the controls are pretty good but I feel like the ship could be just a bit faster, other than that the graphics are nice and clean, audio is good and the game feels good to play. I will say I feel like a post-jam addition could be some repercussions for letting ships pass, as right now you can just dodge bullets and not kill a single enemy and just keep going. Overall though good entry!
Ryan Dotsikas
01. May 2021 · 16:49 UTC
Great job with this game! It's simple but it's a great submission for such little time. I really liked the graphics and that the mouse cursor was an outline of the ship, very cool! With the enemies constantly shooting at a high rate it felt like you always had to hit them with just glancing shots which wasnt as satisfying, but still it made for a challenge!
Nurav
01. May 2021 · 17:00 UTC
Great job! I would make the enemies shoot slower, make you move faster, and maybe a minimap to help reinforce the concept that you are going deeper into space. Otherwise I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere.
ping78
02. May 2021 · 02:55 UTC
Congrats on your first entry. I enjoyed it.
Thijs Tak
02. May 2021 · 14:45 UTC
I love a good shmup. One thing you could add is giving the enemies some small attack patterns that leaves openings for the player to exploit.

Currently with them all shooting downward at a rather high rate of fire means that you can only safely take them out by either hitting them at the edge of their hitbox or shooting ahead of their movement direction.

Very good entry non the less.
Nikolaj
04. May 2021 · 15:48 UTC
simple, not innovative, but well executed. nice!
cavedens
04. May 2021 · 15:48 UTC
Well made game. I'd much rather have wasd controls then moving the mouse as sometimes its a bit unresponsive but overall good job
R2D48
06. May 2021 · 21:08 UTC
2362km I entered the core. I had fun collecting bonus. A background music will be appreciated in next version. I was a little confuse by the inertia of the ship, you can't avoid all bullets, but it's compensated by the shield you find on your way.
m-trigo
09. May 2021 · 01:38 UTC
Hey, great job!

I'm very curious to know how did you make it portable to WebAssembly!
Is that a SDL feature?
🎤 AssertFailure
10. May 2021 · 22:14 UTC
@m-trigo Thanks! You can port SDL2 C++ apps to WebAssembly using Emscripten. If you make your program cross-platform to begin with, it requires very minimal changes to the code. I highly recommend it :)
automatonvx
11. May 2021 · 23:45 UTC
Feels pretty polished, the art is solid and SFX, BGM,particle effects etc. were appreciated to give it a nice feel. Not a fan of mouse to move over traditional WASD I have to say. With the firing patterns of the enemies it seems the best strategy is just to avoid them completely otherwise there would be no way to avoid taking a bit of damage most of the time. The recharging lazer was a nice touch that added a bit of novelty for classic shmup formula. Trying to beat my high score kept me coming back for a little while. Also bonus credit for going the SDL C++ route intead of using a full engine and still bothering to get a web version made. Solid entry.