Gunstable Tanks by Gus the Shark

You are on a mission to destroy the enemy Master Tank. Come aboard your Gunstable Tank but beware, your guns can break!
This was created in about 12 hours (because I have to be a father too!).
Thanks for playing! Music is Ride of The Valkyries by Richard Wagner (public domain)
| Link | https://github.com/silverlq/Gunstable-Tanks |
| Link | https://gamejolt.com/games/Gunstable_Tanks/652423 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/gunstable-tanks |
Ratings
| Overall | 342th | 3.321⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 197th | 3.571⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 419th | 2.944⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 430th | 3.018⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 369th | 3.204⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 188th | 3⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 228th | 3.333⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 34🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
The graphics are clear and easy to understand and the controls are simple and responsive.
The dash mechanic is a neat way to make it possible to dodge enemy attacks without making the game feel too fast-paced, but when playing the game I mostly used it to dash towards the goal line as quickly as possible. I did have trouble activating the dash sometimes, but I suspect I just wasn't performing the input correctly.
The idea of the breaking gun is neat, but in practice it feels no different to an ammunition gauge with a special animation and model when you run out of ammo. I realize that being hit by enemies will also damage the gun, but since the player is generally trying to avoid being hit anyway, it ultimately felt like it didn't have much impact on how I played the game.
Applying the system to enemies as well as the player did sometimes encourage me to target enemies quickly before they use up their guns, but just as often it led to me ignoring an enemy, knowing that he would soon run out of ammo and become harmless.
One place the system did come into play nicely was with the boss, and how it followed the classic shmup boss trope of how you destroy all of its weapons. It was immediately clear how to approach the boss, even without prior knowledge of this kind of boss design.
It's a shame you can't ram other tanks when you run out of cannon, that would be a great addition to the gameplay