Area 17 by SpringCabal

[raw]
made by SpringCabal for LD33 (JAM)
We've released a post-jam version which includes an FPS fix among other things. Check it out if you have FPS lag with the original.
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Oh noes! Your spaceship has gotten stranded on a planet with the FILTHY humans! Unfortunately on your voyage, your shipmate went out for a stroll on on this backwards planet causing you to delay your honeymoon plans.

No matter, biomass is biomass! It just might take a little longer to harvest is all, but that's about all this lifeform is good for anyway.
We may be able to extract some knowledge from some of the less mediocre apes, I've heard they wear lab coats.

Area 17 is a fun and fast paced shoot em' up and then abduct them for spare parts game. You must abduct humans in order to get enough biomass to upgrade your ship while trying to find your missing beloved stranded on the ground. Unfortunately, while you've narrowed their location down to a fairly small area, you're going to have to find them the old fashioned way.

Prime your lazers and shine yer probes! It's abduction time at Area 17!!! Yeehaw!

SpringCabal's second Ludum Dare entry!

Authors:
Anarchid
ashdnazg
ForbodingAngel
gajop
GoogleFrog

Ratings

Coolness 70% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.66 186
Audio(Jam) 3.17 364
Fun(Jam) 3.71 110
Graphics(Jam) 3.74 351
Humor(Jam) 2.52 684
Innovation(Jam) 3.21 373
Mood(Jam) 3.03 589
Theme(Jam) 3.26 665

Feedback

Patomkin
25. Aug 2015 · 13:47 UTC
Looks really good! Really shows the invested time. If only it didn't lag so much :/
P.S. 5/5 shields are overpowered ;)
Coruja
25. Aug 2015 · 13:56 UTC
Very good game, I had a great time playing it! =)
HiVE interactive
25. Aug 2015 · 14:27 UTC
Quite laggy, but awesome. Great work!
fubenalvo
25. Aug 2015 · 15:31 UTC
I played through, really good game but lagged on my PC too, but witcher not. Yeay :D
Whatever, this is an enjoyable, real time robber. GG :)
CrazyMinnowStudio
25. Aug 2015 · 16:04 UTC
Wow! Super fun hoovering up all the little humans. Can't wait to see more from this game. Hope you are going to develop it further. Wish it was a little more difficult. And LOVE the black hole for human collecting. Great Job!
AntonyBaasan
25. Aug 2015 · 16:11 UTC
I have old machine and it lags little bit. But looks beutiful
DarkStar
25. Aug 2015 · 16:12 UTC
great game lots of fun
blurryroots
25. Aug 2015 · 16:50 UTC
It's just to much fun, converting all those humans into biomass ;) Great game, although a bit easy.
tal
25. Aug 2015 · 20:27 UTC
Great game! but need mission not just killing stuff...
djfariel
26. Aug 2015 · 05:44 UTC
That was so much fun. I wish there was more "end game" gameplay to it, since you get there so fast. Lots of potential for a fully polished game here. :)
Novaki
26. Aug 2015 · 08:25 UTC
Incredibly fun game! I didn't think I'd end up playing as long as I did. Good job!
Jupiter_Hadley
26. Aug 2015 · 18:20 UTC
A bit laggy, but great game! I included it in part 8 of my Ludum Dare 33 Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/tto3rRaLBXQ
crucknuk
27. Aug 2015 · 21:20 UTC
addictive game >_<
ChaosCult
27. Aug 2015 · 21:23 UTC
Finally a game I can't believe was made in just 3 days! It's a complete product. In 90's you could sell this game (with era-appropriate graphics) at full price. Fun gameplay, good visuals.

The only two complaints from me: first, it's not clear where is the end of the game. Does it ends when some invisible timer runs out (or did I miss it?). Or does I need to collect some pre-defined amount of biomass? It just isn't clear. The other thing, the game's a bit too easy, though I suppose you can ramp up difficulty with ease if you add more levels with harder enemies in post-LD version.

All in all, a great game, the best I've seen in this Dare yet!
rudra
28. Aug 2015 · 05:58 UTC
Great game. This would be a great mobile game. Good job !
🎤 SpringCabal
29. Aug 2015 · 00:13 UTC
@ChaosCult
Technically there's an end of the game when you beamup a green alien, but it's very hard to see and it's really not clear. The game is more of a sandbox.
Regarding difficulty - it is indeed too easy which is something we'll fix in the post-LD version. The difficulty could've been higher seeing as the game isn't punishing at all (no upgrades are lost on death).
🎤 SpringCabal
29. Aug 2015 · 11:35 UTC
And obviously:
@All: Thank you ^^
farnsworth2
29. Aug 2015 · 21:03 UTC
Impressive work! An upgrade that leads to the end goal would have been a nice addition, I had to fly around the island several times to find the alien. Obviously more enemies, more upgrades, and a menu of some sort would be good to have too, but there's only so much you can do in 3 days.
Ixeno
29. Aug 2015 · 21:09 UTC
Really laggy ):
I hope you'll come up with a better/less-laggy version, because the game is great!
KaiseanGames
29. Aug 2015 · 21:12 UTC
Totally awesome. Well done.
Dizzly
30. Aug 2015 · 02:49 UTC
Very nice the tech tree system. Games difficulty also scales well. About the music I gues it s a little bit annoying after a while, but completely in the mood for an alien spaceship
Omiya Games
30. Aug 2015 · 03:06 UTC
We were able to play it this time unlike LD 32! I like upgrade system a lot. It felt a bit too easy to farm a lot of people without needing to attack other bases. This lend often to super-safe gameplay that may not have been as action-packed as intended. To be fair, I was having frame-rate issues, so that could be the reason.
jofra
30. Aug 2015 · 22:36 UTC
this game have a lot of content for an LD entry! :o
Gj! very cool game.
superfreak
30. Aug 2015 · 22:43 UTC
Impressive amount of material for a jam - felt like a fully fleshed and very polished RTS game. Awesome work look forward to seeing more in the future :)
Shadowfury333
05. Sep 2015 · 04:54 UTC
I've made a video showcase of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGe4KTdVN4
CrazyMinnowStudio
06. Sep 2015 · 19:14 UTC
My teammate already rated this but wow, it's so good I couldn't resist sharing a little more love. This is really top notch fun. So many fantastic ways to gobble up the puny humans. I think I've already played more of this game than any of the other 120+ we've played and reviewed. I played the post LD version since our team already rated on the original. Great job!
🎤 SpringCabal
21. Sep 2015 · 08:15 UTC
Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
We've made some additional changes that address the low health regeneration and "base sniping"/"hit & run" aspects of the game and will probably make at least one more release in the following weeks :)