Star Reaper by Shoalmuse
Collect mines before the dreaded Star Reaper arrives!
Perhaps an homage to a classic arcade game?
Created for the Ludum Dare 58 Compo in 48 hours.
Tools used: - Unity - AseSprite - PixQuare (iPad) - cfxr
| Link | https://shoalmuse.itch.io/star-reaper |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/star-reaper |
Ratings
| Overall | 155th | 3.132⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 154th | 3⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 190th | 2.625⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 205th | 2.5⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 105th | 3.475⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 149th | 2.625⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 169th | 1.969⭐ | 18🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 149th | 3⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 11🗨️ |
However, the lack of movement in the background makes it a bit tricky to tell if the ship is moving or not. Also, it was a bit challenging to find asteroids at times - I would have loved to see more of them!
Overall, this is a really solid and visually stunning Compo entry!
Nice entry :D
The pixel physics is really cool, but requires constant laser focusing, specially when the beam is hard to aim percisly, goes less interesting... Plus, play control feels rapid (in a good way), too.
But the first time when laser shot out really got me, that was really cool
I *think* I beat the game, but after destroying the Star Reaper, nothing happened - There was nothing left on the map, so I assumed this was the end, but it would have been nice to have a victory screen pop up just to make sure I didn't quit the game too early!

The one thing that I struggled with was the controls of the laser - It felt great when I was able to hit an asteroid with it, but a lot of the time I was just spinning back and forth trying to narrow in on it. I'm not sure if this was an intentional part of the difficulty, or if I was just missing something - Was there something I was doing wrong here?

Overall though, very cool entry! :) Well done!
I killed the Ripper, but then another one appeared. Rules on this part were unclear.
A couple quick things.
I wasn't entirely sure if the game was refusing to run at first I couldn't advance past the start screen. Also, perils of running on a mac where web games usually but don't always work.
I had a skull ship spawn practically on top of me.
There is definitely something weird with the camera and ship speed interaction.The effect feels somewhat jarring. I suspect you can get a similar effect to what you want by doing something like keeping the camera position lagging several frames behind (so accelerationad n deceleration will be visible) or adding some sort of a background as others have suggested.
I do agree that the lasers could be a bit hard to aim, but I think that is a reasonable style choice. You can always move closer for easier aiming so it wasn't really an issue.
Some thoughts on additional directions to explore—I think this game could be better suited to a mouse-based input scheme: it's a bit challenging to aim at longer distances, and I felt like I was having trouble pointing the ship precisely at further asteroids. Maybe left click to fire laser, right click to accelerate? Also, it would be nice if the star reaper would take damage from mines, since then you could use the environment to cause damage (not just direct attacks). Finally, I found I would often drill through an asteroid, but it wouldn't register as destroyed until more pixels of it were destroyed, so maybe a slower drilling speed BUT automatic destruction when cut in half would make it more satisfying.
Overall, great work! It's lots of fun to play and I can see this concept becoming a larger game.
I reached a score of 4600, destroyed the reaper a couple of times, but what was really annoying was the sensitivity of the laser aiming... phew, that drove me a bit nuts to be honest.
Overall a really cool entry. A super simple music track would have been lovely!
Like other said, the turning sensetivity is a bit much. If I had to pick one fix request for this ludum dare, you'll probably win, as I can see myself having a blast with this game