Attack of the Screen Scrollers by drludos

[raw]
made by drludos for LD31 (COMPO)
Beware of the Screen Scrollers! They will scroll your "one screen game" background image away, and destroy those precious pixels forever. Also, this image is your only ground, so you'd better protect it if you don't want to be "scrolled away" too!

Use the arrow keys (or WASD) to move, and click on the "Screen Scrollers" to shoot them with your laser. Each kill will earn you points, so aim for the high score!

(my personal record is 1292 points)

IMPORTANT TIP: when you are "frozen", you are still able to shoot down enemies, it only prevent you from moving the character.

NB: Fullscreen mode doesn't work when the game is played on Ludum Dare's website, but it does work on the "Web (Flash)" link provided here

------------------

About the game

Even if it wasn't easy, I've tried to use the compo theme as a gameplay mechanic instead of a technical limitation only. My idea is that an "entire game on one screen" means a game with no scrolling. So the game cast you as a sprite inside a bitmap, and you are trying to prevent your enemies to scroll your single screen away.

It plays like a top-down arena shooter (with a railgun as your sole weapon), except that the enemies stay at the border of the screen, and each enemy tends to scroll the screen towards itself. The more (or the bigger) the enemies, the faster the scrolling in their direction. When your background image unfortunately goes outside of the screen, the part that was scrolled away is lost forever. So be careful not to overshoot one side of the screen if you don't want the background image to be scrolled away on the other side ;)!

Game created with Flash CS3, without any particular coding framework (quick'n dirty, yeah! ;)).
Graphics drawn directly in Flash IDE or in Photoshop for the pixel arts pieces.
Sounds created with AS3sfxr.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

Ratings

Coolness 76% 2
Overall 3.63 182
Audio 2.64 593
Fun 3.61 148
Graphics 2.83 714
Humor 2.59 478
Innovation 4.34 20
Mood 2.93 561
Theme 4.46 20

Feedback

pjimmy
08. Dec 2014 · 02:21 UTC
Nice, very innovative
ohmmus
08. Dec 2014 · 02:54 UTC
My highscore: 146. No where near 1292 =p Lots of fun, though!
ViliX
08. Dec 2014 · 02:55 UTC
Wow. That's a very nice way of the theme interpretation :)
iMer
08. Dec 2014 · 02:55 UTC
Very neat idea, way too hectic for me right now though. I should consider sleep.
jasonLJ
08. Dec 2014 · 02:56 UTC
I really like how you interpreted the theme. I honestly didn't even think of doing something like this!
Mokosha
08. Dec 2014 · 02:56 UTC
Great job! I really like the interpretation of the theme. :)
internetspaulicy
08. Dec 2014 · 02:57 UTC
This is fun. Tricky - where we have to click right on the guys to attack. I like it.
jarry
08. Dec 2014 · 02:57 UTC
Good game ! innovating
Sestren
08. Dec 2014 · 03:02 UTC
I really like this! Great and clever use of the theme!
Fanttum
08. Dec 2014 · 03:20 UTC
Cool idea and was fun to play. I wish you could click anywhere to just shoot instead of having to click on the actual enemy.
AgentParsec
08. Dec 2014 · 03:36 UTC
Very fun and innovative, but if you get stunned by one of those blasts, it's pretty much game over since you can't dodge any of the other ones also shooting. Either have it stop shooting for a bit, or have it outright destroy the player. Otherwise, good job.
Jaloko
08. Dec 2014 · 03:48 UTC
Awesome use of the theme.
zanenga
08. Dec 2014 · 03:58 UTC
Lovely use of the theme!
Coban31
08. Dec 2014 · 08:32 UTC
Very good game , innovative and addictive.
Rozaxe
08. Dec 2014 · 09:52 UTC
Max 163...
But very funny and innovating !
🎤 drludos
08. Dec 2014 · 14:27 UTC
Many thanks to all of your for your comment and feedback!

One tip regarding the game: when you are "frozen", you are still able to shoot down enemies, it only prevent you from moving the character. So @AgentParsec, the real challenge actually begins when you are stunned: you'll have to click faster than before to defend your screen background ;)
(I'll update the description with this tip)
Eduardo
08. Dec 2014 · 15:44 UTC
Nice concept! Good job!
Figglewatts
08. Dec 2014 · 16:20 UTC
I really liked this one. Quite an addictive gameplay mechanic.
sputnik
08. Dec 2014 · 16:38 UTC
Nice use of the theme.
MoltenMustafa
08. Dec 2014 · 18:27 UTC
Awesome idea, I really like the presentation of it and the concept as a whole. Nicely done.
Tiago Ling Alexandre
09. Dec 2014 · 01:24 UTC
Very original take on the theme, cool and innovative! However it cannot be played correctly on a trackpad, had to play on my desktop to rate it correctly. Simple and fun, good job!
igoramendola
09. Dec 2014 · 02:53 UTC
Ohh, very cool! This is one of the best concepts based on the theme that I've played. It has a good gameplay and it's kind of addictive haha. I've enjoyed it and my best is 1016, so far.
Also, it's funny to see that we worked with almost the same tools: Flash to draw and code (quick'n dirty!) and as3sfxr to sounds. This time I didn't use Photoshop because of time (I'm kind of slow doing pixelart and I used only vectors).
:D
fierysquirrel
09. Dec 2014 · 04:45 UTC
Great game! my brain was a bit confused trying to shoot accurately and not falling! haha nice experience
Lolwned
09. Dec 2014 · 09:54 UTC
Very cool idea ! Great execution too. Nice work.
Alexandre Szybiak
09. Dec 2014 · 12:44 UTC
Excellent idea, simple yet unique. Perfect use of the theme. Good job
kraln
09. Dec 2014 · 14:31 UTC
Really, really fun. A little unbalanced (those blue guys are evil).
BubbleChien
09. Dec 2014 · 15:28 UTC
Clever concept!

It's really enjoyable to try to maintain a balance by keeping some enemies alive.
shanageek
09. Dec 2014 · 15:57 UTC
Nice use of the theme! We actually thought about doing something similar but with split-screen and multiplayer...and somehow ended up doing something completely different.
Krunoslav
09. Dec 2014 · 17:27 UTC
My highscore: 248. A interesting game, innovative and very fun!
LMT
09. Dec 2014 · 17:29 UTC
Really awesome game. Great innovation and actually really fun to play.
Jupiter_Hadley
09. Dec 2014 · 17:48 UTC
Really neat concept! I Included it in part 3 of my Ludum Dare 31 compilation video series, if you would like to check it out :) http://youtu.be/81u-vDEfxwU
Logun
09. Dec 2014 · 18:45 UTC
My fav entry from there, exploiting nicely the theme and i like that. + cool gameplay + different ennemies coming in a good timing its a not so far from perfect LD game.
rantt
09. Dec 2014 · 19:37 UTC
Really cool concept. Gets pretty tense when you start running out of room. I enjoyed it, great job :)
Gamepopper
09. Dec 2014 · 20:20 UTC
Really innovative and fun game!

To answer the question you gave on my game, I composed the music in LMMS along with the Nintendo VST plugin. :)
spacedoubt
09. Dec 2014 · 20:53 UTC
Very clever take on the theme! Score: 424. This would make a great mobile game.
Rushout Games
10. Dec 2014 · 02:19 UTC
Really cool concept and fits the theme nicely, was really fun to play too. The only issue I had is that I had to click too many times and that's tiring, if i could just hold the mouse button or have some other way of shooting it would be great!
estuardolh
10. Dec 2014 · 03:13 UTC
my score: 66, haha
theme: six stars! :D
Frump
10. Dec 2014 · 04:44 UTC
This was really unique and fun! I think it might be even more fun to have to shoot the enemies on the edge with bullets instead of clicks. Great job. My high score was 360.
AdventureIslands
11. Dec 2014 · 00:10 UTC
1592 Points! That was getting pretty intense. Great take on the theme! Very solid game.

Probably a good thing that freezing doesn't prevent you from shooting, otherwise this would be even harder than it already is.
mrexcessive
11. Dec 2014 · 11:45 UTC
Hi there. Nice idea, far too difficult I thought, managed to clear them until about 10 turned up at once, couple of Greenies then bazam... Like the sounds.
🎤 drludos
11. Dec 2014 · 14:32 UTC
Thanks to all for your comments and feedback!

@mrexcessive: In fact, a good strategy to make a high score isn't to shoot them all, you should try to maintain some kind of balance between the number/power of scrollers on each edge when you shoot them down, so your screen doesn't get "eaten" right away :)
Slothmachine
11. Dec 2014 · 18:05 UTC
Yes! Cool new gameplay and yet very easy to learn! Great job!
ibilon
11. Dec 2014 · 18:56 UTC
Nice concept, congratulations :)
Shackhal
11. Dec 2014 · 19:41 UTC
Nice concept idea, easy to learn and difficult to master. Also, simple graphics works better than expected.

Overall, I like it :)

PD: By the way, my game already have a jump button since the beginning. It's the "X" button xD
ceosol
12. Dec 2014 · 21:12 UTC
This is a really neat idea. The take on the theme is impressive. It literally is the screen being the main object in the game. I felt that the controls were very slow, having to be right on top of the guys to shoot and needing to move your mouse all the way to the other side to shoot that group, while 10 more guys just landed.

Just an idea, maybe have a direction control for the lasers, off of the x,y of the mouse compared to x,y of dude. The dude would then shoot in that direction when you click (or press space). This would give the player the ability to quickly change attack directions without needing to move the mouse much. It would also be cool in post-comp to have special multi-hits that activate every 5 seconds or ever 10 kills or something.
Dans17
13. Dec 2014 · 02:46 UTC
Best take on the theme I've seen so far.
DrGeraud
13. Dec 2014 · 18:55 UTC
The concept is so clever in itself. I love the game, really fun to play ! =]
Stending
13. Dec 2014 · 20:10 UTC
Cool game, great progression and difficulty!
el-pepi
13. Dec 2014 · 21:25 UTC
Great idea! Very innovative and fun!
Plays really nice.
klianc09
13. Dec 2014 · 21:33 UTC
Really innovative game. It has more depth to it than seems at first glance. It's just strange, that you move with the screen, when you are frozen, but don't move with the screen otherwise. This makes it even beneficial to get frozen, because then you don't have to worry about moving around.

My best was 1370
Franklin's Ghost
14. Dec 2014 · 05:26 UTC
One of the best uses of the theme I've seen so far. Had quite a bit of fun playing this one, really challenging. My highest score was 172 so nowhere near your top score.
6DownStudios
15. Dec 2014 · 05:21 UTC
Really innovative take on the theme one of my favorites, and much fun to boot! Graphics and audio are simple but effective, really solid entry!
OddballDave
15. Dec 2014 · 16:42 UTC
Great use of the theme, and enjoyable too. Good stuff.
TheMeorch
15. Dec 2014 · 22:13 UTC
This is a really cool idea. Having a system where enemies can actually be helpful in certain situations is really neat and results in some interesting strategic decisions. This was fun!
Javabot
16. Dec 2014 · 00:03 UTC
gotta love the game play. Graphics not so much.
SoulGame
16. Dec 2014 · 01:26 UTC
Brilliant concept. It's very cool how you tied "enemies" and victory/defeat conditions: enemies' role is to disturb you, sure, but on the other hand, you have to use them to keep the screen centered and that implies not killing them... "Using" instead of "killing" enemies is a pretty clever concept, especially well implemented here. 5/5 innovation. Regarding gameplay I would maybe suggest to switch from "click" to "rollover" function to kill enemies, I think that might be smoother and more intuitive to play. Plus, the core-gameplay is more about managing screen position than actually aiming and shooting. And even if it gets to simple my way, you might still add a few obstacles to force players moving inside the screen... Anyway! Just some thoughts cause I liked your game. You just got a bunch of stars!
phaze112
16. Dec 2014 · 03:29 UTC
Nice use of the theme. Didn't realize what they were doing until half of the screen was gone.
Aisland
16. Dec 2014 · 08:53 UTC
quick click game , i like it
stray
16. Dec 2014 · 10:02 UTC
It was really nice :D good job
NicePenguins
16. Dec 2014 · 17:04 UTC
A very clever use of the theme. A totally addictive arcade game, congratulations :D !
Omiya Games
17. Dec 2014 · 03:51 UTC
I really liked this. There were a lot of creative enemies to fight with that often changed the dynamics of the game. Is it possible to be killed by all those blue shots, by the way? I can't seem to survive them.
alyphen
20. Dec 2014 · 12:44 UTC
Pretty interesting, there really wasn't much to it, but it was a nice idea, I haven't seen it done before. Neat interpretation of the theme.
Possible improvements include music, some different mechanics other than "scrolling faster" and perhaps some change in pacing. Also, perhaps a goal like "survive for 10 seconds and you unlock a new level with some new mechanics" "survive for a minute in this one and you unlock another", etc.
Tifu
21. Dec 2014 · 00:24 UTC
Clever idea! Really challenging.
aeveis
24. Dec 2014 · 07:04 UTC
i got 233. Very cool, I think the ramp up is a bit fast but I liked the mechanics. I was thinking if I could get an even amount of things pushing the screen to cancel each other out, but it got too hectic for me to manage haha. very cool idea!
DavidErosa
28. Dec 2014 · 12:02 UTC
Interesting view of the theme. Thanks!
Sh1rogane
28. Dec 2014 · 12:17 UTC
I like it, it was fun and I like how you made the theme as the mechanic instead of a limitation. I got 710 points.
Backterria
28. Dec 2014 · 12:58 UTC
Simple and fun!great job!
joppiesaus
28. Dec 2014 · 17:08 UTC
Very innovative and fun game. Nice graphics, pretty polished, lovely sound.
You actually implemented the theme in a good way, unlike many other games.
Good work!
ArcturusDeluxe
28. Dec 2014 · 21:52 UTC
This idea is so cool. It feels like one of those ideas that should have been a popular arcade game in the 80s but somehow no-one thought of it. Nice use of the theme as well. Not a fan of the graphics unfortunately, but the concept more than makes up for it.