Ludum Fortress by EthanWebster

[raw]
made by EthanWebster for LD31 (COMPO)
Definitely not your standard top-down shooter game. Survive 25 waves of enemies. There are 8 different upgrades to make it easier to survive but ultimately survival boils down to your strategy. The final boss is very tricky to kill as he fires rockets at you, but don't fret - just keep dodging them!

Ratings

Coolness 91% 2
Overall 2.90 860
Audio 2.71 556
Fun 3.04 610
Graphics 2.47 954
Humor 1.78 900
Innovation 2.25 1077
Mood 2.31 1017
Theme 3.14 1000

Feedback

dallonf
08. Dec 2014 · 15:39 UTC
It's a pretty standard top-down shooter - no twists here, except that you have to buy your upgrades in real time. Personally, I don't like reading tooltips while being shot at. Also, the red flash whenever anything happens (like an enemy spawning or dying) is really distracting. It looks like you're taking damage. Oddly enough, there's no effect when you actually do take damage!

Overall, though, it's technically solid.
elliottd
08. Dec 2014 · 15:41 UTC
nice. pretty fun. I found a couple things confusing. You made a really nice hurt effect, the screen goes red and winces and there is sound, but you used that when you kill an enemy and used no effect when you get hit besides your health going down. upgrading your movement seems to not stack even though you buy it again, or maybe it degrades and you choose to upgrade it again each wave? that could be more clear. you could use rotated line sprites instead of dots for the trails. Good job
RockhopperGames
08. Dec 2014 · 15:43 UTC
I'm sorry, but I didn't enjoy this game very much. It's certainly workable as a shooter, but I found flashing red screen really unpleasant to look at, and I couldn't play for long without getting stressed.

There's definitely potential here, and building a fortress to defend against waves of enemies could be fun.

If you want to take it further, I'd suggest adding hotkeys for the buy menu, and priotitizing the bulletproof glass over the standard wall, since I found dodging the enemy's shots to be harder than staying away from the melee enemies.
DaRaziel
08. Dec 2014 · 17:09 UTC
Solid implementation of a typical top down shooter.
likek dallonf already said, the screenflash on spawning or dying enemies is really irritating. Also if an enemy catches up on you, there is no way to get away besides buying a speed upgrade.

Overall it is a nice more mediocre shooter but it needs more to it.
CatOnMars
08. Dec 2014 · 18:11 UTC
The title screens looks nice. Simple and easy to understand gameplay. At first I was a little scared by the wave start effect. The red flash make me feel I was damaged. Nice work overall.
lurumdurum
09. Dec 2014 · 14:31 UTC
I like the idea of a survival top-down shooter where you need to real-time buy ammo/upgrades and what not, makes the game a more interactive. Like it :)

On the other hand though, the bright red flash upon a next wave or an enemy death was really confusing. I thought I was game over, haha.

Lastly, the background music makes the game a bit more intense, which is good. The sound on an enemy death is a bit harsh, though.
SloZigec
09. Dec 2014 · 17:29 UTC
A cool game :), I enjoyed playing it.

My only concern is the flash that happens when you kill an enemy. Really didn't like that.
Headmade
09. Dec 2014 · 17:52 UTC
The game was fun. But the flashing screen effect is overused. At first I thought I was taking damage.
Also I encountered a bug: An Enemy walked into (he was literally inside of me) so I could no longer shot him.
asobitech
09. Dec 2014 · 17:57 UTC
Screen flash along with screen shake are powerful tools, but need to be used in moderation.
I think another day working on this and this would have been very excellent.
davesoft
09. Dec 2014 · 19:32 UTC
Good fun! Slow pace at first then gets going later
Xanjos
09. Dec 2014 · 23:21 UTC
Nothing particular that stands out but it's a pretty solid entry (although the pace is a bit slow at first until you get to wave 4). My suggestion would be to add keyboard shortcuts (preferably the number keys) to buy upgrades as it was a bit awkward to move my mouse pointer down to buy them.
Divitos
11. Dec 2014 · 16:02 UTC
I think you should continue on this!
I love top-down based games, and the real time frantic aspect fits amazingly!
dieblume86
11. Dec 2014 · 17:22 UTC
nice start
RonnyEGT
12. Dec 2014 · 11:26 UTC
It was surprisingly addictive, although it became a bit unchallenging once the player has so much money, very simple and a great game overall!
Wilson
12. Dec 2014 · 13:36 UTC
Fun game, but agreed with others that the red effect should happen when you get hit, not when enemies die. Also, I wasn't sure if my walls/bulletproof glass was disappearing from damage or just fading over time.
Kuality Games
12. Dec 2014 · 19:31 UTC
cool and fun game!
ramyaanudeep
13. Dec 2014 · 06:03 UTC
The title screens looks nice. Simple and easy to understand gameplay
Nikteddy92
13. Dec 2014 · 09:32 UTC
I had fun playing this game. Nice music and responsive controlls, well done.
rnlf
13. Dec 2014 · 21:17 UTC
Wow, a lot of features for a compo game. I thought it was a bit unfair that the first shooting enemy also hat much more hit points than the previous enemies. Had fun with this game!
lase
13. Dec 2014 · 21:59 UTC
I like the item buying concept, it sorta reminded me of a tower defense! However, it was a lot to manage very quickly (for instance, reloading appeared to come out of nowhere, as well as the guys who could actually shoot). I think if the enemies scaled up more slowly, I'd enjoy it more. Good work.
Wilou1428
14. Dec 2014 · 13:17 UTC
Liked the game, but it seems that the walls are a bit useless maybe make them without the corrosion and make them destroyable by enemies. Other thing is that at one point in the game my character was trapped in the bottom menu.

In conclusion, nice game I liked it...
Renaldo
14. Dec 2014 · 17:39 UTC
Simple and fun. Some sound effects are a little loud. The game could have a backstory for us to know what we are fighting against. Nice job, overall!
🎤 EthanWebster
14. Dec 2014 · 18:23 UTC
Woah! Thanks people for these amazing comments! I will definitely make a post-compo version, taking on board all of your suggestions. Thanks again :D
Zayron
15. Dec 2014 · 19:39 UTC
I had to play 2-3 rounds to figure out what everything did but ones I knew that it was fun!
maxmetallica
29. Dec 2014 · 21:02 UTC
nice work