Spacedentist saves the day by StMatn

[raw]
made by StMatn for LD28 (JAM)
TL;DR:
Controls:
WASD/arrow keys for movement
mouse & left mousebutton for aiming ans shooting

Important!
You will need a functional Java Runtime Envoronment or Java Development Kit (preferably the latest version). After downloading the file, make sure to extract the files from the archive! The game will shut itself down immediately, if you run it inside the zip file, because it won't be able to access any assets.





For those who are a bit more patient:
The spacedentist is on a new mission. This time an evil genius has captured the people and creatures on a lovely planet and replaced them by evil machines. Grab your jetpack and help mr. spacedentist to save this nice place!

I'm sorry for the shitty screenshot :(

The game features:
- A jetpackflying hero, shooting a high energy laser (for me, this would be enough :P)
- Procedurally generated terrain
- Destructible terrain (except stone)
- Upgrades
- A hand full of achievements
- A bossfight, that may make you ragequit and/or tableflip (I warned you!)
- A (non-visible) castle, in which the princess MAY be


Technical features for the interested:
- Fully custom engine, written from scratch
- 3538 lines of pure Java-code
- Particle effects (yay!)





Please have fun and don't give up! Somtimes you can get quite challenging levels and rage about the boss, but it is possible to beat the whole game without a single upgrade!


Tips for boss battle:
- DO NOT FIRE AT HIM, IF HIS MOUTH IS CLOSED!
- if you did fire at the closed mouth, move up or down, because in the defensive salve more projectiles are aimed directly at you, than scatterd around
- stay at ~1/3 of the distance to him from the left border, if no shots are fired
- if he starts firing, move slowly to the left and dodge projectiles, while shooting his mouth
- remember: constant dripping wears the stone, so keep calm and be patient :)


Thank you so much for playing my game! :)




P.S.: If you are wondering what exactly a spacedentist is or does, here is an engine I wrote sone days ago (engine for this LD is fully rewritten!):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ahvc6ti6nh0knz7/DentistInSpace-v0.8.zip

Controlls:
WASD/arrow keys to move around
1/2/3 (obove letters, not num-block) for chosing dental laser/cement canon/light gun
mouse/left mousebutton for aiming and shooting

Fly around, shoot karies away, fill the holes with cement and harden it with the light gun. Have fun repairing teeth :)
Warning: May remind you of a dentist!

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.12 253
Audio(Jam) 2.31 394
Fun(Jam) 3.20 150
Graphics(Jam) 2.67 409
Humor(Jam) 3.17 101
Innovation(Jam) 3.10 184
Mood(Jam) 2.68 349
Theme(Jam) 2.14 467

Feedback

jsjwooowooo
17. Dec 2013 · 05:12 UTC
Really like the engine and the gun. Its fun to just shoot up the terrain!
Chaoseiro
17. Dec 2013 · 05:43 UTC
Awesome engine, really well made. The game is fun too, although it becomes repetitive after some time :P
Oh, and I found a bug: after some time roaming to the right the graphics froze. I could still hear the audio being played on button press, but the screen was frozen.
arcticleaf
17. Dec 2013 · 17:00 UTC
i like it , but a bit frozen hmm
tiffi
17. Dec 2013 · 17:12 UTC
Really cool game, liked the destoryable terrain. EndBossDragon killed me though
cappelnord
17. Dec 2013 · 17:13 UTC
Some pretty ambitious parts in this one. Shooting environment felt really good. Enemywise there could have been more variety.
🎤 StMatn
17. Dec 2013 · 17:57 UTC
Thank you all very much!
To be honest, I planned two more worlds and some comics telling a story, but you know, it was the usual routine:

1. plan game
2. think about how awesome your idea is
3. repeat
4. work a bit
5. realize, time is running really fast
6. panic a bit
7. lower quality standards
8. cur something out of your idea
9. submit 5 minutes before deadline

But hey, I really appreciate your critics. Thanks again!
30dogs
17. Dec 2013 · 18:24 UTC
Simple yet really fun! The terrain generation and destruction was very ambitious, nice job. I wanted to pause the game for a second and instinctively hit Esc which killed the app and I lost my progress.
joppiesaus
17. Dec 2013 · 18:27 UTC
Overall a good game. I like to play it!
🎤 StMatn
17. Dec 2013 · 18:38 UTC
Thanks for the comments!

Oops, forgot to kill the escape key :-[ sorry for that

If the boss is toot hard, I could put in a cheat to weaken him :) Please just tell me, if you want to see this, since acievements are only gettable by winning the game.
Jago
17. Dec 2013 · 19:34 UTC
Spacedentist is like the most absurd thing ever, I like it!
🎤 StMatn
17. Dec 2013 · 19:43 UTC
Not, that you mentioned it, I realized, that I didn't explain the whole spacedentist thing :D

I'll put an explanation and a link into the description.
Scifer
17. Dec 2013 · 19:53 UTC
From what I've been told, destructible terrain is hard to do right, so kudos!
Riilu
17. Dec 2013 · 21:12 UTC
While the game was alright, it didn't have too much to itself. It was entertaining to say the least. The laser mechanic was entertaining, but I quickly found the sound effects to get a bit irritating. The graphics were really simple, but i cant complain about that so much. The trees gave me the feeling of some old C64 game, hehe.
🎤 StMatn
17. Dec 2013 · 21:24 UTC
Well yes, the trees are actually placeholders I have thrown in for testing, but did not have time to make nice :D
Mekuri
17. Dec 2013 · 21:34 UTC
Overall a decent game. I loved that you could destroy the terrain, and it felt very good. The enemies were a bit repetitive, but they got the job done. The game froze on me the first time I came to the boss. Sounds still worked, but graphics froze. I liked the gun.
🎤 StMatn
17. Dec 2013 · 22:00 UTC
Thanks for the feedback.

The reported freezing at the boss is really strange. The screen actually locks onto the boss "arena" as soon as the bossfight starts, but the game should keep on playing... Keep in mind, that the boss is.. well... isn't animated :-[

If anyone could tell me if anything is printed to the console when the game freezes, that would be really helpful :)
David Colson
17. Dec 2013 · 22:19 UTC
I really like the engine, well done!
Tex Killer
17. Dec 2013 · 23:48 UTC
Good. Educational.
Venks
18. Dec 2013 · 00:15 UTC
Haha oh wow. Dentists shouldn't be this crazy. This is the last thing I needed to play before going to a dentist appointment. xD
Very fun though!
🎤 StMatn
18. Dec 2013 · 00:16 UTC
Thanks for playing!

Educational? :D
🎤 StMatn
18. Dec 2013 · 00:20 UTC
@Venks:
Don't worry, he's a professionals. That is why they always say "Don't try dental treatment with lasers at home, kids" ;)
NightShadow0
18. Dec 2013 · 05:58 UTC
Damn, this is hard. I managed to get to the boss but died right away. Fun game!
Fenixin
18. Dec 2013 · 21:16 UTC
I really liked this game. Thanks!
glovecat
19. Dec 2013 · 11:31 UTC
A decent and pretty finished game. Amazing for a jam. Nice mechanic and destructible terrain on a 72 hours jam. Bravo dev
🎤 StMatn
19. Dec 2013 · 21:09 UTC
Thank you guys so much for the kind words!
I really appreciate that :)
crazyrems
19. Dec 2013 · 22:58 UTC
Spending more time to make holes in world than killing stuff. Well done :)
🎤 StMatn
19. Dec 2013 · 23:02 UTC
:D Thats actually the way its meant to be played ;)
Thx for playing!
GaTechGrad
20. Dec 2013 · 01:48 UTC
Nice particle effects. Just shows that dentists aren't evil people after all... they fight evil aliens in space on their time off.
CatOnMars
20. Dec 2013 · 11:22 UTC
I like the design and character, really fun!
Benjamin
20. Dec 2013 · 12:59 UTC
Really fun game.

I would have prefer that ennemies bullets collide with the landscape, it would have make battle more strategic.
The jetpack sfx is a bit too loud, it ruins the other sfx ambience.

I had 9-10 tries and could not reach the boss, I'm bit frustrated about it, but I had a lot of fun.
john_conder9
20. Dec 2013 · 15:54 UTC
Very ambitious project! I think it would have been nice if I had some way to blast through terrain in an AOE fashion since it felt like I kept having to "stop" the momentum and cut my way through something (very slowly compared to how fast I wanted/could go if I flew over it, but also that felt like it took too long to do.)

Some sort of damage indicator would have been cool too for when killing enemies. I totally understand time limitations though, so, who knows - just reporting back on my experience with it. Very cool game though!
🎤 StMatn
20. Dec 2013 · 17:48 UTC
Thank you very much for playing!
I really appreciate any feedback, especially critical thoughts, that tell me, what I could have done better. Thx for that :)
Jeremias
20. Dec 2013 · 21:03 UTC
The terrain destruction is such a nice feature, it's sad that you didn't put it into the focus, e.g. by letting collide and destruct the enemies' bullets the terrain or giving the player destruction methods with a bigger scale. Messing around with the terrain cood be quiet fun!
ViliX
28. Dec 2013 · 16:53 UTC
I like the way you made it in Java and the 'open' world :)
🎤 StMatn
28. Dec 2013 · 17:22 UTC
Thank you guys for the feedback!
I'm thinking about some games, that will use this engine and take the terrain destruction more into focus. Thank you for telling me that there still are people who just want to watch the world burn ;)
goerp
28. Dec 2013 · 17:24 UTC
Haha that was funny and fun.
I really liked the destructible terrain and the randomness. Was it really possible to use multiple weapons? I thought that was a joke, but your instructions above suggest you can use more than just the laser.

Great game.
🎤 StMatn
28. Dec 2013 · 21:50 UTC
Well, in this game it is not possible to use another weapot than the laser. If you are really interested, I'd suggest, you look at the link mentioned in the description. It's another game from me, that uses a very similar engine and also features the spacedentist. In that game, you repair giant teeth and you can use the other two... I prefer to call them tools ;)
Dry Tree
29. Dec 2013 · 01:26 UTC
The first level I played was quite easy but suddenly got very hard - there were three of those flying shrimp things in a narrow corridor just past a huge stalagmite so the choke-point was full of projectiles ... which although it was tough little things like that make games with random generation kinda cool because everyone can take away their own personal experience from it!
🎤 StMatn
29. Dec 2013 · 16:03 UTC
Thanks for playing!
Yes, I haven't put much restriction on spawn-behaviour... I also sometimes had a similar situation, like the one, that you explained, but there were 3 more shrimps (thanks for the new name. shrimps are cooler than hornets:D) behind the first 3 ;) extremely hard, but possible.
These situations are very bad for the speedrun achievement, since the timelimit is extremely tight (2 minutes; its possible without upgrades, but especialy dmg+ is recomended).

I really like, that you pointed out, that everyone gets some kind of a personal experience from the game. That sums up procedural generation quite well in my point of view :D
Brainless Games
30. Dec 2013 · 00:54 UTC
I the destructible terrain was a nice feature, the game shows good potential.
Cake&Code
30. Dec 2013 · 01:50 UTC
That last boss is wicked difficult! I love bullet hell games but damn, that was a minefield, still had a ton of fun, well done! :)
Gaspard_
30. Dec 2013 · 12:03 UTC
Final boss, why, he can shoot loads of stuff at once!!!
I have the feeling you could get coins faster(I reached the final boss on second go, but still hadn't enough coins to buy an upgrade when I died...)
🎤 StMatn
30. Dec 2013 · 12:08 UTC
Watch out, you must not shoot the boss if his mouth is closed!
If you do it anyway, he will burst out massive waves of bullets! It is indeed hart to stay alive, once he spits out such a wave, so take some time and do is save and steady. Wait until he opens his mouth, then you have around ~2 seconds to attack. Stop attacking before he closes his mouth!
sandbaydev
02. Jan 2014 · 21:04 UTC
Annoying gun sounds! :)
Overall a solid entry. Cool effects and nice play area. Good job
postmodestie
02. Jan 2014 · 21:36 UTC
yeah, may the SpaceDentist franchise prosper! Aesthetically it reminds me of a bunch of old-skool games..
Jezzamon
02. Jan 2014 · 22:16 UTC
I felt it was a little too slow to get interesting
🎤 StMatn
02. Jan 2014 · 22:40 UTC
@sandbaydev: yeeeah... honestly, I'm so sorry for the f***ing lasersound, but I wastrying to make one for ~1h and got really annoyed of it, because I wanted an ongoing sound, that was less annoying. The problem is, that lasers normally don't do much sound im real life and all previous choices drove me mad already, so I settled on this masterpiece :D sorry again for any eardamage and annoyance ;)

@postmodestie: Thank you so much! That comment is really cheering :) You seem to have at least a little bit of fun, what makes me happy.

@Jezzamon: Well, after replaying it some days after LD I thought the same. You can blaze through the level with a bit of luck, but the stalacmites(/-tites) in the underground areas are really annoying. However, with a bit of practice it's possible to get the 2 minute medal ;) For the next mission I will upgrade the SpaceDentist's jetpack acceleration :)


Thank you very much for playing, everyone! :)