Tyki by Nekoyoubi

[raw]
made by Nekoyoubi for LD26 (JAM)
Tyki (LD48-26)
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Theme: Minimalism
Genre: Arcade Shmup
Hook: Start with full loadout
Goal: Survive and score high
Conflict: Ships increase in difficulty/quantity the further along you go
Progression: Pick up power-downs to increase score multipliers, but also reduce player arsenal
Notes: Streamed entire creation process to http://twitch.tv/nekoyoubi

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Controls:
Mouse to move ship.
LMB to fire.
RMB to fire Wave-motion Gun (reference joke).
F11 to switch fullscreen.
V to adjust volume.

Objective:
Collide with power-ups (red) to gain abilities, but lose score modifiers; with power-downs (green) to lose the ability, but gain a modifier. In the spirit of minimalism, a "sniper"-modifier is also applied if you don't just shoot continuously.

Decreasing your loadout fully, you can maximize your score, but you'll need to be a good shot. ;)

Ratings

Coolness 24% 1800
Overall(Jam) 2.47 498
Audio(Jam) 2.47 361
Fun(Jam) 2.40 434
Graphics(Jam) 2.60 436
Innovation(Jam) 2.00 516
Theme(Jam) 2.07 553

Feedback

Cybearg
30. Apr 2013 路 03:25 UTC
I feel like a prick for saying it, but this game has no challenge, the art style isn't very appealing (though the nebula looks neat), the music is repetitive, and overall it just isn't fun.

Sorry, but I could just hold down trigger and swing my ship back and forth and I almost never saw a single enemy.
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
30. Apr 2013 路 03:30 UTC
@ybearg, sorry to disappoint. The challenge was not meant to be overwhelming; not until later, that is. The challenge was always about the theme, trying to get the highest score with the least amount of "help". To that end, it's supposed to start off easy. Again, sorry to disappoint, and you shouldn't feel like a prick for saying it at all, I value all opinions. ;)
RARoadkill
30. Apr 2013 路 03:52 UTC
Very functional, I enjoyed the music. Although it did get a tad old after awhile. I think some better ai or different types of enemies would help this game really come to life.
foul
30. Apr 2013 路 03:59 UTC
Hi, "not a valid Win32 application" according to my Windows XP, though the screenshots looks promising
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
30. Apr 2013 路 04:08 UTC
RARoadkill, sadly, I completely agree. I had so much higher hopes for it, but alas, with only ~14 dev hours, I simply couldn't do enough. ;( I plan to continue work on it, though, now that the pressure's off. Thanks for your kind words.

foul, I'm sorry. I haven't an XP machine left here to test it to see what's going on. I may need to try not building it as a self-contained .exe. I will look into that. Sorry for any inconvenience.
juaxix
30. Apr 2013 路 20:23 UTC
Hey, and the sourcecode? :)
I know, this is your first entry and you have to make the best asteroids in the world, we all have this idea ;)
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
30. Apr 2013 路 20:33 UTC
@juaxix, I'm not really sure what you're saying, but yes, this was my first LD entry and sure, I can zip up the source, but I figured no one would be interested in a few scraps of GML. I'll get right on it. If you're trying to say that the idea was unoriginal, I agree. However, I wasn't going for groundbreaking. I wanted something that would be playable, represent the theme in an interesting way, and would ultimately be a genre of game that I had not previously attempted. I never thought it would be a contender, but in the spirit of the jam, I thought I should at least get those things accomplished in the few hours that I did.
HelkeGames
01. May 2013 路 08:39 UTC
Nice game! Very cool graphic well done :D
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
01. May 2013 路 17:57 UTC
@HelkeGames, thanks! Although not at all impressive, it was a lot of fun to make, as can be seen at http://www.twitch.tv/nekoyoubi/videos?kind=past_broadcasts ;)
MinionStudios
01. May 2013 路 18:01 UTC
Fun game... I like the music. One of the power-ups powered my weapon down, lol.
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
01. May 2013 路 18:10 UTC
@MinionStudios, that's what they're supposed to do! ;p You start with the full loadout, but no score modifiers. In the spirit of "minimalism," you want to pick up the power-downs to up your score, but reduce your arsenal. Around level 7~9 with just the single gun, it starts to get a bit more challenging, but the earlier you drop those weapons, the bigger score you get overall.
kyyninen
01. May 2013 路 19:03 UTC
Powering down as a game mechanic is kinda neat! Btw you can teleport your ship around by moving the mouse outside of the game window and returning it back in different place, dunno if that was intended.
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
01. May 2013 路 22:51 UTC
@kyyninen, thanks! Yeah, in the beginning, I had a "movement" system that was more like flying, but as you get into the harder levels, it actually became impossible to maneuver out of the line of the "straight-down" ships, and in the interest of mobile devices, I decided to just give the exact mouse-x to the ship instead.
Eternal_Rest
03. May 2013 路 10:22 UTC
Crashes "Not a valid win32 application" so I downloaded the source and complied it myself.

Its ok, I guess a bit easy. Could have used a bit more effort in the balance of the game.
patrikspengler
04. May 2013 路 08:20 UTC
Good game, music was nice and you made a great use of powerups. The modern text was cool. Definitely good as a first entry.
caranha
05. May 2013 路 12:49 UTC
Got 2138 points on level 10 or so.

That was a fun game - controls were responsible, and the idea of awarding a score modifier for debuffs is quite clever. Also I loved the font.

Here are some thoughts on how to make the game better:

* Since the game is a vertical scroller, you should make the screen be in a "portrait" shape, or make the scroll horizontal - any of these ideas would give you more play area real state.

* It would be really nice to have a high score table with pre-set high scores. I got 2000 points, and I have no idea if this is high or low.

* Add some explosion sprites for the player and the enemy!

* The player's sprite contrast a bit too much against the background - maybe soften the colors a little bit?

Thanks for the game!
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
06. May 2013 路 17:35 UTC
@Eternal_Rest, sorry about the CAB; I just thought that would be the easiest way for people. And I completely agree about balance. Difficulty, though, that all depends on how much score you want, I guess. Should be more balanced though, no doubt.

@patrikspengler, thanks! I appreciate the kind words.

@caranha, thanks for taking the time to write all that out, and also, thank you for your kind words. Your suggestions are certainly good ones and will probably all come through in the Android version I plan to continue, but sadly, they were a bit too much to accomplish in the few hours I had (I was a way-late starter). On the resolution issue, I didn't know how elegantly I could 'portrait' a full-screen on a standard PC monitor (never tried that form of letter-boxing). The high score table would have been preferable to none, but I simply didn't have the time. As for explosions, oh don't I know it. Sorry about that; horrible oversight. Also, the player was meant to be "converted to a painted-up star-ship, but alas, no time. I think I could have done this a lot smoother if I had the full 48 (or 72) to work with. Perhaps I won't make such noobish mistakes next time.
SuperlevelSebastian
08. May 2013 路 14:55 UTC
Sadly I can't play it because it seems to doesn't be a Win 32-bit version. :( (Win XP, 32-bit laptop here)
馃帳 Nekoyoubi
08. May 2013 路 21:25 UTC
@SuperlevelSebasian, all apologies. I've now uploaded and linked a .zip in addition to the self-contained .exe. This should resolve the Win32 error (hopefully).