Cyborg Computing Jet Fighting by lulzfish_4

[raw]
made by lulzfish_4 for LD26 (COMPO)
Instructions:
Use arrow keys to move, X to fire, P to pause / unpause, and R to restart if you die. These instructions are printed in the command line if you launch it from there, along with other things.

Shift moves you at half speed, this is not very useful.

The game is automatically paused before every level so you can see what enemies you'll be fighting.

Synopsis:

In this game, the player is a blue jet fighter who must shoot the evil red aircraft.

The evil aircraft fire orange bullets that are mysteriously circle-shaped, and the player aircraft fires blue tracer rounds.

There is a tutorial, 2 levels, and a final boss.

The game requires GLEW, Lua 5.2, and Qt 4.8. (Although it may work with Qt 4.6) Box2D is also required, but I think on Debian it's linked in statically.

The Windows port ships with all necessary DLLs.

Game source is here:
https://gitorious.org/cyborgtroy-ld26-jet-fighting/cyborgtroy-ld26-jet-fighting/trees/5f6ca0656d112406700a152b0b167e14b3130110

Engine source is here:
https://gitorious.org/cyborgtroy-colorado/cyborgtroy-colorado/trees/a43b5d08496c51f4d8875b2ca126c48c91bfebfa

Ratings

Coolness 62% 3
Overall 2.18 1299
Audio 1.33 1073
Fun 2.24 1154
Graphics 2.20 1159
Humor 1.47 1032
Innovation 1.88 1288
Mood 1.84 1229
Theme 2.32 1315

Feedback

馃帳 lulzfish_4
29. Apr 2013 路 03:18 UTC
Use arrow keys to move, X to fire, P to pause / unpause, and R to restart if you die. These instructions are printed in the command line if you launch it from there, along with other things.
GreaseMonkey
29. Apr 2013 路 03:57 UTC
The Linux build might take a bit of punching in the face on this comp to get working (I have Lua 5.1 and GLEW 1.6... at least I have Qt 4.8, otherwise I'd be pissed), so I'll wait until later to try that.

The Windows build works fine in Wine.
whitetigle
29. Apr 2013 路 04:02 UTC
On the windows version it seems I cannot pass a level. I kil the opponent and then it restarts.
Rose
29. Apr 2013 路 04:17 UTC
Not bad! I liked the patterns of the enemy fire. But at least for me (Windows), the game paused before every new level, which was annoying; and 'r' to restart didn't seem to work either.

I see that you've posted the instructions in a comment; it might be helpful for future testers if you edit the submission to include the instructions.
avidgamerNino
29. Apr 2013 路 04:23 UTC
If I click with the mouse I can change the rotation of the camera, otherwise I really wanna beat that final boss!!! he keeps killing me
馃帳 lulzfish_4
29. Apr 2013 路 04:23 UTC
Yes, it pauses before every level so you have time to get ready. This is because the enemies spawn in instantly.

Whitetigle: The same opponent in the same place? The one that shoots straight downward? I'll try to look into it.
馃帳 lulzfish_4
29. Apr 2013 路 04:24 UTC
Yeah, I was going to take the camera rotation out but I figured I'd leave it in for fun. Resetting will reset the camera.
Scott McBee
29. Apr 2013 路 05:33 UTC
The distribution method is awkward and the auto pause on windows makes it seem broken.
Tozy
29. Apr 2013 路 07:05 UTC
Don't worry, you'll do better next time. At least you have something playable! :3
Crefossus
29. Apr 2013 路 07:56 UTC
For me the 2nd enemy is actually easier than the first which seems odd. I like how you can use strategy in level 3 because the enemy bullets despawn after a certain distance (circle the group and destroy on that pass). I think it's pretty cool how the ships/everything are in 3d but I'm not sure how you could show it off easily.
GreaseMonkey
29. Apr 2013 路 09:07 UTC
Woo, another bullet hell shooter!

Except this game really doesn't feel that good. The player hitcircle is a LOT larger than I expected, and... P to unpause, R to restart anyone?

It's also too short, and not particularly challenging. Come on, you had Lua by your side, you could have easily crammed more crap into it.

Graphically... meh. Stills look good and the bullets move nicely, but the transitioning is a bit flat, and you really could use the space better.

Overall... I'd love to see you try this one again, but this time do more stuff and make it gel better, and PLEASE, implement a lives system!
ilovepixel
29. Apr 2013 路 17:03 UTC
The camera rotation could have been part of the gameplay. Level 3 was madness after 8 min trying I couldn't pass through.
Ragzouken
29. Apr 2013 路 17:23 UTC
I am very bad at this :D
Frib
29. Apr 2013 路 18:31 UTC
Short but sweet. It's nice that it starts paused but when I died I thought the game crashed because I couldn't do anything for a few seconds :D
Jools64
29. Apr 2013 路 19:22 UTC
This seemed like a good start to a game but there's really not enough there to be that fun.

The core movement was good and the basic enemies where nice but it was way too easy. I didn't even realize that the final enemy was a boss until I read your post. Un-pausing the game between each level was also quite annoying.

Anyway as I said, good start but needed a bit more. It seems like you had nice foundations but just didn't have enough time to make a full game.

Kudos for what you have managed though, I imagine writing a 3D OpenGL based game takes time.
nseward
29. Apr 2013 路 19:38 UTC
Great work. I wish there was more.
nintendoeats
30. Apr 2013 路 04:03 UTC
I get why you have the pause thing, but the switch between levels is very mechanical. if the pause key was something closer to the firing key (so I didn't have to take my hands off it to press it) that would help.

The idea of a one-at-a-time bullet hell shooter is an interesting one, and could possibly go somewhere. But, alternate possible direction, I thought it was awesome that I could move the camera down and have that 3D view. I also had a strong desire for my plane to start turning and drafting and zipping around the battlefield.

the circle of planes was awesome BTW. A very neat pattern. look at me talking like I know anything about bullethell shooters.

Solid start, just needs some expansion.

(and sounds)
pighead10
30. Apr 2013 路 16:08 UTC
Restarting the entire game if you die once is really annoying. The graphics are very simple (minimalistic I guess...?) and it really needed sound to feel like a proper game.
plash
30. Apr 2013 路 22:02 UTC
Notes:

- I'm a blue jet!
- Okay.. Have to unpause after every level.
- Woah, the right mouse button rotates.
- Argh, R takes you back to the first level. I didn't mean to press that.
- This helicopter is tough.

Things I would change:

- Make the second level more difficult than the first.
- Make the game show a message after a level. Use spacebar to begin the next instead of P. P is too far away from both hands.
- Remove the restart button; if player dies just restart automatically.
- Change the scale of things. Player should be larger, enemy bullets could get smaller.
SuperDisk
05. May 2013 路 17:55 UTC
The version I downloaded is nothing like the screenshots...

It's some sort of 3d world I can pan around in, and the controls you specified don't work. All there is is just 2 3d planes that I can't control.
Fnkee
05. May 2013 路 18:14 UTC
Yay, I made it. A few more levels, and a win screen and this would be pretty sweet. All in all a great and addicting game.
StMatn
20. May 2013 路 18:15 UTC
Cool game, but a few more levels would have been nice, since its fun to play. A unpausing-key, which is closer to x (e.g. spacebar) would also have been nice. All in all, its a nice game.
GreaseMonkey
21. May 2013 路 09:11 UTC
The fact this scored so awfully just makes me want to punch a kid. Not a kitten. They don't deserve it.

If you want a higher score, make something like this in Unity using the built in collision detection stuff and use random angles all the time and make no damn sense and joing the masses of people who tend to use and like i'm using it here and so on.

If you want a better game, do something like what you did this time around, but pack more in. You get 48 hours. I believe you used 8.
馃帳 lulzfish_4
27. May 2013 路 00:57 UTC
I agree, GreaseMonkey. I had to rush because I didn't focus on the AI upfront, even though it was the hardest part, and I didn't even think about the different levels and win / lose conditions until some time late in the last day.

But now that I've made a game, I know where the hard parts are. I'll come up with something better for next time.