Super Neo Tektropolis by vidarn

[raw]
made by vidarn for LD26 (COMPO)
Super Neo Tektropolis is a "Score Attack" platformer with randomly generated levels.
Collect orbs to increase your score and try to avoid getting killed ;)

The levels are endless and the only "goal" is to get the highest score possible.
Your score is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen (the numbers are pretty small)

Controls:
A,S - move
J - jump
K (Hold) - fire beam

Linux users that doesn't have Box2d and SFML2 installed can run the shell script run.sh to start the game.

Ratings

Coolness 49% 1236
Overall 2.73 1006
Fun 2.41 1048
Graphics 4.00 81
Innovation 2.14 1188
Mood 2.96 498
Theme 2.55 1263

Feedback

timtipgames
29. Apr 2013 · 17:27 UTC
The graphics... the style ..stunning! :) The gameplay is getting repetitive quickly :/
Pickehut
29. Apr 2013 · 17:35 UTC
From a technical standpoint, this game is really well done. However, as you said in your description, it lacks some kind of goal that motivates you to progress further into the game when you have died.
The graphics are really amazing, probably the best that I have seen so far in this competition.
Rose
29. Apr 2013 · 17:41 UTC
I like the art and charging up the laser beam is pretty cool! I would prefer to have health instead of dying instantly, though...
SonnyBone
29. Apr 2013 · 17:49 UTC
I really love the style! The sprite work here is really phenomenal. The key mapping is really awkward for me, though, and it obviously needs some audio. You should keep working on this. :)
ZombieRockParty
29. Apr 2013 · 17:52 UTC
Nice graphics and animation. The keyboard layout was difficult. Whats wrong with up for jump? :)
pereubu
29. Apr 2013 · 18:00 UTC
cute pixel art, the gameplay needs polishing D:
nice job
smealum
29. Apr 2013 · 19:04 UTC
the art is fantastic. keep up the good work. :)
hgouveia
29. Apr 2013 · 22:17 UTC
love the style!!
Gungnir
30. Apr 2013 · 04:05 UTC
Fantastic art and solid mechanics. A clear objective would have helped, even just one line of mission text. Hope you keep working on it, the world seems like it could grow to become something quite interesting.
syre
30. Apr 2013 · 10:48 UTC
for a game this fast the camera should really show you more in the way you're facing, the way it is you don't have enough time to react to bullets and such unless you stop and go a lot. i like that it's oriented mostly below you though. also speed related is that deaths are sudden and make me instinctively hit enter without looking at the score.
the level generation never trapped me or anything, but i'd sometimes wander into hot spots of enemies or points. the attack was really cumbersome compared to how easy it was to just dodge, to the point that it was rarely useful. maybe if dead enemies dropped points it would work better.
i guess most of that wouldn't apply if it was finished though...
and yeah the graphics were really good, and it felt great to laser things. sorry about all the text.
HelkeGames
30. Apr 2013 · 19:29 UTC
The graphic is awesome also i love the concept ! Good game well done :)
LeafThief
30. Apr 2013 · 20:31 UTC
The graphics were good and movement worked. It really suffers from the lack of goal. I as player didn't have a motivation.

So pretty solid art and code!
psychomonster
30. Apr 2013 · 23:08 UTC
Great style... minimalistic too... like it.. cannot rate sound... because the headphones crushed and girlfriend is sleeping... It Rate it with 2 Stars as a compromise
bytegrove
01. May 2013 · 13:49 UTC
I had a hard time playing this. I could not move to the right for some reason, and as others have mentioned, the keyboard layout felt weird as well. The art style is really nice though, and I like the fact that the whole face(or lack thereof) of the character emits the laser beam.
Zener
01. May 2013 · 13:51 UTC
Love the graphic style and the playablility. Feels a bit too random.
Jeremias
01. May 2013 · 13:51 UTC
Very nice visuals, but the game itself is too hard. These flying things appear too fast and often you jump somewhere and hope, that the jump doesn't end in an enemy.
escence
01. May 2013 · 13:56 UTC
This game is looking very good. The graphics are awesome, I especially like the color style. Some sound effects would have been nice (or does it have sound and I just cannot hear it?), but great work anyway :)
IrfanFox
02. May 2013 · 00:59 UTC
I really like the pixel art. The colours used, the way how the screen shakes when beam is fired. Although the game has no sound, the laser animation and the shaking effect combined makes the sound appears in my head. This game has potential.
Tom 7
04. May 2013 · 13:47 UTC
Graphics are superb! The physics are a little stiff (integer-only?) and the level generation often gets me stuck climbing "up", so I have to jump into the blind, which is just a matter of luck whether I'm hit by an off-screen bullet or crab thing. My high score: Measly 4 orbs!
Test User
06. May 2013 · 06:53 UTC
The art is cool, what made me want to check out the game in the first place. The control scheme is hard for me though so I keep dying quickly. Someone else brought this up I think, but health instead of insta-death would be cool.
TenTonToon
08. May 2013 · 06:00 UTC
The pixel art is of an amazing quality, especially given the simplicity of its design. You managed to cram a lot of detail and personality in these sprites. I also like the color palette; it's easy on the eyes, and looks cool (no pun intended). The design is an ok fit to the theme.

As for the gameplay, the game controls well, but jumping was marred by platform positioning. The view should be wider around the character in order to avoid cheap deaths, which occurred a lot. Or maybe allow the player to look up and down beyond the camera's current position as some other platformers do.
The action is sort of eventless, as orbs where scarcely available (my best score so far is 1880, if I recall right, and that equals just 4 or 5 orbs), and it mostly boiled down to "jump blindly - die" or "get shot by an off-screen enemy".

Finally, I found the controls to be all over the place. It's stated on the description that 'S' moves your character right, but it's 'D' that moves you right. And having to press Enter to restart the game felt forced and unintuitive.

I see a lot of potential in the idea, especially concerning the visual design. But making the level design random plays against it; I'd rather play levels handcrafted, with a strong sense of purpose or narrative.

Definitely one game I'd like to play a post-compo version of, and one to follow down the road if you get it developed further.