An Astronomical Affray by reheated

[raw]
made by reheated for LD24 (COMPO)
The game is a top-down shooter with two classes of enemies, each of which has several parameters defining its combat abilities. Each round, the enemies that appear are mutations of those enemies that dealt the most damage to you on the previous round.

You can steer the direction of the enemies' evolution by taking more damage from the ones you like. It might not be easy to see that it's working, because of the game's difficulty. Therefore you can start a game in easy mode by pressing Ctrl-Alt-R when the game is paused. In this mode you can for example try to cause the enemies to become a particular colour.

The game has been found to run OK on a netbook with Ion graphics. It requires the .Net and XNA redistributables (the "installer" version of the game should be able to download them).

Thanks go to Brian Corr for moral and technical camaraderie. Try his entry "being a Vampire Is Not Very Fun" here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=15518 .

Ratings

Coolness 64% 3
Overall 3.23 229
Audio 3.73 30
Fun 3.10 215
Graphics 2.48 530
Humor 2.25 303
Innovation 2.65 455
Mood 2.54 422
Theme 3.03 320

Feedback

zapaman
27. Aug 2012 · 09:26 UTC
Barely works with wine for me! Crashes two-three minutes into the game! Gonna give it a few more tries to give a more accurate rating!
zapaman
27. Aug 2012 · 09:33 UTC
Ok, got it to work!
Ragzouken
27. Aug 2012 · 10:10 UTC
It's very hard to stay alive for long! The music, sounds, and voice are great though :)
Arkazon
27. Aug 2012 · 10:33 UTC
Download link just takes me to a google drive signup page. I suggest using dropbox - doesn't force other people to sign up in order to get your files.
Dietrich Epp
27. Aug 2012 · 10:40 UTC
Sweet! The screenshots do NOT do this justice. At first I thought, "what does this have to do with evolution?" but then I saw the enemies evolving -- I didn't have to read the documentation to figure that out. Awesome music, too. Game is a bit hard.
mariscal
27. Aug 2012 · 10:50 UTC
I manage to reach level 5! :D

The music and sounds in general are awesome! It's very funny too, great work dude! ;)
🎤 reheated
27. Aug 2012 · 10:54 UTC
Arkazon: thanks for your suggestion. I moved the files to dropbox.
Punga
27. Aug 2012 · 16:11 UTC
I dont have much to say for this game.
quill18
28. Aug 2012 · 13:34 UTC
I can't get this game to run, even with the installer. The .exe appears in my process list, but nothing ever happens. Windows 7.

I'm really excited to give this a try too. I like that you're using actual natural selection to evolve your enemies.
goerp
28. Aug 2012 · 14:02 UTC
I really loved the music! The game was a bit too hard for me to really see evolution in action; too much multitasking (steering in one direction and aiming in another).
GFM
28. Aug 2012 · 18:10 UTC
That's an interesting and unique concept! Though many games use the same base idea (mutating the enemies and combining (kinda) them), I really liked how the trigger is you taking damage. =D

The only downside are the graphics... =X
But the song was really good! =D
🎤 reheated
29. Aug 2012 · 02:18 UTC
quill18: can you tell me what kind of CPU and graphics card you have?

In the off chance that this is something to do with the custom pixel shaders, can anyone for whom the original doesn't work try this: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100794454/AstronomicalAffrayNoPS.zip . The only thing changed here is the removal of the pixel shaders. If you use this for voting please keep in mind that you aren't getting the full package re graphics & mood.

To everyone: thanks for your kind comments on the music and sound!
atraxgames
30. Aug 2012 · 21:03 UTC
It fits well the theme, but the gameplay it's a bit repetitive
Aceria
30. Aug 2012 · 21:05 UTC
Quite fun, nice choice of music and sfx. Gameplay wasn't all too shabby either, but it didn't feel very natural. The movement would probably be nicer without any smoothing.

Either way, good work there, it's a pretty addicting game!
Moops
02. Sep 2012 · 15:44 UTC
Really tough! Great music, I liked the voice work too.
jarnik
02. Sep 2012 · 17:20 UTC
The normal mode is actually pretty hard, thanks for the Easy mode. I like the controls, the music was nice! Also the enemy feedback0based evolution is a great idea.
Josh @ Dreamland
07. Sep 2012 · 20:25 UTC
Can't run because WINE can't put things in the MATE system tray. Don't know why this needs an icon in my tray, but...
tastive
13. Sep 2012 · 16:21 UTC
Got to level 14! Fun gameplay, enthralling tunes. I'd have to play it a few more times to see the evolution happening, but I liked it.
someone
15. Sep 2012 · 11:54 UTC
Unfortunately XNA games never work in linux.
goffmog
15. Sep 2012 · 15:43 UTC
I wish this game was more fun to play, the sound is great but it's let down by the gameplay itself :( Maybe I just suck at it.