Pixel Progression by pighead10

[raw]
made by pighead10 for LD23 (COMPO)
Make sure to read the included README. 'Windows' download *may* work on other OSs, but it is untested.

Crash to desktop fixed, hopefully.

PRO TIP: when you start, generate pixels as fast as you can, and move to them. Otherwise the enemies will spawn and kill you.
PRO TIP #2: There is a certain skill in combat - remember, space only works when you are next to them and the enemies walk onto you and back. If an enemy walks on you, just wait until he walks off again.

Generate your tiny 1 pixel sized world into a large area, while fighting off the enemy pixels.

Also, if you have time, play the post-compo version and give me some feedback!

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall 2.94 439
Audio 2.13 565
Fun 2.84 420
Graphics 2.23 753
Humor 1.94 580
Innovation 3.63 122
Mood 2.62 475
Theme 3.22 329

Feedback

10WonXero10
24. Apr 2012 路 10:12 UTC
Liked the concept. It ran ok for a while but after 100 or so points it crashed while fighting an enemy pixel.

I think 2 moves per second is a little slow, either some power ups or a gradual speed up would make it more exciting.
馃帳 pighead10
24. Apr 2012 路 14:00 UTC
If you spam the space bar while fighting enemies it breaks, which I am going to fix. Pretty sure it counts as a game breaking bug considering you need to spam space bar while fighting enemies.
bitbof
24. Apr 2012 路 14:15 UTC
Sadly doesn't work properly (the known bug you listed)
馃帳 pighead10
25. Apr 2012 路 14:21 UTC
Bug should be fixed ASAP, found that the cause is to do with the old beta version of SFML didn't track frametimes completely accurately, especially not when the fps is as high as it is in this game. I'll just limit the fps.
sudorossy
25. Apr 2012 路 21:26 UTC
I absolutely loved this game. I thought the story was quite well done, as was the gameplay. I got a CTD after a while though.
chinchang
26. Apr 2012 路 18:32 UTC
cudnt play...m on ubuntu :|
FunkyDelPueblo
26. Apr 2012 路 18:41 UTC
Very interesting concept! I like how much gameplay gets squeezed out of such a simple premise!
Canard Sauvage
26. Apr 2012 路 18:41 UTC
Really good idea, quite hard first (died after 15s ^^) but I some fun :) The story is nice, too (1 bit world :D )
Jack
26. Apr 2012 路 18:45 UTC
fun but unforgiving as hell. consider making the combat a little easier if you're going to make it continuous and simplistic. Also, when you close the app it just generates an exception instead of closing correctly (Windows XP)
Sanguine
26. Apr 2012 路 18:49 UTC
I really liked it! It really got my imagination going!
Muu?
26. Apr 2012 路 18:49 UTC
Strange game but fun. =D
rvmook
26. Apr 2012 路 19:06 UTC
Funny game. Would've like to have a way to get some health back and a bit more responsive controls (or maybe I just suck at it :D)
馃帳 pighead10
26. Apr 2012 路 19:24 UTC
There is a certain skill in playing skillful combat - remember, space only works when you are next ot them and the enemies walk onto you and back. If an enemy walks on you, just wait until he walks off again.
馃帳 pighead10
26. Apr 2012 路 19:24 UTC
Forgot to add - thank you for all the comments! I never expected as many as this!
free_napalm
26. Apr 2012 路 20:18 UTC
I got confused that I couldn't walk into some of the pixels I created at first. Why would I create pixels I can't walk through? :D
What would have improved it would have been more variety like weapons, distance fighting enemies, building sentry pixels or something like that.
On the other hand, nice concept and nice idea. Especially it was quite cool to learn how to beat these enemies with minimal loss. Mastering the skill of combat was the best part :)
chambers
27. Apr 2012 路 03:25 UTC
835 pts.

Very good gameplay idea. works well, except that it's kinda difficult to fight enemies.

I like the idea of 10WonXero10 as well, because tapping the WASD keys all the time to move in sync with the framerate was a little bit uncomfortable.

Also, what if the key you used to attack was the same ones you use to reveal more pixels?

Making the pixels rectangular instead of square, as well as the use of cyan+red gave me a good retro feel for some reason. Though the graphics are very simple, they serve the game perfectly!

Great game!
Daisuke909
27. Apr 2012 路 17:14 UTC
This is actually really great, aside from the bug. Very, very original.
invaderJim
27. Apr 2012 路 17:49 UTC
Controls took some getting used to, but overall a nice concept. Good job :)
Hegemege
27. Apr 2012 路 17:50 UTC
The gameplay was somehow very addicting, managed to play it maniacly for as long as it lasted, before CTD :P

The enemies were pretty easy to kill, and maybe the movement could've been a bit faster, but I liked the exploration/void idea in it. I couldn't find where the theme fit to this properly though, except for everything represented by tiny pixels ;P

Props for mood and fun, cons for lack of background sound and the few bugs :/ I hope you can sort them out and make something sweet out of this, it was a good demonstration of a nice gameplay idea!
xBlinkedx
28. Apr 2012 路 06:22 UTC
Not bad, it worked for what it was, though it became a little confusing what buttons to press at times, but that may be intentional.
OrangeeZ
28. Apr 2012 路 10:24 UTC
it's an intresting idea, a bit confusing at the beginning thoug, but i liked the game :D
but i think enemy bits would benefit from having a pathfinding algo.
馃帳 pighead10
28. Apr 2012 路 10:57 UTC
@Orangeez: I tried to give apathfinding algorithm... but it ended up them just walking back and forth, which is how I invented the combat mechanic.
Lawrence Esswood
28. Apr 2012 路 13:16 UTC
Played untill CTD. Little confusing at first, but I got it in a after a few goes. Had good fun, I ended up carving out a nice sqaure for myself, letting the enemies come back me, hitting once, stepping once, hitting again. Return to center of square. It would have been nice to have some kind of pause feature, and it wasn't nice having enemies spawning RIGHT on top of you.
馃帳 pighead10
28. Apr 2012 路 14:26 UTC
CTD fixed (I think)! :D
dr_soda
28. Apr 2012 路 15:15 UTC
This is a nice idea with a great exploratory mechanic. One thing I think might have added something is the possibility of finding pickup items that help you out, or adding traps for enemies.

Being forced to kill the enemies for more bits resulted in me sometimes having to just wait around for them to spawn before I could continue exploring, so I wish there were some other way to generate bits on top of just killing enemies.
MrDanH
30. Apr 2012 路 18:46 UTC
Interesting idea, but movement was a bit too slow (I would find myself running out of bits and then taking a long time to get over to the nearest enemies to kill them).
馃帳 pighead10
30. Apr 2012 路 20:04 UTC
Yeah, as a lot of people pointed out that is a problem. In the post-compo it speeds up over time, but I didn't think of it in the competition - even though it was actually very easy to add :(
edg3
02. May 2012 路 16:08 UTC
I like the game play, and the ideas you went for. The controls took a bit to get used to (the movement delay felt disjointed to me, the enemies could have moved twice as fast and you could have had half the "move-delay"). Also, after playing for a while you get a big enough area that you can permanently stay safe and kill the enemy pixels, at which point the game stops presenting a challenge. I feel you could spawn quite a few more enemies than you did, and perhaps if you gave less bits as time went on it would help present an end game.
edg3
02. May 2012 路 16:08 UTC
Forgot to mention I enjoyed it though :P
Endurion
02. May 2012 路 17:04 UTC
Actually quite interesting concept. A bit in the slow movement becomes annoying.
tcstyle
05. May 2012 路 11:01 UTC
Very interesting idea but this is really difficult. I tried to make pixels as fast as possible but the enemies got me pretty fast.
Fireblend
10. May 2012 路 15:09 UTC
Pretty unique idea! The execution might have been a bit lacking in that gameplay could be a little more balanced in order to avoid some frustration with movement, but I think you're on the right path on how to fix those issues with the post-compo version. Good job though! I did find the game pretty entertaining :)
SmallDeadGuy
13. May 2012 路 19:06 UTC
Quite fun but a bit tedious and slow. The enemies were a bit too stupid as well, but nothing A* pathfinding wouldn't fix and at that movement rate you could have found a path for every enemy at every movement with no lag between movement times
馃帳 pighead10
13. May 2012 路 19:29 UTC
SmallDeadGuy: I tried to implement A*, but failed somehow and ended up like this... it is my first time doing anything with pathfinding