Massive Attract by Peter Cooper

[raw]
made by Peter Cooper for LD23 (COMPO)
This game will take you less than a minute to play and review, if you're good at it ;-) You've got to help a planet that's shrinking to get back to having its own gravity again by moving it into the path of oncoming asteroids.

World record time so far is 11 seconds. Anything under 30 is "good" though the game gets harder as time goes on, so in theory a time OVER 60 would be even more difficult to achieve.. let me know.

Had no ideas this LD so I wrote a game engine from scratch to pass the time. 3 hours before the end, I came up with a really basic and cruddy idea.. :-) That's why it's so simple.

It runs well in Chrome, Firefox, and on IE 9. I haven't tested anything else.

Ratings

Coolness 40% 762
Overall 2.72 592
Audio 3.00 216
Fun 2.64 531
Graphics 2.72 535
Humor 2.55 283
Innovation 2.56 610
Mood 2.33 644
Theme 3.36 251

Feedback

馃帳 Peter Cooper
23. Apr 2012 路 02:25 UTC
Turns out it works on even IE 9.. so I've removed the browser requirement. Everyone enjoy! (as long as your browser is reasonably modern and Flash is enabled for the audio)
refreshcreations
23. Apr 2012 路 20:21 UTC
Hmm, was that 2 unlimited in midi format as the intro? I saved the planet in 45 seconds so it didn't suck to be them for too long :) Actually, yeah, +1 more humor for the 2 unlimited midi hahaha, ohh the early ninties...
馃帳 Peter Cooper
23. Apr 2012 路 20:37 UTC
Not MIDI! It's MP3, I recorded it live. If you let it play, you get a bit of an easter egg at the end of the tune :-)

The record timewise so far seems to be 11 seconds (both I and someone on Twitter got this - haven't heard any lower yet).
BenW
24. Apr 2012 路 01:43 UTC
It gets easier as you get later in the game, which is the reverse of most games. It would be nice if there were some additional challenge as you got larger.
Vilborg
24. Apr 2012 路 03:24 UTC
Odd, it worked in Firefox for me, but not in Chrome.
My first time was 28.
Throbbery
25. Apr 2012 路 14:31 UTC
No love in Safari 5.2 (7536.6.1). Played in Chrome and beat on third try in 10 seconds with an early gold asteroid before a wave of regulars. ~Shaun
ElzingaT
25. Apr 2012 路 22:31 UTC
Took me a few times to beat it, for a simple idea I think it plays pretty well and does a good job fitting the theme.
馃帳 Peter Cooper
25. Apr 2012 路 23:34 UTC
Throbbery: You hold the world record! Now I need to play again ;-)

Will look at Safari. In theory it should be much like Chrome but admittedly I never tested in Safari at all..
Shadow
28. Apr 2012 路 02:32 UTC
Good game although I suck at it. Took me 31 seconds to save earth, and I actually got a higher score (20 secs) by letting the game run without me touching the keyboard. Lol.
namuol
30. Apr 2012 路 01:32 UTC
Worked great in Chromium.

I'm surprised at how many solid HTML5 games I've played so far, but this one is especially nice. Love the "tunnel" effect at the intro screen; it's rare to see procedural effects in any entries here, simple or otherwise.

You hit the sweet spot with minimalist graphics but still have attention to detail. It feels polished.

The gameplay is straightforward and fun, but I can't help but feel like it's an exercise in dice-rolling when it comes to getting a high score. I was trying to beat 9 seconds; I got 12 after several minutes of suiciding until two gold asteroids appeared in short succession near the beginning. ;)

Perhaps adding objects that you need to avoid hitting would spice gameplay up, and allow for a combo system that would make the player's high score more than their time.
Drabiter
30. Apr 2012 路 02:25 UTC
This game is really short. It is also the 3rd game I rated when you play earth/moon eating something to grow. Love the sounds. :)
馃帳 Peter Cooper
30. Apr 2012 路 23:20 UTC
Woo-hoo, finally got 8 seconds! :-) @namuol: Thanks for the great review. Yeah, the game mechanic is not so great and needs a lot of tinkering to be truly interesting to play. @Drabiter: Agreed, it is short. I only came up with the idea a few hours before submission time and I "wasted" the rest of it playing with HTML5, Canvas, and learning how to put a similar game framework together. But now I can use it for a better entry in LD24 hopefully!
johanp
01. May 2012 路 15:50 UTC
Nice little game. Would love to see asteriod affected by gravity in some way to make look/play a bit more interesting.

First I failed utterly, second time - 11 seconds! Go random numbers! :D
DoktorAce
07. May 2012 路 20:17 UTC
My first was 58 seconds. I read space and just began playing. Took me a while before I got the moving part of it. Very nice!
davidwparker
08. May 2012 路 14:16 UTC
Nice little game. Lost easily and won easily...
Sestren
08. May 2012 路 19:27 UTC
Very clean and simple idea. Well executed. The ambiance during play was nice.
Cake&Code
13. May 2012 路 18:56 UTC
Fun little game you've got here! Seems a bit too random as the first time I won in 15 seconds with some good asteroids popping out really quickly and the second time was closer to 50 seconds because the asteroids were so scattered. Nice game engine! :)