Elemental Crawler by EthanBierlein

[raw]
made by EthanBierlein for LD35 (JAM)
PLEASE READ THE README AND THE NOTICE BELOW

IMPORTANT: In order for the game to actually play correctly, the graphical settings in the Unity pre-game launcher need to be set to "fantastic". I can assure you that this will not have an effect on performance. I don't know why changing the quality settings messes with the movement math and collision detection. This should also fix the issue of getting "swarmed" right in the beginning.

This is a small arcade-style shooter game that me and a friend made together over the weekend. The only real objective is to kill as many enemies as possible and rack up as big a score, (or coins, depending on how you look at it), as possible. There are a variety of different themes portrayed throughout the game that reflect on the different powers the player has.

The controls are fairly simple, WASD to move the character, 1-6 to change your character's power, SPACE to activate your player's power (shoots a projectile in the direction you're moving) and ESC to exit to the menu.

There is a README included once you unzip the download. I'd *highly* recommend reading it, as it contains some more important information regarding the game, that you should look at, like optimal graphics, resolution, etc. I've also included an OS/X build, but I am not able to test it, so I don't know whether it works optimally or not.

Anyways, this is my first game jam, and one of my first "big" games in general, so I'm looking forward to the feedback! :-)

Controls:
W - Move upward.
A - Move left.
S - Move downwards.
D - Move right.
NUM KEY 1 - Switch to power one.
NUM KEY 2 - Switch to power two.
NUM KEY 3 - Switch to power three.
NUM KEY 4 - Switch to power four.
NUM KEY 5 - Switch to power five.
NUM KEY 6 - Switch to power six.
SPACE - Use the currently equipped power.
ESC - Exit to the menu while playing the game.

Ratings

Coolness 50% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.63 1050
Fun(Jam) 2.70 868
Graphics(Jam) 2.96 758
Innovation(Jam) 2.48 949
Mood(Jam) 2.90 698
Theme(Jam) 2.83 869

Feedback

mrnannings
18. Apr 2016 路 18:30 UTC
The graphics are cute. I don't know if it is intentional but every time is start the game i got sort of ambushed by a lot of other blobs and then game-over.
DragonZBW (SparkLight Games)
18. Apr 2016 路 23:54 UTC
There are just a whole ton of little blobs and its making me sad because they're murderers!
divegato
19. Apr 2016 路 00:26 UTC
Just keep running!
Ilseroth
19. Apr 2016 路 03:04 UTC
Agreed with outhers, I seem to just get mobbed and killed instantly
馃帳 EthanBierlein
19. Apr 2016 路 03:07 UTC
@mrnannings @Ilseroth Are your graphical settings set to "fantastic"? Unity seems to mess with movement and collision calculations with this game when the graphical settings are set to anything else. I can run around and move fine when it's set to "fantastic".
fin_nolimit
19. Apr 2016 路 04:12 UTC
I like how each of the times I played the game, the color changed. It would be nice to see what weapon I had but I enjoyed killing slime! Nice work
Kifuga
19. Apr 2016 路 09:09 UTC
Promising concept, but I die so fast, I can't even try what the different powers do...
Pavel M. Dlouh媒
19. Apr 2016 路 17:55 UTC
It is a little hard to play. Good game.
Xanjos
19. Apr 2016 路 20:27 UTC
Pretty interesting entry although the controls could be a bit better (actually found it a bit awkward trying to switch powers so maybe map Q and E to cycle between powers?).
guin36
19. Apr 2016 路 20:57 UTC
The game just doesn't seem playable. The controls work fine and probably as intended, but there doesn't seem to be any control I have over getting swarmed in the first 5 seconds. The powers are all the same, and playing a twin stick shooter without having control over aiming outside of movement is very uncomfortable.
thegoofromspace
20. Apr 2016 路 06:09 UTC
Like many others, I couldn't even figure out how to play this one. A bunch of enemies mob me, I push a power looking for the one that will help, press space, and die. No bueno.

I think widening the view you have of what's going on, making everything happen more slowly, and making sure very few enemies spawn in the beginning of the game would help with all that. As it stands, I've given it multiple shots just to get oriented and I just can't.

It's a shame, 'cause I can see what you were going for and I like the idea. Better luck next time.
Freank
21. Apr 2016 路 16:52 UTC
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description