Dance Masters of the Universe by EmptyButton

[raw]
made by EmptyButton for LD 41 (COMPO)

A hack and slash starring a dancer who uses her dance powers to rid the universe of evil-doers. The goal was a family friendly hack and slash but I didn't really hit my mark with family friendly.

Ratings

Overall 648th 2.731⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 582th 2.76⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 694th 2.16⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 706th 2.02⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 507th 2.84⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 264th 2.87⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 577th 2.52⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 3🗨️

Feedback

ViridianGames
24. Apr 2018 · 01:47 UTC
Fun! But I'm not sure how well it fits the theme. I guess the setting is a ballerina studio that is being invaded by demons? It's also quite difficult; if you don't kill the spawners quickly you soon get overwhelmed and your powers are not that powerful. Also, some music would have been nice!

On the other hand, the ballerina and enemies were drawn and animated well and all the mechanics worked properly. So a good effort.
nicksmaddog
24. Apr 2018 · 01:51 UTC
Fun game! I was disappointed there was no "You win!" after killing everything.
JLV
24. Apr 2018 · 01:54 UTC
Trying desperately to survive against the swarming monsters was pretty fun, the 3 abilities allow for some nice gameplay ! Kudos for the protagonist (these moves !) and the theme, I had a smile on my lips during the whole playthrough. The game would hugely benefit from mouse-based controls though.
aengusm
24. Apr 2018 · 01:55 UTC
Pretty fun! I would say it could actually do with being a little more difficult, as it was I was able to finish the game (e.g. beat anything and all the portals) on my first try, and there was no end game screen or anything. Might also be nice to have some background music.

Also, although the abilities were interesting and overall the combat worked well enough, the actual ability graphics didn't really fit in stylistically.
microwerx
24. Apr 2018 · 06:17 UTC
Interesting concept. It would be helpful to explain that the last direction you head is the direction you fire. It's easy to be overwhelmed by enemies and have no way to win/lose rather than just dying. I was really hoping the dancing was going to be a bigger part of the mechanic.
Unentokku
24. Apr 2018 · 11:13 UTC
Pretty nice, reminds me of Devil Daggers.
Derek Brouwer
24. Apr 2018 · 21:25 UTC
Pretty good! I didn't understand how gameplay fit into the theme, but the gameplay was fun anyway, and everything else was done well in the time you did it. So great work! :)
🎤 EmptyButton
25. Apr 2018 · 01:05 UTC
@ViridianGames @Derek Brouwer Yeah my original plan was a family friendly hack and slash, but I didn't really accomplish that. I was going for a Captain Eo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONRTzWy26Ko&) thing, but I sort of fizzled out on a lot of the theming stuff early on.
mrwillowb
25. Apr 2018 · 05:18 UTC
fun easy game
MagmaFortress
25. Apr 2018 · 05:43 UTC
Nice. I feel like it'd be a lot more fun if I could move and attack at the same time - maybe with mouse aiming?
Steve Sparkes
26. Apr 2018 · 03:09 UTC
I'd love to see this further developed with rhythm-based interactions! Perhaps using moves at certain times according to the beat of the music would boost their power? A good submission for the game jam, good job!
patvanmackelberg
28. Apr 2018 · 02:04 UTC
Neat idea! I like the little dancing dudes :P
Windowwasher
28. Apr 2018 · 15:54 UTC
Not a bad little game. My only complaint would be I often didn't know which way I was facing.
Matt Pattabhi
28. Apr 2018 · 20:41 UTC
Woooo nice game
wwhnl
28. Apr 2018 · 21:56 UTC
is there a mac build for this game? would love to play!
automatonvx
29. Apr 2018 · 00:06 UTC
pretty fun arena hack and slash, didn't get the theme too much, the demons were pretty cute, some music would have been nice especially given the dance theme
candlesan
29. Apr 2018 · 20:49 UTC
The animation on the movement was definitely ballerina style. I like the design on the abilities I think it makes sense to have the short and long range attacks on no cooldown and moderate cooldown, respectively.

It was a bit difficult to aim my laswer where I wanted. The enemies moved in a more continuous fashion, whereas my movement steps were in discrete chunks. This made aiming my weaponry sometimes difficult. Couple this with a lack of facing. I can understand maybe you didn't want to have to draw multiple facing animations. Perhaps one way to solve this would just a single dot or "forward" vector line drawn on top that points in the direction you're going to shoot next.
Mektidas
02. May 2018 · 02:36 UTC
i'm not sure if there was 2 genres there, but the game war really funny and hard xD Great work! hope to see you in the next LD