Shield Defender by realryanrogers
The Evil Bad Guy Imperium is invading! your planetary defenses are holding, but the battle is raging right above your last power generator. Get to your ShieldShip and keep that falling debris from damaging the power systems!
Links:
Source and Windows build: (https://realryanrogers.itch.io/ld39shieldefender)
How to play:
Move left and right to stop the falling debris from hitting your power generator. Supports WASD/Arrows/Controller
Tools Used:
- Unity
- TextMeshPro
- Photoshop
- Blender
- Audacity
- Music was generated programatically at jukedeck.com
Notes:
This is my first game jam, AND first completed game.
Basically everything leaves a lot to be desired, but I am still pretty happy with the fact that I was able to finish. If I had more time, I would gotten some sort of background put in, as well as tried for better sounds. I wanted to implement a powerup mechanic, but wasn't able to get that going.
Screens:


| Windows | https://realryanrogers.itch.io/ld39shieldefender |
| Source code | https://realryanrogers.itch.io/ld39shieldefender |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/shield-defender |
Ratings
| Overall | 586th | 2.75⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 388th | 3.042⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 632th | 2.167⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 574th | 2.875⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 349th | 3.167⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 224th | 3.13⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 477th | 2.591⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 34🗳️ | 13🗨️ |
I will try this game out tomorrow, I have to go now but will come back here and let you know what I think. Until then :-)
P.S.
If the game wasn't meant to be humorous, it is possible to opt out of the category.
Also, on itch.io, tag the game as a ld submission and send the url of the ld submission page so players playing on itch.io can see your ld page.
Lastly, give your game a thumbnail. The thumbnail is the only one input field where you can put just one image. The guy above my comment mentioned this too.
I definitely think I spent a bit too much time polishing little features in the middle, instead of expanding and making the game a bit more fun. A good lesson for next time, at the very least!
Good job!
I actually really like the graphics and background music. However, I also found the game to be unfair in that your shield has to be on one side to block debris, but then another piece will fall on the opposite side, rendering it impossible to block.
You could remedy this in a number of ways, such as slowing down the debris, making the shield faster, or only allowing debris to spawn a certain distance away from the shield. You could also have a sort of dash mechanic that allows you to very quickly move your shield, but the dash power is limited and must regenerate.
Aside from that, good luck on future projects!
The randomness in the debris creates impossible situations. Ideally you could be able, with perfect reflexes, to catch everything but in my first game I tried to catch a slow falling rock while a later one caught up to it on the other end of the screen and they hit almost simultaneously. I was ready to quit at that moment but kept going and the next runs did not have that problem, but then it happened again. More constraints on the randomness would be appropriate. Like in the donkey kong arcade game, random things happen and it is super hard but if you have the right skill set, you can manage to get all the way to the kill screen without losing a single mario. Your game is just impossible due to the randomness.
A technical problem: your story font does not have enough contrast to the background to be readable. A different font type and another color would have been easier on the eyes.
This is still a solid game, I know my rant is long but it was just to make some points so you can improve them next time. The controls are nice and I still enjoyed playing it so I am looking forward to your next games, thank you and keep up the good work!
I really appreciated that you made the game more thematic. The falling objects looked like debris, the paddle had exhausts to represent flying and moving, and the ground looked like a station. Definitely needs a lot of polish, of course.
Hope to see your entry next time!
I'll contribute with the stated gameplay problem. Sometimes you just can't get all the debries. There are a variety of solutions to this. One whould be to control better the randomness, but you could also have a spetial skill that helped you get the hard ones. If that skill is limited, you'll have a nice gameplay choice!
What is done incorrectly is balancing. After short while it tends to be very hard to catch rocks and you eventually die extremely fast, I'd like more if there was some goal and you could win the game.
Congratulations on making a game!
Looking forward to see your entry next time!
The concept is really simple, but you managed to do it, so that's great !
It's sometimes hard to get some rocks, but that's life.
Maybe you should add some power ups to make the game more interesting (like extra size, extra speed or whateve's!)
Good entry :)