Battery Pack by shashwat

Leon is stranded on the planet Jupiter! His battery has very limited power, and he can't travel without his jetpack. Help him get to each level's transporter without running out of battery. There are lots of charging points that can be used to fill your battery, but beware the evil Jovians who will try to eat Leon!
Links
- Web: https://shashwat986.github.io/LD39-Power/
- Source: https://github.com/Shashwat986/LD39-Power/
| Source code | https://github.com/Shashwat986/LD39-Power/ |
| HTML5 (web) | https://shashwat986.github.io/LD39-Power/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/battery-pack |
Ratings
| Overall | 607th | 2.667⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 487th | 2.821⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 586th | 2.4⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 210th | 3.725⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 588th | 2.325⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 491th | 2.026⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 236th | 2.634⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 543th | 2.41⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 21🗨️ |
My only comment would be that diagonal movement uses up your energy twice as quickly - presumably because your code is subtracting energy for both inputs. This means you end up moving vertically and horizontally only. Of course, that may be the intention, if so then ignore this :)
Great job, well done!
I think it's very funny, I like the music and the graphics, very creative and amusing =]
One thing to note though -mathematically it's really great to move in diagonals since it's the same fuel but longer distance [in orthogonal 2d: sqrt(x^2 + y^2)]. Except for this imbalance it's a cool little entry :D
Predictability is a big thing - as it goes on it becomes less predictable, and that just becomes less interesting. Randomly getting struck by a randomly directed shot is no fun when the whole game seems to be about working out patterns.
Also feel like the current control scheme isn't a good fit for the gameplay - what if you controlled the player by clicking somewhere and he'll walk towards it? That makes the movement more predictable and more complex dodging can happen. The current movement can work but it just is too fast to control with much finesse.
The narration is a cute touch :)
The bad: The music got repetitive pretty quickly. Mixing it up a little more would've gone a long ways.
Overall, this is a nice little game. Congrats!
Takeaways:
* I'll work on making the music better (longer before it repeats)
* I'll make the shooting more predictable.
* I'll add more animation in the graphics. At least they should turn when you're moving in a different direction.
Comments:
* I think using Manhattan distance [Getting to (X, Y) costs X+Y] is something I will stick to. It's easier to think of this from the point of view of a puzzle game
* If everyone loves the die screens so much, I'll add more art/variability there to make them even better.
- Having to start right back from level 1 after dying is not so fun because you then have to spend too much time doing something you've already done. Randomly fired bullets mitigate this a little bit because the challenge is slightly different but randomness itself tends to lessen the puzzle effect of a game because it makes it less solvable. I'm not saying that the player shouldn't lose any progress at all for failure, but reducing those consequences a little bit makes a game much more enjoyable for most.
- Consumable charging stations didn't mean much when there isn't a need to back track. Maybe if you required the player to pick up a key before going to a portal you can have the player explore more of your puzzle and give consumable stations more meaning.
- Blue bullets that freeze you have very little effect on how you solve each puzzle. Getting hit by one rarely requires you to change your course of action because it has no effect on your battery power. One suggestion might be to have bullets that push you back a little bit when hit. It's already been said but the bullets should be more noticeable and a little slower so the player has time to make decisions.
- Alternate means of movement (doesn't necessarily have to be originating from the player's abilities, it could be environmental or enemy-driven effects like suggested earlier) can spice up your puzzles quite a bit.