Polar Protector by AlexHoratio
Polar Protector is an action shooter where the player has the power to absorb elements from their surroundings in order to defend their planet.
There are three types of enemies which are invading your planet; water, sand and earth. You must shoot these enemies with their corresponding elements to destroy them.
You can shoot using the space bar, absorb elements with the F key and move with either the arrow keys or WASD - though the arrow keys are recommended.
Good luck! Get the source code as well as the executables for Windows, Mac and Linux on Gamejolt below!
NOTE: Since it's not particularly clear, the enemies will start to deal damage to your planet once they are near the poles. This is the secret behind the "damage" number on the top-left. ;)
- LINK: http://gamejolt.com/games/polar_protector/251600
- TIMELAPSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__q-WFoLeI
Ratings
| Overall | 126th | 3.696⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 77th | 3.739⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 165th | 3.435⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 91th | 3.891⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 235th | 3.391⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 133th | 3.378⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 203th | 2.816⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 197th | 3.293⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 13🗳️ | 51🗨️ |
I really love the concept & design of the game. And the music went well with it. Thoroughly enjoyable. Well done! :thumbsup:
Thank you! Yeah, I agree that I should have made the health bit a bit more clear. Basically, if the aliens/eggs/avocados/rocks touch the poles, they begin to deal damage to the planet.
@avavt
There *should* be a "Best:" field on the in-game UI which serves as a high-score counter, though if it's not working... oh dear. Thank you so much for playing, though!
This is a great game. Simple to pick it up instantly, yet has a more complex mechanic, intuitive (Everything's quite clear after the first fail: when to switch elements, what makes you lose health etc) and nice visually. You even did the screen shake effect I failed to produce in my entry :)
For me it's not missing anything. Great job, saving for the voting sime!
Cheers!
Thank you so much! I do love Godot, it's especially good for prototyping which comes in very handy for Ludum Dare. I'm really glad you enjoyed my submission, though!!
Great game - once I re-read your instructions above and learned about the F key - it made more sense! Music and sound fit the game very well. Very enjoyable.
Nice entry!
One thing you could add is having the enemies show up on the mini-map in the top right. That might make it a bit easy though.
Thank you!! I'm glad, I did a few iterations of the music and I am definitely relieved to know it came out well!
@move127
Thank you!
@veralos
Thanks so much! Yeah, I was planning on having the enemies show up as blips on the minimap, but the time constraints were a bit too tight for that! ^^
Quick and technically competent, yet the gameplay left me cold.
In the end you cannot keep up with the increasing amount of enemies as the two monuments are, indeed, on the polar opposite sides of the planet. I'd much rather have a single point to defend and ultimately succumb to the enemy hordes than lose due to the fact that I simply cannot be in two places at once.
The enemies are rather anemic too, after all they don't attack you directly. This gravely limits any kind of evasive action potential. It is all just too simple really.
So, yeah. Not a lot of positive thing to say beyond the craftsmanship. No bugs either, that's mighty fine.
and simple but fun mechanics. Took me a while how to absorb other elements but after that it was awesome :smile:
Still hearing the soundtrack, really catchy. Oh and cool time laps btw.
Well done!
I would usually expect this to be a game about finding the enemy's weakness, but using the enemy's own element worked really well and was really intuitive!!
The way that your health works doesn't seem all that intuitive... I only understood it after reading your note. Perhaps, if the enemies played a little sound effect and the particle effect were less subtle (like, small explosion when they deal damage) it would be more noticeable.
Congratulations on an amazing game!
One thing that was kinda confusing for me that the game just started without any kind of explanation inside the game (a small tutorial would have been nice), also like others mentioned it wasn't fully clear what was causing the damage
Overall really great work with your ludumDare entry :)
Graphics were simple, but did their job. Sounds were nice and the music catching. Good work, and congrats on your first Ludum Dare.
One thing that confused me is the "bullet penetration". I'm not sure how many layers of unrelated enemies a bullet can go through before disappearing, it seems to vary. A bit more consistency there would make all the mechanics much tighter.
As for graphics, I'm still not sure what those sprinkler menirs are.
High score: 147
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zRarn8yrg
Our review:
**PROS**
- Hectic and challenging gameplay
- Good balancing
- Awesome messages pop-up as we increase our score :D
**CONS**
- If even Nikola Tesla can't repel the attack, who can??