Certainly a very interesting concept for the game -- it's engaging while simple to play, and the player benefits from forming more complex strategies. I think it could be improved by making it a bit more interactable -- the first two waves can be defeated by the AI and the usage of the sacrificial attack can sometimes seem like it's best for scenarios in which that ship is certain to be lost already

I actually enjoyed this one! Good job on concentrating on engaging gameplay!

Very interesting concept. It certainly is a fun game, and it's actually quite hard! Great job.

Whoa, really nice! I like autonomous units in games and watching the gif above really sold the game to me. It felt that the beginning was the hardest bit - after wave 4 or so I started getting enough new ships that I could destroy my entire fleet and still be fine later (in fact, I did beat one wave without any ships left; I like that that can be done). The larger alien ships destroy my units so fast that later on it becomes a bit frustrating to try to find the correctly-facing small ship before it's decimated; having a slightly higher capability of steering the smallest ships could help a lot. Still, very solid! I liked the bip-bip-bip sound of counting my remaining fleet after a battle :D

Nice game! Keep up the good work! (:

Clever! I like the idea of choosing when to throw one of your own ships into the trash in order to save the others. Couldn't always tell when it was the right time, but I sort of figured it out. Excellent sprites and fine audio as well. Good show.

Cool take on the theme! I love the indirect control scheme, and the art is understated by effective.

I found things pretty unforgiving while I was getting the hang of things - having the earlier levels ease in a bit more would make the game more accessible I think.

Really cool! I played this game on stream, if you're interested in a live reaction! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/345179013 (1 hour 5 minutes in)

Great game! Good learning curve, easy controls and plenty of room to expand if you choose to build it further. Well done, thank you for making it!

That was fun and challenging, really good job. Everything is smart and well done, impressive.

Awesome pixel art and very fun and hard gameplay! Good approach of the theme!

Good job! Fun and challenging game play, and the art is very well-done. Also, I don't know why but I thought this game was called "Onion Force" for a concerningly long time.

An interesting game with a kind of mechanics. I put a rating) Please rating and me, thanks in advance)

Nice game! Pretty hard, but very fun to play! Very innovative use of the theme

Very cool. Just needs some tweaking so I cant let AI do all the work on first two waves :) But I really like the gameplay overall. Everything else is at least decent. Fun and liked the challenge and different attacks after the intital level.

Very well done! This has a great look and feel, with very nice sounds and little polish details like the surviving ships tallying up at the end. It feels like a nice complete package.

The core design idea is showcased well. You can play but you get wrecked if you don't use the main idea. I did sac my last ship by accident straight into gameover once, but hey that was dumb! I didn't do it again.

I never got past wave 7. I especially liked the small fighters. They could really score a powerful blow against the enemy in the ideal case, but it was quite tough to capitalize on them. A lot of them went screaming VALHALLA into the void and didn't bring down even one enemy. Others would absolutely wreck way about their own value alive. This was a nice mix.

I found it pretty tricky to set up these moments, due to the somewhat unpredictable turning of the ships. I had to more seize opportunities as they presented themselves, as opposed to manufacturing them, or so it felt at my skill level anyway. It was a bit beyond me to monitor the whole fight and instantly react to these windows of opportunity, so I never managed to get past fight 7, I think.

Overall a very nice entry, well done!

Thank you all so much for playing!

I had absolutely intended on having more control over your fleet, like being able to buy more ships between waves with a currency, or pick buffs, etc. But, you know, time getting away and all :)

@carlpilot Yes, the first two levels can basically autopilot, they were intended to allow players time to figure out the game before it required more serious play. Though you can make use of the target picking to reduce losses even then.

@pkenney Wave 8 is the last wave in progression, after that it just repeats wave 8 as you most likely run out of ships each wave. So you got close to the end :)

The Galaga theme plays in my head each time a round starts. This combat is quite awesome, though it's a bit annoying how the small fighters just turn around when they're close to their target. Took a couple tries to pass wave 3, which is kind of a barrier to the rest of the levels, and would always die at around wave 7. I played further while writing this comment, and realized the insane range of the fighter kamikaze and got up to wave 9.

The only problem I have with this game, is that the ships can act pretty stupidly, giving a slight RNG-to-win feeling, and it's easy to accidentally sacrifice an entire destroyer instead of the fighter beside it. The challenge I found here was finding the right opportunity to wipe out 3 frigates with a single fighter, which can completely turn the tide of the battle. It feels kind of like landing a meatshot in TF2.

Audio here is the best example of how to use sfxr properly. No sounds are overused, and fit very nicely with what is happening; such as the charge up->explosion, and small details like the increasing pitch of the beeps when counting ships after a round. Some ambient music could have been nice.

This is one of my favourite compo entries so far. Concept is memorable and perfectly fits the theme, amazing work.