Hey!

Good job. I can definitely tell it's not finished :P but for a 2 day job its good stuff.

Some notes:
- It took me a minute to realise I could shoot (i was spamming the mouse button)
- My own shooting felt awful and weak and slow. I suspect there will be upgrades to the gun though, in which case making me weak and pathetic to start is fine.
- It wasn't obvious what 'level' and 'wave' meant. I got through several waves according to the counter, but it didnt feel like I have 'survived a wave' as there was no kind of break.

The good:
- Control is great. Not sure what you are talking about calling it chaotic, i think it's smooth and i feel in total control. Hide the mouse cursor if you can find out how.
- The idea of upgrades in a game like this is a good concept.

GOOD JOB <3

I suggest you build for webgl if possible, you will get more players that way.
Check out my entry if you have time,
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/a-couple-of-questions-volume-ii-small-business-small-world

@stoogebag

Thank you for your response.

Based on your feedback i added WebGL version, where the cursor does not show. I meant to fix the cursor before, but i totally forgot about it. There is still a bug that could be fixed changing one line of code, where shots of enemy ships disappear when you destroy them, but i don't want to upload the game again.

I also added a small explanation of mechanics to the game page, hope that's enough.

I liked the upgrade system and how you could upgrade different parts of the ship. Some audio would have been great. With some new sprites and more gameplay elements, this game could be something really great. Still, it is really fun to play in this current version.

For a 2 day time period, this is not bad at all! I liked how frantic the action occasionally got when there were many bullets flying on the screen - that combined with the easy-to-mess up mouse movement made this quite fun for me! Also liked the upgrade system.

All in all, this is a solid entry!

The game is fun -- I think you made a really interesting decision to go with mouse movement and WASD aiming which gives the game a much more twitch feeling as opposed to more traditional twin-stick shooters. There is also a fun decision to be made in upgrading the 4 sides of your ship differently. I ended up making my right side all around, top mostly fire-rate and left mostly damage and speed (didn't upgrade bottom).

Unfortunately, the lack of audio, relatively basic graphics and overall theme I can't score as highly. I suggest you opt out of some of the categories (like audio) since I don't think you really intend to be scored on them anyway.

Some suggestions: Like I mentioned I liked the upgrade system, but since you have full mouse control over your spaceship its not terribly difficult to make sure your 'good side' is facing the enemies. Maybe you could make the upgrades more in utility -- like spread shot, laser, bomb/aoe, ect. This means that given different situations you might want to use different weapon types which requires you put the enemies on other sides of your ship.

Overall, its a fun game -- thanks for making it :)

Interesting mechanics, not enough star background

Sound effects needed! Even basic "beep" sounds might have been a great plus (e.g bfxr/sfxr)

Good sales pitch you got there! I always wanted to play something like that! :smile:

Seriously though, this is a really cool game. The controls are good, the goal is clear from the beginning, green is good, red is bad. I just wish I could shoot a bit faster. :smiley:

Soundeffects would've really helped this game though, just a little blip or something when I get hit or I hit something else. But still a good entry, I really like it and I would play a post Ludum Dare version of this! :smile:

Congrats on finishing your first Ludum Dare! Looks like you've already got some good feedback, I think for me faster moving bullets would've made the biggest difference

That was certainly interesting. The controls felt fine to me, but the player's starting bullet speed is way too low. I might have been better off making a "good side," but some part of me wanted to obsessively make sure my upgrades were symmetrical. The enemy behavior is just complex enough to make them interesting opponents, but it's super easy to get blindsided by one of the asteroids while trying to focus on the actual enemy. The upgrade system is well done. I like the way the wave/checkpoint system works, but I'm not sure how much I like having both checkpoint heals and regenerating health. It sounds redundant on paper, but in actual gameplay it seems to work fine. Good work!

I really enjoyed this. It was easy to look past the missing audio and simple graphics and see the really fun skill game. You should be proud of this. The upgrades were great! The difficulty curve felt just right to me. I'm actually sad that I have to stop playing now (level 8) and go home!

You know what? I think this game is actually enjoyable like it is right now!

I started playing without reading the instructions and this is what I thought:
* the controls are intuitive and quite clear, I knew I could shoot because I saw your cover image with green bullets and it took me relatively small time to understand that WASD is the way, since the ship as a 4-way shape that's very clear
* I felt the shoot rate and speed of the bullets was way too slow, and after dying a couple of times I thought "this game would be cool if I could buy upgrades for the weapons" then I noticed I could click on the cannons in the purchase screen and I was super happy!
* the game is not very unbalanced as you advertised, I want my money back! Jokes aside, the only thing that I find unfair is that the enemies can aim at me instead of shooting just horizontal or vertical
* actually you could sell the basicness of the game as a feature, and implement something like Evoland does and let the players decide if they prefer being strong or with cool appearance buy buying upgrades

Great job!

It's an interesting twist on the twin stick shooter genre. The bullet hell in the later stages was somewhat enjoyable at first, but it just gets too samey too quickly! But nice job :)

I liked the input scheme you chose. As has been mentioned, sfx and faster shooting would make this a lot more immersive.