backSpace-X by omercanbalandi

I completed my first Game Jam entry! I made a simple endless space shooter game and i hope to make more creative game next time.


HOW TO PLAY
You should survive as long as you can.Every wave that you reach is going to be harder than previous one.When you kill an enemy they drop some scraps.You can heal yourself and upgrade your weapon with them.
CONTROLS
WASD to move
SPACE to fire
P to purchase upgrade to your weapon
H to purchase +HP to yourself
TOOLS I USED
Source Editing: Visual Studio Code
Language: HTML5/Javascript with p5.js library
Graphics: Aseprite and Photoshop
Music: Rytmik Studio
Sound FX: SFXR
SOURCE CODE: https://github.com/obsfx/ld42-backspace-x
BUG FIX
*background music loop issue when you playing second time
*warning text positioning issue
*initializing multiple event listeners for purchasing
| HTML5 (web) | https://obsfx.github.io/backspacex |
| Source code | https://github.com/obsfx/ld42-backspace-x/archive/master.zip |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/backspace-x |
Ratings
| Overall | 456th | 3.226⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 299th | 3.357⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 699th | 2.195⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 692th | 2.417⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 381th | 3.202⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 189th | 3.31⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 450th | 1.97⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 436th | 2.789⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 50🗳️ | 14🗨️ |
Overall, great job!
On each of my playthroughs, I noticed serious framedrops starting slightly after I was able to buy the first weapon upgrades. My computer is fairly old, but I think that you might have a memory leak somewhere. Definitely a bummer because I was really enjoying it up to that point
- Where's the theme? It feels like it was made completely independent of the theme?
- The player's hit box is too big, often it feels like you're hit without seeing how.
- There's little anticipation for the enemy's shots, and combined with their speed, dodging them feels unsatisfactory. If the enemy looks like they're about to shoot before shooting it makes dodging more interesting.
- There's little visual association between the scrap number and the costs for upgrading - forcing the player to look to the left then right then work out if they have enough for an upgrade is unsatisfying. Giving them the "not enough scraps" feedback also takes them away from the action where they should be focusing. There should be a big light that lights up to say "ready for upgrade" on either of the upgrade types that make it easy to see at a very quick glance what's possible right now.
- The icons for the weapons feel unnecessary? There's no communication value or gameplay in what the icon looks like. I wouldn't even know if it actually changed... I don't know if it actually changed.
But i am missing the theme here, is it the rocks ? or did i just make that for you :japanese_goblin: ? this is 6 :clap:s.
I felt as though I played one of those arcade shooters from back in the day. Once I figured the controls out, I just couldn't stop playing. The whole thing is very satisfying.
It's very easy for a shooter like this though, which is honestly just a little bit disappointing. The hitboxes seem pretty weird as well.
The music was pretty interesting.
My only complaint is that it doesn't have a leaderboard to save the scores. I mean, that's one of the most important things for an arcade shooter!
Keep it up, I loved this game.
It is perhaps a bit slow to ramp up - it did get harder pretty quickly, but I fell into a loop of saving up some scraps, then using like half of those for a health refill over and over again. The initial pea shooter is frustrating but I guess that's the point, and it gets much more fun after a few weapons upgrades.
Some more feedback (explosions!) when shooting enemies or getting hit yourself would make it a lot more satisfying as well.
Technical feedback: I am not sure if this only happened to me, or if it's something that needs actual work. But the game got really laggy somewhere after the first two - three upgrades. It felt like there was maybe an issue with objects not getting cleared out or something, but I don't know. Tried it 3 times and it happened always around the same point in the game.
Aside from that (which may be a problem on my end or could be fixed pretty fast) I really like the mood and style of the game. Well done!
• The hitbox for the player's ship is way too big, and can get damaged from too far away. In general, in bullet hell games at least, the player's hitbox is often even smaller than the visible sprite, which makes the gameplay feel "just right"
• The player's gun should be in the middle of the ship, not off to the bottom. It just feels harder to fight off enemies that way, especially if you're trying to shoot at an enemy while rising up
• Enemies shouldn't shoot the second they spawn in, creating a 'wave' of bullets. Try randomizing the timers a little!
I really enjoyed the music and sfx, and the artwork was also pleasant and properly space-y.
Some feedback to consider:
- I'm not particularly fond of how much text is taking up space at the top, I would've liked less and larger/reactive text, especially for my scrap and HP. It was difficult to know where I was at in terms of either at a glance, and if I could upgrade.
- The difficulty seemed to operate on more of a cliff than a curve: too many enemies/asteroids too quickly, with too slow of a shot interval at too low damage, with movespeed much slower than enemy projectiles make the first few minutes very difficult, and the following few very easy after some upgrades.
- Some enemies on the edges of the screen (particularly the top) were impossible to hit, due to a too-large hitbox for the player. I'd recommend sizing it down to just _inside_ the player sprite in the future.
Overall, I think this is a very solid entry, and I'm glad that you're going to participate going forward! :smile: