ROGER THE DODGER by unfinished
A game about getting the hell out of there :)
Controls
Arrow keys - move
Space - enter level / bullet time (once available)
Ctrl - dash (once available)
| HTML5 (web) | https://mrmasterbit.itch.io/roger-the-dodger-postjam-edition |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/roger-the-dodger |
Ratings
| Overall | 582th | 3.396⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 609th | 3.208⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1081th | 2.604⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 646th | 3.438⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 834th | 3.063⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 766th | 2.238⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 650th | 3.068⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 31🗳️ | 14🗨️ |
I gave it several tries (more than is good for my mood! ;) ), in the end trying to look for some of the perks mentioned in the intro, but even with bullet-time the game is very hard.
Every now and then some objects move vertically and very fast, making it nearly impossible to dodge.
To make it work on people like me:
More rewards, no unfair vertical enemies and more possibilities to act (maybe you have added them, but also hid them well ;) )
The fast moving objects are comets. They are really nearly impossible to dodge, which is why you get a warning system at some point, marking areas of comets coming through :)
I didn't catch any bug (Mozilla Firefox), everything went smoothly. The only thing I may have noticed is a big of "lagginess" when you go on the left but it may be just me or the web browser I use.
Even for a no-skill gamer like me the game was playable and quite fun. The red screen as feedback is a good idea and goes well with the concept / setting.
The graphics, musics and sounds are nice.
As others said, some reward for going fast / not getting hit could help the "dynamism" of the game. Maybe a "Try Again" could reduce a bit the frustration?
Anyway, nice job! :)
@ogma There are a lot of good tips there :), thanks! We will probably work on that frustration issue. It is really a hard thing, because I don't want the win handed out to the player to easily. Yesterday I played 6 times and won only 3, but those 3 times my heart was really pumping :D. So I was very frustrated 3 times, but that was already forgotten the second I've beaten this asshole game :). What is not ok is, if you are playing good and getting stopped unfairly. So what I will look into is the amount and speed of comets. If you play good, you should earn enough shield points until you have the warning system though.
Thanks for the feedback again!
If you didn't read it, there is a well known and pretty interesting book named [The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3396933-the-art-of-game-design) talking (between other things) about how to "calibrate" Boredom / Frustration / etc, [here's an excerpt](https://books.google.fr/books?id=ePcYCwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA209&ots=jRrUk39Tvc&dq=art%20of%20game%20design%20frustration&hl=fr&pg=PA141#v=onepage&q&f=false).
If you make a v2, don't hesitate to notify, I'll gladly take another shot at it if I have the time. o/
a lot of things were completely reworked. hope you like it ^^
You did a great job here!
Especially the replenishing shields and the possibility to retry after crashing did wonders to the fun and motivation!
I like the music.
Using the bomb gives some time to relax and breath and in combination with the bullet time there is really some room for strategy ;)
The information about the powers at the bottom screen are a bit too small and whenever I use the bomb i have even more problems reading them.
Maybe you could place them at a more prominent spot and increase its size and/or contrast?
If you manage to fill the world with some more story (e.g. when visiting the other space stations) and maybe add things like the possibility to collect items/resources/scrap and upgrade the ship somehow and altogether increase the game duration (I managed to finish it in about 15 Min) this game will become really fun :)
Thanks for improving and letting me play! :)
Was fun for a while. I didn't finish it and some of the parts were frustrating... rows moving at the same speed together are tough to get through.
It was challenging though.
Something about the randomness made it a bit repetitive. Maybe some different zones, like an asteroid belt with a slightly different mechanic just so it changes the pacing up a bit.
I can see this as fun for a while and I like that there are different levels.
Good game, thanks for making this!
About the story: Have you read the teletext after each level? Maybe I need to work more on the presentation of the story :)