A Thirst For Power by bobsleigh

made by bobsleigh for LD 39 (JAM)

Description:

Leticia is out to free the world from the fascist oppression of Superadmiral Kleido and his henchmen. They are running out of power and it's time to deal the final blow.

Fight your way throught 3 bosses in this action-packed topdown shooter! Your electric gun will need recharging, don't forget to step on those glowing power pads.

The game was made in python using the pygame library.

Controls:

LEFT CLICK: Fire Weapon

WASD or Arrows: Movement

We added a macOs version. You will need XQuartz to run it (https://www.xquartz.org). We also added a Linux version. Note that it is untested. Please tell us if you have any issue running it.

Have fun, and be sure to leave a comment!

Changelog

We updated the macOs version to hopefully fix the crash that happened at the beginning of the third boss. Try it out!

Windows	https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8kGidnvGZKNY1RudWphTTRZMk0/view?usp=sharing
macOS	https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8kGidnvGZKNcExBYzRpUTMwNTg
Linux	https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8kGidnvGZKNdXBvb0F6MHZIcms
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/a-thirst-for-power

Ratings

Overall	288^th	3.566⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Fun	118^th	3.736⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	530^th	2.887⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Theme	387^th	3.528⭐	55🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	549^th	3.185⭐	56🧑‍⚖️
Audio	134^th	3.7⭐	22🧑‍⚖️
Humor	208^th	3⭐	53🧑‍⚖️
Mood	357^th	3.333⭐	50🧑‍⚖️
Given		50🗳️	55🗨️

Feedback

DeadMoon

01. Aug 2017 · 00:39 UTC

This is pretty badass! Dreetus is kicking my butt though!

Larxinostic

01. Aug 2017 · 01:37 UTC

Fabulous. Unlike "Git Gud" DeadMoon, I deftly 1CC'd. Righteous~ ;D

kazik_210

01. Aug 2017 · 03:28 UTC

Nice game it reminds the old flash games. Nice graphics style and audio. Fight with Billy could be harder though.

TheBlondeBass

01. Aug 2017 · 03:37 UTC

Glad you liked it! The fight against Billy is a tutorial, we just wanted to make sure people knew how the charging mechanic worked even if they didn't read instructions :)

hoogmin

01. Aug 2017 · 03:38 UTC

The game was a lot of fun. This game actually gave me a legit challenge so you deserve some praise for that.

Kurangceret

01. Aug 2017 · 03:43 UTC

Nicely done game. One personal complaint: Due to how the art style seems to indicate 3rd person view in 2d top down game, the collision can be inconsistent and sometimes too big for the art style the game is trying to achieve

josehzz

01. Aug 2017 · 04:11 UTC

I like it, the second boss is really hard. You guys should add camera shakes and please fix the colissions sometimes I thought I was safe from bullets but it seemed like it didn't collide with the wall

Jason200101

01. Aug 2017 · 05:17 UTC

I like it! Nice graphics, great story, lots of small details, like the paintings in the walls not being all the same, and your sprite changing as your health goes down!

This is a very well made game!

DrewG8

01. Aug 2017 · 17:43 UTC

A bit of a steep difficulty curve, but its a great game with smooth controls and expressive characters. Good job!

LittleLegend

01. Aug 2017 · 23:29 UTC

Cool Topdown Shooter and i like the focus on Boss battles. Its hard too, but doable :)

P-Dude

02. Aug 2017 · 00:33 UTC

Great job! I'd love to see what you guys would come up with for more bosses, these were unique and appropriately challenging! There's a lot to play with with the "stand here to gain energy/ammo" mechanic. Small things I noticed: music reseets going in/out of 'how to play,' energy doesn't drain in the in between segments (maybe just restrict shooting?) and it's unclear when the final boss is actually going to shoot, it seemed random. Awesome submission!

superpokeunicorn

02. Aug 2017 · 01:10 UTC

This game is pretty neat. A lot of games are doing the whole "limited charge, go here to recharge" thing, but I feel that it works well here because it limits your mobility while dodging projectiles, so it actually blends well with the game's bullet hell mechanics. I will say that the first boss is very easy and repetitive, and the second boss is a rather large difficulty spike, but not unmanageable. Overall, this is a pretty solid entry.

Karai17

02. Aug 2017 · 01:11 UTC

Player's hitbox seemed too big. Otherwise, fun little shooter :)

Sebastian-M

02. Aug 2017 · 01:20 UTC

This game is awesome!!! It so much fun to play and the energy gun mechanic is really cool.

### Positive:

- The game looks and plays great.
- It's so much fun to choot the enemies.
- The mechanic to charge up your gun are quite fun.
- Really like the comments between scenes.
- The enemies do different attacks which stop it from feeling repetitive.

### Negative:

- The second guy is too OP, I mean the first enemy is easy to beat and the second is almost impossible.

But great job guys!!

mateusmp

02. Aug 2017 · 01:39 UTC

Great game! Its only boss based, but the mechanics applied for all bosses are different and that made the game enjoyable until the end! The last boss was kinda hard! I think that the player bounding box could be reduced a little so it's not exactly the same size of the player.
The graphics are very clean and look good!

mattmirrorfish

02. Aug 2017 · 01:58 UTC

My 7 and 8 year old say: "You guys rock!" and they didn't want to stop playing. Great work, you've earned yourselves some fans over here. My only critique was that maybe the enemies could have a bit less health, and that the bullets could be a little bigger and a little easier to see. Great work!

Bill Zeng

02. Aug 2017 · 02:57 UTC

Yeah! I always said we needed more games that allows me to beat up Billy!
Really fun game, love pixel art, controls are great, also pretty challenging
I don't know if its the game or my toaster of a computer but it crashes on the last boss fight :( (I'm on mac btw)

ModalModule

02. Aug 2017 · 19:08 UTC

Fun stuff! Only a couple things I would mention and all related to the last boss: there is no way of telling when he or the sentries are about to fire, something like a glint in his eye, or the sentries lighting up just before attacking would be great, otherwise it's a bit unfair. Also, it so happens his power bar was THE EXACT SAME COLOR as the rug, which lines up with it quite often while running around, thus making it impossible to know how much health he has left. I still beat it though! haha

Felipe Osório

03. Aug 2017 · 03:13 UTC

Great game! There were a lot of mechanics unique to each boss which kept the game from being boring, altough the second boss wass to much OP, maybe add more recharge tiles on this level?

Dolash

03. Aug 2017 · 04:36 UTC

Great job! Loved the running-and-gunning, and the three bosses ramped up in difficulty in a satisfying way. You made the most of a straightforward mechanic. The style and character were fun and well-made, controls were solid, not much else to say. If there was more time it would've been cool to see more levels, maybe regular enemies, but given the restrictions it makes sense to keep it to a couple boss fights that convey the core idea well.

It's only too bad that our hero, Leticia, is doomed to succumb to her own thirst for power - having overthrown the superadmiral, she may find the will to power as irresistable as he did, only to start the whole vicious cycle over again. I look forward to Thirst For Power 2: Sisyphean Futility at LD40!

rEaX

03. Aug 2017 · 05:20 UTC

It was great fun to fight those bosses. GJ!

superpokeunicorn

03. Aug 2017 · 23:54 UTC

I agree with some other people who are saying that the second boss is a bit of a difficulty spike, but I really like the design of the second boss. I think the way he moves around the room and occasionally covers up the charging station in the middle of the room is really smart and makes you have to consider positioning. That in combination with the bullet hell going on makes him the most dynamic boss of the bunch. In an ideal world, there would be another boss in between the first and second bosses, but I understand the limitation of the time constraints. Still, that didn't really take away from my overall enjoyment of the game.

Also, @nalia1991, I responded to your comment on my game's page.

balthatrix

04. Aug 2017 · 05:44 UTC

Great game! I was really getting into it. My heart was pumping on that second boss. Very satisfying bullet hell you have here.

Problem is, the game crashed right when I entered the door for the third boss? It was in the hall after beating the second. My platform is Mac if that helps.

hunttis

04. Aug 2017 · 07:15 UTC

Nice work! I liked the controls, musics and the general feel of it all, I guess you guys have a fondness for Furi, like I do? :D

The second boss was super hard, I think partly because sometimes I felt I was getting hit a bit unfairly (maybe make the hitbox a bit smaller than the character).

Still, I enjoyed this a lot, although playing with a trackpad increased to the difficulty quite a bit :D

Simone

04. Aug 2017 · 18:31 UTC

Would that be possible to export also for html5?

Epono

04. Aug 2017 · 21:15 UTC

Really nice work, didn't expect to enjoy myself as much as I did!

A couple of things though :
- You should consider increasing the size of the pointer. With that many projectiles on the screen, it's easy to lose track of it.
- The last boss is quite challenging, but also a bit unfair. Unless I missed it, you can't know when a tower or the boss is going to shoot.

Other than that, great game!

PeachTreeOath

05. Aug 2017 · 08:23 UTC

Any chance this game drew inspiration from Furi? I loved the pace of the game. Just a boss fight followed by a small amount of exposition while you got some rest for the next fight. 2nd boss is designed extremely well, I only had a sliver by the time I beat him. Also, while writing this comment, I still have the title screen theme playing in the bg purposely. Such a great song that doesn't get as much play as it deserves since its title only.

Captain Laserstorm

05. Aug 2017 · 13:58 UTC

This game is really fun! I love the power mechanic, which added a whole extra layer of difficulty to the second boss. Unfortunately though, the game still crashes at the beginning of the third boss. This game is really fun though, and I would love to play the final boss when it's fixed. :)

FelixMcFelix

05. Aug 2017 · 19:37 UTC

Very fun twist on twin-stick shooters, particularly mixing in bullet-hell elements. I liked the delicate risk/reward balance when I needed to put myself in harm's way to recharge my power, although I think it'd be a little fairer if you made the recharge spots blink red or something before they move.

I'm impressed that you managed to get such a variety of music into the game, I guess they were composed around each boss's aesthetic or personality (which was pretty neat). I had a lot of fun with this one, great work! :smile:

TheBlondeBass

06. Aug 2017 · 04:36 UTC

Two people mentionned Furi, and while nobody mentionned Furi while we brainstormed this game (I have no idea if my team members even played that game haha) I definitely see parallels! I actually really like Furi... Maybe adding a melee attack would have been a fun addition to this game too.

diptoman

07. Aug 2017 · 07:57 UTC

I like how the game has mashed contra and bullet hells together! The dialogues give us an insight to the character as well. The bosses are challenging. It took me 3 tries to take down the 2nd boss, but the third(last?) was super hard with his lasers XD

Entertaining game!

paracatgames

07. Aug 2017 · 22:35 UTC

Great job with this! Very fun and very impressive in Python!

Nekonemo

08. Aug 2017 · 20:40 UTC

I think I love everything in this game, the art and the music are great. And the difficulty of the game is perfect. How you managed to make the enemies move to force the player to move is amazing. A very good game.

EdwinGameDev

10. Aug 2017 · 02:48 UTC

Wow great game! I felt like i was in snes f-zero recharging energy that way! Loved the game, good stuff! Good job!

tjakka5

12. Aug 2017 · 20:51 UTC

The movement felt good.

The concept works out rather well too.

I gotta say the boss before the last one was a bit of a pain because it was camping at the energy field all the time.
When the last boss runs around there is no way to dodge it, feels unfair.
Apart from that the difficulty level seems rather well balanced.

The music fits well and even gets a bit..let's say unconventional later. Cool stuff.
The artstyle is rather simple, but works well.. and it's nice to see the characters lined out with a white line, making them more visible.

Looks solid!

DDRKirbyISQ

15. Aug 2017 · 06:42 UTC

Hi there!

**Since you've used 3rd-party audio assets (pretty bangin ones, at that), please OPT-OUT of the audio category.**

From the rules page (https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/rules):

"You’re free to use 3rd party Artwork/Music/Audio assets, or assets you previously created, but we ask that you OPT-OUT of the respected voting categories (Graphics, Audio)."

That aside, not too bad! The walking zones between the bosses were probably fairly simple to implement but really added to the mood and story.

Nalia1991

15. Aug 2017 · 12:34 UTC

@ddrkirbyisq You're right about the audio rating: we thought we removed it already (we do have a lot less rating in that category). For some reason it was back on. Sorry about that! Glad you enjoyed the game.