I like how stategic the game feels with the minimap and different kind of bullets. Plus, audio and visuals are rad

Audio and Visuals were perfectly matched, game is smooth and great action. difficulty picks up fast.
Great entry!

Love the art on this one! The minimap was a really nice inclusion too.

Great game! The audio reminds me of old school Mega Man games in a really good, nostalgic and fun way. Thanks for the play!

Wow, good game man!! I really loved the mechanics and graphics!! The sound is a little bit Loud!!

Very nice!

Art and music are on point, fun game, enemies stacking is a little wonky though

This might be the best Ludum Dare game I've played: everything about it is so polished. I think the only thing that might improve it are some pickups (e.g. different weapons, shield swap, etc), but it's great as it it is!

very fun game, i love the minimap

Heh, this feels pretty polished out of the box! Excellent music, coherent art style, and generally fun gameplay. Ships could use some more variety than "fly directly at the center of the map" (I didn't play more than the early levels, so maybe I didn't see that) but the bullet blocking mechanic was clever. Reminded us of Ikaruga actually, was that your inspiration?

@verbante Thanks for the comments! I was really happy with how everything came together for this one!

@scott-purcival One thing I was unsure of is the difficulty curve. When you say the difficulty picks up fast is that a positive thing or a negative thing? Thanks!

@zachary-granger The early builds didn't have a minimap at all and it led to gameplay where you just stayed next to the ship all the time. The minimap really changed the game in a good way and it only took about 20 minutes of work. Thanks for the comments!

@steffanie I can't seem to design a character that doesn't end up looking like Mega Man... :neutral_face: I like Mega Man though, so I guess it is a good thing!

@guilhermesouza It's interesting that you say the sound was a bit loud. I thought it was a bit soft, but it is hard to get it right. Which browser were you playing on?

@darrenh I thought about using the flocking algorithm to make them spread apart while still sticking together as a group but didn't have time. Thanks for the comments!

@pennycook There is code in place for swapping weapons. Just didn't have time... Maybe in a post-compo!

@zlabya Thanks! I like the minimap too!

@zeta0134 If you play Drones or Pyramids you will see some of the different ships that attack the player in different ways. Gunship also has a boss type enemy that does fly straight at the ship, but can be knocked back. It also requires some additional skills like dodging the blue while blocking the red that the earlier enemies don't.

I've never played the Ikaruga series but I looked it up after you mentioned it and it does have that vibe. A closer inspiration was an old flash game called Frantic Frigates. Thanks for the comments!

@minibobbo difficulty picked up a bit fast for me. cheers.

@minibobbo i'm playing with google chrome!

Really well made and polished game with fun gameplay. Currently the favourite of those I played so far. I really like the audio. Minimap also does its job very well.

here are some minor details I think are worth looking at:

1) I think the top UI progress bar is a bit too big and therefore distracting. Kinda like the opposite of my game where it ended up being to small :)

2) on some levels you can just put yourself in a certain position and just block all bullets - sure you get stunned but you still block all the red ones. This is an example from teh gunship level:

@aurelwuensch Thanks for the comments!

1. I agree about the HUD. I changed it to just some dots, but I'm not sure I like them. They still might be too large.


2. You're right. I recognized that as a problem during the jam and was trying to choose between two different methods to solve it. The first was that shots pass through you when you were stunned. The second was apply some knockback based on the angle of the shot that hit you, so the stunning shots would also push you out of the way but you would still block bullets. I was in the process of deciding when I got distracted by soemthing else and never came back to it. I'm leaning towards #2 because I think a situation might arise where the enemy accidentally hits you into defending some otehr enemy's attacks and I think that might be fun.

Fun arcade-y game! I like the art and overall concept of the game. I would've like to see maybe some more animation in the art and a larger resolution to the game in general, but aside from those minor gripes of mine, I thought it was a fun experience. Thanks and good job!

Really impressive! Graphics, sounds and minimap are really good! Good job!

I love this game and then I realized you guys made my favorite LD41 game too.

Great work!
I love the graphics, very clean and polished. I would like to see more of your work; keep it up!

yep love this, the game has a good 'feel' to it too! Going to do more? Like bosses and powerups?

Nice and polished graphics, smooth gameplay. Personally, I like the ​retro style.

@dave-troyer Thanks! I agree that animation in the enemies would have been nice. No time in the jam though... :slight_frown: Post compo going back and revisiting the enemies is on my list. If you look at the bikers they have a large circular area on the back of the bike. That was originally going to contain a turret so the shooting would come from somewhere.

@batlordz Thanks! The minimap was actually super quick and easy to implement and can be added to almost any game. I wrote a post about it here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/wingman/creating-a-quick-minimap

@injured :blush:

@mattincho Thanks! We're going to keep working on this for a while and see where it takes us. We will be releasing a post compo version sometime in the near future.

@shane Yep, a shop where you spend stars to purchase weapons that you can take with you into the levels (making the last two levels actually possible to beat). Some new enemies and bosses. Who knows. We're still brainstorming.

@andrey-ugolnik Thanks. I can't seem to get away from the retro style.

Audio and graphics are awesome. Menu screen don't fit with the game theme that can definitely be improved. Gameplay was a bit tricky to get used to, probably a little tweaking of controls will make it more enjoyable.Overall a job well done.

This is great! Very good graphics and sound design, a very clever interpretation of the theme, and fun gameplay. The progress bar and minimap are good touches. I found I could beat the early levels just by sitting in one place and aiming according to the minimap, But I'm sure the difficulty ramps up in the later levels (which I sadly don't have time to play right now, I have work soon). Good work, just like last jam!

A good game idea, the music should be improved. The graphics are good.
Try our game too, maybe you'll like it)

@vivek-sharma20 Thanks for the comments! You're 100% correct with the menu. I tend to work in iterations where I get things working quick and ugly and then go back and change little things to make it better and smoother. I didn't ever get back to any iterations over the menu, so that is pretty much the base bones minimum. I wanted to iterate over the main gameplay loop and the victory and loss screens. Unfortunately the main menu is the first thing you see and something you see a lot, so I think it hurts the entire presentation. I'll get back to it.

@f1krazy I need to shorten the bullet life to stop the "snipe from the center" strategy :laughing: The "sit in front of the ship and block all the bullets" strategy is valid, but will get tougher in the next update when enemies can knock you around. The later levels do get more difficult with a couple new enemy types and much more frantic gameplay. Maybe too frantic!

@awix Thanks for the comments. I doubt we will change the music because we love it, but to each his own!

Loved the pixel graphics! And really great twist on the shoot em' up arcade game. Really solid entry :)

A very well-developed game you have here. It becomes extremely challenging near the end the right way and all the graphics and sounds factor in to make this game better as a whole. Great entry!

Very well done.

I saw your posts during the development progress and already then wanted to try this. Great visaul and audio components (especcial "boss" music which gave me nostalgic feelings abouts 90s and 8-bits games. Good job!

@mark-usmiani Thanks! Something about old school pixel art running at 60 fps just makes me happy!

@bustosman The challenge was tough to get right. I still haven't beaten the last two levels, but I've got really close! Thanks for the comments.

@king-kujito Thanks!

@wetbox All the sounds and music was made by @jamesolivermusic and he did a wonderful job. I would say things like "The music should sound like Mega Man 2, but totally different", and "this sound effect should have a lot of WHOOP and only a little TING" all of which make absolutely no sense and he would come back with gold. The game definitely isn't the same without the music and sfx playing. Thanks for the comments!

Amazing concept for sure. As well as sounds and design! Good job

Nice game! I really enjoyed it. Even though you area a pirate, I still find it weird how you show up as red on the map. I think you should show up as blue, and the enemies should show up as red, just because of color stereotypes. Red = bad = enemies. Blue = good = player.

@verbante @steffanie @scott-purcival @darrenh @zeta0134 @aurelwuensch @batlordz @vivek-sharma20 @bustosman @wetbox @hagrida Thank you all for your comments about the music/SFX. I really enjoyed making the audio and soundtrack for this game, it was partly inspired by the Megaman tracks, as well as others like Sonic etc., but also the amazing work of @minibobbo himself, whom i've been very fortunate to work alongside! His enthusiasm and vision are what made this game come to life

I love the soundtrack, it fits so well together with the game!

I totally enjoyed the game even though Im not good at shooter games, thanks for making some easy levels so I could see what the game is doing. I had some minor problem with adjusting the scale of the minimap, such that I cant tell from which angle will the enemies come from just by looking at the minimap. I dont really have a solution for that, but its just a minor problem that I personally had. Great work, the game looks very finished. Great work!

@hagrida Thanks! I was a little worried that the concept was going to be stupid. I mean, it still is, but at least it is enjoyably stupid!

@flashviper The only reason I made the player red and the enemies blue is that the red was easier to pick out on the minimap without really looking at it. Blue is harder to see. I could have used a cyan or something, but the colors looked weird. One of those moments where function overtook form. Thanks for the suggestion!

@killing-kitty Yeah @jamesolivermusic did a great job.

@nam-nguyen I'm not sure exactly what you mean but I know that the minimap needs work. I was going to have an outline around it and maybe some markings to make it more clear what was going on, but I liked the way it turned out enough that I called it "good enough" and moved on. If you have any specific suggestions I would love to hear them! Thanks for the comments!

I love everything about this. The gameplay, the art style, and the sounds are all great and work together nicely! I love the retro vibe. Great game!

Movement of the viewpoint with the mouse is very comfortable and resolves the weak point of 360 shooting (narrow view. Most games the character will be smaller). It feels good to synchronize the speed feeling of the background and the speedy camera movement by mouse handling. The stage on the right side of the menu was difficult for me, only Gunship could be cleared. Artwork and music are wonderful. I really enjoyed this game.

Very lovely game. Graphic and sound is amazing. That retro style is just perfect!
Nice job!

very nice game. The minimap was very good without it I would have been Lost in space ^^
and this mechanic that you can block some of the shots is very nice but I wonder why the spaceship manufacturer decidet to put the strong shield and the weapon inside the space suite and not the ship itself xD

Reminds me of megamen, which is good.
I like the sounds and music aswell as the fact that you have to defend a ship whilst the player is invincible.

The gameplay, visuals and audio are all great. My only complaint is that because of how the camera centers on the cursor, it can feel a bit awkward to move around at time.

It's a very nice game, the sound atmosphere, graphics it's all there. I also like the gameplay, but I played it with a touchpad ( my fault) which was very hard :P

Very nice game, graphics, movement, mechanics, and audio are all solid. Only issue is I couldn't tell how it fit the theme. As well there seems to be no penalty for the player dying.

Awesome game! I enjoy the art and mood of it. Keep up the good work!

When I first started I thought I was moving the ship in the opposite direction of the cursor and tried to dodge bullets like that. Then I realized I was dumb, but the tutorial level had the leeway to succeed once I figured out what was going on. Good game feel over all!

The music is really great, but the shield hit ping sound is too shrill and loud. Someone sitting beside me thought it was the fire alarm at first, and I'm wearing headphones.

The pixel art is really good. The gradient on the "Back to menu" button is smooth and out of place with the rest of the games retro banded aesthetic.

Overall I enjoyed the game, and rated it highly, well done :)

@darkguardsman Thanks for the comments. Yes, there is no penalty for the player dying. Eventually (if we continue) there would be a shop you could spend the stars you earned, so the thinking was if you die you could come back later with new weapons and finish the levels. The theme is tightly connected. See, you are in the enemy's SPACE and now you are RUNNING OUT OF it.

Ok, so the theme is LOOSELY connected :smile:

@zicboy Thanks!

@huminaboz Thanks! We've all been there. I was playing a game this jam that I swore was busted only to realize I was looking at and trying to control the enemy. :slight_frown:

@trevor-hayes :open_mouth: you're totally right about the button. They all used to be like that and I thought I changed them all to the lower rez ones. Guess I missed that one.

The shield ping is annoying because the shield is OP. Rather than fix it, I decided to just make the sound really loud and annoying in hopes that players use it sparingly.

Just kidding. Thanks for the feedback!

lol didn't think of that as the theme. Gave you a few more points as that is funny and made my day.

Love the combined art and music style. I found this game to be a lot of fun. i Really appreciated the little things like being able to always track where your ship was with both the indicator and the onscreen mini map. I kept racing out to destroy as many ships as i could early on and needing to race back to protect it from a wave that slipped past me.

Interesting setup! I didn't know I could move at first so I was just shooting at things with just my mouse (I was playing the introduction level), but then after my ship got hit a couple times went through instructions and realized I could move to block things.

I played through a few levels levels here and there- it gets pretty difficult because you have to dodge all the blue bullets while letting the red bullets hit you. Could be cool to see upgrades or powerups to vary the gameplay a bit and make it a bit easier for the hard levels.

I liked the transitions when the ship flies off at the end of each level and the different enemy types.

nice job!

Quite a fun game, love the music. :smile:

That gunship is too OP, though. I mean, it can shoot blue and red bullets at the same time, so you have to be stunned if you want to block the red bullet. Combined with those pyramids and the annoying knock back you get when stunned while moving, it makes the game too difficult on the last two stages, for me at least.

In my opinion it is a problem because players might rely on luck as the enemies sometimes come from a single direction, so staying still at a strategic spot would save the ship. I would suggest to give some kind of ability to counter the blue bullets so players can do more than dodging, and can stand a chance against the gunship.

Well polished game with scene transition, different musics, everything it needs. i love the minimap

Nice game, Love how everything is balanced!
Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam!
Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a

Congratulations on completing the game! I liked how graphics and music remind about the classic space shooting games from 8-bit era. Interesting take on the theme :)

Went directly to the final level: biggest mistake of all my life. Nice entry, the minimap was a great (maybe necessary in some cases) addition.

@masterkrepta Thanks! I started with nothing and was constantly getting lost, just like you. Then I added a home indicator and that was better, but it was still missing something. Finally, when I added the minimap it came together. I almost removed the ship pointer, but then I missed it even with the minimap so it made a return! Glad someone else likes it.

@aeveis Thanks! I have upgrades planned (and actually implemented) but it will be more of a store where you purchase items with stars and select some to bring in the level. It should add some depth to the game.

@vekstr The gunship takes some practice. The trick is to not stay between the ship and the gunship so the blue bullets are shot at you and then you can swoop in and block the red ones. I think the last two stages are actually impossible. I got a single star on the second to last one, but the last one has so far eluded me.

The knockback is actually a mistake (don't tell anyone!). I MEANT to zero your acceleration so you would drift to a stop while stunned. Instead I zeroed your velocity but the acceleration stayed, so you accelerate to max speed in whatever direction you were last pointing... :frowning: It is fixed in the post jam version, if I ever release it.

@tontonpizza Thanks! I love pizza.

@rahim-pxr I think the balance works until the last two levels. I was planning on stopping after the gunship, but for some reason just added some poorly thought out and balanced ones...

@roman-petrov I think this one came out really well! The theme is a bit of a stretch, but it took like 5 hours to come up with, so I just ran with it!

@icarus-nb Yeah, it is impossible I think. I've got a post jam version with new weapons and items and... I still can't beat it... Sorry about that :smile:

Nice work!