Dropzone Mars by helpcomputer

[raw]
made by helpcomputer for LD 41 (JAM)

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Dropzone Mars is a mix of shoot-em-up and city builder. You must drop colonists on to the planet surface and defend them from unreasonable Martians trying to stop you from taking their planet. To negotiate with the Martians you have been given an auto-firing mounted cannon and a full supply of bombs.

Please let me know if you find any bugs or other issues.

Have fun!

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stage1.gif

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Credits

Design and art by helpcomputer (https://twitter.com/helpcomputer0)

Music by SketchyLogic @ OpenGameArt.org

Sounds by Rosalila @ OpenGameArt.org

Ratings

Overall 333th 3.69⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 373th 3.517⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 782th 3.121⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 746th 3.379⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 176th 4.172⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 828th 2.482⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 378th 3.5⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

Hare Software
24. Apr 2018 · 07:07 UTC
Amazing graphics, very responsive controls and a bit of nostalgia, great idea and great game, well done!
Jammin
24. Apr 2018 · 07:09 UTC
I love the concept, I love the graphics, the gameplay is good, really perfect !
cincodenada
24. Apr 2018 · 07:12 UTC
Love the style, the graphics are amazing! Reminds me of Jamestown, one of my favorites :) Great choices on the audio and music, it fits in really well with the theme and ambiance. Gameplay was pretty straightforward, I liked that the bombing did damage but also took you away from things and only went in a straight line, made it more challenging.

It took me a second to figure out that the radar didn't update until you were in range - I lost some cities down south while camping one of the enemy spawn points! Overall, love it :smile:
nidup
24. Apr 2018 · 07:15 UTC
Cool entry proposing an interesting mix of 2 genres I like :thumbsup:
Game mechanics are solid, especially enjoy the bomb dropping effect :boom: Good intregration with music and sounds giving a pleasant ambiance.
Great job, congratz :rocket:
TechnoNugget
24. Apr 2018 · 07:42 UTC
# pros:

* sweet graphics x2
* sweet music (!!!)
* responsive gameplay

# cons:

* what am I doing
* what should I be doing
* ooohh okay I get it
* wait is this even helping
* well now I'm dead

Took me a sec to understand what was going on. The people colonies kinda look like they would be slime colonies so I was trying to kill them for a bit. Bombing didn't really seem to have much of an effect because then you would drift way away from the action.

But goddamn those graphics blew me away. The explosion effects were especially pleasing. Very polished feel. It brought me back to the SNES era, so you get bonus points for that, good job.
Alex_ADEdge
24. Apr 2018 · 07:43 UTC
Neat game, retro vibes :D
Kirill Nepomnyaschiy
24. Apr 2018 · 08:25 UTC
This game is REALLY good! Graphics are very solid, music is terrific and mechanics is really well though out. It's really challenging and a pleasure to play. Level of polish is also phenomenal for 3 days.
Although I had some troubles defending because whenever I did my ult there was instantly a couple of monsters at one of the bases, probably they spawn offscreen for the player instead of spawning at some distance from settlements, which was a bit confusing.
Anyway, this is definetly one of the best games I played so far. Gonna wait for next LD to check you what you guys come up with :)
Darby Costello
24. Apr 2018 · 19:14 UTC
Really enjoyed this. Frantic action with that gorgeous EGA palette. It feels like it has more in common with a tower defence than city builder, but either way it's a great little game that I'll be coming back to. Great work!
TSK
24. Apr 2018 · 19:29 UTC
Really nice graphics and pretty fun gameplay! Enjoyed playing it, only one small thing felt a little bit weird - the camera movement when you turn, maybe you can smooth it a little bit. Great work overall!
JustinM
24. Apr 2018 · 21:46 UTC
This game was super fun, had an absolute blast playing! Took me off guard seeing the red guy appear after an orange one ate my base :). Bombing run was a neat feature, only wish here was that I could control a little more things! Great game
Vedal
25. Apr 2018 · 20:05 UTC
A little hard to understand what was going on at first but amazing graphics!
shubart
25. Apr 2018 · 20:11 UTC
I enjoy the design and the music. Maybe with some other weapons it would be better
🎤 helpcomputer
25. Apr 2018 · 20:17 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback so far everyone, I think I agree with everything that's been posted, so when I get the chance I'd like to go back and improve the game. Thanks again!
schmavery
25. Apr 2018 · 20:30 UTC
Great art and music (sensing some 2001 space odyssey vibes in there). Ramping it up with some upgrades and more control over the city building might make it more interesting for longer play times.
MaxKlimenok
26. Apr 2018 · 19:14 UTC
Congratulations with a polished product.
Although is is pretty much simple in the idea, the game looks to be complete. Additional "thank you" for webGL build.

A few words on game mechanics:
It would be nice to have a control over the place of where the colonization unit is dropped off. As of now the dropping happens by itself an very often right to the spawn location resulting in quick units death.

Anyway, you have my respect for being solo and for great pixel art.
Yohoho Games 2
26. Apr 2018 · 20:54 UTC
nice mix of genres, good graphic. Nice, thanks!
drludos
27. Apr 2018 · 00:15 UTC
Woaw, this game is OUTSTANDING! I was a bit confused at first, but then I understood how to play, and I had fun for about 20 minutes (reached level 5, and level 4 was very difficult as I had only one remaining outpost to build the whole city!).

This is a really polished and entertaining arcade game, and the city building elements blends quite well with the shooter. The art and music are beautiful too, resulting in the most fun / best gameplay game I've played so far! Congrats!
Darkphnx
28. Apr 2018 · 02:51 UTC
Great music and atmosphere in this game! I was a bit confused as to the objective and took me a few plays to figure everything out. This game could benefit from a brief tutorial. Great game overall!
Damien Remars
28. Apr 2018 · 10:13 UTC
Great concept, already very fun to play, and challenging! A lot of potential, for example with upgrades to balance between ship & buildings, other buildings like defense... GG!
Hisfantor
06. May 2018 · 19:01 UTC
interesting idea, but it feels like I don't really have an impact on what is happening because I can just move and not shoot or place the buildings by myself