LudumData

Planetary Defense by pixlark

[raw]
made by pixlark for LD 38 (COMPO)

title_card.png

THE ZORGONS INVADE

You are J'kl'ughva, god of a small planet in the eastern region of the Klup-Klup galaxy. Your ancient enemy, Cenedict Bumberbatch, has sent an evil cloud of Zorgons to destroy your home. Engage in Planetary Defense and fight off the Zorgons with your Zinglebum towers! But beware, the supply is limited - you'll have to employ tactical repositioning to survive the onslaught. Godspeed!

GAMEPLAY

To move around the planet, hold down left click. Place a tower by clicking on the icon in the bottom left, and then clicking on the planet where you want it to be placed. Right-click on a tower to pick it back up. The number in the top-right is how many towers you have left to place down. This will increase as time goes on.

The planet can take three Zorgon hits before it is destroyed. The Zorgons will speed up and spawn more frequently as time goes on. Survive for as long as you can, and post your best time in the comments!

Capture.PNG

TOOLS USED

  • Simple Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) in C++
  • Visual Studio
  • Emacs
  • Paint.NET
  • BFXR
  • Ableton Live

Font is Inconsolata
Title card font is Bebas Neue

Until PoV gets links working, here's where you can find my game and source:
https://github.com/pixlark/LD38 (go to releases and download the zip for your system)
FYI: I've had people not realize this, so I'm putting it next to the download link too - you can pick up the towers using right-click. The idea is to be constantly picking up and replacing towers to fend off the Zorgons.

HALL OF ZINGLEBUMMERS

My current record is 66 seconds. If anyone can provide a screenshot of them beating that, I'll put you up here!

* Misc *
I'm new to SFML so don't take my code as some sort of guide on how to structure SFML games. Feel free to take it as a guide on how not to structure them though, I'm sure it will do great in that role.

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/planet-defense

Ratings

Overall 334th 3.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 221th 3.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 410th 2.684⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 225th 3.526⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 514th 2.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 306th 2.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 445th 1.733⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 423th 2.667⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Given 8🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

Jupiter_Hadley
26. Apr 2017 · 11:11 UTC
Simple, challenging game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/MygbzdcNT_8), if you’d like to take a look :)
drazil100
27. Apr 2017 · 07:41 UTC
Game is fairly straightforward is actually not too difficult however I do wish there was less mouse movement involved in moving a turret! Great game though!
Firewill
27. Apr 2017 · 07:42 UTC
Ah this is really hard, I was hellbent on beating your high-score but after a dozen tries the maximum I got was 65.1, so it seems you'll remain king.
Its deceptively fun, I didnt think I'd enjoy it as much as I did, tough at the end it becomes a tad too fast paced, also it seems Zinglebums dont shoot when you dont look at them, which I don't disagree with but I didn't think theyd work that way, I could get almost as far using only a single Zinglebum.

Overall I think the music fits, and graphics while super simple are very clear, also I might be a noob but setting up SFML was close to arcane magic to me so props for using it!
lepatryckduffy
01. May 2017 · 14:51 UTC
It's really hard. I like the main gamplay. But the controles are very difficult (mouse movement) and the camera are too much zoom.
But you made it from scratch, it's nice, good job.
🎤 pixlark
04. May 2017 · 12:30 UTC
@Firewill Thanks! Although the Zinglebums (god that word is so dumb lol) should be shooting no matter if you're looking at them or not...
gilborn
04. May 2017 · 13:17 UTC
Challenging game!
I think it would have been intuitive to rotate the planet with the cursers.
The background music was very good!
Also big respect to program it with SFML and not with a game engine like Unity.
SimonReiser
04. May 2017 · 13:24 UTC
Good job :thumbsup:! My record is 59.3 seconds!

I think it would be more convenient if you don't have to press the button in the bottom left corner before placing a turret, since you have to be as fast as possible.
DavidRico
04. May 2017 · 13:40 UTC
Nice little game. I don't like having to click the corner of the screen in order to place a turret. I think just right-clicking to pick up and left clicking to place would be fine, but having to click the corner then click to place seems a bit too complex, specially as you are constantly moving the camera just to keep watch of where enemies are coming from.
But overall, good game, keep up the good work!
KevTukk
04. May 2017 · 14:49 UTC
A cool and challenging game. The graphics are simple but clean and it's instantly clear, what is what. The music was a bit too repetitive for my taste. But I like the simple gameplay and the challenge. One nitpick: I wish I could scroll around the planet with the keyboard. But still a fun little game! :smiley:
Richard Michael Smith
04. May 2017 · 15:03 UTC
Nice game! I tried desperately to beat your score of 66 seconds but the best I could do was 55 :disappointed:

The controls are a little too fiddly as mentioned above - having to move to the bottom left corner to re-place a house seems unfair when right clicking would have worked.

However, apart from that - it's a solid game. Great work!
Mordokay
04. May 2017 · 16:12 UTC
The game in general was a nice idea but the fact that you cant see the entire planet really makes it hard. The stars behind give you a sense of movement when you left click to rotate around the planet ... but you really never know how far you have moved.


Still ... when I played it I had lots of fun and the way it was made makes it very fast paced and exciting. Good Job!
KabalaTrance
04. May 2017 · 16:16 UTC
Sweet game, I didn't get very far (around 45 sec).
I think that it would play much better if whole planet was on screen, and you place turrets on it. Or at least if I had a minimap.
I had a problems with navigation, scrolling wasn't intuitive, especially since i didn't have any frame of reference.
Any way, good job!
Zantamar
04. May 2017 · 16:57 UTC
Fun little game with nothing unnecessary. I agree with previous comments that the long rotation times seem to disrupt the pacing of the game, and moving towers seems slow. For some reason I expected a credit based system based on enemy kills for purchasing more towers, so I felt a little unrewarded when the number of towers were simply based on time. All in a game built on solidly fun footing, thanks!
Gundatsch
05. May 2017 · 07:53 UTC
Phew ... pretty hard game here. I think i like the idea that you only have 2 towers and have to reallocate your resources to defend the big planet. It might be nice to know where to rotate next ... like an indicator to the next enemy, since the planet is kind of large :D ... don't make it smaller (as it would get way easier), but just tell me where something is.

Sound works out okay, nice retro vibe. All in all ... a compo success ... you rock!!! :D
Terrabalt
05. May 2017 · 22:35 UTC
Wew, that was quite challenging. Love the Improvization aspect of the game (You only have two and have to make do). My high score was about 40, at that point i would be killed by an asteroid i can't see. A minimap, or at least an indicator of where the asteroids is would be nice. The (bug?) of them not shooting while in screen doesn't help either, even if it seems like they could shoot literally behind them.
The graphics itself is quite good, with nice contrast between them, though i felt like the bullets looks too small. The song is, alright, but sets the mood for the game nicely.
Overall, a fun and solid entry! Would love for this to be expanded more :D
vladik-plays
08. May 2017 · 17:55 UTC
Good game! The graphics are simple but the concept is made fun. Good take on the theme. Great job. Here's my game: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/fixville
pschichtel
15. May 2017 · 17:38 UTC
A statically linked version would be good, Archlinux doesn't provide sfml 2.3, so I can't play this
philomory
15. May 2017 · 18:31 UTC
This is clever, but even with the ability to pick up the towers and move them, I feel like it's still too hard. As @terrabalt mentioned, a mini-map, radar, or some other indicator of where asteroids were approaching would have helped. I also feel like the controls could have been better - in fact, a single change would have made the game waaay friendlier: if you have an unplaced tower, and you right-click somewhere that there isn't a tower already, it should place a tower for you. Or, make left click place towers, right click remove them, and use A/D to rotate the planet.

Anyway, those complaints aside I really think this has a lot of promise! Kudos for finishing it under Compo constraints, as well!
Connor McGrory
16. May 2017 · 17:16 UTC
Highly addictive! Too bad I suck at it :p Nice work! I would have been nice to zoom out so I could see what was coming from a bit further back
🎤 pixlark
21. May 2017 · 21:08 UTC
@pschichtel It's as statically linked as it gets, the only DLL is OpenAL which cannot be statically linked.