Sphere Co.™ by kaype
I honestly didn't think I would actually complete this...
Just as a disclaimer, I wasn't able to use the theme this time around. Mostly for technical reasons.
Click the screenshots if you want a better view of the game. The site kinda compressed them a little bit.
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PLEASE READ BEFORE PLAYING
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Sphere Co.™ is a game where you're part of a research center with your supervisor, Violet. However, the workers at the facility have gotten a bit too 'experimental' with altering lifeforms, thus creating enemies which have invaded the research center. Your goal in this game is to get rid of them so the center can return to functioning normally. To do this, you use a gun which expands your strength upon attack (when it's low). Whenever you die, you're sent right back to the beginning of the game (didn't have enough time to implement checkpoints).
CONTROLS:
W/A/S/D to move around.
C to advance dialogue.
SPACE to shoot.
Requires Java 7 or above.
Hope you enjoy!
UPDATES:
SphereCo v1.1
- Fixed Linux bug where the config loader crashes the game.
- Fixed entities always rendering on top of the player.
- Fixed NTSC shader which didn't make it into the original.
You can still run the original if you wish, just note that it'll be really buggy.
Just as a disclaimer, I wasn't able to use the theme this time around. Mostly for technical reasons.
Click the screenshots if you want a better view of the game. The site kinda compressed them a little bit.
============================
PLEASE READ BEFORE PLAYING
============================
Sphere Co.™ is a game where you're part of a research center with your supervisor, Violet. However, the workers at the facility have gotten a bit too 'experimental' with altering lifeforms, thus creating enemies which have invaded the research center. Your goal in this game is to get rid of them so the center can return to functioning normally. To do this, you use a gun which expands your strength upon attack (when it's low). Whenever you die, you're sent right back to the beginning of the game (didn't have enough time to implement checkpoints).
CONTROLS:
W/A/S/D to move around.
C to advance dialogue.
SPACE to shoot.
Requires Java 7 or above.
Hope you enjoy!
UPDATES:
SphereCo v1.1
- Fixed Linux bug where the config loader crashes the game.
- Fixed entities always rendering on top of the player.
- Fixed NTSC shader which didn't make it into the original.
You can still run the original if you wish, just note that it'll be really buggy.
| Multi-Platform/v1.1 (Jar) | http://games.kaype.co/sphereco/SphereCo.zip |
| Original/v1.0 (Jar) | http://games.kaype.co/sphereco/SphereCo_original.zip |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=25076 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 58% | 3 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.30 | 541 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.65 | 170 |
| Fun(Jam) | 2.97 | 665 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.77 | 329 |
| Humor(Jam) | 3.00 | 313 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.63 | 200 |
Stacktrace:
Tue Dec 15 22:43:34 CET 2015 INFO:Loading Display Configuration...
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: null
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:454)
at java.lang.Integer.valueOf(Integer.java:582)
at co.kaype.ld34.Main.main(Main.java:144)
I'm not near a Linux machine at the moment, so there might be a few bugs for that platform. I can test it on my laptop later when I have time.
The gameplay didn't seem very new, unfortunately. I felt like I had two choices: do loops with the movement keys and time hitting space when I'm aiming at the enemy, or mash spacebar, hoping to hit the timing right. I managed to beat it using those two strategies, going for dodging loops when my health got low.
The theme also didn't feel very well integrated. Not sure if I missed some connections, but the "gun grows your health" mechanic is somewhat "standard" in games now, named lifesteal or health drain or something like that. Now that I mention that, though, I notice you've opted out of theme rating. Fair enough. :)
That all said, the basics are there for a directional shooter. Good luck on the post-compo work!
The difficulty seems doable for anyone with shooter experience - I'm terrible at those and I got to near the end. It's a short game.
I didn't see many outright bugs - it was just awkward trying to snipe at the robots. So the "gain health as you shoot" is actually an interesting mechanic, so I ended up discovering you can "stand on top of the robots" and your health comes out as a tie, so you save that if lucky for the last round and it could be tight but feels winnable.
In the chat we went over it could have used with a couple of level saves, and a fast option to skip all the dialog, but a pleasant little game!
OS X fix didn't work for me, although it gets further that way (actually see some Java thing bouncing in the dock, withouth the config fix it never does that). I tried with JRE7, update 79.
$ java -jar SphereCo.jar
Wed Dec 16 14:58:31 MST 2015 INFO:Loading Display Configuration...
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: null
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:542)
at java.lang.Integer.valueOf(Integer.java:766)
at co.kaype.ld34.Main.main(Main.java:144)
$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_66"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_66-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.66-b17, mixed mode)
I'm running Ubuntu 15.10.
The enemys have lots of health, its a small game and i think its just an balance setting. In my opinion the enemys could take 3~4 shots and die. But 4.8/5 c:
Liked the graphics style and music.
I think you could have also gotten away with including a theme judging if you would have made your max health increase rather than just having the gun heal you.
overall though nice job!
You said you wanted to make a new version with strafing, drop me a link on IRC when you upload it and I'll give it a second try.
Combat is pretty tedious due to enemies being so static. I'd say you should rethink this with more of a Binding of Isaac control scheme in mind, which would let you could go wild with enemy logic. The lack of autoshoot and the slightly too slow movement are more annoyances that could be easily fixed. Unless they're a requirement in Java(TM)(R)(C).
All my cheekiness aside, it's moody for sure. I wouldn't call this a 1-star entry at all, the story and ambience are the meat that kept me playing. Maybe speed up the dialogue boxes a bit and lose the "use your gun to shoot" type lines.