LudumData

Loop Shoot by superunknown

[raw]
made by superunknown for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

​Loop Shoot is a top down shooter built in a few hours for Ludum Dare 47. The theme is "Stuck in a Loop". The general idea of the game is to fire missiles with your "ship" and destroy the "enemies".

Your ship fires 3 types of missiles, Red, Green and Blue. Destroy the enemies by hitting them with a missile that matches their color. Beware, if you hit the enemy with the wrong color, it will duplicate!

Unfortunately, you are unable to select the color of your next missile. The firing mechanism is STUCK IN A LOOP. The missile sequence seems to be stuck in a loop of RED->GREEN->BLUE.

[Arrow Keys to move side to side]

[Spacebar to Shoot]

Playable Link: https://sup3runknown.itch.io/loopshoot

LoopShoot2.gif

Changelog:

10/4 - Tweaked missile speed to be a bit lower to fix a bug where sometimes collisions were not being detected.

10/5 - Fixed a big bug with the difficulty scaling per level. Game should increase in difficulty at a much smoother rate around level 6.

10/13 - Tweaked the difficulty scaling to ramp up a bit quicker. Also, high scores are now displayed after game completion.

Developed with Unity, Visual Studio 2019, Reaper and GIMP

Youtube https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XL0UhzaR_pHwUEfO3TsabGBCAQJDHOyk/view?usp=sharing
Youtube https://sup3runknown.itch.io/loopshoot
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/loop-shoot

Ratings

Overall 273th 3.487⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 121th 3.744⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 285th 3.359⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Theme 394th 3.397⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 561th 2.551⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Audio 179th 3.421⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 411th 2.944⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 49🗳️ 52🗨️

Feedback

nethead
05. Oct 2020 · 00:17 UTC
I really like the colour switching mechanic! Cute sounds/gfx too.
Jegus9
05. Oct 2020 · 00:26 UTC
pretty nice. what i like the most is the audio. i don't have too much complaint about it besides the fact that using the spacebar to shoot is kinda awkward.
CurdleGames
05. Oct 2020 · 00:56 UTC
Great work! I had a nice time playing this, it offered an interesting challenge with the three colors. Thanks for putting such a detailed rating system in the game as well, it gives the player a lot of feedback as to how they did. Well done, my friend!
🎤 superunknown
05. Oct 2020 · 00:58 UTC
@jegus9 - What would feel better than the spacebar? Let me know and I'll add it as an alternate input. Thanks...
smilewood
05. Oct 2020 · 02:44 UTC
I like this take on the theme. It is an interesting and challenging game to play. The effects when the shots hit the enemies were great, and the moment of panic when hitting the wrong color one is perfect. I was confused by having an accuracy stat in this game, as I had to shoot away from the enemies in the first level, but as I got further I realized how interesting of a stat it is, letting me see how correctly I ordered the shots. The music fit well with the game, and the sound effects were well done. Great job on this entry!
INCD021
05. Oct 2020 · 13:00 UTC
Mac score of 27.. Find it a bit harsh that one mistake is punished this hard. Fun and hard. Nice entry :thumbsup:
Jegus9
05. Oct 2020 · 13:20 UTC
@superunknown right mouse button! it's more comfortable because people don't have to tuck both hands at the keyboard. even if you have no directional axis to shoot, i like using the mouse because that basically turns the PC into dual stick machine.
Ausstein
05. Oct 2020 · 13:26 UTC
Highscore was 94, but the screen changed back to the title screen before I could take a screenshot.

I got to Wave 9, that Wave is insane!

Overall a fun little game, but I think the theme is a bit of a stretch.
🎤 superunknown
05. Oct 2020 · 13:29 UTC
@ausstein Highest score I have seen yet! I agree the theme application was a bit of a stretch. Thanks for spending some time with the game!
peeweek
05. Oct 2020 · 20:31 UTC
Pretty good! Loved how you came up with the suicide bullet challenge... Reminded me a lot of Ikaruga, but the color loop makes it way more challenging :) Good job!
peeweek
05. Oct 2020 · 20:31 UTC
Pretty good! Loved how you came up with the suicide bullet challenge... Reminded me a lot of Ikaruga, but the color loop makes it way more challenging :) Good job!
🎤 superunknown
05. Oct 2020 · 20:53 UTC
@ausstein, @jegus9 I adjusted the difficulty to scale more smoothly. There was a large bug that made the game scale to unplayable around level 7 or so. Give it a shot if you have time!
Ausstein
05. Oct 2020 · 21:01 UTC
@superunknown yeah i don't know myself how I got through level 7 and 8. somehow managed to punch a hole through it.
Ausstein
05. Oct 2020 · 21:25 UTC
Game is much easier nowm got a highscore over 500

![loopshot.png](///raw/7a3/22/z/3787e.png)
🎤 superunknown
05. Oct 2020 · 21:46 UTC
@ausstein Nice! Too easy or did it feel ok?
Ausstein
05. Oct 2020 · 21:51 UTC
@superunknown takes a long time to get challenging maybe increase the difficulty a bit faster
Zackavelli
05. Oct 2020 · 23:32 UTC
The music loop is a vibe. Mechanic is interesting and fun. Some spaceship sprites could really improve the game.
🎤 superunknown
06. Oct 2020 · 00:41 UTC
@zackavelli Thanks for the feedback! I totally agree with you about the sprites. For some reason I went 3D thinking I would make some simple polygon ships but there is no way I would have had the time...2D would be much better. I think I will convert it over and give it a full treatment now that Ld is over. Thanks again for the feedback.
Tsunscreen
06. Oct 2020 · 09:01 UTC
Agree that some simple models or sprites would go a long way. The polish is great though, love those particle effects and sounds!
Ale
10. Oct 2020 · 17:36 UTC
That was pretty fun, but the first couple of levels were really slow and easy. You might want to keep tweaking the difficulty curve until you find that sweet spot!
fronwewq
11. Oct 2020 · 06:29 UTC
Pretty nice little shooter, good use of the theme. I agree that the first few levels were quite slow, it takes a long time for the game to get challenging. Have you tried slower but more numerous enemies? I think what's cool about this mechanic is trying to correctly sequence your shots so you hit 4-5 in a row of the same color. It was hard to do that at least through wave 9 since the enemies came so infrequently, but they moved too quickly that I couldn't really wait for more to appear.
🎤 superunknown
13. Oct 2020 · 19:05 UTC
@ausstein @ale @fronwewq Just thought I would let you all know that I have tweaked the difficulty scaling. It should ramp up much more quickly now. The enemies keep their speed, just spawn more rapidly. Also added a screen showing the high scores. Would be honored if you all would give it one more play!
Ausstein
13. Oct 2020 · 20:25 UTC
@superunknown there seems to be a bug with the hit detection in the current version. My shots often went straight through the platforms...
🎤 superunknown
13. Oct 2020 · 20:33 UTC
@ausstein Thanks for playing again man! Sorry to hear about the bug...I was struggling with that in earlier releases and thought I had it fixed...basically the missile fires so fast that collision is never detected. I will need to slow them down or increase the hitbox.....thanks for the feedback!
Ausstein
13. Oct 2020 · 20:37 UTC
@superunknown yes that is what I suspected. Making the hitbox much longer behind the bullet would be a quick and dirty fix :)
fronwewq
13. Oct 2020 · 20:44 UTC
Very nice update @superunknown, this is what I was expecting the game to be like! I was hitting those shot sequences as early as wave three. Really fun, I played it multiple times.
On higher waves, it becomes less about correctly sequencing your shots and more about only taking shots you can safely hit, since there's less space to shoot an unwanted color. Can't say if that's good or bad, just an observation.

Are you using an unweighted uniform distribution for generating new enemies? If you wanted to preserve the color-sequencing aspect of the earlier waves, you could consider making the randomization weighted based on what's currently available, to create more strings of different colors. You could even make a rhythm/puzzle mode where the enemy spawns match the ship's color cycle perfectly, requiring perfect accuracy.

Anyways, great work, I enjoyed this a lot.
🎤 superunknown
13. Oct 2020 · 22:33 UTC
@fronwewq Thanks for the feedback! The enemies are spawned totally at random. I am increasing the spawn rate and the number of enemies exponentially for each wave. I agree with you though that the shot sequencing is what makes it fun. I have been thinking about how to improve the game outside of the jam and I think there could be a bit of a rhythm game in there. I would like to come up with an idea that has the same gameplay but isnt space ships...perhaps slinging paint or something....also what do you think about composite color enemies..for example a purple enemy would need to be hit twice, once by red and once by blue...sorta like super enemies?
MrchickenBoy
14. Oct 2020 · 04:18 UTC
I like the game, the graphics could be improved, I love the simple sounds, though
14. Oct 2020 · 09:34 UTC
I dont like game art, try next time invest more time, and it will be better.Average fun game, but maybe next time you will polish the gameplay and it will be better.Audio for me is not good, but not bad.Averagly fit into the theme..

One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
Glaikunt
14. Oct 2020 · 10:29 UTC
Great game, great ideas. I like that the main focus was on the gameplay. I really enjoyed my time playing it.
danielblanco3d
15. Oct 2020 · 07:01 UTC
Simple, fun and clever gamepley!I like the music loop too! ![g.png](///raw/ce9/81/z/3a2c4.png)
Celuloide
15. Oct 2020 · 16:15 UTC
I really like the main mechanic (switching colors in order to kill the enemies) and the fact that you needed to shoot into empty space in order to change your bullets. It adds another extra complexity layer to the game that I really like! also it reminded me a bit to Ikaruga so kudos for that. Good job!
Ausstein
15. Oct 2020 · 21:43 UTC
259 baby
arron-fowler
16. Oct 2020 · 15:41 UTC
Simple but effective. I really enjoyed the pleasure pain balance of the game loop. It was an interesting ride.
Cole and Jordan Studios
25. Oct 2020 · 01:50 UTC
Why was this so addicting? Every little punch was so satisfying. Even though the game was so small in its scope, it was well executed. The music was a little repetitive but decent. I enjoyed it. Thanks for this submission!
burnedkirby
27. Oct 2020 · 10:44 UTC
Simple looping-shooter shooter, but gets complex in terms of difficulty as the player has to deal with multiple obstacles of usually a different color. Interesting game idea, good work!