Plasma

Pretty fun to play, but i dont think it brought many new mechanics, the ones that are in the game are very clever though, like using the turret to bounce astronauts, but nothing really made me think about the stuck in the loop theme, very fun but could use some more crazy idea.

It took me way too long to realize what is going on. Not many people will read help, and while proper in-game tutorial is a pretty complicated thing to pull off for a game jam, something as simple as

if (gameTime > 100 && gameTime < 200)
displayText("Shoot those enemy ships by pressing space")
if (gameTime > 300 && gameTime < 400)
displayText("Send astronauts to replenish plasma from the planet")
if (gameTime > 500 && gameTime < 600)
displayText("Bounce the astronauts back using your ship")

can do wonders and takes minutes to implement.

That said, I think the core concept is really creative. The game got quite repetitive quite fast, with not much of difficulty curve (apart from shrinking number of astronauts).

Neat synthesis, playing pong while playing space invanders! Very imaginative, I liked it even though it got repetitive kinda quickly.

Had trouble first to figure out what to do, but I admit I didn't read instructions.
Soon I had the AHA moment (and a good laugh) after dropping the first astronaut.
Plus for humor.
Nice game and unexpected implementation of the theme.

Fits the theme. Enjoyed the two main mechanics, keeping my dudes bouncing on the planet whilst defending the planet. Maybe when I don't have any astronauts left floating and am out of ammo, give me a Game Over Screen. Otherwise really solid entry!

Dig what was done here - nice and challenging basic gameplay, plus bouncing Astronauts around is excellent!

Thank you all for the feed back.

@boltkey that was definitely the next thing on my todo list, unfortunately, I didn't have time to implement it. I actually only worked on this game on Sunday, so there is definitely a lot of polishing and difficulty curve that's missing.

@rhewid, before testing the game myself, it seemed like a good idea to let the player see when the planet is destroyed, but I didn't get time to add that kind of animation. So I agree, I should have just showed the Game over screen when the player is out of ammo and astronauts

Very nice design, I like the astronauts and how you have to keep them inside the planet. It's pretty difficult, also.

Nicely done! I had no trouble at all figuring it out actually.

Really cool game! It was nice that i had a moment in the beginning to understand what i can do, before the enemies came. I jumped right into the game, skipping the help. I figured out what to do with the astronauts after running out of bullets - initially i wondered what i could do with the sparkles and tried to click on it, but assumend it was just decoration. But then i got it and a bit later also understood i can bounce the astronauts back, really clever design! So overall, the mechanics are "discoverable" even without any help. It was fun to play, though i feel i was pretty bad at it :D

Just some things that could change, from my point of view:
* personally, i'd place the help screen in front of the game, not as an option. I'd only write a single sentence per item, the most important thing to grasp. To me, it is something along "use astronauts to recover plasma, bounce the astronauts back with the cannon, astronaut count are limited". That's it, i think everyone will automatically know to shoot the enemies. Really good that you added the control info in a non intrusive way into the game screen!
* the turret having a slight acceleration on start could help making fine adjustments
* maybe a minimal regeneration of astronauts, only kicking in when few are left and floating, so you never feel like you are in an unwinnable state

Overall, really good entry with a surpising and very well working mechanic :)

Such a fun idea! I loved that you had to pay attention to all that stuff but it still wasn't overwhelming. The clean visuals also helped a lot. Great job!

✔️ The two different mechanics and how they interact really helps spice up the game play.

✔️ Nice and challenging, but not too challenging.

➖ I would have liked to see a few more enemy types.

I was kinda confused about how the astronauts and ammo worked because I didn't read the tutorial images, but after I figured that out the game became very engaging. Nice mix of a pong-type game and a space shooter. My high score was 7800. Will probably play more lol

Interesting concept, having to manage shooting the enemy ships while keeping your astronaut in the loop. It was hilarious when one of my astronauts hit an enemy ship and destroyed it.

Little frustrating that I can't shoot at all when I have no bullets, even though I thought I did an alright job of getting the ammo and being accurate with my shops. So I just have to watch the ships crash into the planet with no options. Alternatively you could have the astronaughts collecting powerups which I think I would prefer as a player.

This is just an idea, but it might also be nice to give the player the option to recapture the astronaut if things are about to get hectic and they want a chance to breathe while they deal with the enemy ships.

Thank you all for playing @gonzalol @ghuyajil @tamail @corrupt-spaghetti @rongo-matane @rngames @game-endeavor
And thank you for the idea as well. Many of those have crossed my mind, just didn't get time to implement them. I actually work on the game only on sunday.

The movement is indeed a bit too rough. Could use some acceleration and friction. And the actions are a bit limited indeed.

@game-endeavor It's fun indeed when the astronaut hits a ship. It was a quick addition just before submission, and I felt It might make people happy. So it actually gives you extra score :)

Cheers to you all.

The idea of the game is pretty interesting, however, I'm not very keen on system with astronauts:
1. It's pretty random, as I don't now where energy will spawn and how astronaut will be move;
2. It creates a pretty long pause between shooting, that feels pretty bad;

It'll be very better, if you make energy automatically restored with time. You could make astronauts come from the space and player should try to avoid shooting in them.

It almost broke my heart to send so many tiny astronauts to their deaths. But I'm also not ashamed to admit that I once used an astronaut as a projective to shoot down a ship... he was lost anyway, but he did this one last service to his planet gladly :smile:

I liked this interpretation of the theme. Aiming astronauts takes some getting used to but is definitely doable. Some way to temporarily accelerate would be nice. Or maybe even lifeline you could shoot to catch a runaway astronaut? Like the last-chance attempt to reel in a guy you are loosing.

I think the graphics are quite nice, if simple, and sound effects are cool as well. And for a compo game - this is very impressive!

I understand to late that I could keep astraunauts into earth. The mood is really cool

I played a very similar game in concept last ld with fancier graphics but way less thought out gameplay. I prefer your game over the other one! It's so cool to have a "minigame"(only for lack of a better term) be your resource for ammo generation! Due to the restricted amounts of astronauts you have, it also felt incredibly challenging, which is another plus in my book!

Definitely nice gameplay concepts here. Trying to keep the astronauts alive gives a good tactical touch to how you have to play an otherwise simple shooter :) Nice stuff!

My score was a measly 5300, though I lost a couple astronauts before I released how to keep them stuck in the loop.

This is really neat, and seems like a fresh take on some simple gameplay. Quite enjoyed this. Occasionally I ran low/out of ammo without realizing it, it would be nice to have a little indicator (1-3 yellow bars?) right next to your turret when you get low on ammo so you know you're on your last shot!

"Don't forget to catch them the other side of planet"

"Yes?"

"Commander... did u forget about our man???"

"Never! Their sacrifice is never to be forgotten"

😁😁😁

Nice work. Proper usage of theme and competition time to bring us cool, simple and fun game.

I let so many astronauts die :face_palm: This was a fun concept though, having to manage your ammunition 'retrievers' while simultaneously swivelling around to shoot enemies was a real challenge. Good stuff

One of the most fun to play submissions this LD. I understood the controls without reading any tutorial very quickly. The athmosphere is nice, it looks and sounds good, and has fun and intuitive yet original gameplay. Well done.

My highest score was 6,200 points, I don't really know if it was any good to be honest. I loved the little animation on your astronauts, they were really cute.

Very original concept, I like the double mwchanic of shoot and pong the astronauts ^^. Congrats!

So original. I loved the mix of shooting and bones the little guy to get the bullets. I kinda wish that you could also bring the guy back in to the ship. Really fun to play Great Job! :)

Very cool idea, almost like playing two games at once so was quite tricky, but still fun

Cool game, with nice mechanics and artstyle!

Good audio and general atmosphere! And the gameplay is satisfying - the only caveat is the controls were sometimes a bit too sensitive so I didn't feel like I could always line up the shots I wanted to take.. I did fairly quickly start running out of bullets and astronauts as well.