Shmup with grappling hooks by chuchuw

[raw]
made by chuchuw for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

Use your hooks to absorb energy from invaders and release it to restart human colonies machinery.

Be careful about your own ship energy. 🚀

ezgif.com-resize.gif

WASD or ZQSD or D-pad for movements

Shift or Ctrl for Healing hook

Space for Absorption hook

🖱 ​Mouse clicks work too for hook actions

🎮 Gamepads are allowed​


Created by chuchuw with love2d and sfxr

Music by renardmalsain

Ratings

Overall 614th 3.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 937th 3.455⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 371th 3.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1701th 3.432⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1282th 3.591⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 792th 3.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1054th 3.477⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

rrsmtz
20. Apr 2020 · 22:41 UTC
This is my favorite entry so far! Clean controls, great gameplay, cool concept, and great gfx, music, and sfx which carry a lot of immersion. My only comment is that it goes a bit too slow.
Jupiter_Hadley
21. Apr 2020 · 14:00 UTC
Nice concept. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/4GNiWeaqklM
🎤 chuchuw
21. Apr 2020 · 14:33 UTC
@rrsmtz Yeah I think that the game doesn't offer a big challenge.

The scrolling is slow on purpose to allow you to play with the power stations,
but I wish I had focused more on adding enemies / waves / patterns. :)
🎤 chuchuw
21. Apr 2020 · 14:33 UTC
@jupiter-hadley Thank you for playing and putting my game on video :)
Torh
22. Apr 2020 · 06:34 UTC
Hi! Nice work! I want to make a video with the best games of LDJam46. Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOdTsWE7iIk .
Can I find your game also on indiexpo website? The channel is linked with them.
Fax
22. Apr 2020 · 08:16 UTC
Nice concept.
Clean and without any kind of bug. Controls are very smooth and accurate.
It deserve some next levels and maybe some other additionnal mechanics but the game is really good for a jam.
Congratulations.
🎤 chuchuw
22. Apr 2020 · 08:47 UTC
Hello @torh, for now my game is only on itch.io (link above). You can play it on whatever video that you like.

Thank you for your interest :)
renrok
22. Apr 2020 · 21:37 UTC
Cool concept overall, but it felt wierd to me not to be able to aim hooks to the sides and retract them.
The art is very clean, though I think it would be better to distinct the player from the enemies more, by using different colours for them, for example
ectucker1
23. Apr 2020 · 00:57 UTC
Really enjoyed playing this one! My one complaint is that it was hard to connect to generators when enemies moved under them. Aiming to the sides, as other users mentioned, would provide an option to deal with this problem. Other than that, this game had very tight gameplay!
🎤 chuchuw
23. Apr 2020 · 09:33 UTC
@wavewava @ectucker1 thank you for your comments :)

I didn't want to make the player aim with the mouse or the stick in an analogic way, but maybe just 4 or 8 directions could be interesting ! Or maybe auto-aim/moveable lock.

About the colors, I put only one because it's all about the same energy that flows in the different characters, but maybe I could use 2 colors for allies/opponents, and the white for the energy.
nk_x_x
23. Apr 2020 · 19:24 UTC
Concept was super cool, and I like the feel of dodging enemies whilst staying locked on to them. I'm not sure if there is a max distance on the cables but it felt like it and playing like that made it much more interesting in how I dodged them. The slow pace I enjoyed as well. Gave it a sense of slow, steady impending doom which was a nice change of pace for this type of game!

That said, I found it very frustrating actually hooking onto the generators. I can only assume the left/right offset is relative to movement, because what it *felt* like was that they were cleverly heat-seaking the exact opposite of what I wanted, haha :p I found myself pretty constantly healing enemies by mistake so I eventually started just herding every enemy to one side of the screen to get them out of the way, which seems to work ok.

It would've been cool if there'd been a mechanic to force me to change strategies every now and then - but hey, it's a jam and there's not much time!

Presentation is all really good, especially the sound design! The use of the scrolling level to provide instructions was a really slick little detail that I appreciated a lot.
coolestdoggie
23. Apr 2020 · 19:58 UTC
Nice game with unusual idea. It reminds me Pudge's hook from DOTA 2. I like it.
🎤 chuchuw
23. Apr 2020 · 21:29 UTC
@nk-x-x "but hey, it’s a jam and there’s not much time!" -> This is so true :') ❤️️
thanks for the feedback !

I think that if I keep working on this game I'll check this comments page more often :D
Trexxak
24. Apr 2020 · 13:40 UTC
oh. Mankind doomed. Sowwy. :(

Really creative idea though and really cool execution! I really liked it a lot and could see great potential in this energy transmission mechanic. And everything's so smooth! You also chose a really nice-for-the-eyes hue of green. All in all just a very pleasant experience.
RexTGun
24. Apr 2020 · 18:21 UTC
really fun idea! the feel was on point and it felt really nice to move energy from the enemies into the generators, but some design choices did create frustration. a few times i would confuse CTRL and SPACE or maybe just hit a little off i would be draining the generators and fueling the enemies. that did not feel like a punishment for playing bad but instead just like controls that allow the player to do things they dont intend since there is not a point in which you will want to fuel enemies or unfuel generators. also the enemies did not add any real challenge with their damage with the game feeling quite slow. what might have made it more interesting is if they were shooting at you (since the movement was done so well) and maybe if there were enemies you wanted to fuel or generators you wanted to empty, maybe some generators are overheating and if not drained they will explode! or some enemies can be fueled to the point of explosion killing enemies nearby. just things like this could add a ton of depth to your simple system and make the game exponentially more interesting. i really cant wait to see where this project goes and thank you for making this game!
Vertuga32
24. Apr 2020 · 18:39 UTC
Too easy) But overall, it feels cool.
🎤 chuchuw
24. Apr 2020 · 19:54 UTC
@rextgun thank you for your comment :)

This was planned originally that enemies could shoot (and even throw hooks like the player), and have more complex IA patterns, but I dropped everything because of the jam time limit, to focus on design, tutorial, and a victory condition.

I see very good ideas here ! I never thought about the overheating, but that's definitely something I will implement !

About the controls, it was on purpose that you could miss your target and heal an enemy, and same thing about draining a generator if you're very low in energy.

I think I want to keep this idea, but I need to find how to make it easier to use and less painful for the player.

"add a ton of depth ... and make the game exponentially more interesting" that's a good target, I'd love to.

You can follow me on itch.io or twitter for more news on it the day it's worked out :)

🚀
RexTGun
24. Apr 2020 · 20:23 UTC
chuchuw, will do. i will be looking forward to your Post LD Version
zyow
25. Apr 2020 · 17:09 UTC
Simple and fun! Maybe a little too easy. I like the graphics but it's hard to read the text at the begining with all the ennemis. Good job!
agegorin
26. Apr 2020 · 13:59 UTC
Nice game, liked your visual and sound.
But I expect more difficult enemies, and maybe stop spawning them if there enough on screen?
arcayn
27. Apr 2020 · 09:26 UTC
Fun and quite unique! Looks great but I would maybe have it move a little faster
Magnanix
27. Apr 2020 · 09:51 UTC
Yay! S-rank, I saved everyone 3! XD

This concept was comfy, and the sounds were great. Such an awesome idea for the jam, and it fits the theme perfectly :D.

I only came across one minor bug with the game -- it appears that buildings can spawn overlapping each other, I almost missed it when the two buildings were stacked up. The colour changing of the lines from white to teal helped a lot though! :D.

![preview.png](///raw/c0b/22/z/33644.png)

Nice work :).
🎤 chuchuw
27. Apr 2020 · 14:41 UTC
Thank you ^^ Glad you liked it. Yes I knew about this problem. I should change the way they are randomly put on the field. Put some space between them. @magnanix
pepperkep
30. Apr 2020 · 05:38 UTC
This is great concept for a shmup. The hooks feel really good. I think if it was a bit harder I could have gotten a little more into the feel of it.
khaotom
04. May 2020 · 08:03 UTC
Really nifty shmup idea! I like it a lot, and it was a nice fun play.
Monish Vyas
04. May 2020 · 11:04 UTC
Cool idea and quite nice take on the theme. I loved the graphics, sound and gameplay, all comes together very nicely. I just wish I could aim in any direction with my mouse. That's just in my opinion. Overall great fun to play.