Got 14! Pretty entertaining, the control scheme felt a bit clunky, I found just aiming straight up and running around was often better than trying to arc my shots. Enjoyed the game!

That was quite hard, I also just ended up standing directly underneath and aiming up since missing your shot had a big cost. You could try mouse control for the aiming like a pull back and release might work nicely? I like the vibe though the music and grainy visuals set the desert scene. Also I like the tutorial screen. It's a nice way to get acquainted with the controls in a safe environment while also having all the controls infront of your face so you cant forget. Cheers!

Nice Idea, my first try - 7...

Thanks for the feedback.

@nothing The comment about aiming up is interesting, and not something that occurred to me when I was making it. I wonder if limiting the vertical aim angle would be better, or just frustrating. Certainly with the arrow key controls I expect it would just feel even more clunky.

@peterfiftyfour I realise now that mouse controls would have been much better - at the time, I was laying groundwork for gamepad support, though I didn't end up having time to implement that.

Hi, after your lovely comment on my game, here I am!!
Indeed, it's a hard game, the fact that you need to aim with the arrows instead of the mouse is difficult, but it's a very good game nonetheless! With a bit of practice I'm sure I can go very far!
The artstyle is great, and the music adds to it! Also... bonus point because Dune~

Nice job. I agree with the others, theres a bit too much going on with running around and aiming at the same time. However I do like that you have to aim carefully to not hit the worm.

It was a little bit hard to understand how shooting works, but it works nicely. I don't see why you have a jump button, but it's funny to do it(I don't know why). Killing the enemies is satisfying and it's a good game overall.

@double-top The comment about the jump button is interesting. The reason for it was because you would have to jump over the fully broken sand-worm segments, but I think you're right that it's not strictly necessary. Thanks for your feedback!

Really liked this, seemed that it had the perfect complexity - nice surprise when the segments became damaged, and otherwise very polished. As others have said, controls take a while to get used to, but this is a really solid entry. Great Job!

This was really cool! The difficultly felt fair, and I enjoy non-conventional control schemes. I got to 15 also! The theme was cool, I love Dune, and the menus were clean. It was an all round fun experience. 😁
Well done!

I had some trouble with the controls but I like the simple set up couples with nice music and graphics. I am an especially big fan of what the worm looks like when he is damaged.

Cool game, I like the graphics style, especially the worm. The controls even though quite tricky gives me a nice retro feel together with the music and sound effects. Maybe combining the power with the fire button would make it a bit more intuitive to aim, as in the longer you hold the fire button the longer the shot will go. Good job!

Everything was great! I was really impressed by the graphics, very nice color set. The movement and shooting were great, though the controls took a bit to get used to. Great work!

I have quite small arrow keys and the controlls therefor were not that great. But it was a lot of fun to play. I liked the music.

Thanks for all the feedback!

@maskrosen Originally, the power button and fire button were actually combined, but I found that you would line up your shot, then tap fire, and the aim would jolt slightly before shooting, meaning you could never be totally accurate. I think combining them would make sense with a pull-back mouse-aim system, however, which is something I plan to add once the jam judging is over.

@polarfuchs I'm really sorry! My arrow keys are nice and beefy so that wasn't really at the front of my mind.

really cool idea for the theme, control scheme is little confusing but nice gameplay concept

Very cool game idea, running on the back of a giant sand worm :laughing:
It' crazy what game ideas people have. Good job on that and also in general for finishing your game. I love your honestly about how you got stressed out completely at the end, which is normal for game jams. I participated in a few game jams already and only I had only 1 or 2 where I was really finished with everything at the end and super happy with the result. But in general, there is always something that can be improved. It's kind of a curse of developers or programmers. It is important to keep track of all the things you have to do and don't be to ambitious for a game jam, because there is just not enough time. Identify the important mechanics and focus on them first and then add stuff if you have time.

Back to your game now.
As you already now, the aiming mechanics are very weird. I would have personally removed the strength because there is no real need in changing that and also the left and right could just be from the normal movement direction. It would also be cool to make the enemy hitbox a little bigger. Does not make the game much easier because you still have to aim, but you should always tweak the game in a way to make it a little easier for the player and harder for the enemies to hit you (if you have any). This will make the player feel better, because they perform better in your game. However, don't use this if you are making a multiplayer game, there it should be quite tight with the controls/hitting/whatever mechanic to really focus on the skill of the players playing against eachother.
It would also be cool to keep aiming while running to be faster at clearing the waves. I really liked that you implemented the enemy indication arrows.

Other than that I enjoyed your game. Highscore was 12.

Gj keep it up

i seen a very similar game somwhere..
maybe a coincidence tho, just sayin'

Made it to level 16

My strategy was to aim straight up at max power, and then run beneath the bugs to shoot them. Was working pretty well, but a bug ate the worm that I was standing on and my character got stuck (the bug bugged the game :cry:)

I think it would be cool if there were some powerups or other enemy types to spice up the gameplay. Love that your game is a Dune reference :smile:

Reminds me a bit of terraria haha! You could definitely add a lot of creatures and monsters in that game! It is a great entry overall and I wish you good luck!

This game is fun and it could be even more fun if it had mouse controls (but I understand why you didn't add it). Although I guess actually it also could be argued that the keyboard controls add another layer of skill to the game (apart from the strength control).

This is awesome! Seriously, great job:

++ super good atmosphere building.

++ the music and sound effects are killer

++ impacts from rocks feel really powerful

-- the controls are a little wonky. I feel like I would have preferred using the mouse and having more enemies

-- I felt like there were times where I didn't know where the things I needed to hit were. Maybe greying out the "swarm" or making there not be a scroll to the stage could help!

Kudos from all Duna fans :) Sand-worm is just a perfect idea. WIsh you the best of luck :)

Since i haven't seen anyone say this yet: I think you should have a different punishment for missing. aiming is fairly hard with the keyboard (which you are already aware of) a punishment that doesn't equate to "you are slightly closer to losing" would be nice. Perhaps something like a temporary stun or something?

@wolfier that's an interesting idea. Making the rocks do damage wasn't something I was totally sure about, so a different punishment is something I've thought about. I honestly think that it's more of an extension of the issue with the controls though, since anything else would be a little contrived and wouldn't fit the theme quite so well. I don't think it would be quite so annoying with mouse or gamepad controls. That said, I may just not have thought of a good enough punishment. Or perhaps no punishment would work. I was worried that without it the rounds would last far too long, but it seems like it gets hard enough to deal with them past round 15 or so. It's worth investigating. Thanks for playing!

I haven't read other's comment but I'm sure others have mention something similar. Sadly, the controls do not work for me at all. Perhaps to someone who plays many games on PC they might but for me I found myself not understand the sequence by which I could successfully perform an action. Perhaps if the game was controller via the mouse (rotation, hold for strength, maybe release to shoot OR space for strength and click to shoot) it would the game you did not intend to make but it would've made it easier to get into.

Having said that, I like the simplicity of it and the mood/aesthetics of the game fit really well not to mention that allow the player to also cause the demise of the worm is a nice challenge.

Challenging game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/W3MIuB5jBTw