Laser Jump FTW by Crashmore Studios

[raw]
made by Crashmore Studios for LD34 (JAM)
From the sleepdeprived minds of J. Romano, Chris A. and Richard Crashmore and the bloodpumping tunes of DJ Robertino comes a thrilling arcade shooter out of your wildest acid dreams.

But stay calm. All you have to do is shoot.

How hard can that be?

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.57 279
Audio(Jam) 3.19 418
Fun(Jam) 3.70 134
Graphics(Jam) 2.68 863
Humor(Jam) 3.15 268
Innovation(Jam) 3.46 280
Mood(Jam) 3.15 572
Theme(Jam) 3.41 738

Feedback

Gins
14. Dec 2015 · 17:13 UTC
That was quite frantic, love the idea of shooting and movement being tied to the same mechanic. It's a bit easy to fool the game though, since all the enemies swarm towards you. You can just hover close to the ceiling and fire down in regular intervals ^^

Showing the tutorial right after you died the first time was really funny. More games should do that^^
pkenney
14. Dec 2015 · 19:22 UTC
YES!! TOTAL VICTORY!!

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pkenney's tips for beating Laser Jump FTW, to be read only after you've played a bit already:

Tip 1: The platform is not your friend. It is your own weakness. Tough up and get used to owning in the sky because otherwise you are doomed.

Tip 2: Immediately and always right click every time you play to zoom out. You need the info.

Tip 3: Remember those thousands of hours you logged playing Tribes video games where you fly around with a jetpack and shoot stuff?

Tip 4: Notice the linear non-accelerating nature of your falling. Notice the falloff in horizontal momentum. Relax! These gentle physics mean you don't need to stay in front of ever-escalating falling speeds nor do you have to counter-act any sideways motion you give yourself. You have more time to think than you might think.

Tip 5: It is critical that you actually aim at stuff WHILE shooting to control your movement. Sometimes you panic shoot to kill and don't control movement. And then you panic shoot to recover your position and don't kill stuff. And then you lose. The way to victory is multi-purpose shooting. As it should be.

Tip 6: Get up near the ceiling but not too close. Learn the rate at which you can fire without hitting the boundary. What is the steady state? Get the feel for shooting at a 45 angle, which allows you to move comfortably left/right while maintaining a relatively stable height and lets you shoot toward enemies.

Tip 6.5: Now that you are near the top and a sky warrior, let the enemies amass into a single blob and kite them left and right. Pass over the horde, carefully aim-steer-shooting to kill the top enemies while controlling your height and passing sideways over them. GOT IT? As long as you have your basics down you should only have real trouble from newly spawning enemies.

Tip 7: OH MY GOD THEY CHANGED ALL THE PHYSICS AND THE RULES EXACTLY COUNTER TO MY STRATEGY!$??

Tip 8: OK I'm'a leave this to you to figure out, but it can be done. I beat both modes. (It does not include standing on the platform, even though you'll want to all over again.)

Only change I would make is to add time survived to post-match screen. I agree w/ tutorial after death and not before, rather strongly in fact, but I also would like to see my score there.

The only other friction point was that early on while I was still acclimating I was surprised that I'd hit the ceiling when I thought I had it under control. My eyes weren't on my head, they were on my target, so it was just a feel thing. I kind of wished there was like a warning track like the baseball guys have that would maybe play some subtle yet not annoying audio cue that impact was imminent but while I still had time to react. I guess that this risks becoming super-repetitive and thus annoying, though.

Fantastic all-around package here, congrats to you and your team.

And sorry about your job, Rich.
Drury
15. Dec 2015 · 15:53 UTC
This is more of a one-button game, that's my only complaint. Somewhat incredible, this.
zenmumbler
15. Dec 2015 · 15:53 UTC
I first died 10 a couple of times instantly but I got the hang of it after. Hard, but doable. I would've liked a recharging blast for RMB or something as zooming out is always need anyway and doesn't need a button. And I'm afraid. Good one.
Cake_Catastrophe
15. Dec 2015 · 23:08 UTC
Oh god, the physics on Hairy difficulty! Too much physics. All the physics, all at once! D=

Took me ages but I made it! Got like 300+ on the first difficulty, before I headbutted the roof.
ddr2
15. Dec 2015 · 23:11 UTC
Playing with that recoil is just a superb idea. First game that gets me hooked enough in this jam to make me retry and want to get better at it.

After a couple of games, I am still not completely sold as I would have loved to be able to completely out-brain some of the ennemies just by movement, but they eventually still find you tracker-style which means that any dodging movements is actually useless: you HAVE to kill.

Anyway, great idea. graphics and audio could use a bit more work but the concept / gameplay just makes it fun so great job guys.
Krafty
16. Dec 2015 · 17:46 UTC
This was really fun! I didn't want to stop playing, but hairy difficulty was so hard :0 The music was good, I really like the mechanic! I don't think there's any reason to zoom in though =P
torcado194
16. Dec 2015 · 22:57 UTC
i really like this concept! pretty fun, though gets boring kinda quick. also, this was more of a one button game than a two button game, the 'zoom' thing just felt shoehorned in (why would anyone want to zoom back in?? unless im missing something)
otherwise super cool!
PickleCrew
16. Dec 2015 · 23:11 UTC
Very interesting idea, after playing for about 10 minutes I could not stop. Although the game is quite hard but fun at the same time.
NirabazGAMES
17. Dec 2015 · 21:27 UTC
convenient controls
VersatileBox
17. Dec 2015 · 23:31 UTC
LOVED IT AND LAUGHED OUT LOUD. Yes, with caps.
Ancient_Pixel
18. Dec 2015 · 12:32 UTC
Using your gun as a jetpack? Check. Feeling Badass zapping dudes? Check. Nice atmosphere and sound? Check. Overall: Nice One!
Manu & Wan
18. Dec 2015 · 12:36 UTC
First I was "meh?", then I started to get the hang of it, and I started to see how glorious it was. Graphics are uneven, but the gamplay is fun, a kind of "Super Hexagon" fun.

Thank you for leading me through pain and epileptic seizures to an eventually satisfying victory.
gebirgsbaerbel
18. Dec 2015 · 15:30 UTC
Frantic and interesting to play. The enemy movements are a bit too random, which makes it sometimes really difficult, sometimes. easy.
EwChap
19. Dec 2015 · 22:25 UTC
Great entry. Amazingly fun and tuned for how simple it is. Simple but great. Enough typing, back to playing.
Mantlair
20. Dec 2015 · 14:23 UTC
Awesome Ill play this thing on my spare times to finish because now I have stuff to do.
Mantlair
20. Dec 2015 · 14:28 UTC
Also game crashes sometimes and its annoying really. B/
Kuality Games
20. Dec 2015 · 15:11 UTC
Quite challenging! Enjoyed it alot. Only a bit of feedback I have is that it would be more fun if the safe-zone was a bit larger to make the game less punishing. Oh and a bit more juice! You can never have enough juice.

Well done.
monetai
20. Dec 2015 · 15:21 UTC
wow, i loved that one, its super hard, but damn thats fun, and the ability to dezoom really improves the experience, nice work
Hot Box Games
20. Dec 2015 · 16:42 UTC
Neat idea! It turned out to be very enjoyable and addictive once I got the hang of it, good job!
publicidadeba
23. Dec 2015 · 03:18 UTC
Almost got 5/5 for everything! Just balance a little bit so it's no so cruel and it will be a hit on the apple store!
PS: Reminded me of the Steam title Ubermosh
BlackBulletIV
01. Jan 2016 · 02:17 UTC
Brutally hard, but still fun and with a nice concept.