Feed the Fire by Benjamin123

[raw]
made by Benjamin123 for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

In" Feed the Fire", you collect coal dropped by enemies to fuel your "Master Flame", which must be kept alive at all costs! Use "W", "A", "S", and "D" to move, and click to shoot at your enemies.

Screen Shot 2020-04-19 at 8.01.22 PM.pngScreen Shot 2020-04-19 at 8.04.30 PM.pngScreen Shot 2020-04-19 at 8.04.44 PM.png

NOTE: I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you download this to your computer instead of playing it on WebGL, as it will improve performance.

Ratings

Overall 970th 2.848⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 993th 2.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 967th 2.674⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 474th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 570th 3.37⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 825th 1.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 918th 2.591⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 0🗨️

Feedback

Barrier
21. Apr 2020 · 17:38 UTC
Nice shooty game!
Had an issue in webgl with UI covering the screen but if you go fullscreen it gets fixed.
AidanMarkham
23. Apr 2020 · 14:40 UTC
Great adaptation of the theme! I thought it was tough to tell when the player is hit by the enemy projectiles and vice versa, but otherwise I really liked the graphics.
ecmjohnson
23. Apr 2020 · 14:56 UTC
The bloom effect really helps the look of the game! I liked the concept of the player and enemies being this trail of colour changing squares, but I found it a bit hard to track my characters exact location when I needed to dodge enemy missiles.
Elyaradine
23. Apr 2020 · 16:11 UTC
The glowing colours look quite pretty! I found that my hit box wasn't very clear at all, because of how the particles move around randomly. This was similarly the case for bullets, where I'd sometimes get hit when I thought that I'd dodged. A brighter "core" that doesn't fluctuate in front of the flamey particles would probably help a lot with that.

I liked that there were upgrades between rounds.
mikouaji
03. May 2020 · 16:11 UTC
Love the particle effects :D Nice upgrade system, it gets hard at levels 3+.
Some more UI like HP would be nice.
Pretzol
06. May 2020 · 02:33 UTC
The fire, player, and enemies all look pretty cool! The upgrade system was nice, too, but I wished there were some sounds though. Otherwise, great game!
Koolruz
06. May 2020 · 02:43 UTC
Using particle effects for all of your characters was a cool way to represent fire, but it was a bit hard to tell when your projectiles were hitting enemies, and when enemies hit you. It probably would have helped to have some sort of feedback (flashing, shaking, knockback, disruption of enemy particles, etc) when they get hit by your attacks, to help your attacks feel like they have more weight.

I didn't hear any audio on the webGL version, but saw that you have that category available for ratings - Was there audio that I missed?

I managed to beat levels 1, 2, and 3, but I got stuck on 4. It was great that you let players retry from whatever level they died on - I ended up playing way longer than I would have if I had to start over every time I died! :)
Benjamin San Souci
06. May 2020 · 03:10 UTC
I thought the way you represent the HP was a cool idea. I wished I could use the arrow keys to shoot, since projectiles have a max range anyway.
Sporky Sauce
06. May 2020 · 03:17 UTC
The graphics look awesome, and the particle effects are super cool. I played in via the WebGL client. Some more player feedback (damage animation, visual cues) would have improved the immersion but otherwise an awesome job!!
BookerBlueJay
06. May 2020 · 03:30 UTC
Love the simple square particle style, it's cool to have all the characters represented that way. I would say the menu and UI is a bit plain, but it's a jam game so game-play comes first. Finally, The shooting felt a bit clunky, it would make sense if the projectile shot in a straight line to where you clicked but it follows your mouse slowly, but still fizzles out. Doesn't quite feel right.
Ogma
06. May 2020 · 03:57 UTC
Nice game. :)

Graphics are nice, simple but really great. Nice job with the FX.

The controls are correct. I didn't really notice a difference between the WebGL and the Windows build, but the game ran well on the WebGL build anyway. The only things are that I had no sound, neither in the WebGL nor the windows build and the option button did nothing.

The gameplay is correct, things are pretty intuitive. I couldn't beat the third or fourth level even after multiple attempts. It was a good idea to let the player retry from the last level.
Adding a way to use coal or reset how it's used after a gameover could help try different way of playing. I feel like it lacks a bit of feedback, reducing the size of entities is a really great idea, but adding a bit of screenshaking or anything else would help when you hit / get hit / when the flame is "under attack".

Anyway, great job there! o/
Jared York
06. May 2020 · 04:42 UTC
Great game! I really like the kind of minimalist graphics. The particle effects are great! Nice job.
Tomssuli
06. May 2020 · 11:11 UTC
Nice defender game. I would have liked there to be more clear hitboxes for player and enemies and some indication when you or enemy is hit. I liked the upgrade system, though it would have been nice to see somehow what you've upgraded in the upgrade menu. Sounds or music would have done much for the mood.