Pulse by caeonosphere

[raw]
made by caeonosphere for Ludum Dare 59 (COMPO)

pulsealpha_remapped.gif

Pop the nodes and interrupt their signals in this tricky and tactical twin-stick shooter!

pulse<em>ss1.png   pulse</em>ss2.png

Controller recommended. * Move: left stick / WASD * Shoot: right stick / left click * Dash: any controller button / right click

One tip to get you started: the signal cuts both ways...

pulse_shoot.gif

  • Made with Unity, Photoshop, Illustrator, FL Studio, Audacity, and bfxr.
  • Font is Elms Sans by Amarachi Nwauwa.
  • Check out my other projects here!

Ratings

Overall 64th 3.796⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 21th 4.037⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 181th 3.222⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 206th 3.241⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 139th 3.519⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Audio 20th 4.093⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 107th 3.615⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 32🗨️

Feedback

wo_ri_gou_le
Apr 20th · 12:40 UTC
I really kind want to play this but I don't have a controler on hand, music got juicy base and it looks kind promising. If you have plan adding keyboard support plz call me back


Also it would be even better if the geomotry shapes and such gets a bit more fine tuning, make all elements more cohesive together, this game is a good example: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1667700/2/
SteveOfStevesGames
Apr 20th · 15:32 UTC
That was awesome.
I loved everything about it except i didnt have enough time to screenshot my score. I think i got 1.2 mil.
The style was like a geometry wars game on a subbuteo table.
If you mess up at the start of a later level it becomes so much harder.
I didnt find the dash until later, i think if i got better at dashing i could times my score by 10.
xotraz
Apr 20th · 17:56 UTC
The art and sound design is amazing, but I cannot play it with my keyboard. :sob:
Richard Baltrusch
Apr 20th · 19:18 UTC
Fun game - I think a neutral dash (without directional input) or some kind of input buffering would be nice because as it is I often lost HP to me not pressing the buttons together (I know I know :)

Is the right joystick supposed to work? On my PS4 dualshock (didn't try with ds4 windows) it didn't work, so I was playing on hard mode with the bullets coming out at like -45 degrees throughout haha

Polished looking graphics! I like it :)
🎤 caeonosphere
Apr 21st · 04:14 UTC
Switched over to web build, which:

@wo-ri-gou-le @xotraz added keyboard support, and

@richard-baltrusch should fix the right joystick for non-Xbox controllers.

Thanks for playing! :D
wo_ri_gou_le
Apr 21st · 04:26 UTC
Okay it's really good, I got 684k, the block and double kind of idea is just good, but can be better dealt with when it goes complicated, when enemies added up there is too much block than double, minnor issues, it is good game!
xotraz
Apr 21st · 12:19 UTC
@caeonosphere Thank you, I could play!

But it crashed on game over, so maybe the original version was more stable.

![Crash.png](///raw/daf/2/z/71f08.png)
Maksim Terskov
Apr 21st · 18:26 UTC
The sounds are great. The enemies feel a bit too tanky—it takes a long time to kill them. The shockwave mechanic is interesting.
Shoalmuse
Apr 22nd · 06:21 UTC
So fun! I love a good geometry wars-like and this one is great. Loved the music and the controls are super tight. I also did end up crashing on game over and the animated images on the itch page were super distracting until I went full-screen. Otherwise no notes.
blobo
Apr 22nd · 16:39 UTC
It took me a minute to figure everything out (bonus damage for shooting out of a ring, the rings triggering other rings...) but wow, once I figured it all out, this game really grew on me.

The way your mistakes multiply is *brutal* in the best possible way. I love it.

I told a friend, who told a friend, who told a friend, who told me that you just won the **Feedback Loop** award!

![FeedbackLoop.png](///raw/b02/2/z/724e6.png)

Here's my recorded playthrough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5006hZljkw
🎤 caeonosphere
Apr 22nd · 17:48 UTC
@100th-coin Thanks for the video! You found the strategy real quick. As you noticed at the end there, it does kinda have an exponential difficulty curve where wave 13 is hard and 15 is pretty much impossible. Wasn't able to figure out how to solve that in time :)

I wonder why your controller didn't work? I'm using Unity's "new" input system that claims to fix all those pesky issues. Ah well.
bentglasstube
Apr 24th · 06:23 UTC
Really well made and smooth. The difficulty a bit much for me but this isn't really my genre. The music was phenomenal and the mechanic where each pulse triggered more was fun to discover. Great work.
🎤 caeonosphere
Apr 24th · 06:31 UTC
@bentglasstube Thanks... and yes, sorry about the difficulty. After 18 of these, I still cannot figure out how not to do that.
Ray Dino
Apr 24th · 09:07 UTC
First off, what a cool game. It was difficult (couldn't get past wave 7) but it made me want to keep trying. Tight mechanics, easy to pick up, good challenge. Graphics were simple to not be distracting, but clear and pleasing to the eye to help the player focus. I like how the challenge ramps up over the levels. My favorite part though is the music. I love it when the player sounds (the bullet hits in this case) syncs with the background music so that it feels like you're playing part of the music as well.
Yorsh
Apr 24th · 22:33 UTC
I'm impressed! It's very, very elegant. It's a simple concept, both in gameplay and in visuals, which not only work well with the theme but is also fun and looks great. Music is amazing too.

I checked out some of your other submissions, great work overall!
SMOLBIGBY
Apr 26th · 00:22 UTC
Cool game with very simple graphics and music. It was quite difficult, the idea that enemies can protect themselves with waves is interesting. The enemies are a little too tanky, though.
🎤 caeonosphere
Apr 26th · 00:52 UTC
@maksim-terskov @smolbigby Re: tanky enemies, out of curiosity, did you notice the mechanic where you deal more damage if you shoot from inside a wave to the outside?
YurisCat
Apr 26th · 06:54 UTC
The music slaps, and the shooting feels super satisfying. I love the chain explosion visuals and the feeling of dashing through waves! Great game!
blinry
Apr 26th · 18:44 UTC
Very juicy! We liked how the game progresses and introduces new elements over time. Catchy music that kept us want to try again. Clean presentation!

We needed a bit to understand the rules; without the explanation, we wouldn't have noticed the mechanic of "boosting" your shots if the go the right way. Having lots of "wave sources" later in the game seemed to make it hard to take advantage of it.

Thanks for making this! :)
Meta-link
Apr 27th · 20:09 UTC
Cool game ! A classic twin stick with a twist, but really well made and polished.

Good job :slight_smile:
henk
Apr 27th · 20:39 UTC
I liked this a lot. I noticed that you could fire from inside the barrier to the outside but didn't notice the increase in damage. When playing the game again with that knowledge, I don't really find that it changes how I play all that much. Is it normal in shooters like this to freeze the player for a second or two when they get hit? I found that mechanic very frustrating.
Floonace
May 01st · 14:37 UTC
This is probably my favorite. The graphics and music feel great. I was slow to understand the connection with signals, I almost thought it was unrelated, but I liked the concept. The controls are also fluid. Regarding the dash restart at the end of the game, I have to say that it feels like the game is frozen. A different transition effect could have been tried.
LDJam user 278146
May 03rd · 11:45 UTC
Great idea to have the expanding signals have two uses. Really makes you feel about where you're positioning yourself to not only be able to hit enemies but be able to hit them harder as well.

Took me a few waves to figure out that dashing is how I get "inside" a signal.