Fleeting by Shess
"Has it always been like this? Every action takes insane amounts of energy, the battles are never fair, and the struggle just doesn't end. You are descending, and you are lost".

Story: the battle is already lost, and this is where we start. You are in shambles, an easy target for the predators to hunt down and tear apart, and there is not much you can do about it other than flee.
You are not completely defenseless, but fighting just doesn't seem worth it. Avoidance works best, and it's not a sign of weakness. This is just how you keep yourself alive until you get to safety and recuperate. Whatever happens, don't stop.

- Escape the battlefield that almost crushed you.
- Avoid engaging with the enemy at all costs.
- Delve deeper into the nebulous abyss.
- Persevere until you no longer can.
- Play in browser

Controls: keyboard and mouse. [W][A][S][D] or [ARROW KEYS] to move, [SPACE] to go faster, [Q] to push minor obstacles away, [E] to protect yourself from one attack. Left-click to stun enemies or destroy debris for power-ups, right-click to spawn a decoy.
Press and hold [R] to restart if you get stuck, although you probably won't.
Watch your energy levels and try not to drain them too fast. At least they can be restored, as opposed to your health. But it's alright. You will fail eventually, yes, but until then... please do your best.
Code: Yanrishatum. Game design, story: Shess. Art: Ponytrator and Theodote. Sfx: Theodote. Music: Elvendan.
| in-browser (self) | https://yanri.cc/games/fleeting |
| in-browser (itch.io) | https://yanrishatum.itch.io/fleeting |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/fleeting |
Ratings
| Overall | 124th | 4.105⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 370th | 3.737⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 615th | 3.474⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1094th | 3.5⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 143th | 4.395⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 47th | 4.316⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 40th | 4.474⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 30🗳️ | 19🗨️ |
For starters, the atmosphere was really spot on. The audio works well with the consistent visuals, and the cloud shader does a great job rounding things out.
Gameplay wise, at first I thought the play area was quite small, as I'd go north, hit an invisible wall, then go south, hit another one, etc. On my second run I chose to go left and then it made a lot more sense.
Once that was sorted out... things actually worked really well. The AI is dumb as bricks but this actually works amazingly well, since resources are limited it creates a ton of tension dragging tens of ships behind you trying to eek out as much distance as you can without burning a decoy or losing your shields. I was subconsciously tensing up while playing; it really does nail the mood!
The ending felt a bit abrupt, but I'll give it a pass for the comfy CGs.
I'd also like to see some tooltips over the ability icons, but now I'm just nitpicking.
Really fantastic work!
I was worried at first when I saw all the abilities plus the keyboard and mouse scheme but it ended up working quite well.
The wave of enemies became too big to overcome around the time I was thinking I had seen it all so it ended at the best time for me.
One improvement would be to add the key on the abilities in case the player forget them :)
Good job !
Had a bit of trouble figuring out to go left - even if arrow pointed there at first, it felt counter intuitive to go left to progress - honestly any other direction would have probably been okay - down would have been closest to the theme, right would have made sense since most games progress through right, up would have been fine. I guess it might just be my flawed expectations. And actually I did not even mind getting lost as the mood was so immersive. Unfortunately, that immersion took a hit when I encountered an invisible wall preventing me from going deeper.
Anyway, after that sidetrack actually started playing. Gameplay was quite satisfying - most abilities were useful, enemies were dangerous, escaping and stocking up was rewarding. Maybe the pace could have been a bit slower and controls a bit smoother to match the heavy mood. Ending was bit unexpected and abrupt (probably due to not having time to read the small status updates in the corner), but with nice outro narrative and artwork.
In any case, it was enjoyable and very immersive experience. Though if you want to have enough ratings for scoring you should play, rate and comment on other games - you have full team, so it will be enough if few people do that just for a few more games.
Edit: Just wanted to add that enemies being able to shoot each other was brilliant as well :D
Overall a good game, good job.