Neon Saber by Kaish
In a galaxy right around the corner...
REDIS protect the entire Universe from evil. Hook Skycatcher is a Redi. There aren't many in the Universe these days. This question is raising doubts in your mind and making your power unstable. Your inseparable neon saber (the Redis' deadly weapon) is no longer obeying you. It's a bad time for that, as your planet is under attack right now... "


How to Play 🎮
• A S D W or arrows to move.
• Space for the shield (Don't abuse it. You can use it for a short time and must wait for your energy to return before using it again).
• Neon Saber doesn't forgive anyone.
• Watch out! Neon Saber acquired the power of enemies.
• The shots hit by the Neon Saber will be fatal for all.
Team ⚒️
• Euler Moises: 🎵 Audio and 🎨 Art (https://soundcloud.com/user-234133765)
• Felipe Inoue: 💻 Code
• Kaish Kuny: 📐 Game Design
Descrição em PT-BR
Em uma Galáxia ali na esquina...
REDIS protegem todo o Universo do mal. Hook Skycatcher é um Redi. Não há muitos no Universo hoje em dia. Esta questão está levantando dúvidas em sua mente e tornando seu poder instável. Seu inseparável Sabre de Neon (a arma mortal dos Redis) não está mais obedecendo seu mestre. É um péssimo momento para isso acontecer, pois seu planeta está sob ataque nesse momento..."
Como jogar 🎮
• A S D W ou setas para se mover;
• Espaço para o escudo (Não abuse dele. Você pode us-alo apenas por pouco tempo e deve esperar a energia carregar para usar de novo);
• O Sabre de Neon não perdoa ninguém.
• Muito cuidado! O Sabre de Neon adquire o poder dos inimigos.
• Os tiros rebatidos pelo Sabre de Neon serão fatais para todos.
Equipe ⚒️
• Euler Moises: 🎵 Audio e 🎨 Arte (https://soundcloud.com/user-234133765)
• Felipe Inoue: 💻 Código
• Kaish Kuny: 📐 Game Design
| Link | https://kaish.itch.io/neon-saber |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/neon-saber |
Ratings
| Overall | 64th | 4.18⭐ | 91🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 100th | 4.067⭐ | 92🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 199th | 3.85⭐ | 92🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 482th | 3.826⭐ | 91🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 145th | 4.378⭐ | 92🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 8th | 4.528⭐ | 91🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 42🗳️ | 61🗨️ |
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Very nice game to play. Very challenging. Simple and elegant art. I found it very difficult, I would increase the shield time a little, maybe, make the shots slower, I don't know. But I enjoyed a lot
As I got to the later levels, enemy attacks felt a little bit overwhelming, because it felt like the time that I spent standing still to use my shield and deflect my saber would immediately get me killed once my shield went down and I was surrounded by bullets, so I ended up mostly ignoring the reflecting mechanic once I got past the robot boss, and just let my saber bounce around until it cleared the screen, focusing only on dodging enemy bullets. I wasn't able to beat Yo'guhrt, so I didn't get to see if there was anything that came after.
Overall though, I really enjoyed your game! You did a really good job putting together a polished experience! :)
But seriously, I really liked the soundtrack and effects, and I love how the game is both a really hard bullet hell and very forgiving (as being hit just restarts the level instead of making us play from the start).

Interesting gameplay and adorable arts! Great submission in general! Thanks!
The sound design was brilliant though, I especially loved the little "Ay" when you get hit, hah! The art style was lovely as well
Its super polished and sounds amazing as well! I loved the animation when your shield disperses or whatever. The neon sabers look really good and overall a really good job :3
Thanks for submitting your game for me to try it <3
Nicely done
Very fun, my reflexes are a little slow but great game !
The sword moves a bit too fast and player has a lot of trouble trying to catch it and redirect in the proper direction. I feel like a slightly lower game speed for enemies, bullets, and the sword, whilst slightly improving player speed would improve this balance massively.
I love the idea of playing squash with your own face, but the shield power takes a bit too long to active, is a bit too short in duration, limits the players control massively by making him stationary, and perhaps too powerfull by making it a full 360 degrees shield.
Perhaps some small powerups would increase the games fun as well. For example making your shield temporarily better. Make it 360 degrees shield. Temporarily increase the gamespeed 5 fold. Make all object 3 times as big. Etc..
I wasn't a fan of how the NeonSaber would randomly change characteristics while flying around. Multiple times I thought I was fine only for it to suddenly grow in size and kill me. I thought the space level was the hardest of them all though since often the robots would shoot two bullets on top of each other and they would bounce off each other and fly randomly after hitting a wall.
Nice work!
Gameplay-wise I wish there was some more dynamic to it. Maybe at some point you could control or adjusts the trajectory of the saber for a moment. Bullets that went invisible and then visible after reflection felt a bit unfair and hard to predict.
It's still a very solid and polished game, I had a lot of fun with it! Nicely done!
Thanks @euler-moises for submitting it to my stream. Here's a recording in case you want to rewatch/refer to it later https://youtu.be/nr6n3tF5CHY
Your game starts at 1:06:36
The pixel art is surprisingly good. Considering the limited colors and resolution everything reads very well and has a lot of charm. Controls feel very smooth too!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1173646881?t=4h19m19s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
I love the looks of it and gameplay is soo addicting and satysfying
Good job!!
https://youtu.be/EWJKsLF4MMg?t=1042
I thought this game was too erratic for my liking. To be clear, the presentation of this game, including graphics, music, and sound design, are quite excellent. I like how the cutscenes plays out, and much of the game feel is pretty solid. I thought that needing to rely on the shield could have been a really interesting game mechanic as well.
That said, I honestly did not enjoy playing this game. I didn't feel like I had much control over the situation, and having the gameplay almost solely focused on dodging bullets and lightsabers isn't a concept I find very fun. Not only that, but the gameplay is at odds with the objective of the game: if I have no offensive abilities to defeat any enemy, then how am I supposed defeat all of them to get to the next level? Since the saber bounces in unpredictable angles, and thus gives the player no strategical benefits, the game often felt like a time-based survival minigame, where how long the game took was a complete luck-of-the-draw.
I was also disappointed with how ineffective the shield was. It seems the only purpose it served was to briefly keep the player protected from the saber and bullets; otherwise, it just mirror-reflects the bullet in a completely useless direction. When the objective of the game is to defeat all the enemies, this behavior becomes insufficient; I would have liked to see bullets retro-reflect off the shield, back to the direction they came from. At least that would make the shield potent, and justify the short duration it stays up, as well as the long cooldown the ability suffers from.
Clearly, this team is very talented and capable of creating an excellent experience. I think as an experiment, there are some interesting ideas this game serves. That said, personally, I found the flaws to be too glaring to feel excited in exploring the potential opportunities the game mechanic provides.