Core Weapon by ThatANoNoWord

[raw]
made by ThatANoNoWord for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

All of your crewmates are off taking a nap or something. Sadly for all of you, meteors are coming your way! You can shoot them off on problem, but without an engineer, you have to stabilize the ship's unstable core as well. Not only that, you also have to keep track of the 4 different factors affecting your firepower and core stability!

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Temperature is the simplest of the factors. Push a button and increase the bar. Don't increase it too high, or else the core will grow out of control. High temperature means high damage bullets that you fire!

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Pressure is influenced by a slider. Put up the slider, and the bar increases. Put it down, and the bar decreases. High pressure provides good damage, as well as increasing projectile speed.

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Electricity is increased by a knob. Hold and turn the knob clockwise in order to charge electricity! High electricity means high projectile fire rate! Careful about your energy supply though!

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Efficiency is increased by pressing one of nine buttons, according to which one lights up. High efficiency means bullets use less energy, so you can spam to your heart's content!

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Having the 4 factors being high means that you get greater firepower to deal with meteors. But it also means that the core will grow faster! Occasionally decrease the factors in order to maintain a balance and to keep the core from exploding.

Stabilize the core, destroy the meteors, and manage your resources in this unstable environment!

Ratings

Overall 613th 3.625⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 601th 3.547⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 386th 3.645⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 188th 4.141⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1146th 3.094⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 617th 3.333⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Mood 554th 3.583⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 40🗨️

Feedback

Zapturk
04. Oct 2021 · 15:22 UTC
Neat idea. Kina reminds me of a bop-it. I made it 107 sec
pk_c
04. Oct 2021 · 15:32 UTC
pretty original and I think the concept is easy to extends ! it's a bit hard to understand at first thought I would recommend a tutorial, but I know how hard it is to have those in game jam. Good job
m11
04. Oct 2021 · 15:35 UTC
Great job - a really clear link to the theme, and fun as well! To echo pk-c, a tutorial might help the player to ease into the mechanics? :)
🎤 ThatANoNoWord
04. Oct 2021 · 15:41 UTC
Thank you everyone! Perhaps a tutorial can help, but I'm not sure I can fully implement one to the game at this rate, so I rely on players reading on my text first. I'll try to implement one. Thank you very much for playing!
Math-s
05. Oct 2021 · 07:32 UTC
Super fun and the theme is perfectly respected , great work !! Nevertheless, dealing with the electricity is very hard (maybe the control is a too small). Also, I can't get the game in full screen (I don't know if I'm the only one in this case or if it's normal).
LDJam user 261208
05. Oct 2021 · 14:56 UTC
I really liked! For the jam I think you would loose precious time puting a tutorial into the game. But I think it is mandatory if you try to keep it's development.
But as soon as the player understand how to play, it is a really fun game. Good job
Laurent
05. Oct 2021 · 16:10 UTC
I liked the game!
I actually find that the fact that the controls appeared progressively was a nice touch. Maybe some more visual indications on the effects of each slider would be helpful :)
Zahab_AQ
05. Oct 2021 · 19:18 UTC
Good job! I really liked they idea. Initially I was a bit confused as to where the rest of the sliders & buttons were, since they weren't visible. Maybe a good UX improvement could be having an indication that they are locked for now, but keeping them visible so the player isn't as confused. I liked having to keep balance between everything. I would have like more game juice, and maybe a more visible interaction when shooting. Visibility of the system status would also be helpful. The music was also nice, and the sound effects as well. To conclude, good execution of a good concept. Well done!
Maxthedoom
06. Oct 2021 · 05:36 UTC
Wow, the game's awesome, it's great that the mechanics are introduced to the player over time, although at the start I thought the game was bugged and that the others weren't showing up. Especially since I thought the heat was supposed to be full and the core exploded, made me think I was supposed to be managing buttons that weren't there. But once I figured it out it was great! Managed to survive for 151 seconds.
datadazer
08. Oct 2021 · 02:50 UTC
What a fun game! It was a chaos trying to keep the core stable while asteroids were hurdling towards me, which was fun. The reactor is really good player feedback and the dials and knobs were intuitive in terms of how to use them. Nice job!
arturogcdev
08. Oct 2021 · 12:11 UTC
I really liked this one! Its hard but addictive ;) This is my best score:
![Captura.JPG](///raw/19a/93/z/47d0b.jpg)
redsti
08. Oct 2021 · 18:16 UTC
really nice concept and well executed! this deserves to be in the top
chrishg12
09. Oct 2021 · 07:24 UTC
Dang, really cool game. I'm not really sure if all of the things contribute to reactor temperature or if it's just the fire one.
spacecadet
09. Oct 2021 · 07:42 UTC
Nice game you have there. It had that panic feel later on when all the buttons had appeared and it was fun. I think the beginning is pretty slow as there is just that one button and shooting is really slow. I agree that some indication apart from the speed on the projectiles would be nice to show the effects of the buttons (ie. color, size or something like that). Apart from that really cool game.
Arlwin
09. Oct 2021 · 09:04 UTC
A bit complicated first time but the pacing of the buttons are good. Makes it fun to learn
sakura_magika
09. Oct 2021 · 23:12 UTC
i made it a meager 51 seconds. the core blew up but i have no idea why, i thought my pressure and temperature were in good zones, and none of the meteors hit.

i like the concept a lot (and my game is actually somewhat similar), especially balancing the controls/condition of the weapon with actually using the weapon, but i think the feedback needs to be more clear about what to do to stop the ship from melting down. like for example, some kind of visual hint for the control that you need to use to stabilize the ship for whatever meter is in a bad state.
cdunham
11. Oct 2021 · 23:21 UTC
Cool idea! I had a similar thing going on mine, where you have to juggle different tasks at the same time. Wish there was an option to start with all 4 of the bars activated at the same time for those that keep replaying. Having to wait for them to show up is good for teaching people how to play the game though. Nice work!
OneSmallBoy
16. Oct 2021 · 15:20 UTC
Neat game and very cohesive. Good job!
oillen
20. Oct 2021 · 00:25 UTC
(+) there is a menu system

(+) complex shooting, shooting support & interaction with the core/energy system

(+) more and more functions during game play

(-) the area for seeng the meteors is a bit to small

(-) slow projectiles feels sloppy