LudumData

Time Invaders by MelekTaus

[raw]
made by MelekTaus for Ludum Dare 51 (COMPO)

Not much to say. The inspiration was Space Invaders (Och!).

The playing time is a few minutes. For controls just use WASD/Arrow Keys and the Spacebar.

Backstory

This jam was a special one for myself. 14 days before LD51 I started to write my own programming language. It was a hard and rocky road. I walk through the Regex hell, broke out of buggy infinite loops several times, my dreams consisted only of CAPITAL LETTERS...

But the interpreter was finally ready for making a game. :thumbsup:

The whole game is a single text file that also has embedded graphics and sounds.

Day 3

My roommate @leorid was working on a jam entry with @seansmeedcomposer (an amazing audio composer), and I had the honor to let the sow out again in the last 7 hours. I never thought that I would be allowed to participate in 2 entries here on Ludum Dare.

Please check out their game too, I am really proud to be part of it: Music Demon

Game & Source Code https://nockal.com/ld51/#time-invaders
Player (Opens .tausly) https://github.com/themelektaus/tausly-player/releases/download/v0.1.6/Tausly.Player.exe
time-invaders.tausly https://nockal.com/ld51/code/time-invaders.tausly
Tausly Source https://github.com/themelektaus/tausly
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/time-invaders

Ratings

Overall 208th 3.485⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 159th 3.515⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 384th 2.894⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Theme 324th 3.364⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 334th 3.136⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Audio 265th 3.032⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 275th 2.444⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 309th 3⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Given 65🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

nanolotl
03. Oct 2022 · 04:52 UTC
Fun twist on Space Invaders that felt very polished.
Very cool that it's built using your own language/interpreter.
Nice work.
milq
03. Oct 2022 · 11:47 UTC
Wow! A self-created game with a self-created programming language. I had never seen it, my sincere congratulations.

With respecto to the game, it's simple but very addictive and everything is put together very well! I would have loved to rack up the speed powerups. And sometimes I just want to kill all the enemies! :smile:
thegamearchitect
03. Oct 2022 · 12:44 UTC
Nice game, well built, looks good, easy to play and fun. Id be interested to hear more about this language you made.
Kosmosael
03. Oct 2022 · 13:43 UTC
Nicely polished game!
Impressed by the fact you made it with your own language, nicely done! Can't wait next LD :)
Human Writes Code
04. Oct 2022 · 08:03 UTC
Great game! Really impressive that you built this in your own engine, too! I have to say, those fire rate upgrades were just the greatest thing in the world to collect. Music, art style, controls - everything fit together perfectly. My only criticism would be that sometimes you shift to a new level and instantly get hit by a red dot without having enough time to react. Other than that, this was an excellent entry. Great job!
🎤 MelekTaus
04. Oct 2022 · 09:45 UTC
@nanolotl @milq @thegamearchitect @kosmosael Thank you all for playing and your kind words!

@human-writes-code Thanks for playing and feedback. This "instant spawn on an enemy bullet" is actually intentional. There is the possibility to despawn "safely" or to remember where you despawn. Next time you can dodge more purposefully or use a shield - all that if you remembered the initial situation.
SeanSmeedComposer
04. Oct 2022 · 14:57 UTC
man, this brought me back! I used to play a lot of space invaders, and this felt like the real thing. can't believe you made this with your own language too! excited to see what you do next.
Lone_Wolf
04. Oct 2022 · 20:57 UTC
Nice work! I died a few times by spawning straight into a bullet, but other than that this was quite fun to play.

Props for using your own engine!
LDJam user 237588
05. Oct 2022 · 18:44 UTC
Nice work on your own programming language + interpreter :D
Schuster
05. Oct 2022 · 18:45 UTC
Nice game, the pickups were a great idea and meshed nicely with the increase with level/difficulty every 10 seconds
mdotedot
05. Oct 2022 · 18:51 UTC
good thing that you didn't want me to press space while I always would have anyway. Good design choice.
Nice up ramping of difficulty.
well done.
Ben Parisi
06. Oct 2022 · 03:21 UTC
![Capture.PNG](///raw/bc3/14/z/52761.png)

Haha, your programming language supports emojis! :D

Absolutely impressive Top marks for fun and innovation! Loved the design here too. Simple but understandable. I knew what I had to do (collect powerups and use them on the big red dude) with basically no instruction.
Tomssuli
07. Oct 2022 · 07:20 UTC
Funny game, played it through.

The power up mechanics were not all clear to me though. Could you stack power ups? Do you lose them if you don't activate them and pick another up? Is power up active for the current level or all levels? It seemed that sometimes fast bullets power up would go off after a time, but then at other time it didn't.

Anyways - apart from the power ups thing - a solid little game :)
🎤 MelekTaus
07. Oct 2022 · 14:58 UTC
@tomssuli Thanks for playing. I hope you liked it.

Here for clarification:
- Power ups do not stack (neither the shield nor the fast shot)
- A collected Power up always replaces the power up you already have
- Power up stays activated across all levels
- The "Fast Shot" power up doubles the shot speed for 2 seconds
- If there is any other behaviour than it is just a bug XD
SofiGnedova
08. Oct 2022 · 06:33 UTC
I liked it. The fact that you did it in your programming language is really exciting. It was fun and worked well.

The music gets in the way a bit, changing the rhythm. But maybe that's your idea..

Thank you so much for sending the game to the stream!
eeperdeheap
08. Oct 2022 · 09:14 UTC
Love this game. Great graphics and great music. Really well done, especially in your own programming language (I just had to look at the source code).
Phillip Scott
08. Oct 2022 · 11:03 UTC
Feels really polished - Well done on using your own Programming language (braver than me!)

The time lines are a fun concept
![image_2022-10-08_120337714.png](///raw/123/b3/z/52d75.png)
Great job!
Harmadillo
08. Oct 2022 · 13:44 UTC
Fun game. Enjoyed the music and it fitted well with the game.
SimplePotential
08. Oct 2022 · 18:01 UTC
Quite enjoyable! Nice take on a classic. I could see playing this on a mobile device in spare time using finger to drag ship around. Nice entry!
witchpixels
08. Oct 2022 · 18:03 UTC
Very polished take on a schmup, you made very good use of the theme!

Making your own programming language for a jam tho, very bold. Good work overall!
ActuallyTheMoon
08. Oct 2022 · 18:24 UTC
Impressive that you made your own programming language!

The game is nice and small and functional and i had a good time with it!
Wouter52
08. Oct 2022 · 18:40 UTC
Waow two games in one weekend! And both are fun! This is very well done. Congratz on your programming language
LDJam user 233347
08. Oct 2022 · 18:40 UTC
I failed to save humanity.. but is that even so bad? :wink:
Anyways, the game is quite neat with retro feels.

(Not taken into consideration, but MusicDemon is also very, very awesome)=
sdelay
08. Oct 2022 · 18:41 UTC
Congrats for building your own language, it is something! Great game, simple, logic, effective.
It is a Plus One!
recursor
08. Oct 2022 · 18:47 UTC
This was quite fun, as I found myself playing again and again. Any game that makes me do that is a good game. Nice job.
leekanarchism
08. Oct 2022 · 18:51 UTC
Wow, extremely impressive! I had a nose through the code, very old-school :D

The game was very solid and enjoyable, and I liked the core mechanic -- my only small suggestion would be a visual indicator of which world (of 4) you were currently on, just to make the switching feel a bit more real (it took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on).

Great work!
🎤 MelekTaus
08. Oct 2022 · 19:12 UTC
@leekanarchism Oow, an indicator for the current stage would be more than convenient. Thanks for the hint, for feedback and the kind words
alks
08. Oct 2022 · 19:31 UTC
Amazing work! Simple concept but made really well! Game feels really good to play! Love the upgrading :) Game nicely balanced! Incredible how you made this with your own language! Keep it up! :3
Capitals
08. Oct 2022 · 21:57 UTC
Thanks for showing this to me on [stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1618839154)! I still can't believe this is on your own coding language. The game is really simple and that works to your benefit. It has lots of polish and flair which makes it really satisfying to play. Difficult but not too difficult. Good job!
amarokczukay
09. Oct 2022 · 10:27 UTC
wow this is a very impressive project! what will you do next time? creating your own OS to run your own game on your own programming language? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
game is minimalistic yet polished and nice to play. you did a great job pulling out that game, congrats!
Erkberg
14. Oct 2022 · 09:16 UTC
Great game that really manages to pull some minimalistic parts together into a highly enjoyable package! And it was awesome welcoming you to the stream again yesterday! Here’s the VOD if you want to check that out again:
https://youtu.be/Fh3ux7N9fJ8