Limited Spacebar by IngeniousPhoenix
Made in Godot.
In this game, you need to dodge lasers to get a highscore. Keep in mind, that there is a limit to how many times you can press the spacebar! Dashing (Space) helps to dodge oncoming lasers.
Every 30 seconds you can upgrade an ability.
This game is inspired by just shapes and beats.
Arrow Keys / WASD to move. Space to dash
Note it can only be played in itch, due to me not knowing how to get it to work anywhere else "/. Thanks for playing!

| Source Code | https://github.com/IngenPhoenix/Limited-Spacebar |
| Itch | https://ingeneniousphoenix.itch.io/limited-spacebar |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/limited-spacebar |
Ratings
| Overall | 223th | 3.446⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 132th | 3.676⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 285th | 3.014⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 175th | 3.689⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 334th | 2.5⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 157th | 3.311⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 239th | 2.214⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 251th | 3.076⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 3🗨️ |
Keep going man!
Keep going man!
My highscore was 83000.
Would be nice to have had more variety in the laser patterns instead of just speeding them up (maybe mixing them together) since it gets pretty unfair later on.
Still, it's a cool idea. Some ideas for improvement: having obstacles move, more randomness in the patterns, making the bonus mechanic more engaging (maybe de-spawn after some time?).
I enjoyed the music! Interesting entry overall. GG
I'd suggest that the power up screen should make existing laser zones disappear so that the player don't suffer from powering up and failing to continue the game properly in an instant.
Laser zones that go off in a sequential manner should appear so as well to signal to the player about the order they will go off. You could get more out of zones if you randomized the order on each spawn.
If general it is good to let players use the keyboard to control menus if the game itself is keyboard controlled. Let us restart with space and let us pick power up with arrows for better keeping the momentum of the game.
The green circle can spawn behind the bar in the lower left corner, I thought the game was bugged for a moment. Maybe have a safe zone around the edges where the ball can't spawn, you shouldn't spawn it into the player either as then you have to exit and reenter it for the collision to register which is a bit weird.
Maybe you should somehow punish the player for not picking up the balls. It's a bit tempting to just wait for the power up near the edge of the screen when on low health, this takes away the flow a bit. Simply connecting powering up to X number of balls instead of time would solve this.
Anyways, you've made a satisfying game!
My only real complaint is that the UI shouldn't have been mouse-controlled when the game isn't, and there seemed to be more than one bug with it: when you chose an upgrade, at least in my browser, it stopped responding to keyboard input and I would have to click out and in again and not have time to avoid the next one or two lasers :(
The other one is minor and didn't bother me but thought you might like to know: if you die and don't restart before the timer runs out the upgrade screen will pop up but not work and nor will the restart button work anymore so you just have to reload the page :p
I realise I spent more words on the complaint but I really did like the game and kept replaying it loads of times, nice work!
I found myself never refilling my dashes, and instead opting for more health or faster speed (why go fast somteimtes when you can go fast all the time)
I think it might be more balanced if you put the dash refills in the level itself, as something else to collect. Also, making the dash both act and also *feel* more powerful, with clear invincibility frames and cool blurring effects would have helped as well with the central mechanic.
Very fun :) you have a good instinct for the fine tuning of these mechanics.


Limited spacebar
- music awkward pause
- better font?
- maybe have anti-aliasing on graphism, in order to go from clumsy to voluntary minimalistic
- if you lose, you have to stop the bar, because otherwise "retry" won't work
- be clearer about how dashes are limited
- be even more explicit about when the laser will go
- when empty bar, sudden pause, so may clear all the lasers
- Do you have a pause?
- have icons for upgrades, even if abstract symbols
- Overall fun