Spaced out by Marcus Otterstrom

[raw]
made by Marcus Otterstrom for Ludum Dare 54 (COMPO)

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Spaced out

Spaced out is a difficult bullet-hell shooter played with one button: The space bar!

  • You have a limited amount of space button presses.
  • When you run out, the game is over.
  • Gain more space presses by hitting the wall targets (bonus for direct hits!)
  • Gain points by killing as many enemies as you can per bullet (bonus for target hits at the end)

Controls

  • Holding space will make you rotate clockwise
  • Releasing space will shoot

Good luck!

Ratings

Overall 125th 3.725⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 142th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 110th 3.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 98th 4.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 123th 3.75⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 156th 3.316⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 237th 2.235⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Given 11🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

OWC
02. Oct 2023 · 20:46 UTC
I love the interpretation of the theme! It was fun to play, although I didn’t always understand what was happening on the screen :)
Martin Bousquet
02. Oct 2023 · 22:40 UTC
Concept is ok, but the game is not really fair. Hitting a wall target should give way more than just 1 space bar, enemies are too hard to evade so you spend most of the time rotating and then carefully launching one bullet and wait for it to disappear. I think it would have been better with classic controls (arrows to move, space to shoot) and it would have fit the theme the same way.

Still I did a highscore of 15000!
🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
02. Oct 2023 · 23:13 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! And yeah, the game is definitely unfair right now. I usually always make my shooter games start off easy and then make it harder over time, but in the last few hours I was too busy this time around so I just ramped it up to be pretty difficult from the get-go. It's still *possible* to maintain the amount of space bars, for example in my personal best I was at 50 space bars left (when the game crashed), but I also realize that I've been playing this game for many many hours over the weekend. Wish I'd made it more fair!

Tip: A direct hit on target will give you 3 space bars (it flashes red if you succeed, as opposed to orange).
kory
03. Oct 2023 · 00:37 UTC
That was pretty cool! I enjoyed the slowdown effect and the little triangle ship friend that was nice. There was a lot of stuff going on at once and I definitely felt under-resourced for the challenge, but it was fun for a couple minutes :)
khaotom
03. Oct 2023 · 00:50 UTC
This is a lot of fun! Would work great on mobile too, but then it would be "limited touch" hehehehehehehehehe.
Subsage
03. Oct 2023 · 01:35 UTC
I was enjoying the gameplay, but getting frustrated with dying due to ammo issues. Some balancing is def needed in that area.
ThaProfesional
03. Oct 2023 · 12:14 UTC
I love one button games - just seeing how much can go on with limited input. This was so cool.

Music was great couldn't stop boppin' along. Liked how fluid everything felt - especially when holding space that slow zoom in and the way everything slows down and the arrow flashes. It was great.

Wasn't very good at it but kept going back for more tries.
fnelix
03. Oct 2023 · 19:41 UTC
Cool minimalistic game, 1-button control is nice, but the game is really hard and unforgiving. I agree with the post before me, with some tweaks and polish this could be a great mobile game.
benskca
05. Oct 2023 · 12:52 UTC
Super polished and the game was very fun on the runs where I managed to stay alive for a while - my only real complaint is the difficulty, if that was tweaked a bit I could see myself playing a lot of this. +1 for this being a great fit for a mobile game!
indivicivet
05. Oct 2023 · 15:42 UTC
best score: 8420 (not great I think) :D

good:
- nice concept and a fun double-meaning take on the theme!
- the slow as you spin is a nice touch and helps make the difficulty feel fair

bad:
- gameplay mechanics are a bit unclear without explanation; in particular how damage works, and direct hits for more space recharges
- the time pause between finishing the game and being able to restart felt long enough that it broke my focus. since you're pressing space a lot I understand the delay so you don't restart by accident, but maybe you could allow r for restart?
Agraffs
05. Oct 2023 · 18:46 UTC
Really fun game ! Simple but efficient. You'd think the music may get a little annoying after some time but not at all, it just kept hyping me and pushing me to make my score better. Honestly it's a really nice gamme and fairly creative, would make a killer app. Thanks for creating it ! :)
quasilyte
05. Oct 2023 · 18:49 UTC
There is something special about the single button games that manage to maintain some sort of depth in them. Spaced out is such a game.

I think I played about 15 runs and it was a good time. The player loses often, but it doesn't feel unfair.

After pressing the space button to restart the game the game does a shot. It seems weird because in this game you don't want to waste a single space. :)

![end.png](///raw/53b/b5/z/5fcc4.png)
🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
05. Oct 2023 · 23:48 UTC
@indivicivet That's good feedback, taking damage is definitely unclear. I originally had it so any damage kills you immediately but that felt harsh, so instead I made it deduct 10 of your space hits instead. I think in a perfect world I would either make the difficulty scale much better and suitable for insta-death, or I would make the number in the background animate in some way when you get hit (I wanted to animate it regardless, but no time). Also, the time it takes to restart is actually set to 1 second, which shouldn't be too long. BUT - there is a bug where if you die while still in slowmode, the timer will also be in slowmode, so it's closer to like 3.5 seconds which is definitely too long. Oops :smile:

And I agree @quasilyte that starting the game shouldn't take waste a space press, thanks for the feedback! Also, of course the highscore should update to your current score even after death, so that's another bug, oops :smile:
Nick Rafalski
06. Oct 2023 · 01:24 UTC
This was great! I like the core of the mechanic, especially the risk/reward of trying to just let yourself coast versus using a bunch of spaces to dodge the enemies. I would definitely play a mobile version a lot. The art and sound go together great. Nice job!
INCD021
06. Oct 2023 · 07:50 UTC
Very nice game, the graphics, the music, sound effects, and then the game mechanics..NICE..
I love how much you can do with one button.
Played it way to long :smile:

Very well done :thumbsup:

Spinning a lot and a bit of luck
![Spinning a lot and a bit of luck](///raw/5c7/2/z/5fda8.png)
LDJam user 248799
06. Oct 2023 · 11:25 UTC
It's a great idea, very difficult indeed x)

Maybe an invincibility time after being hit will have make it less frustating
Nilan
06. Oct 2023 · 13:54 UTC
e creativity is outstanding, and the visuals and sound are also impressive.
It's one of the best games I've seen that matches its theme so well. Well done!
Recher
07. Oct 2023 · 15:16 UTC
I like the idea and the "raw" graphics. It's like Tron, but with bullets.


There is a weird bug or feature that sometimes makes the score increase after you die.

I thought the wall targets were here just to warn you that a bunch of enemies will appear from that point, But no.

This game has the incentive of "come on, one last try", which is a very good sign.
Polina_fl
07. Oct 2023 · 17:17 UTC
omg, this game so intersting :hushed: I didn't manage to get a big record, but this game can be played several times a day