Trouble in Emoji Plane by TheLastSlowpoke

[raw]
made by TheLastSlowpoke for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

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Summon hordes of demons to relieve the city of its souls.

Features: - amazing placeholder graphics - vibrant silence - meticulously thought-out core mechanic - up to 5 minutes of fun - endless mode*

*no end game state

✈️: https://thelastslowpoke.itch.io/ld55

I had no energy and time this weekend, but it didn't stop me from having some fun with Godot! Please tell me if the pacing/difficulty is allright, I playtested it myself and it probably shows.

Ratings

Overall 611th 3.54⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 456th 3.58⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 861th 3.063⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 445th 3.84⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 443th 3.28⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1134th 2.7⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

Bx007
16. Apr 2024 · 07:20 UTC
Simple but very interesting game! The idea of using emoji as enemies is great!
Azure Drake
19. Apr 2024 · 02:41 UTC
The game is interesting but the game feels like you are supposed to be button spamming and that is a little rough.
gamerjenn
19. Apr 2024 · 02:43 UTC
Very creative use of emojis!
Gus Goucher
19. Apr 2024 · 02:46 UTC
Very small game bet well implemented! Loved how easy it was to pick up, and the amount of enemy types was surprising and welcome. Wish there were more depth to the gameplay but what's here is great!
🎤 TheLastSlowpoke
19. Apr 2024 · 03:37 UTC
@azure-drake Touché haha. I am well aware of that design problem. I suppose adding some cooldown should help, but it's not the smallest issue to rethink here.
Kitira
19. Apr 2024 · 06:22 UTC
Haha... Great description here on the LD page ^^ Funny idea with the emojis. I stopped playing at 4k because it gets a bit monotonous at some point, but I think the idea has potential. I definitely had fun :D
Solis
19. Apr 2024 · 07:41 UTC
Okay, even with the emojis, the game is fun to play and on point. Good work!
ditam
19. Apr 2024 · 10:19 UTC
Wow those policemen marching in through their emoji meat shields and one-shotting everything are scary! I got ~600. Simple and straightforward game, but I had fun!
LDJam user 355344
19. Apr 2024 · 17:04 UTC
Using emoji is genius. I'll give the game high ratings for that alone
Durrani19
19. Apr 2024 · 23:10 UTC
Nice n simple, I like the use of emojis
DenisMarasan
20. Apr 2024 · 10:32 UTC
I like the simplicity.
The idea of a game where you summon demons to fight emojis is priceless.
DeltaMain
24. Apr 2024 · 11:52 UTC
Interesting concept! Fits the theme well!
DzejPi
25. Apr 2024 · 17:08 UTC
Now those are finally some simple controls! Using emojis is a very smart way how to get some art into the game, gotta say! I love how smoothly the projectiles move and found out a little bit of a trick - to mash numbers on both numerical side of the keyboard and upper side. Despite, I got rekt around, but it seems to be designed that way. Next time, I would include some sound effects and perhaps kickback effects when enemies are hit or so, would make it even more fun. That said, this was definitely engaging, so, well done! :)

![2024-04-25_19-06-24.png](///raw/046/93/z/64cb7.png)
jcbeaureg
26. Apr 2024 · 02:27 UTC
Simple but very addicting! Even as placeholder art I think the emojis add a lot of charm, great job!
loveapplegames
27. Apr 2024 · 15:58 UTC
Simply but very enjoyable. I spawned a lot of demons but they all get killed by the cops at some point. I did not understand what the squids do. They don't seem to kill enemies, and they still get shot by the cops with 1 shot.
Fupi
28. Apr 2024 · 03:52 UTC
I was weirdly hooked by this. I like idle games, seeing numbers go up, and seeing a bunch of objects spawn in and do their thing. Managed to get 12304 when the game suddenly despawned all my monsters for some reason. x) I don't really think I understand the mechanics, like what the different monsters do. The skulls seem to spawn in for a single frame and then kill a random person. People have mentioned the cops shooting their monsters but I didn't see any shots while playing? Makes me feel like maybe the game was bugged, but I'm not sure! I still had a fun lil time anyway. Congrats on submitting something lol! This sure looks like it'd be fun to make.
kjscott
28. Apr 2024 · 16:26 UTC
Really fun little clicker game, took me a little while to figure out how to play but once I got going was pretty straight forward. Shame there didn't appear to be anything beyond 66 souls/corpses that I could summon but what there was was nicely implemented.
SStyles93
28. Apr 2024 · 17:17 UTC
![Screenshot 2024-04-28 191500.png](///raw/306/b5/z/64dbe.png)

Liked the idea, summoning theme is well used, just frustrated had suddenly it becomes hardcore. Lacking a bit of balance but otherwise it's nice :)

Good job
🎤 TheLastSlowpoke
30. Apr 2024 · 12:00 UTC
@loveapplegames
They spawn demons under themselves. They're worth it if they live a little longer. They're less likely to get targetted if the cops have more demons to shoot at. Thanks for playing!

@fupi
I think you're the target audience, hahah! Great score!

I owe you an explanation about what you experienced. The skulls are supposed to fly gracefully to their targets, and the shots are supposed to be visible. I just made a weird, embarassing mistake, buckle up:
I realized that when I have thousands of demons, the game slows down. Obviously the game would slow down for everyone at some point. I've already optimized a lot properly (ignoring the Godot servers I decided I have no time to learn) so I wasn't motivated, I had other priorities to work on in the time I had got left. It would drop off at some point anyway. So I've made a quick and dirty chaotic solution that kinda works. I made a bullshit detector of the game slowing down, and faster modes of display. The detector works by counting "slow frames" (longer than some threshold) and if there's sufficiently many of them it changes the mode. The solution felt so funny to me that I left it in. People will only see it when they play really well and it's not a problem then so I thought. Later I checked the game on my phone, and it went to faster modes almost instantenously. It should've made me think that someone is gonna have a slower apparatus or something and is going to get confused. But it didn't, I had other priorities in the game. Anyway, the fastest mode doesn't display skull flight, any pop-ups (don't worry about it) and the shot animations... It actually changes the game itself a little bit. In hindsight, I should've at least left the shots, they're not slow at all and lack of them is confusing as hell.
It's not a bug, It's an honest mistake ^^ Stuff like this can happen when you have limited time and do some stuff whimsically.

And yes, I had a lot of fun while making it ^^

(FYI: skulls go hit the target closest to the centre, demons spawn skulls periodically, squids spawn demons periodically)

@fupi @sstyles93
I know it's not greatly conveyed, but the game is supposed to end after 5:00 shows up on a clock. The [guys] showing up and killing everyone are just a means to do it. The normal cops wouldn't scale as good as a player can, so something stronger is needed. Good job on getting to the [guys]!
(I'm not naming them, I have no good name haha. They're not even named in code, cause it's just a reskin. In the first conception it'd be the Doom Guy ripoff, and I think that's incomparably cooler)
Fupi
30. Apr 2024 · 13:16 UTC
@thelastslowpoke Thank you for the explanation! That's surely a wild way to fight lag KJDJKSD!
Frib
01. May 2024 · 15:49 UTC
My record was 5631 after a few attempts. Police force too stronk.

Fun game, good job :D
Rowlof
03. May 2024 · 21:59 UTC
Pretty good game, could use some balance and my finger hurts now.
LDJam user 147386
03. May 2024 · 22:32 UTC
It was a pretty simple game loop, but it was pretty addicting! My 8 yo bro loves it
It would be awesome if you add more troops with different abilities in a future update!