theSWARM_ by 0x0961h

[raw]
made by 0x0961h for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

"Aliens. It's always aliens. Can't get myself a coffee without someone mentioning those annoying tiny creatures with claws and sharp teeth. Since the discovery of those damn ruins on Venus few years ago, every single day I am called to clean up unwanted visitors here or there. Those grimoire guys never tell us anything, so we can only guess, what the hell is happening. Anyway, duty calls, end of diary entry, Captain Jones out."


Screenshot #1

Screenshot #2

Screenshot #3


— What a week, huh.

— Zero, it's only Monday.

Facing various IRL stuff and trying to juggling Ludum Dare at the same time made crunch super hard for this LD56. I'm literally releasing this less than an hour before submit form will shut down. I had to cut a lot of stuff I had in mind for this, but even without them, I'm proud of what I've done. This time I gave Love2D a try, I literally learned it a week before LD. :laughing: But it was worth it. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! :blush:

What to expect: * Endless wave-based shoot'em up * Slow start (unless you pick the Hardcore mode) * Swarms of (you guessed it) tiny aliens and lots of bullets * 7 different tasks for making gameplay more lively and probably hellish after 10th wave (especially on Hardcore) * Did I mention Hardcore mode?

Controls: * W/A/S/D or Arrows to move (game uses tank controls) * Hold Space to shoot * Hold Shift to speed up

Game is web-based this time, hope it will work fine.

Also fair warning: Escape in-game is not a pause!!! And another fair warning: game's camera might induce motion sickness. You can either avoid the game or try the options in the game menu to try to reduce it. If you feel unwell when playing it, then please, don't torture yourself and close the game. I appreciate you even giving it a try. :)

Ratings

Overall 189th 3.935⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 205th 3.806⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 445th 3.419⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 967th 2.903⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 364th 3.935⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Mood 410th 3.667⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 68🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

OnlinE_Play
07. Oct 2024 · 21:22 UTC
Great job with this! I really enjoyed it, and I'm going to replay it because I'm not satisfied with surviving only 4 waves.
Iaroslavik
08. Oct 2024 · 09:40 UTC
Very nice , amazing job ☺️
NeOleg
08. Oct 2024 · 09:42 UTC
good game with good visuals, but rotation feels too slow and the excessive motion blur is kinda making me sick
LGK-Productions
08. Oct 2024 · 09:49 UTC
Very charming, nice polish, the screen effect really sells the atmosphere. The camera lookahead could be toned down a little bit. Also a lot of replayability for a game jam game. Great job!
Avzgui
08. Oct 2024 · 09:50 UTC
Cool variation of a shmup. The different objectives are quite inspired.

Nice entry and great job! :smile:
Tofi123
08. Oct 2024 · 10:07 UTC
well you said hardcore is hard so i had to try it. was a fun game. a little repetitive, and the powerups were kind of unnoticed. i wished they would have more impact. but very addictive game. i need to resist the urge to fire it up again
lantto
08. Oct 2024 · 10:08 UTC
Made it to Wave 15 before it felt stale. I wish there would be more power-ups and enemy types. With that said, there are a lot of things I love about this - the perspective, the graphics, the sounds/music and the fact that each wave has a different objective. Oh, and it was really awesome to see the swarm growing into this big organic unit that was too big to destroy and always eventually came creeping up on you when you were doing an objective. Great job!

![Screenshot 2024-10-08 at 12.02.48.png](///raw/9d4/64/z/67d2c.png)
evindor
09. Oct 2024 · 00:31 UTC
My head is spinning after a playing session, but it was fun! Maybe a bit too much vfx, but I enjoyed the game and find it stylish and well put together!
sayrex
09. Oct 2024 · 05:14 UTC
Wonderful game!
I would like to increase the rotation speed
Kilig
09. Oct 2024 · 09:00 UTC
Great game - definitely really got into it. I really liked the different missions and the music absolutely slaps. I dig the art style but I definitely got slight motion sickness after about Wave 10. I can see this game being more fleshed out with the addition of upgrades and ramping difficulty. Congrats on the solid submission!
erasemenot
09. Oct 2024 · 10:04 UTC
I love it despite of motion sickness. Is it a flat scene with a lens effect on a camera? Love the graphics and the game play is fun.
Lussard Studio
09. Oct 2024 · 15:01 UTC
Really impressed with ur game, especially you did all alone.
The visuals are really polished and it's fun to play. :rocket:
jver422
09. Oct 2024 · 15:25 UTC
fun game, fun visual style, motion blur was a bit much
Brain Siege Gameworks
09. Oct 2024 · 17:06 UTC
The motion sickness issue doesn't do the game much favors. I do like the various objectives though.
TheSmellofOxygen
09. Oct 2024 · 20:24 UTC
Very wild visual style, like you're looking into a little bubble world with a terrible scope to pilot a nano machine. We must purge this specific raindrop of alien bacteria! The smearing colors were a little too strong and the player felt very sluggish, even boosting, but the presentation is just so, so slick here. I got to stage 9 on normal on my longest run, but the hack objectives forcing me to stop shooting were very difficult since you can't effectively outrun the swarm and you can't shoot them.
Naphe-Candle-MME
10. Oct 2024 · 19:46 UTC
Made it to wave 10
The variety of objectives was cool, and I wish there were more enemies and weapons to play around with.
The movement and graphics was sick and probably my favorite part! Very trippy and the play with the visuals, the bending the zooming in/out was very impressive!
bacalear
12. Oct 2024 · 11:41 UTC
I do love the gameplay in this
NickHellquist
13. Oct 2024 · 23:11 UTC
Looks really cool and plays well! Would have loved some death animations for the enemies though to make it even more satisfying hitting the shots. Overall a very cool game :)