After a week of programming I'm happy to release Mars Defender.
It's my first game for PICO 8.
5 waves of attack will keep you occupied for about 10-15 minutes.
Your mission: Destroy all the aliens and save your men.
Keyboard controls:
Start game with x
Navigate ship with cursor keys.
x = fire
z = Go to intro page after game over.
Or use our favorite controller.
Enjoy!
The effects when shooting were super satisfying, I liked how the particles lingered as a reminder of the destruction. The little parachutes that the soldiers get was also a great touch. I would say the really fast acceleration on the spaceship was a little awkward, I did get used to it after a bit though. Also maybe if you made the black bit below the planet the same colour as the planet?
Fun game, nice job!
@TrueCube4134 thanks for writing I really appreciate it as I put alot of work into polishing game mechanics and making this "a full game", albeit a short game.
You're right about both issues, for the controls @dw817 hinted at faster maneuvers in the original defender games, but it does take getting used to in this game with gravity and what not. I found while gametesting control became second nature so I had to keep increasing speed until it felt comfortable and this makes the experience more enjoyable in the long run, especially with a game controller (I use an 8BitDo) myself but keyboard also works well with this speed.
interesting take on defender genre, but I also think the ship accelation is too much.
Even the original defender wasn't this fast. very often i felt my ship is slow af compared to crazy mutants or baiters.
Yes, you're right. I have now set it back to something close to the initial speed, it was set way too fast and I uploaded a new version. Thanks for the feedback!
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