Here's my first game on Pico-8 :D
While I am no stranger to gamedev, this is the first time I work on Pico-8. This is also an emotional moment for me, because I finally get to complete a project I started 6 years ago. This is also the very first time, as unbelievable as it is, I have genuinely enjoyed playing my game and thinking as an audience :D
Instructions are all in the game, I'd like to see how I have improved my tutorial skill. Let me know if you have any problem.
(Remember, press P/Enter (default Pico-8 keybind) to access the pause menu.)
If you are keen for poke around and/or learning, I thoroughly wrote this game to be readable and the codebase is moderately commented and put it on GitHub. This game implements an entity component system, not the usual standard object-oriented approach; let me know if I did it right. I have also created a boilerplate implementing these in case you'd like to use some of them. Code critiques and feedback are highly appreciated :D
I have also learned a massively lot and fixed an insanity-inducing bug caused by the max integer value of 32767 hours before launch :D
Update 2020 Jun 16: Remapped keys.
Update 2020 Jun 17: Fixed an incorrectly mapped key in caption state.
Update 2020 Jun 21: Minor refactoring and change in draw layer with no remarkable impact on the game.
Awsome! I love how you can get more ammo by mining the rocks and the shadows on the geometric background! I just wish that there was a simple song playing in the background.. great stuffs!
@SmellyFishstiks Thank you :D I did think about getting into music, but I wanted to get the game released more, and I did not have a clear of the kind of music that would enhance the game's atmosphere. I might update it in a future date.
interesting concept, well done but way too hard imho.
(and I am an ok shmup player)
you’ve got only 4 shots and restocking takes forever.
couple of ideas:
- stop asteroids while refueling
- much faster refuel
- auto refuel (but at a very slow rate)
- asteroids harvesting beef up you regular weapon
@freds72 Hey, thanks for playing!
I don't think catching up with asteroids for harvesting is difficult with slow move (holding O while moving ). Have you tried that? I was afraid of players missing out that particular "feature", so I had to repeatedly mention it from place to place.
This game is more about maneuvering and evasion, so I was extremely cautious about giving weapons to the player. The earlier versions of the game started with no ammo and even no weapons at all. I don't want to turn this into an aggressive bombastic shump (that's for another game at another time). Think of it as a survival game about just staying alive long enough.
I hope that helps you understand my vision for the game and give it another try with a different mindset.
hum...refueling is still too slow imho and then the next wave comes in.
sitting next to an asteroid should protect the ship bullets for ex.
@freds72 You don't need to fire any shot! Your maneuvers and dodges are your main tools. It's entirely possible to complete the game without firing a single shot.
And I think you missed my point. I have not made any change to the game at all, I'm just asking to try the non-shooting approach that this game was made for.
Here's me playing with barely any shooting.
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