August 23rd-26th 2013 :: Theme: 10 Seconds
Ludum Dare 27 — August 23rd-26th, 2013
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*UPDATE* (30/08) : New .jar up. It should (hopefully) work on all platforms now. I had to anger a couple of seasoned programmers in order to achieve this, so have a thought for those poor unlucky people ! I made no modifications to gameplay, however.
My first Ludum Dare entry. Playable, so, not too bad for a first effort I guess.
I've still gor about five hours left, but let's call it a day.
Controls : Space to shoot, and up/down to move.
The button is there to be clicked on. When clicked on, enemies pop up more frequently, the difficulty overall increases slightly, but player score can get a lot higher. This lasts... 10 seconds, with a... 10 second cooldown (but difficulty stays increased).
That's all you need to know to play, I think. I ended up making some music using Reason.
Notes :
-The score actually depends on a few factors.
-This is the first time I've include sounds in any kind of project, the first game I've just about completed, and the first time I've really used threads.
As such, there are quite a few minor niggles in more professional and polished entries, here's a shortlist :
-Minor collision issues.
-Shooting cooldown can decrease when one restarts game, dunno why. Overall restarting the game isn't very slickly handled, anyway.
-No music muting. Maybe next time.
-Music and art definitely are very much improvised. I'll have to actually learn how to do that kind of stuff next time.
-Background scrolling is very basic.
-Can click on button at any point in time, and it doesn't reset between games.
-On my computer, low fps at first, and sometimes the audio just gives up. I think I've mostly adressed that issue.
Other stuff I'm sure I've forgotten to mention.
But, it was fun !
If you feel like having a look at the source, I'd be really grateful for some feedback (on the music as well), as I really would like to get better at game programming.
Hmm, also, since this is Java, the source could be compatible with Mac and Linux. No clue, really.
Anyways, thanks for reading/skimming through this long monologue, enjoy the entries. I hope to be back again.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 100% |
| #602 | Audio | 2.46 |
| #890 | Humor | 1.65 |
| #1016 | Mood | 1.97 |
| #1051 | Graphics | 2.00 |
| #1055 | Fun | 2.19 |
| #1113 | Theme | 2.24 |
| #1118 | Overall | 2.30 |
| #1144 | Innovation | 1.91 |
Comments
I've just tested the windows version on another (rather slow) computer so as to double-check, and it seemed to work fine. You might have to be a little more specific about the issue. Perhaps the download wasn't properly completed, or an image was corrupted. I haven't had that error happen any time I tried, though.
It could even be the loading time. As for pressing space, you need focus on the actual screen part (ie click on the title screen first). Sorry, forgot to mention that.
The graphics make it really hard to see the bullets against the background. Also when you click the button, you lose focus on the main window and you can't use the keys anymore. But still, good one for a first try :)
Wow, thanks for the feedback ! Yeah, I had noticed the focus issue. I actually got used to it after a while and sort of forgot that I needed to fix it ! I also forgot to mention it above, heh ^^'
It froze at score 207, everything is too small!!!
Also for the fire you could give a time between shots, that way we don't have to wait for it to reach out of the screen
I tried with Linux Mint. It opens a zero size window, which you can resize, but the content is blank. That's about as far as I got. I tried with JDK 6 and 7
My System: Ubuntu 13.04 64 Bit; Tested with Java 6 & 7
I can't run it. If you can find out why, I will gladly try it again :)
The game opens an empty window and it throws the following exception to the console:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at seconds.focus.menu.TitleMenu.<init>(TitleMenu.java:11)
at seconds.focus.gui.Game.start(Game.java:36)
at seconds.focus.gui.Screen.<init>(Screen.java:37)
at seconds.focus.gui.Display.main(Display.java:28)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: input == null!
at javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(ImageIO.java:1388)
at seconds.focus.gui.Images.loadBitmap(Images.java:36)
at seconds.focus.gui.Images.<clinit>(Images.java:13)
... 4 more
Paul Sinnett and I probably have the same error. The window matches his description.
I like the 10 second charging mechanic you have, combined with the simplicity of a side scrolling shooter. I think you pretty much exposed most of the issues I was experiencing with the game. Some enemy types I'd like to see are stationary targets on either of the top or bottom surfaces, or maybe enemies that split into smaller enemies! And as someone else mentioned, contrasting the bullets from the background is pretty important for surviving, without feeling like you died from nothing. Good job! :D
In Zanval's case, the menu image isn't loading for some reason. In the other cases, it seems not to finish loading (or is doing so really slowly). Apologies to all those for whom it does not work.
Please note however, that before I started this I knew absolutely nothing about. But thanks for trying (to try) the game !
I'll try and test this on a Linux build tomorrow. Perhaps some paths I provided are not valid for Linux builds.
I played a few times (typically scored ~1100)
It's hard to see the enemy fire (the yellow is nearly the same color used in the background)
Also, it's not entirely obvious in-game what the button does (besides steal focus from the game, forcing you to click the button, then quickly click the game area so that you can control the ship again)
Overall: good first effort.
It works on my Mac.
The background is chaotic so that i can merely see the bullets.
Got it to run without problem on my Macbook! Feedback: the bullets are hard to see against the background sometimes, and maybe it should be more apparent what the "Ready" button does (didn't see a timer appear or anything). I would've liked there to be more enemies as well, but nonetheless pretty solid for a first effort.
@frogcheese : There should be a ten-second timer whenever you click ready.
@oajfh okay, because that didn't happen for me. If the button doesn't work properly I guess it could be because I'm running Mac OS X.
It has problems as everyone can admit but it's an adventurous Idea for 10 seconds.
Great job! It's impressive to get finished gameplay and sound effects and music in your first LD, so well done. I didn't realise what the button did until I finished playing the game and read the above text - so it would have been nice to see that explained in-game somewhere. Also, I would have liked better contrast between the bullets and the background colours. Overall though nice work!
No errors for me (Windows 8). Maybe the backround should be a little darker, as I have trouble recognizing objects. :)
Works fine on my machine, bravo for doing all of it yourself!
There was some massive slowdown about a minute into my play session
oooh, the colours were a bit erm ugh :P The game as a whole? Solid :D
Windows 7 64 bit - almost OK. What I mean by almost is - I played once, liked it wanted to play again and could not. Game window appears, I can hear the music but I cannot see the game content at all. Anyways played it and what can I say.. Good job!
Nice one ! As others said, there are bugs, bullets are too hard to see and losing focus is a pain in the ass, but I really enjoyed playing it! And for a first participation, this is a really good job.
It's an interesting idea, manually upping the difficulty. Mapping this to a key press would help this idea, but asides from that the concept of "set your own difficulty" as a risk/reward scenario really appeals to me.
The ships aren't too bad, they work in style with each other and the cavern walls are clearly defined. Other graphical aspects don't hit this standard, like the Game Over screen, but in game it's functional. All I'd change for sake of playability is the bullet colour which blends into the background a little too easily.
Ultimately, a fun little playable romp into the idea of player set difficulty. The music is good the game enjoyable, if a bit rough.
Sweet little entry! It works and I encountered no bugs, well done!
I'd make sure the colour of the bullets are not in the background. Also maybe moving forward and back?
Other than that, cool!
Running Windows 8, I had a similar problem to the one described by Paul Sinnett above. There's probably something wrong at my end so I'll keep trying. I'd like to play this.
@panurge : Actually, it's probably me and the paths I provide for files. I am working on it, but apparently there are subtleties that are making my rather slow brain melt right now (in my defense, I'm tired, and it's a deeper end of the pool, I suppose) and I haven't quite gotten it properly working yet.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback everyone. It is very much appreciated (in fact, I've rated the entries of most of the people who've commented).
Can't run it on Fedora Linux I'm afraid, I get this error:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at seconds.focus.menu.TitleMenu.<init>(TitleMenu.java:11)
at seconds.focus.gui.Game.start(Game.java:36)
at seconds.focus.gui.Screen.<init>(Screen.java:37)
at seconds.focus.gui.Display.main(Display.java:28)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: input == null!
at javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(ImageIO.java:1388)
at seconds.focus.gui.Images.loadBitmap(Images.java:36)
at seconds.focus.gui.Images.<clinit>(Images.java:13)
... 4 more
java -version gives:
java version "1.7.0_25"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (fedora-2.3.12.4.fc19-x86_64)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.7-b01, mixed mode)
Not entirely sure how it fits with theme (you mentioned something about 10 second difficult increases, or something?).
It's good that you took the time to write music, though I did find it somewhat jarring.
Works fine with the new .jar! Very enjoyable little shooter. It could have done with a bit more variety and I also agree with the comments about the colour of the bullets, but overall I found this to be a fun experience. The visuals and audio mesh together really nicely.
Graphics is a little irritating my eyes, but the game as a whole is quite good :)
@panurge : Glad to hear it works properly. And thanks for the comments, everyone, again.
I found pressing the button using mouse while driving with the keyboard was a little awkward.
Background graphics make it extremely difficult to see projectiles, which was irritating. It was also irking to have to remember to click the play area every time the button was pressed. I enjoyed the concept though.
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I'd love to say I liked the game, but unfortunately I can't play it! When I first ran it, the menu showed up and it said "Press SPACE to start", so I did, but nothing happened! I ran it again, and now I just get a blank screen D: