December 13th-16th 2013 :: Theme: You Only Get One
[ Real World Gatherings | Ludum Deals | Warmup Weekend ]
Starbeard: The Curse of the Space Whales follows a crew of space pirates in their journey across the stars. Seasick Dan, the powder monkey, forgot all the armaments except for a single harpoon. Now, trapped in a nebula and surrounded by vicious space whales, Starbeard and his crew will need to fight their way free with all they've got: just one harpoon.
Instructions:
WASD or Arrow Keys to move
Mouse to Aim / Left mouse to fire - your harpoon will bounce!
Mouse to aim projectile shield (when you have no harpoon)
Bump the harpoon to pick it up.
Collect loot at the x marks as you defeat foes.
Get the highest score you can!
Downloads and Links
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 100% |
#37 | Fun(Jam) | 3.75 |
#46 | Theme(Jam) | 3.66 |
#75 | Innovation(Jam) | 3.46 |
#76 | Overall(Jam) | 3.64 |
#78 | Humor(Jam) | 3.31 |
#134 | Mood(Jam) | 3.32 |
#152 | Audio(Jam) | 3.26 |
#341 | Graphics(Jam) | 2.95 |
Comments
Nice! Good sounds and music, and the gameplay mechanic was very smooth and interesting. Really like the gold turtles (which I think should give more points when they die) Got to 910.
Really the best game under all these "you only get one shot" games! Good job
Fun and well made mechanic. This game could easily be expanded into much more, given more time. Great work!
Definitely my vote!
Sounds, gameplay and graphics are absolutely beautiful
Very nice! Simple and, as stated before, well executed in all departements! Funny: the ship colors reminded me of CGA-graphics. :)
I really liked the mechanic. I think the bouncing was especially good, and the sounds were just great! I think the game would be a little better with different art, but I also recognize that you were going for a certain art style.
Overall, very good!
Nice work! It was very fun game to play. Music was nice and graphics fit the theme very well.
Everything about this game is great. Best game was 3080 points and then I got killed by these evil giant red jellyfish things.
Really good collisions!!! Mouse and keyboard is a good control system. And sounds are very pretty!
We had very similar ideas! You guys executed it extremely well. Pretty much everything is awesome. The jagged edges of the map to make the bounces more unpredictable is brilliant.
Oh damn whales! :)
Great game! No comments, you are great guys!
Hey, we have very similar games. =)
It's funny how we came up with similar game elements but took a very different approach to them. I really like some of the touches like using diagonal walls so the harpoon has a little more complex trajectory to it.
Amazingly well-designed concept, I love that once you've shot the harpoon you get shields to defend yourself. The movement is drifty but I'll forgive that since it is supposed to be space.
This definitely needs some polish and post-LD work! It would be a lot of fun as a fully realized game.
Nice, fits the theme very good, its hard and fun. Good job.
I just love when it bounces in some weird way and gets triple kill.
Wow! I played this for a LOT longer than I thought I would! Super fun and funny game, you really had a good time doing this and it shows :D 5/5
I guess I'm lucky getting this as my first "you only get one shot" game here. If all others are like this, then maybe the theme was OK after all. A small comment. For us with laptop + left handed right hand on WASD and left on mouse is a bit uncomfortable.
Very neat design. The game is very fresh and this universe ( space whale, pirate talks & stuff ) is fun. The harpoon mechanic could have became boring with time but you guys had this genius idea of non-flat border. I like the fact it's shaped like a treasure map.
The game still have rythm problem : You should autospawn monsters everytime the screen is empty. Clearing waves very fast is more secure but you also get those boring waiting time when nothing is on screen.
The difficulty curve itself is weird sometime there's huge jeelyfish spawn and sometime you have to wait 10 seconds on a blank screen to see a lonely whale pop.
I like the dotted lines.
I really like the interpretation of the theme. It's a fun twist on the shooter-in-a-box gameplay.
I'm rubbish at the game, but that's all my fault. Well, except for the bit where it's easy for whales to sometimes spawn right on top of you, but at least there's a little bit of warning there.
Very nice concept. the gameplay was smooth and the music enjoyable. Good work
Cool mechanics, nice esthetics and a fun game! A more interesting game than most I've played as of yet! :)
Thanks for playing my game, I've added controls tutorial at the top of the entry as to make it easier for other players in the future.
Good luck!
Game mechanics are really cool and fun. You can get really skilled at bouncing the harpoon and that is a big plus! Got to a score of 850 and died by a whale spawning very close. Easier to keep control of the harpoon by bouncing it horizontal as the sides are pretty much flat.
Loved the concept, the mechanic and the look/sound! Great entry! One of the best I've seen so far.
OK, guys, we can all stop voting now. This is clearly the Best Game.
I LOVE the mechanic with how you have to pickup your bullet to shoot it again! Very nice!
Graphics are clean and simple :) and music is a tad quiet, but it's good enough :)
Sweet game!
Nice! Simple mechanic but great use of sfx to reinforce it getting stuck.
Very good design choices. I really enjoyed lining up the enemies.
Greenpeace will sue me for killing big amount of whales. Really funny game.
I really enjoyed this game. I would play this game forever. Excellent WC game if you would launch it for a tablet or smartphone :D
Mechanic's great, the best I've seen so far with the one shot mechanic. And overall it's real fun, awesome job!
This was really fun, loved the "one retrievable bullet" mechanic! Music was nice and the sound effects helped round it out nicely.
Wow! I wasn't sure what to expect just looking at it, but that was fun! The mechanic is great, one of the best implementations of the theme I've seen!
Annoyingly addictive and 6 times as good when you realise you can move around and collect the harpoon! (Duh! My bad!)
Great music and sound effects! I would love to see some powerups and alternative weapons.
I really like what you've done with the art :D
The game is pretty fun and it's a really good one shot mechanic.
Fantastic mechanic! The music and sound assets are pretty cool too.
This was really enjoyable to play, definitely a top score for fun. Great work here
Great Job. I loved the trail you left behind you!
Side Note: Since you used Unity I suggest making a Linux build. The Web player does not work on Linux Machines.
A very fun entry! Adorable graphics, retrieve-the-bullet theme works fine! (err, I used that too) :D
I really like the UI, the way the game is played on a map and the ship leaves a trail. Very nice.
The game's fun too play, though I'd like it if the ship was a bit faster or had less drag. As it is it feels a bit heavy.
Great game ! The mechanic is indeed very interesting !
Really like the art style. It's very inviting and I couldn't resist trying this one out.
Man, this is deceptively fun. At first I was like, "Well... ok this is a bit slow." THEN TURTLES SHOWED UP! HOLY CRAP THE STRATEGY WHEN YOU GET 3 OR 4 TURTLES ON THE SCREEN AND WAVES OF WHALES AND OCTOPUSESSSSESES!
The game is really fun, has a great difficulty curve and pacing, and the audio fits well. You have this crazy concept of a snowglobed space pirate boat shooting a huge harpoon that's bouncing around a scroll boundary hitting flying space whales and turtles with rotating shields. It's crazy as hell and I love it!
The only bad thing is the graphics don't really do match up with the rest of the experience. With some better art and some more polish this would be AMAZING. It's still awesome fun right now, though. GREAT ENTRY!
Super fun. This is honestly just a graphics overhaul away from being a really neat game!
That's fun, I like the bouncing of the harpoon. I wish I was better at judging how it would bounce. Like a trajectory guide or something. Fun!
Really nice work. I love the dashed line, map/scroll background, and 'X's. Makes for a clever and nicely unified theme.
Nice take on the theme... the cursor could be centered, though: the harpoon aparently goes to the top-left corner of the cursor instead of the center
Like the mechanic of one bullet and the way the bullet bounces around the screen. This led to a lot of depth. Felt a bit sluggish and unresponsive at times but the core of the game is very interesting!
A lot of fun. Great use of mechanics, has a lot of potential in my opinion on the marketplace too. Nice Jam Ninja
You must sign in to comment.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to place in the final results, you NEED votes. The easiest way to get votes is by rating other games. Judging lasts for 3 weeks following the end of Ludum Dare. For best effect, rate 20 games as soon as possible. Rating more games is encouraged.
MORE TIPS AND DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
TEAMS: Teams entering the Jam should pick a single representative to submit your game, or create a team specific account you can share. We currently do not support Team Voting, but sharing an account and together playing and rating games is acceptable.
NOT LOGGED IN?: If you get a message about not being logged in, even though you are, it’s because your web browser cached the non-logged in page. You can fix this by either refreshing your cache or clearing your cache. CTRL+F5 in many browsers. Chrome is a bit more work. Press F12 to enable Developer Mode, then you can right click on the refresh button and select “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”. This option is unavailable if you are not in Developer Mode.
PORTS: Ports to other platforms can be done after the deadline. That said, the sooner you finish your port, the sooner people can play your game, improving your chances of placing in the final results. For best results, provide a Web version of your game, or a Windows version with no dependencies. Also be sure to rate about 20 games to improve your visibility.
MY GAME DOESN’T SHOW UP: If you can’t find your game, it’s usually because the URL to your downloads are missing ‘http://‘. Fix your URLs (http://mysite.com/mygame.zip) and you will show up.
MY GAME CRASHES, IS UNBEATABLE, OR I MADE A TYPO: We allow you to fix crash or win condition bugs after the deadline (in a sense, like “porting” to support more players). We also allow “typo” bugs. I.e. A true that should have been a false, a word that should have been a different word, very tiny changes that you would have caught if you had more sleep. We leave this open to interpretation, but generally speaking your game should be identical to the game you submitted. No new features, just things you messed up last minute. Typos.
Wow, cool mechanic