NOTE: Because of the Theme tie, we allowed everyone to pick either Theme. Using both was optional. To keep things simple, there will still only be one Theme category. Every category in Ludum Dare voting is an opinion, so you’re welcome to rate them as you see fit. But we encourage you to be fair in your scores to people that chose only one Theme, and not both.
ALSO: Itch.io has an experimental game downloader over here. You may find it useful.
Homeworld is a simple arcade game in which you must defend your planet from various alien threats. You do this by piloting your spaceship in orbit around the planet. However, the planet is growing, making it ever more difficult to defend it from enemies!
Uses Unity Web Player so won't work with chrome. Click on the link for best experience on web.
(Uses both Growing and Two ButtonControl themes)
Made using unity
Music made using Acid Xpress 7.0 and free sound loops
Arcade Font from http://www.fontspace.com/codeman38/press-start
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 71% |
| #109 | Theme | 4.17 |
| #121 | Innovation | 3.80 |
| #241 | Audio | 3.17 |
| #263 | Overall | 3.52 |
| #285 | Fun | 3.42 |
| #290 | Mood | 3.26 |
| #587 | Graphics | 2.91 |
Comments
This two-button thing is really hard. I think I would enjoy three-button version a bit more. Or maybe I need more practice :)
Other than my lack of skill this is a nice looking game which also plays nice (and sounds nice as well!). I was only a bit confused by how my weapon works (one bullet, three bullets, no bullet).
Nice idea, but once i got hit once, i couldn't shoot anymore? The growing mechanic is very well implemented!
This is a neat idea and I like the minimalist design. It looks simple but it's tricky. I got a score of 670. By then, my planet was so large and lopsided, I couldn't always get around to fend off an attack.
Nice entry, uses the 2 themes very well together. It is a bit difficult though and one really needs to concentrate getting the movement right, but that's part of its charm. Great work
nice implementation of theme. however my gun stopped shooting, not sure if intended or not.
This is a great game that looks cool and and is fun and interesting. However I think you tried to throw the two button theme on to a game that doesn't really work with it instead of coming up with a game that works with two button controls. This would be way better as a "A" and "D" to move, "space" to shoot type game.
Enjoyed playing this game :) Took a few time to get used to the mechanics but after that it was fun. Would be nice to see a polished version of it!
Great game! I love the artwork and the controls are quirky, but in a good way.
I think I eventually ran out of bullets though? Not sure if it was a glitch, but it was frustrating.
I love the music! Also the growing mechanic is delightfully annoying.
Nice one, I really like the idea and the way u map just 2 buttons for 3 movement (rotate, reverse, shoot).
I think the wave design could get harder and the spawn time of the enemies could get lower.
Thanks alot
controls are cool. good job in compressing the motion into two keys. i don't know why, but the lumps made me laugh :)
there was a bug where you couldn't shoot after something happened, though
Nice one, I really like the idea and the way u map just 2 buttons for 3 movement (rotate, reverse, shoot).
I think the wave design could get harder and the spawn time of the enemies could get lower.
Thanks alot
Simple and fun. I feel like the laser powerup is underwhelming. It should extend out further and/or last longer?
880. Actually really enjoyed it, also my planet was looking really not much like a planet ahaha
Can't play, for web I only see a white screen with line "Unity Web Player | Arcade", have to wait till I get my hands on a windows machine.
Is that an example from Chipmunk2D I recognize? ;)
Will be back :)
Fun entry! Controls are toughaving to get the hang of, clever difficulty curve mechanic. The aesthetic is really nice, I like how the additional circles act as a gradient outward. Sound is decent. Solid game overall, congrats!
Simplistic graphically but actually quite well put-together. Difficulty scales pretty quickly. XD
Good gameplay.
For me, the planet growing looks like a type of biological growing :)
I concur with many of the prior comments, having only one button for movement makes is needlessly hard to aim.
Shooting could be automatic leaving both buttons for movement. In this case the weapon power-ups should function based on a timer rather than ammo.
One of the weapon power-ups does nothing. The laser and three-way shot work, must be the last one then.
tricky gameplay, it gets very difficult after a while but the idea is really intresting
Nice concept of growing, funny little arcade game, too bad of the bug though, would have played it longer ;)
I like the idea of the game. The two button controls just make it really hard to play.
And it seems like the music loops sort of strangely... I'm not really sure. :/
Had a ton of fun playing, and really liked the path movement around the planet tumor bubbles. Keep going, and please publish to mobile stores if it isn't already by now.
This is really cool! I love the concept, it fits so well with the theme. I am really bad at this, but every time I manage to land a hit it's very satisfying. Great job with the music and sound effects as well!
I'll definitely be trying this on android when I get the chance, it seems like a smart fit for mobile.
One suggestion if you keep working on this -- maybe add an indicator on the side that you'll move to next. I found myself occasionally forgetting which way I had moved last when I stopped moving, although I might have been better off just always moving!
Awesome job, congrats.
The one button movement is system was risky design but actually works quite well! The whole idea is pretty interesting. The game feels like it lacks polish tho, not so much visual but rather gameplay-wise. You could have added an acceleration on the thing you control for example, like it gets speed when you press the button (do cap that speed though) and then lose speed when you release it.
So yea, very nice idea but execution could be improved. I'm sure you'll do great on your next LD ;)
Nice entry, it's kind of hard the controls.
I liked the concept of this game, the growing planet was very well implemented. Congrats!
really nicely executed and really minimalistic. polish it up a little and you're good to go
Nice, enjoyed the concept a lot, although I think it was a little weaker than it would be with more controls. Nice bumps though, really cool how they affected the angle of shooting
The growing planet mechanic is super cool and clever. I also liked the way you brought it down to two buttons - getting used to the reversing direction is tough, but an elegant way to simplify the controls. Nicely done!
Nice. I think there's a bug where sometimes the green power-up makes you unable to shoot.
Thanks for leaving a rating and commenting on my game! I included your game in an episode of my Let's Play Ludum Dare 34 series to show my gratitude! :D
Below is a link to the post with details, and you can find out my opinion of your game in the video as I play!
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/12/26/lets-play-ludum-dare-34-episode-03/
I'm totally into minimalism this time on LD and this one looks great! And it's a nice concept too! :)
As the planet grows, it starts to get really challenging and with the controls reversing direction at every move you've got to act quickly always!
Great work! :D
I've played a lot of these planetary defense style games on this Ludum Dare site. I think this is one of the best ones. Having the ability to fire back and do something other than absorb bullets is a major plus!
Good Job. Needs more music though.
It would add an extra layer if tapping Z didn't reverse your direction and you'd have to go around the planet when you miss something. That would've been a more natural way to utilize the whole two-button theme and complemented the gameplay as well. I mean being able to tap-dance around the same spot suggests fast maneuvers, but this game is actually quite slow-paced, and the difficulty curve doesn't seem to ramp up anytime soon.
Speaking about slowness, and on a larger scale easiness, that's my main gripe. I managed to get the impression there was no way to lose - even if enemies do crash on the planet, it doesn't seem to get smaller or anything, and you just get more points. Weird.
Cool. I only hated that the movement is reversed every time. My brain can't process that :)
Cool game.
Hey @Jwatt, thanks for the feedback, however I would really appreciate it if you would play the game for a bit longer. It would seem that you quit before the game really starts, as the difficulty ramps up after introducing the enemies (about 2 minutes in). As well as this, you can take multiple hits, your health is shown by the color of the center of the planet, the redder it is, the more you are in trouble. You can take 10 hits from the orange enemies before losing. Finally, because the difficulty gets significantly higher, with enemies coming from multiple sides, you really do need to be able to reverse direction.I would really suggest replaying this, as it seems you didn't fully experience the game.
I like the idea, but the 2 button controls felt forced, I would have much rather had two movement buttons, or like another commenter suggested, no option to reverse movement. Another thing that would make the game better would be some kind of indication on the player square of what direction you're facing. I found myself shooting in unexpected directions when stopped near certain bumps. Nice music.
this is exactly like one of the ideas i had in the beginning of the LD! I think it's a neat control idea, and it plays alright. the only thing i didnt like is how the growing orbs made it a little hard to get certain aiming right since it introduce a new scope of rotation. nice job!
Controls could do with improvement, and the game was quite hard, what with the growth of the planet making movement occasionally difficult (and the strength of the basic enemies), but overall it was still fun! The powerups were nice, the music was fitting and enjoyable, and it was a good challenge to try and beat my high score.
Fun, well made game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/6QI1ZQ7v1fA
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i like the minimalist/flat design, the control and gameplay
sometimes it hard to shoot target because of angle that those bumps create
overallreally nice game :)