Swarming Asteroids
Credits:
Music: Robin Laliberte, composed specifically for this game.
Music: Max-Music, licensed.
Asteroids, background and spaceships art: -wowu- ... https://graphicriver.net/user/-wowu-
Upgrades art: Sci-fi Incidentals by GameMaker
Primary blaster sounds: Robin Laliberte
Additional sounds: Blaster Pack by Enessound
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NOTE: Game has been renamed from "Space Plague" to "Swarming Asteroids" to avoid title similarity with other games.
Version 0.33 (January 26th)
> Core Asteroids now spawn outside the playable area and float into their 'permanent spot' (where they used to spawn previously).
> If all your bases have full Defense Lasers, Asteroids no longer spawn new Defense Lasers power ups, instead spawning Base Heal power ups. This is still not perfect solution to the problem of picking up a Defense Laser that cannot be placed anywhere, but for now, this will have to do.
Version 0.31 (January 26th)
> Added a 'drag cable' to Base power ups which need to be dragged back to base.
Version 0.3 (January 25th)
> Power ups now inform the player what they are directly in the game view (such as "+ 1 Cannon")
> If the player is already at maximum level of a particular upgrade, picking another 'copy' of the same upgrade will NOT go to waste -- instead, the duration of the upgrade effect will be prolonged proportionally (example: You already have +5 Cannons, which is maximum. You pick another "+ 1 Cannon" upgrade --> each of those 5 earlier pick ups will be prolonged by "1 minute / 5 = 12 seconds").
> Two-way portal automatically closes if player leaves the general area of the bases 'on foot', rather than teleporting back. This solves the problem when you wanted to teleport back to base, but were instead teleported to a random spot (from which you teleported previously).
> Completely replaced Upgrade graphics with the "Space Incidentals".
> All Asteroids now show progressively more cracks as they get damaged.
> Added a cool gyroscopic effect to power ups floating in space.
> Replaced all blaster sounds with sound effects by Robin Laliberte, produced specifically for this game.
> Added two versions of a music piece composed specifically for this game by Robin Laliberte. They begin almost identically, so don't be fooled when switching music with "M" if it seems like the same music is playing -- they quickly become very distinct. If you are not a fan of this style of music, there is a 3rd, gentle, melody, included as well.
Version 0.2.1 (January 16th)
- Bug Fixes (miscalculated size of "Destroy this asteroid" frame).
- Visual enhancements (slightly transparent explosions)
- Better positioning of hint arrow ("Fly in that direction") early on.
Version 0.2 (January 16th - 5 days of development)
- Added 2nd type of enemies (slower but more resilient and causing more damage)
- Improved wave logic
- Tracking score
- Proper Game Over screen
- Better explosions
- Added asteroid cracks to more asteroids
- Replaced all music
- Added mouse cursor
- Added hints with regards to controls and what to do early on ("fly this way", "destroy this asteroid")
- Added a "Teleport back to base" functionality (hold Q) -- it's free for unlimited use! And you can get a Utility upgrade "Two-way teleport" (2 charges per pick up), which lets you teleport back to base and back to the spot from which you jumped.
=============== Older version text: ==============
Prototype v.0.1 (January 14th - 3 days of development)
Gameplay:
- Shatter asteroids (marked by diamonds on your HUD) to stem the tide of enemies, and for a chance to get one of the possible bonuses or upgrades.
- Drag Base upgrades back to base (once attached to your ship) to apply the bonus.
- Don't let enemies destroy your last base.
Controls:
- Use WASD (or Arrow keys) to move around.
- Hold down Left mouse button to shoot.
- Right-click to place Autoturrets (once acquired).
Current functionality:
- Difficulty selection
- Spawning of Core asteroids, shattering of asteroids, spawning of enemy waves, spawning of bonuses and upgrades
- Player combat, upgrades, ammo tracking
- Bases: Defensive lasers, health tracking, repairing
- Primitive Game Over (returns to main menu)
TODO:
- Proper Game Over
- Building of new bases (a type of upgrade)
- Scoring for kills, asteroid shattering, wave clearance, and picking up bonuses
- Win condition (maybe)
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Update 0.3 - Music, Sounds, Visuals and Power-Up logicJan 25, 2024
- Progress ReportJan 16, 2024
Comments
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Adding some kind of a parallax effect to the background would make you feel like you're moving, a few times I felt like I was standing still if there wasn't anything else on the screen beside the player.
Paradoxically, the background IS moving in a parallax fashion, which is apparent whenever there is anything in the foreground, but yes, with only 1 parallax layer, you do get moments when you feel like moving through a soup.
Thank you, this would be an easy thing to add.
I played for about 4 minutes or so. I like that you made an Asteroids style game with smooth satisfying controls (they are often clunky like the original game) and focused on fast gameplay and cool powerups. I found that I was a bit confused going in, but the game was intuitive enough that I learned mostly everything I needed to on my first playthrough.
Some constructive criticism would be that after a while the gameplay feels a bit "same-ey" but that's pretty common for jam games as you're really only going after a vertical slice of what kind of game you are dreaming up. Overall satisfying simple gameplay and nice visuals.
Thank you. We were supposed to make a prototype, I actually over-did it :-)
Eventually, I'd like to replaced this 'infinite, doomed-to-death' mode with something that actually results in victory of some sorts.
I know what you mean. I made sure to tell my players, "Hey, game is over" at 3 minutes in because that is around the time my content fizzled out, but I let them keep playing a bit longer if they wanted.
I thought the quick stop was an interesting mechanic, but it didn't seem to be utilised a tonne. I didn't really understand what I was supposed to be doing, I think that a bit more of a tutorial and a clearer goal could be helpful.
Thank you for your feedback!
I thought the small ships were my friends and then I realized they were attacking the big things in the middle LOL. Cool music!
:-)
Cool game! A couple of things are confusing since there are no feedback systems yet, but it's already fun!
Thank you! Could you specify what in particular was confusing for you? That kind of feedback is very useful!
Sure!
Points of confusion for me:
- for a moment I thought my shots can't destroy asteroids because it took a long time to shoot a big one apart and there was no clear feedback, that I was damaging it (the cracks aren't that noticeable and they take a while to show up early in the game)
- same problem with enemy ships, I thought I can't damage them, until a bit later
- a couple more about the relation between my ship and the base and whether I'm supposed to focus on destroying asteroids or destroy enemies at my base, but I can't remember exactly
Thank you, very useful feedback! I believe most of the issues you mention should now be fixed.
Feels good but I don't understand why you run out of lasers(bullets?) if you shoot constantly
Thank you for the feedback. Your ammo regenerates when you are in touch with any of your bases. I felt it would increase the difficulty if you had to periodically return back 'home'.
Ammo is shown in the top left corner.
Hey there, would you be so kind and test the game again? I think it's more understandable now and provides useful hint when you run out of ammo.
Yeah with pleasure
Now it's definitely more understandable and the hint when you run out of ammo helps a lot because you concentrate on destroying asteroids and can forget about ammo
And just realized why i didn't know about ammo it's because i can't see text from the left-top if my browser(firefox) isn't fullscreen
Yeah, the 'window size' is a problem, I'll focus on that.
VERY ATRACTIVE GAME