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A jam submission

Star Juggler (LOWREZJAM, FFSJam)View game page

A retro shoot'em up where you pilot a Star Juggler (Spacecraft)
Submitted by Hyperagon (@alphachill8) — 32 days, 2 hours before the deadline
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Star Juggler (LOWREZJAM, FFSJam)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
VISUALS | Did this game have nice graphics, art or design?#193.8243.824
AUDIO | Did this game have great music or sound design?#223.4713.471
Overall#253.4713.471
MOOD | Did this game have atmosphere, or did it make you feel something?#293.5293.529
IDEA | Was this game innovative, or did it use interesting mechanics?#393.2943.294
FUN | Was this game satisfying to play or did it bring you joy?#403.2353.235

Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How long has this Project been going?
I made the Prototype for the LOWREZJAM in August 2017 and have been slowly improving it. I want to make it into a real game with many of the things I wanted it to have.

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Comments

Submitted

Nice little shmup! I think the controls would be better if either the shooting direction is inverted from what it is now, or if the ship didn't move while you held down the shoot button. Also think it would be more satisfying if your bullet moved in a bigger arc and killed multiple enemies. Great work!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks!
I will definitely add an option to toggle if the shot direction is inverted.
Not moving is dangerous, especially since charging takes longer the higher the difficulty.
You can upgrade your "Skill" in the Shop for it to move farther and wider arcs and your "Power" to make it bigger and stronger.

The graphics are very nice and minimalist! The gameplay is fun, but it seems to be freezing up on me every now and then. Like everything will freeze, but when I click I can still see the green line, but nothing happens and I have to refresh. Nice game, though!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks!
Sounds like a bug! Almost everything freezes when a Slider moves in and the Shop is one. Did you ever get to see it (has a plus/minus button) ? Anyway, if the background freezes it's the likely culprit. I'll look into it.

Submitted(+1)

Cool low rez graphics! Glad I checked it out before reading the comments, otherwise that would have ruined the surprising audio. Great mood.

Developer(+1)

Thanks!
Surprising audio? That's a way to call it. :p

Submitted(+1)

This is a nice pixel game and it reminds me of the Space Impact game you can play in an old Nokia phone model. Anyways, I love the overall atmosphere as well as the music, especially the music (since it makes one feel like somewhere somehow there's a story in this game). 

Developer(+1)

Thanks!
I actually made a silly story of Robots vs Re(purposed)-bots and such but decided it was overkill for this game.
You know what they say: "Keep It Simple, Silly".

Submitted(+1)

Yep, that's true. Looking forward to something story-based in the future though (since the title Robots vs Re(purposed)-bots seem interesting) :)

Developer(+1)

I personally liked the idea of a (repurposed) Toaster piloting a Spacecraft.

Submitted(+1)

Yes, that would really be interesting xD

Submitted(+1)

Nice retro look like game!I really love it! 

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

Really fun game! Love the pixel art!

Deleted 6 years ago
Developer (1 edit)

Thanks!
Most of the in-game art came from the Prototype I did for the LOWREZJAM'17 which imposed a 64x64 pixel limit.

HostSubmitted(+1)

Had a cool atmosphere for a low rez jam game, love the home-made sound effects!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks!
I wanted to do everything myself this time, despite being a handicap time-wise (the music got the short-end of the stick).

Submitted(+1)

Plays nicely. Tho i do prefer using keyboard, it feels a bit more responsive. 

have you tried separating movement and shooting directions? Like you aim with wasd, but hold arrow keys in the direction you wish to shoot?

Developer (4 edits)

Thanks!
I can try but isn't it a little much for a "1-button-game" ?
I'm thinking of adding a shoot-in-inverted-direction option though.

Submitted(+1)

Well made! What's up with the sounds - did you record them with your mic ? Funny :)

Developer (3 edits)

Thanks!
Yes, except for the music which was made with MadTracker. I also made some adjustments with Audacity when required.

Jam JudgeSubmitted(+1)

The pixel art style is great! It seemed a bit weird to me that i was traveling into one direction all the time but the enemies came from different directions. I liked the sounds and the atmospheric music, but I feel like maybe having a bit more upbeat music would fit better for this type of game.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks!
The multi-directions were implemented very close to the end but the enemies coming from other directions are slower (depending on the difficulty).
I didn't spend much time on the sound effects/music and the space/world ones were short so I stretched them.

Submitted(+1)

Also nice to see another dev who participated in LOWREZJAM  2017, my game from that jam, never went past the jam state.

Submitted(+1)

I like your art style, but maybe it would be better to be able to control your movement with keyboard?

Developer (3 edits) (+1)

Thanks!
You can use the keyboard when the mouse isn't over the window. It's in-game only though so you still use the mouse for the Menu/Sliders.