Well interesting idea! Really enjoyed this title. Would be cool to see it expanded to some funkier shapes!
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Orbital Mayhem's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #248 | 4.026 | 4.026 |
| Overall | #496 | 3.632 | 3.632 |
| Fun | #691 | 3.421 | 3.421 |
| Presentation | #1221 | 3.421 | 3.421 |
Ranked from 38 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Your bullets enter orbit when you shoot them, resulting in a chaotic bullet hell type of experience. In most games, you have full control of your bullets. In this one, however, they quickly become your worst enemy.
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all audio during the game jam
Comments
A really nice idea! I like that you create your own bullet hell with every shot. One thing I think is necessary to add is some feedback on when your projectile hits the statue. Right now, they simply just pass through it and keep going like nothing happened. At first I thought it was bugged or something. Making the bullets disappear after hitting a statue and adding some sort of explosion when they hit would be really helpful. Other than that, it’s a fun little game. Nice work! ;)
Submitted
Procyon VI like the premise, the game play is fun and makes you have to think about what you are doing. I did try just bullet spam, it did not go well!
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Don't Go Boom!I like the premise, the game play is fun and makes you have to think about what you are doing. I did try just bullet spam, it did not go well!
Submitted
Don't Go Boom!The way you can mess yourself up is cool, shooting too much lends to some cool looking visuals. The rockets could be slower, as the area of play doesn't allow the player to react to the projectiles as they would in traditional 2d bullet hells. Variety in targets may have been nice, as well as making said targets more visible to the player. While holding any direction you are able to negate damage. I was able to keep going up and shooting without getting hurt by my bullets. Nice job on the game, clever idea!
Submitted
Tricky Keysgame was really fun. Maybe more variety of gameplay in some way. Make like levels with obstacles, powerups, or something more. Maybe different game modes where other tanks can shoot too, multiplayer? Really cool!
Submitted
Octopus EscapeFun idea! At times I wished the rockets were a little slower, so I could dodge them a little easier. I suppose that is part of the challenge though!
Submitted
Weapon PossessedReally like the concept. I didn't beat the game, it's pretty hard, though I got through a few "downsizes." My main strategy was to just spam spacebar straight up or down while moving to the left or right, since there's not really a cooldown on firing. Resulted in some very pretty rocket patterns :)
Submitted
SproingerI really like the idea, really hard though! I'd have liked it to be alittle more obvious when you hit one, as to begin with I couldn't work out how to actually hit them but was a bit confused as to how I'd got any points. Really liked the graphical style too
Submitted
Balls of a Broken WorldCool unique idea, the missiles not stopping is a fun mechanic and its a nice challenge. Well done!
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Smokey SeasonDamn what a cool idea! Those missiles aren't gonna stop, I keep losing because of that haha. It's challenging and interesting game! I really appreciate the shader and texture of the planet, but the brighter part was a bit too much. Other than that, it's actually fits the theme and I love it
Submitted
Medic RushMy girl and I had a blast XD. It has that "one more time" quality to it.
One note: I found a bug where if you're RIGHT next to a statue when you shoot, sometimes it seems to trigger that "Kill" event 10 times and just jump you instantly to the next level. Not a big deal, the enjoyment of the game was not lost on me. 5 stars.
Submitted
Space Cardet AlphaThis a very cool and interesting idea, forcing you to line up your shots well so you don't create too many bullets for you to dodge. I also really like that there are different planet colors. The targets can be a bit small and hard to see though, especially on the bright side of the white planet. The bullets are a little bit too fast and hard to dodge, but that could just be because I'm not very good at games.
Overall, great job!
Submitted
WASD to MoveVery cool concept. I love the idea of a bullet hell where you're actually creating the patterns. The only problem I have is that the statues seemed to have very small and inconsistent hitboxes. Also, I kinda wish it took more then one hit to die, but thats probably cause I just suck. Good work!
Give mine a look if you have the time :)
Submitted
Restless Wing SyndromeThe idea was very unique. I enjoyed a lot by dying from the bullets I fired :D
The statues were very small and unidentified sometimes. Other than that, the game was very nice. Great Job :)
Submitted
Perfect SpeedIt's a very novel idea. I've not seen gameplay that is centered around orbital trajectories. The closest thing I've come across is probably Geometry Wars 3 or Sonic: Lost World. Great job coming up with that and successfully executing on it.
There is a surprising amount of polish for a jam game here. A clearer feedback cue on bullets hitting the statue would be nice, though. And perhaps if the light source could move a bit over time, that would be nice for the darker sides of the planet, unless that was intended.
The bullet trails were very well done and really sold the orbital component. I like how they result in a gradiated streak and have just a touch of randomness to make them feel less mechanical. I do think that they were the most essential in this game's visual feedback, and they seem to have received dev attention proportional to that. Good call.
If anything was lacking, I suppose the "juice" in the payoff falls a bit short of the rest of the game. If it could convey some gratuity upon hitting statues or clearing a level, that would be great. As it is, it is incredibly polished in most aspects but doesn't feel very rewarding.
In all, a great entry. Though it was just the essential gameplay without further complexity, but each component played its role well. Kept my interest for a little while. Great job!
Cool idea!
Found a fun way to cheese my way to the win screen :p
Submitted
Drunk AdventuresOn one hand, I think the perpendicular movement cheesing technique requires a bit of understanding of orbital behavior & the firing trajectory overall. On the other hand, this alone probably should not allow full-game cheesing.
Perhaps placing a bumper object that can rebound bullets based on collision angle in later levels could help resolve this somewhat. I do think understanding orbital behavior should be the key to player success in this game, though. So to an extent, if the player can figure out how to orient their movement & shot angle from a preferred starting point to cheese, that could itself be the point the game makes. I’d probably increment up to 2-3 bumpers at max if you decide to do this, as any arcade-y difficulty introduced this way would also reduce spotlight on the core identity of the game.
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