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Pirate Software - Game Jam 15

Hosted by Pirate Software · #PirateJam
2,390
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A jam submission

Solar SurviveView game page

Fight the hordes with your menagerie.
Submitted by smukli, etwu — 8 minutes, 9 seconds before the deadline
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Solar Survive's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Playability#2584.0004.000
Cleverness#2824.0004.000
Theme#6533.0003.000
Artistic Style#9703.0003.000

Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • I love the idea of this game! It has a great foundation. It's a very cool interpretation of the theme and is very well executed for the time frame! Constructive criticism: Add a tutorial for how to play the game with prompts in game Add more upgrades in the game

Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes

Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes

Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes

Tell us about your game!
A silent shadow looms...

Vampire Survivors inspired top down shooter with some minion combining alchemy magic-mechanics.

Fight the army of shadows and guide your brave troops with your flag (LMB and RMB)!

If you collect three of the same minion, you'll transmute them to a more powerful version.

wasd MOVE
Left Click MOVE YOUR TEAM
Right Click RECALL YOUR TEAM

Extra Notes
We like the prototype and greatly appreciate​ any feedback! We feel like polishing this and making it into a full game eventually.

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Comments

NinjaL1nkSubmitted35 days ago

This is an interesting take on this type of game. I am not very good a bullet hells so I just kind of found my self hugging the outside wall 90% of the time waiting for my chance to get in and deal the big baddie some damage. The game wasn't too difficult for the most part. Losing minions was very painful but just making a massive circle around everything kind of let me get around that mechanic most of the time.

I enjoyed the art but the sound effects leave a bit to be desired. Nothing felt really good to me and sometimes I didn't even know I was getting hit.

Overall, great job. I could see this turning into something interesting with more polish if you continue to develop it more going forward.

Submitted
Corky's Adventure
Reply
DenjiSubmitted43 days ago

What is not to like about 'vampire survivor' type games!
I really like that all the art was done by you during the jam - especially the player characeter!
SFX are amazing! 😁

One big issue I had is that it was very hard to gather the XP even with upgraded loot range.
Other than that pretty cool.

Submitted
Lumina Noctis
Reply
smukliDeveloper43 days ago(+1)

Thank you for playing! I had so much fun making the SFX too, almost woke up my neighbors with weird shouting in the middle of the night, before I realized what hour it was and continued the next day haha..
Yeah I feel you, didn't really have time to tweak the upgrade-values and it gets bigger too little per-upgrade. I kinda fixed this issue by making the minions able to gather exp for you. Now it's pretty fun to make them run around with the flag to gather any clumps of exp. Of course can't upload the jam entry but we'll make another upload at some point and/or we'll make this into a full game eventually.

Reply
DenjiSubmitted43 days ago(+1)

OHHH!
That fix is so smart!
If you could do it more and focus the progression on your minions that would defenietly make the game stand out even more!

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ToonpolarSubmitted45 days ago(+1)

I really like all the things that you've added to make this different from Vampire Survivors. I was on board with being addicted to the xp and upgrades, but the minions and being to place the flag really added way more complexity and fun. Would love to see what you could do with two more weeks of development! You've got a follow from me!

Submitted
Mix-It Merlin
Reply
smukliDeveloper45 days ago

Really glad to hear it resonated with you! I've gotten so many ideas from playing the game myself afterwards and from the feedback we're getting i'm really feeling like testing more things out with the flag, and flag-adjacent mechanics, and make this into a full game.

Reply
hibernalsoftSubmitted46 days ago(+1)

This was awesome! Gameplay felt very polished, and the upgrades gave the right amount of power increase. I really liked the minion and flag mechanic once I figured it out as well. I loved the art and audio also! Really great submission!

Submitted
My Alchemist's Garden
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ChibiMangoSubmitted46 days ago

I had a lot of fun playing this and ran into the trap of "Okay one more time", definitely quite challenging. It definitely forces you to have to collect minions and XP to level up as you slowly become more and more overwhelmed. Having to be careful about movement to not trap yourself was also difficult.
It took me a bit to understand how best to use the flag mechanic but I think it implemented well as a way to better control the minions.

I think a little more visual design when picking up gems or upgrading minions would be really helpful. I often found I couldn't tell if I had picked up a xp orb or not and the minions merging I didn't fully realise until I was saw they were bigger.

Overall great work!

Submitted
Pest Control in the Crypt
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smukliDeveloper46 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much for the feedback and playing! I'm sad we didn't have time to make any introduction/tutorial for the flag-mechanic. I wanted to add  some more functionality /synergies to it as well but fell short on time. Like maybe obstacles only minions can go through so we can make spaces you have to guide them to go in and they can then maybe open a door from there for you, or gather unreachable loot etc. Also, I found it very fun to guide the minions to their still trapped allies with the flag so they can do the saving. I should make it so that the minions also gather the exp lying around to have more reason to make them dance for you.

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VanitumSubmitted46 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

This is a great take on the vampire survivors formula! The flag mechanic opens up a lot of options, especially when it comes to maneuvering the minions without placing the flag. For example, since the minions are faster that the player, I found myself quickly sending them to free other minions, or moving them behind the character to bodyblock bullets. One quality of life improvement that I would like is being able to recall the flag before placing it with right click. I also think some way to aim the minions while the flag has not been placed would (maybe they could shoot in the direction of the closest enemy). I don't think I played the game was intended way, but I enjoyed it a lot!

PS: I did kill the frog, but it was a pain because other enemies where always on the way, stopping me from getting close. Once I isolated him, he died fast enough. Despawning enemies when the boss spawns would solve that problem, and also put the player's attention on the boss. The big enemies are a bit too bullet spongy.

Submitted
Isokardiomancy
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smukliDeveloper46 days ago

Thank you for playing! After making the game and playing it some myself, I also felt like the minions should auto-aim while player is using the flag! It sounds to me you were using the flag correctly! I'm even thinking of making a shield or something for the character because I took some bullets for my minions in the same way too :D

The recall flag-without placing it sounds clever and the despawning of enemies sounds like a good idea for the bossfight. We tried to make some introduction to it, like spawn in players view with a big effect but the bossfight and the endgame in general is really rushed since time was running out.

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jbug16Submitted47 days ago(+1)

This was a fun game, but super hard! I got all the way to level  15, I think I spent 30 minutes playing lol. I think making it easier would make it more fun. Also, I wasn't sure what the red bar on top meant. Is that the number of enemies? Is it possible to win? If not, is your level what you are wanting to beat each replay? Loved the audio btw.

Overall, awesome game, amazing art! Good job guys!

Submitted
Magic Meatball
Reply
6matkoSubmitted47 days ago(+1)

Really fun game. I absolutely loved the sfx :D The music reminded me of good old flash game times. For my taste it was a little bit too slow. It took some time for me to understand whats happening and what to do with those flags (For future maybe a tutorials for dummies like me?) but once I got the grasp of it everything was clear. I needed some time to understand what my character actually is :D For improvements I would definitely suggest improve the gun model - white outline is a bit annoying. Nothing critical but it would boost game to the next level. Well done.

Submitted
The pawscape
Reply
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