The Idea

This game was made for the GDFG game jam with the focus of replayability. I took inspiration from some old arcade games. Primarily one called Defender that I used to play on my GameBoy Advanced, but was originally an arcade cabinet

In the game you basically go around shooting aliens while trying to save some little dudes on the ground. With limited time, I was only able to accomplish the shooty bits though.

I wonder "what makes a game replayable?" For this type of game, I thought it the focus should be really quick combat with tight controls, so that when people lose they feel motivated to just jump right back in. The score is a big factor in that; people will want to beat their previous score. It was essential that I at least include a global score board or else people wouldn't care about competing with others.

Naturally I ran out of time and didn't include that feature >_<

To keep the game interesting, I used three different enemy types.

1) A little fella that is slow but come in large numbers

2) A slightly bigger dude that's faster and can take a few hits

3) A Big Boi Monster Cannon that shoots bullets as big as your face, but is very limited in it's mobility.

LIMITATIONS!

Just by the nature of the time restriction, there is a lot that was left on the chopping floor. Some of that is probably for the best, but I'll list some stuff anyways.

Screen shake - I was hesitant to include this since the controls are based on the mouse to screen position

Levels - initially I was going to include a tutorial obstacle course, changing stages, and boss battles

A planet level - I had the idea to get to end of the level when you reach a new planet and then doing  a mini game where you drill for oil before the next level

Power ups - I really wanted to include a shot gun, missiles, and machine gun for gameplay variety

More enemy types - Had to cut slow tankie enemies and a boss  ;-;

CONCLUSION
A short jam and a proof of concept later, I think this actually turned out ok. I'm pretty happy with the pixel filter and colors, I'm grateful that Kenney's assets are so nice, and I'm pretty happy with how the space ship controls.

Make sure to play now! They are super quick rounds!