Öboron - Planet Defense [Updated Feb 25]

[Fourex]

I've been working on a little project lately, which I have given the title of "Öboron", and I want to expand into a semi-full game. The current version is closely based on something I did with Scratch a whiiiile back. (Scratch is another "game engine" but it uses drag-able blocks, instead of code. It was really great for learning the basics of how programing works, but it's very limited. I learned a LOT though.) It was by far the best game I had made at the time, and I want to take it even further. What I've got right now is very basic, but it will definitely give you an idea of what this game is about. It only uses Löve's built in graphics functions, and graphics will probably be one of the last things I do. I want to mainly focus on game play.

So, anyways, here's a little info on the game:
You control the "Hammer" (you'll see what it is when you play) and you swing it around to defend your home planet, Öboron, from incoming asteroids. More enemies will come in the future. Right now, the game never ends, which will be changes once I decide on the number of lives. This is meant to be a "highscore" game, where each play is pretty short, and you keep working to improve your score.

And on the stuff in the top left corner:
asteroids: Counts the number of asteroids being simulated
Lives: Decreased when your planet it hit. At zero, its game over.
score: Asteroids you have destroyed
level timer: Counter (to seven) timing the increase of the level number
level: This number is used when spawning asteroids. Every frame a number, 1-1000 is randomly picked, and if it is at or below the level number, an asteroid will be spawned in a random location slightly off screen.
FPS: Frames per second

If you would be so kind, play the game, and give some feedback. I've got a few questions I'd really like answered:
-How is the "feel" of the Hammer? Is it too sensitive, or too slow?
-Would you like any change in the pacing of the game? Should the difficulty slowly increase, or should it be quick and hard?
-What power-ups or upgrades (or maybe even little buildings on the planet) would you like to see?
-What other enemy types would you like? I'm definitely going to have some sort of alien.
-How many lives should there be?
-Any other suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated!


The current version, and all previous versions are available here:
Öberon Index

[TechnoCat]

Pretty cool, but I recommend distributing it as a straight up .love rather than a zip with a folder in it.

I feel like the mouse cursor should be skinned.

[Fourex]

It doesn't unzip to a .love file?
Ah, I didn't even think about the mouse. I'll add it to my list.

[TechnoCat]

It unzips to a folder with .love at the end of it.

I assume you are using OSX.

[Fourex]

Yes, I am. But it should be fixed now! Will you be my honorary file tester?

[TechnoCat]

It works now. Thanks.

[Robin]

Nice. The hammer works well, and is quite fun to control. However, starting level 18, there are so many astroids it is impossible to fend them all off -- the hammer does not work well with high speeds.

[Fourex]

Yes, the difficulty curve does get pretty steep right around there. Maybe I could use a timer for spawning asteroids, so I can control the speed more, rather than leaving it up to chance.

[steventrouble]

Wow, that's actually pretty nice! It's smooth, and it's pretty good looking too, so far. I think that there should be a max speed on the hammer, though... I was able to move my mouse in circles until it went off the screen...

But, yeah. Add some really nice art and some upgrades and you'll have a pretty bloody awesome game!

Remind me of tetraform...

[Fourex]

That's all part of getting good at controlling the hammer. What upgrades do you think would be good? I'm pretty open to ideas at the moment.
Yeah, it is sorta like tetraform...