zipzap

Luluna's picture
zipzap.png
Game File: 

Zip file contains a .mfa file that can only be opened with MMF2/TGF2. So don't waste your time downloading it unless you happen to have either of them installed. Sorry about that. :/ It was supposed to build a flash version of the game but that came out buggy and unplayable, so. Yeah. Wasted so much time on this... Argh.
But if at least one person plays it and enjoys it even a little, it'd be worth it.
Too frustrated/hungry/tired to write a description right now.

So, thanks to ExciteMike, it's now available in a convenient .exe format.
Yay.

Just a simple, tiny, very hard shoot em up. You control this space squid thing (that totally doesn't look like a space squid) and climb around while shooting robots and space jellyfish (definitely doesn't look like jellyfish.). There's no ending or anything, it goes on forever. Well, in theory, at least. It becomes pretty much humanly impossible at around level 20 or so.

Sound effects by Effbee. Thanks! Saved me a lot of time.
Also very briefly uses a font made by Anna Anthropy/Dessgeega.

Made For: 
An event

Comments

ExciteMike's picture

This is really cool! I made

This is really cool! I made an exe if you want to replace the existing zip so that everyone can play it.

AttachmentSize
zipzap.zip1.29 MB
Luluna's picture

Thank you! I really

Thank you! I really appreciate it.

Danni's picture

Neat! The diamond spawns

Neat! The diamond spawns could use some tweaking though (it once spawned the diamond all the way at the bottom where all the enemies spawn), and the bomber enemies seem a bit overpowered (I was surrounded by enemies and couldn't really find a way to get out). After playing DKC2, jumping between ladders in this feels a bit strange since you basically skip a whole column, though I think it's for better because otherwise the firing direction wouldn't be really consistent.

Luluna's picture

Thanks !There are a lot of

Thanks !
There are a lot of things that could use some tweaking, especially the enemy spawning code. I was originally planning to design the levels manually, but I didn't have enough time for that as the engine took way way longer to get working than I had thought it would. (Thanks to random bugs popping up that had nothing to do with my 'code' but shenanigans with the program itself. Like when one of the enemies would glitch out and spawn at the wrong position because of their colour, of all things. Made them pink and then *poof*, it just magically stopped glitching out. Wth? :| I'm so done with this program.) So yeah, the game becomes a bit of an unplayable mess after level 5 or so. For some reason I saved the enemy spawning system for last, so I had to just hack something together at the very last minute. Not the smartest thing, in hindsight. >__>;
Ah, that ladder hopping movement actually started out as a bug at first, but I decided to keep it as I thought it felt kind of neat once you got the hang of it. That and I'm a huge fan of eccentric and clumsy control schemes. (Like in Grumper!) Funny that you'd mention DKC2, as that was one of the inspirations for the game. Well, the movement engine at least.

EDIT; Sorry for rambling on like that.

Quite lovely

I like this, it feels real. The sprites are all adorable and the sounds are goofy and fun. I agree about the column jumping but I don't see a way around it without making shooting really annoying. So I guess I Don't Care about the skipping of a column, it must come down to Tactics.

sergiocornaga's picture

Awesome game! Really

Awesome game! Really enjoyable and weirdly familiar. I got as far as level 5 before realising I could use bombs. Then I died.

Luluna's picture

Thank you ! To be honest it

Thank you ! To be honest it felt weirdly familiar to me as well. Hope I didn't accidentally rip something off, heh. :p

Aye. Those bombs have a nasty habit of working against you, instead of helping you. Should only be used when you are surrounded or to put out fires before they eat up an entire ladder.

sergiocornaga's picture

I figured out what this was

I figured out what this was reminding me of... .trac, by hugs! Not all that similar, but it shouldn't be hard to see why I thought of it.

P.S. FIG'd!

Noyb's picture

This is really fun and feels

This is really fun and feels like an undiscovered classic arcade game. Nicely done!

Feature: on level 1, it's possible to blow up all of the ladder bottoms, leaving you with no way to earn score. No one in their right mind would actually *do* that, so it's kinda cool that the game lets you screw yourself over so badly.

Noyb's picture

Recorded a video up to level

Recorded a video up to level 7: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhfRiC3s4Mg

Luluna's picture

Thanks ! Glad you enjoyed

Thanks ! Glad you enjoyed it. Was afraid it would just be frustrating to play.
Heh. Funny that you'd call it a feature, rather than the bug/design flaw that it is. For some reason that didn't cross my mind at all. ^^;