Horizontal scrolling space shooter.\nThe player controls a ship, the Death’s Hand, and defends against waves of enemy Skulls.\nThe player gains powerups overtime: The shield gets stronger and the ships becomes more manoeuvrable.\nCONTROLS\nStart: ENTER\nMove: Arrow keys ←↑↓→\nFire: SPACEBAR (hold to auto-fire)
\n","source":"nickwatton/js13k_2022_DeathsHand","stars":3,"comments":[{"at":315807390,"author":"Thiago Romão Barcala","login":"thiagorb","gh":821208,"text":"The graphics are very cool. The game mechanics need some polishing, cause you can barely miss a single shot already from the first level, otherwise you die.
\n","games":["Death Tournament"]},{"at":315877219,"author":"John Edvard","login":"johnedvard","gh":656024,"url":"https://reitgames.com","twitter":"ReitGames","text":"Love the effects, especially the “space travel”.\nThe game is really difficult since we need to kill the skulls in the right order. It becomes more of a puzzle game instead of a shooter because the rate of fire increases when the enemies are close, so I feel my position is more important than my accuracy. Maybe that’s the intention, but thought I’d mention it.
\n","games":["Hang by a thread"]},{"at":316157080,"author":"João Lopes","login":"lopis","gh":2715751,"url":"www.jlopes.dev","text":"The game looks amazing, albeit a bit small. Perhaps the game could scale up to the size of my window?\nThe controls are smooth, but a little slow at start. It’s hard to shoot them all with such a slow gun dammit!\nI understand things start to move faster, but still felt like it hurts engagement.
\n","games":["Planet B"]},{"at":316171764,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"I liked the graphics, and especially the glow effect.
\nThe controls were nice and easy to pick up.
\nThe warp animation was good.
\nI found myself flying close to the approaching skulls as it increased my speed of firing. Perhaps firing faster would be good.
\nPerhaps some sound would be a good addition.
\n","games":["Bee Kind"]},{"at":316176561,"author":"Ryan Tyler","login":"tyler6699","gh":50468,"url":"https://carelesslabs.co.uk","text":"Nice graphics, simple but fun gameplay.
\nIn between levels has a nice effect.
\nHammering space bar is a bit of a pain.
\n","games":["Soul Jumper"]},{"typ":2,"at":316291074,"author":"Clément Pasteau","login":"ClementPasteau","gh":4895034,"twitter":"ClementPasteau","text":"Nice one!
\nSprites and animations are really well made.\nToo bad there’s no sound effect at all, that would add so much charm to the game!
\nI think it’s a great idea to always keep the controls and instructions on the screen, it keeps the player hooked if they failed, as they re-read them and want to try again.
\nHard game! I got stuck really early not understanding in which order I needed to destroy them.\nMaybe i’d suggest having a few easier levels to start with? Then the player can understand the mechanics slowly
\n"},{"at":317032627,"author":"Harry Cummings","login":"hgcummings","gh":1159423,"url":"http://tinear.games","twitter":"hgcummings","text":"A neat implementation of a simple scrolling shooter. I liked the art style (especially the ship sprite), and it’s a solid basis for a more fully fleshed out game.
\n","games":["kill -9"]},{"at":317095687,"author":"Jerome Lecomte","login":"herebefrogs","gh":1383818,"url":"herebefrogs.com","text":"The simple set of rules makes this an addictive game! Knowing when to use the shield as a weapon to clear runaway skulls is key! Would love some audio to go with the action.
\n","games":["Stand By Me"]},{"typ":2,"at":317189459,"author":"Matt Hackett","login":"richtaur","gh":24601,"url":"https://valadria.com","twitter":"richtaur","text":"Very playable! Begs for sound effects, especially shooting and destroying skulls. The skulls felt a little out of place in space, but they do bring some death theme into the game. Overall good job.
\n"},{"typ":2,"at":317316388,"author":"Michelle Duke","login":"mishmanners","gh":36594527,"url":"mishmanners.info","twitter":"MishManners","text":"Fun graphics, the rocket is very cool! The tutorial screen at the start of the game is well thought out and very informative.
\nIntuitive controls - would be great to have the WASD keys available. I didn’t realise that you can ram into the skulls (I probably should have read that part a little better!) but it also doesn’t say anywhere that you can’t let the skulls touch the barrier. I guess it does make sense once you figure out you can ram into them. At first go it looks like you just avoid the skulls but I died cause they hit the end!
\nThe animation when you complete the level is great! Love watching the rocket fly off the screen. The narrative throughout the game is fun and fits nicely with the theme. Would be a nice touch to add some music and sound effects to make the player feel a little more immersed.
\nIt’s a bit annoying that when you die however that you go allllll the way back to level 1. I thought it would have just been a restart of that level. I think adding this in would keep players interested and motivated rather than getting thrown back to the start. But this may have been part of your plan.
\nThe dynamics are very smooth and well thought out. Would be good to be able to scale up the window of the game as it’s rather small.
\n"}],"results":{"theme":{"rank":120,"min":1.05,"score":2.14,"max":4.5},"innovation":{"rank":136,"min":1.19,"score":1.71,"max":4.11},"gameplay":{"rank":104,"min":1.09,"score":2.29,"max":4.33},"graphics":{"rank":79,"min":1.62,"score":3.05,"max":4.7},"audio":{"rank":128,"min":1,"score":1.1,"max":4.43},"controls":{"rank":110,"min":1.05,"score":2.33,"max":4.33},"primary":{"rank":125,"min":7.53,"score":12.62,"max":25.2},"label":"Overall"}}