Vectro Wars – MiniLD #58

04-08-2017

In March of 2015 I, together with Thomas Dijnum and Siewart van Wingerden participated in the 58th Mini Ludum Dare game jam. During this weekend long event, we created a game which was inspired by the game Pong (which was the theme of the game jam). During this game jam we created Vectro Wars where you need to defend your planet against incoming asteroids.

The game had two modes, a single player mode where you need to survive a selection of increasingly difficult levels; and a two player mode where you need to survive as long as possible by reflecting asteroids to your opponent while defending your own planet.

The main mechanic of the game was that incoming asteroids had to be bounced a certain amount of times before they would break apart and disappear. The asteroids are attracted by the planet’s gravity and would loop back after being deflected.  By deflecting the asteroid closer to the edge of your deflection field, the asteroid would angle away from the panel. Allowing you to control where the asteroid would roughly land later.

Due to our team having three members, a lot of time could be spent on the look and feel of the game. We chose a very vector-like aesthetic, as the game was also based on the old asteroid arcade games which featured a vector based screen. To make the game more visceral we added chromatic aberration vibrations to the screen when hit, to make sure that the player would know when he or his opponent was hit. Screen refresh waves, CRT-like curvature and lots of noise were added to give the player the idea that he/she was playing the game on a very old arcade machine.

Later on the game also featured upgrades which would double the amount of paddles, change the width of the paddle or change its speed.

The game can be played on its Ludum Dare page here. The game was well received and even got featured in a video on youtube which you can enjoy below!