5 Second Clone

[Dream Of Sleeping]

My Ludum Dare entry was 10 second clone. I was pretty pleased with it, but the gameplay was flawed. It was too easy to get multiple kills by just hammering on the space bar not moving. But hopefully I've fixed that with some small changes.

 

For those that don't know (most of you probably) the game is a shoot em up where every 5 seconds you are cloned, and that clone will act out your movements on a loop. You have to stop them reaching the bottom of the screen or killing you.

 

link to play http://www.dreamofsleeping.co.uk/games/fivesecondclone/

 

What I plan to add

 

More sound effects. Especially for when you die or get shot. A start screen, And hopefully marginally better graphics. A few more bars of music before it loops. Maybe have the clones dance to it at the end.

 

What I would love feedback on

 

The gameplay.  Is it frustrating, fun, boring, slightly entertaining. You can be honest, I won't cry about it. Do you like the simplicity or would you prefer random powerups.

How can I improve the Artwork it?  Just how bad is it? What can I add to the background to make it more intresting. Why does the road look wrong, how can I make it better?

 

[Qqwy]

Hmm... interesting concept, although it does get repetitive quite quickly of course.

It is very funny how easy it is to screw your future self over by shooting rapidly.

I would say: Go for the power ups. Some way to permanently clear some of the clones would be great, for instance.

 

About the artwork: It is better than most stuff I can manage ^_^' .

As to create nice-looking grass, here is a small tutorial I found helpful myself: http://www.tutorialwiz.com/grass_texture/.  As for the road: I think it's a matter of perspective. The road is right now top-down, and the player and the clones are from a 1/2 down point of view. Try moving up the middle lines of the road a little and see if that gives it more depth.

 

Anything else... Oh yeah, I think you have a great instruction screen! .

[Dream Of Sleeping]

Thanks for the feedback. That was very helpful. At the moment you can permanently clear a clone by shooting it three times. I need a way to indicate that to the player when that happens. Because wherever there is a space a new clone appears, so it might not be obvious to the player that they have cleared any at all. I thought about having a little ghost floating up on the 3rd kill. But then I would need to change the Score to actually say score rather than Kills, which probably won't make much of a difference.