Anyone played this before?

General Discussions
#1

Not really Java related, but has anyone played Luftrauser before?: http://not.vlambeer.com/luftrauser/

One of the most addicting little indie games that I’ve played for a while. Appears to be coming to Steam soon too. I think the design of the game is quite interesting from a developer’s point of view; very ‘minimalist’ in design and yet still engaging. It’s also a slightly different spin on the shmup genre. Very clever indeed!

PS. One of those games that makes you go “Why didn’t I think of this!?!?”.

#2

Wow. That was fun.

I might have a go at remaking that…

#3

I like it! I can’t seem to take out any of the ships, though. Best score so far a measly 640.

#4

Fun idea but I can´t get over how annoying the controls are: A, W, D and X. It´s so cramped it makes me go “ooooaaaaAARRRGH”! And then I crash and die. :slight_smile:

#5

Have you tried the arrow keys? :point:

#6

There’s some funny stories on the internet behind this Vlambeer chap/mob having their games remade (well, not funny in the literal sense). They’ve twice had their games cloned by others, and unfortunately the clone has hit the market first. Apart from the obvious consequences, they were then accused of being the ‘cloners’. (I’m not implying you’d do that Heroes; just seemed an appropriate time to bring it up).

Those ships are nasty, eh? They’re always my downfall. I managed to take out a couple of the smaller ones yesterday, which was a first for me. No idea if or how you can take out the larger ships. Looking at the online high-scores yesterday, some freaks have scores in excess of 2mil… Don’t know if they are legitimate or not, but it’s a helluva feat.

#7

It is possible to take out the ships, but I literally had to give it all I’ve got. The game is pretty fun and addicting if you are trying to kill certain things. I also like the fact you can trick the planes into crashing into the ocean and get the points. I managed to take out one ship before all those planes homed in on me. I also keep wondering why this ship wasn’t armed with bombs :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway, that score above is my own highest score. Thanks for sharing this gem :slight_smile:

#8

Ah, so that’s how I’ve heard of Vlambeer before. I must’ve read about that a while ago.

If I did, of course I’d make it different enough to not be a ‘clone’, and/or give credit for the inspiration.

#9

The arrow keys aren’t working for me… Strange.

#10

this game is pretty awesome, this is about as good as i’m going to get:

#11

I like the idea about using the water!

I let the plane kind of bounce along in the water, shooting at passing planes. When the boats turn up, I found I can shoot directly at them while lying in the water, shooting horizontally. Just knocked out 5 boats! My high score is now 920.

I couldn’t get the knack of shooting at them from above though. Hard to turn in time so as not collide with them!

That music is pretty raw.

#12

Where did 3 hours of my life just go…? That 1750 score took so long…

#13

Okay… enough enough, I have to get back to programming again. Forget the competitive gamer inside of me… >:(

#14

@ctomni231 – Impressive high score! Mine is now 1690. I finally got a couple of those big ships, and I can now shoot at ships and boats while descending without (usually) crashing into them. The bouncing on water strategy did not take me very far. Very addictive. What makes it so?

My guesses: you can see the death coming (and say dah!), and it is easy to restart. Also there is a feeling of accomplishment while learning to use the controls, figuring out angles for most accurate shooting. I think there is also a big luck element which leads to wildly varying scores, and the occasional high scores are real goads.

A couple annoyances: I will legitimately knock out a boat or two and it won’t end up in the score. Don’t know what that is about.

Am starting to like the music a lot more. Will probably hear that stomping beat in my dreams tonight.

#15

Some good points there philfrei. I think the quick-play nature of the game is important. You can easily slip in a couple of runs between tasks; you don’t need to devote lots of time to it, as you would an RPG, RTS or similar. It’s an ideal game for when you are procrastinating.

I think the game mechanics are also addictive. I can’t quite describe it, but it confers a feeling of ‘awesomeness’. For those 3 or so minutes that you are alive, you feel like the best 2D dogfighter on the planet.

The music really strikes a chord with me too. I like the slow ‘chugging’ sound, and it is good in its own right, however it reminds me of the Hell March theme from the original Red Alert (here if you haven’t heard it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-gI_pFog0). As such, I think it’s digging in to some latent memories of my earlier gaming years. I don’t know if this was intended, or an emergent effect, but it works for me.