Your core is under attack!

Protect it as long as possible in this strategic turn-based action game

Different-colored energy orbs are being fired at your core in an ever-increasing onslaught. Luckily, the orbs only move after you do. Move your core or rotate your shields to avoid danger and protect your core for as long as you can.

A colored orb can be blocked by the same colored shield, but beware! A mismatch of colors will result in your shield taking damage. Two hits will destroy it, leaving your core exposed on that side.

Nevertheless, the best defense is a good offense. Gain points by blocking orbs with the matching shield. The longer you survive, the more points you get. Shoot for a high score!

Controls

WASD to move

Q and E to rotate left and right

Developer's Note

I developed Colorguard while participating in my first game jam, the 72-hour MiniJam. The theme of the Jam was "colors", which got me thinking about ways to use different colors as a core mechanic of the game. Before the jam's limitation had been announced, I had a concept figured out; I just had to hope that the limitation wouldn't cause too many issues with my ideas. I was in luck, as the limitation was revealed to be regarding animation, an area that I tend to focus less on. The limitation was that "no animation could have more than two frames." Friday afternoon I got to work.

My original idea was actually for a more fast-paced bullet-hell-type game where you have 360 degree control of the player and have to avoid and block projectiles in real time. No sooner had I gotten a player character moving around that I began feeling like this game had more potential with a more deliberate turn-based style. So, I quickly switched directions.

Although I originally wasn't concerned about it, the limitation did prove to be, well, limiting. It's hard to make certain actions and events that occur in the game look good, let alone possible, without being able to animate several frames. Still, I count myself lucky; animations were far from essential for this particular game.

As you might expect, I ended up working the most on the last day, Sunday. By then, I had almost all the mechanics and most of the audio fleshed out. I had even fixed the major bugs the night before, leaving the game in a solid state. Nevertheless, a game isn't really a game until it has some kind of a menu system, and a little polish goes a long way. I found myself tinkering a lot throughout the day; if I had had less time, I would have forced myself to leave certain aspects of the game's frontend in a state I wasn't happy with. I still think I could have done better on the walls and orb spawners, but I had been working all day and was starting to get a little burned out.

As with any game jam game, there's more I would have liked to implement. More interesting score multipliers, a special attack, healing orbs, you name it. But that's the beauty of the game jam: it forces you to focus on the core mechanics and ship a minimum viable product. I could still add these things into the game of course, but I likely won't. There are so many other games out there, just waiting to be made! But first, I think I'm gonna take a well-earned break.

If you've made it this far, then I'd like to thank you for reading my first little devlog. I have dabbled in video game development off and on for over a decade, yet this is the first time I followed a project to completion. So, thanks again for checking out my first real game!

-NewShamu

Tools Used

Godot, Aseprite, Audacity, and lots of tea!

Credits

All design, programming, and art were done by me. All music, sound effects, and fonts were found on OpenGameArt.org and 1001fonts.com.

In particular, a hearty "thank you!" goes to all those who uploaded their own hard work for others to enjoy free-of-charge.

Audio:

• wobblebox.com
• Liujiajun
• ahratmihmet - http://soundcloud.com/rezoner
• DST
• Brandon Morris
• TinyWorlds
• DamagedPanda

Fonts:

• gomarice
• Raymond Larabie