Spaceships (Reverse Asteroid)

(spaceships.treybastian.com)

291 points | by zdw 4 days ago

23 comments

  • zargon 8 hours ago
    Fun for about 5 minutes but screeches to a halt when ships start to teleport. Only takes a few minutes to be able to get to wave 12 and then there's no progress after that.
  • dgently7 11 hours ago
    unlike regular asteroids where you can keep track of your ship bc you only have to follow one object around the screen and you control it it seems like the hardest part of this game is finding the ships. esp. when they star to be multiple shapes. it would lightly break the vibe but making the ships a different color would help a lot.
    • Sniffnoy 4 hours ago
      It's especially bad that they can hide behind the UI sometimes...
    • SillyUsername 6 hours ago
      I preferred it without colour, half of the fun is finding the ships, like a where's wally/waldo
      • throwawayffffas 2 hours ago
        At least one of the ships is shaped very close to the smallest asteroids making it very hard to track.
    • blueaquilae 7 hours ago
      Second that. Colors is a requirement. Yet I loved the concept.
  • putna 3 hours ago
    https://www.npmjs.com/package/@harvis/asteroids

    for those who want to have easter egg on their pet projects with konami cheat code

  • fercircularbuf 11 hours ago
    Nice. This makes me want to play a number of games as the bad guy.
    • RobotToaster 17 minutes ago
      In board games there's "kill doctor lucky" which is reverse cluedo/clue.
    • appplication 9 hours ago
      Space invaders but you’re the invaders would be fun. And I have to assume it’s already been done.

      On a different note, Rampage was a great game where you’re the bad guy. I had a blast playing this as a kid.

      • Steve16384 3 hours ago
        I created a reverse Space Invaders a few months ago, but I struggled to get it to be a fun game as you just move left and right avoiding the players bullets. (I'd post a gif, but it looks exactly like Space Invaders to watch).
      • invader 6 hours ago
        Yes, like Destroy All Humans, Alien Hominid... Not arcades, though.
    • fainpul 5 hours ago
    • thih9 7 hours ago
      You likely know this but in case not: Dungeon Keeper series.
    • dguest 5 hours ago
      Sim City: you're the disasters.
      • dguest 3 hours ago
        Sim City was already a "you are the bad guys" game!

        The creator of Sim City was working on a game called Raid on Bungeling Bay" [1] where your job was to bomb a fully functional civilization into the stone age. He had so much fun developing the civilization that he decided to make a game of it.

        So maybe we just need a "Raid on Bungling Bay Redux: Massacre of The Sims".

        [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Bungeling_Bay

        • philipallstar 9 minutes ago
          > Creative Computing in 1984 said that the game "push[es] the animation capabilities of the Commodore 64 to their very limits". The magazine concluded that it would become "one of the all-time great computer games".

          Gaming journalism didn't only recently become ridiculous, it turns out.

    • latexr 2 hours ago
      I second (from another comment) the suggestion for CARRION. Think of it like those 80’s movies where an amorphous creature is captured/created and stuck in a lab. You play as the creature, trying to get out.

      https://store.steampowered.com/app/953490/CARRION/

      Also, not exactly playing as the bad guy but Enemy Mind is a fun tangential concept where instead of having your own ammo and life, you’re constantly possessing enemy ships and using their resources, before discarding them for the next one.

      https://store.steampowered.com/app/285840/Enemy_Mind/

      Coincidentally it’s now with 60% discount and it’s worth it at that price. If I recall (it’s been many years since I played it) the game was short and didn’t have a lot going for it outside the gimmick.

    • dgently7 11 hours ago
      agree there are probably a bunch that would be fun. packman, play as a ghost and need to multi task to get all the ghosts in a spot to trap pacman

      donkey kong, play as donkey and try to time barrel throws to hit mario

      galaga, play as the fleet, control left right of the whole fleet and have the 3-4 different "attacks" you could send out.

      • razorbeamz 6 hours ago
        Nintendo and Namco made a multiplayer Pac-Man for GameCube where three players play as ghosts on Game Boy Advances and can see the whole map, while one player plays as Pac-Man with a limited view.
    • pmontra 8 hours ago
      The Wizard of Yendor.
      • fho 7 hours ago
        Rogue Like Celebration is _now_. Great video coverage on YouTube
    • itomato 11 hours ago
      Mr. Don’t? “Centimpede”
  • ricardobeat 3 hours ago
    May I suggest removing/rephrashing the "you are not the ship" subtitle. It's obvious AI "this button is not red" phrasing that cheapens it a bit.
    • vtemp009 3 hours ago
      "Are you not Asleep?" is the one question AI cannot answer
  • IvanLudvig 3 hours ago
    I made a planet-defending game back in 2018. Didn't realize that it actually mimicks Asteroid

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.ivanludvig....

    • esperent 1 hour ago
      One of the most frustrating things about mobile gaming is that you can't just release a game, you have to commit to keeping it updated for the rest of your life or else accept that in 2-3 years nobody will be able to play it.
  • nnevatie 2 hours ago
    Since not all asteroids are pulled to the gravity simultaneously, some kind of background starfield could make it clearer that the camera/viewport is moving.
  • daitangio 2 hours ago
    Very fun! I sucks playing asteroids, here I am an Ace!
  • Sniffnoy 4 hours ago
    So I got a really high score before I signed in, only signed in afterwards, and now, even though my high score displays on the "best wave" display for me, it's nowhere on the global high score board. I'm just going to have to, like, get it again somehow?? That's annoying.
  • p2detar 6 hours ago
    Neat game! I managed to get to level 11 but got beat up.

    There can be a set of really cool things one can do with Asteroids. Some years ago I made a game which is a mix of Asteroids+Bomberman+Pacman.

    https://kenamick.itch.io/spaceghost-cga

  • Vishal_Max 4 hours ago
    The game is pretty confusing i still do not understand how to play this the right way a guide there would make it good.
  • Morromist 10 hours ago
    Its a fun game! The only thing I would add is the ability to see the players cry and lose their quarters after you smash their ship.
  • RugnirViking 2 hours ago
    game is sideways on my portrait monitor!
  • Sniffnoy 5 hours ago
    The controls/rules are pretty unclear. This thing could use a controls/rules option.
  • tommica 6 hours ago
    Oh this is a fun game! Just keep moving the asteroids non-stop, that way you can catch them when they spawn
  • astero1dz 9 hours ago
    Here's another great interpretation of "reverse Asteroids" from the JS13K comp in 2015: https://js13kgames.com/games/behind-asteroids-the-dark-side (Hi greweb!)
  • jasonjmcghee 11 hours ago
    Fun twist on the game!

    I didn't play for too long, but I just clicked between the ship and asteroids and near-instantly destroyed it, quickly passing the waves I played.

    Is there difficulty ramp later on?

    • baruz 11 hours ago
      The number of ships increases, and then the speed, and then the accuracy with which they fire. The gravity generator seems slower to recharge, and the asteroids are slower to generate, or that may be subjective.
      • baruz 7 hours ago
        Different ships that can survive and bounce on slower or glancing hits, shields, more maneuverable saucer ships. Wave fifteen the ships reload and fire really rapidly, decimated a crowded field in seconds.
      • baruz 11 hours ago
        Around wave ten, I think the ships can teleport.
    • Brian_K_White 11 hours ago
      yes
  • dimond 6 hours ago
    Great Game! I think we'd all have an easier time with color added, which is why this game is challenging in a good way. Side-note: I beat 9th place globally! Let's go.
  • linsomniac 11 hours ago
    I did a "Asteroid as an FPS" a couple months ago, play it here: https://linsomniac.github.io/roidbelt/
    • keyle 10 hours ago
      The silly part is that you end up just looking at the radar and playing regular Asteroid anyway
    • BobbyTables2 10 hours ago
      That’s really cool! Neat cross of the old tank game with the wireframe graphics and asteroids!
      • vibrio 10 hours ago
        Batttlezone was the tank game.
        • senectus1 9 hours ago
          man, I loved that game.
    • natnatenathan 11 hours ago
      it's beautiful, well done!
  • Founderarcstone 8 hours ago
    Really awesome this makes me want to play old school games
  • jmspring 11 hours ago
    Nicely done. Took a minute to figure out.
  • andsoitis 11 hours ago
    Feature request: support LRUD.
  • senectus1 9 hours ago
    oh i really like this idea. very cool