node.js ko
Gemini Command
Gemini Command
by The Indecisives
What it is…
An html5 + websockets multiplayer game. Two opposing sides battle against each other for fame and glory. Be sure to click the “Get Briefed” and “For Honor” links on the left of the page. Our credits and story line are there. Watch Screencast or Play Game
Technical note: “rooms” are automatically spawned at 10-player increments. We weren’t sure what the load would be like and figured 10 players provided enough hectic gameplay to be fun without creating unnecessary lag.
In memory of our fallen breathren…
Once a peaceful alliance of botanical species the spores must now fight to defend their homeworld from the invaders.
Let future generations hark our words…
The Invaders are a scavenging specials, desperate for resources; traversing the galaxy, searching for resources necessary to fuel their continued survival.
Judging Instructions
Controls
- Press “J” to join
- Press “ENTER” to fire
- Press “W” to move counter-clockwise
- Press “S” to move clockwise
- Press “A” to aim counter-clockwise
- Press “D” to aim clockwise
Recommended Browser
Google Chrome (Mozilla Firefox had spotty websockets support in our testing. It might work but not recommended.)
NOTE: audio support is provided by Flash (only optionally with HTML5 audio) – please disable any Flash blockers if you would like sound.
ANOTHER NOTE: if nobody is online and you’d like a better feel for the game you can open a second tab and play vs. yourself! :)
Who
danielleswank — Chattanooga, TN
jimfleming — Chattanooga, TN
How
On the shoulders of giants…
Node Modules and Client-side Scripts
Web Font
Image Assets
- Logo
- Explosion
- Planet
- Porthole
- Background composite (layer 1)
- Background composite (layer 2)
- Stick figure
- Europa
- Europa 2
- Ganymede
- Callisto
Audio Assets
Votes
Your Vote
Voting is now closed.
Other Votes
(46)
geradjudge
cruciallyjudge
mattcshorejudgesonnyg95
contestantVery complete game. I like that controls are integrated with the UI. And definitely a fun game!
ciaran_jjudgeOh boy does this remind me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Wars :) But this is a good thing!
Simple game, well designed site, with addictive gameplay!
Unfortunately sound didn’t work for me (Chrome 13) and it would’ve been cool to have ‘room’ function to play with friends, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
- contestant
Thanks Ciaran. What knocked us down from a 5 on completeness? We even have a favicon. Cheers, Danielle.
- contestant
Thanks. For audio please make sure you don’t have any flash blockers running. Audio is provided by SoundManager2 which will “prefer” flash or use HTML5 audio (which in Chrome I believe needs to be enabled in about:flags). But on my Ubuntu laptop and Danielle’s mac audio worked fine (under Chrome and Firefox).
As a side node there are rooms implemented (though their existence is hidden). We weren’t sure what load would be like so rooms are automatically spawned at 10 player increments. After the competition completes it would be fairly trivial to make those joinable. Good idea though.
- ciaran_jjudge
Strange, couldn’t see a favicon, either way (on my curve) a 4 point was good, I only gave a single 5 for completeness :)
therazorbladejudgeThe design is great! The game itself can use a few more elements to make it fun after the initial few minutes. The controls are hard to use, especially moving in the other direction.
- contestant
I’m sorry you felt that way. The game is designed to have more then one player. We had about 10 on the other morning and it was pretty hilarious running around the circle and shooting at everyone. Also, we wanted the controls to be discoverable, kinda like MIST so they are intentionally a little clunky. Thanks for the design love though. I’m a coder in my day job, so I don’t get a ton of time to work on my design skills.
- therazorbladejudge
Tweaked my review and gave you another innovation star now that I’ve seen everything else.
dapsaysjudgeCool game. My main gripe was that I kept hitting “space” to fire, which scrolled the panel to the bottom of the screen. Also, the “movement” controls didn’t seem to do anything.
zapnapjudgeNicely done. Reminds me why I love classic arcade games. Concept is fun, albeit not super original, and little touches like the physics make it a winner. Attention to detail here in the design is great. You’ve merged the ‘feel’ of old vector games with a polished modern design.
What could be better? Different weapons, some personalization, a way to advance in the game, top score displays, etc. Most importantly, when I first arrived there weren’t any other players, so it was a little confusing. Would be nice if there was a single-player mode as a fallback.
maraksquiresjudgeYou’ve got a lot of good things going, but I feel that you didn’t pull it all together into a unified experience.
I ran into a few minor bugs, the general control and game mechanics were not great, and overall I was confused when trying to play.
I wouldn’t be discouraged, I think your team could produce something really great if you stick to it.
tomngjudgeEnjoyed the attention to detail and visual fit-and-finish. Fun layered effects and vintage aesthetic. Not sure I’d play it repeatedly given the simple, fixed game mechanic, so I’d work making the core game loop more engaging. Would be great to encourage players to develop collaborative strategies, like the best team games. Solid potential there.
lovehasnologic
contestantThere are a handful of other games built this year that are the same premise. However, this one is the most complete, and as a designer, I have to commend you on the design. Love the scrolling “viewport” as if you’re looking out the window of your own attack craft. Kudos on that accord. After a couple minutes the novelty of the game play wears off, but all in all I was really impressed. Good job.
chinacceleratorjudgeThis is pretty well done! Had fun for several rounds, it took us a while to figure how things were working (should have instructions on the site directly). I still have no idea how one can land on the planet though (which is what triggers the game if I’m correct).
Love the small details, physics are working fine. What could we had? more weapons, better playability and leaderboards. Will come back!
davidplusplus
contestantNicely packaged. Had to play with myself, but I could see the potential, good work!
kazuyukitanimura
contestantI just played it by my self, but it would be more fun if I played with someone else. The Design looks nice. My favorite part is the fire curves due to the gravity
burntojudgeLooks like a pretty fun game. When I actually started playing, I didn’t have any opponents, so it was pretty boring. but from the screencast looks like it could be fun.
The controls all work well, the artwork is pretty good, and I really wanted to be able to shoot something and defend my little moon. Maybe some enemies or level structure would be helpful?
This type of game has basically been done before using node.js (see Lazeroids), so I can’t rank it as high on Innovation as I’d like.
slightlylatejudgeBeautiful. Full stop.
Alex_DonnjudgeError: Typing my name in the “name prompt” section causes the game to start.
UI Design Improvement: Question: What does freeflow.io have to do with your app?
- contestant
Alex, Thanks for the completeness score, why the low rank on the design section?
Hitting ENTER causes the game to start. Clicking on the red button next to the name prompt will add your name.
Freeflow is our startup. It’s another node.js project that Jim and I have worked on together. That’s why we grouped it with the contact information.
Cheers, Danielle
- contestant
blush
Jim just pointed out that J joins the game and not ENTER. So names with J don’t work. All I can say is that I needed sleep by the end of the competition.
SuttojudgeA very fun game – No one else was online when I played so I tried against myself – it appeared to work well and was overall a pleasure to use.
In terms of the page content, when viewed on a tall monitor it showed the lower parts of the page. Likewise, the links to the sources didn’t actually appear to work as links.
That said, congratulations on a very nice entry – I enjoyed playing it and was a big fan of the style behind the game.
- contestant
Thanks for the kind words Darcy. How tall is your monitor? I tried to accomodate for the tallest possible size that I could think of, but I guess I was still a bit short.
codepo8judgeSplendid. I liked it very much. New angle on asteroids and the design is beautiful. I also love that you provide a screencast!
jasonmcleod
contestantThe controls were a little weird, maybe there was lag or something. I had to continue to tap ASDW to move my cannon. The masked scrolling stuff was really cool though!
- contestant
Thanks jasonmcleod. The masked scrolling is my favorite part. Jim and I couldn’t stop laughing when we came up with it.
airportyh
contestantVery well done. Unfortunately I didn’t find anyone to shoot at.
- contestant
Thanks Airportyh! I’m really happy with it. If you want to jump on and shoot people, I’ll be on at 12:00 GMT tomorrow. :) Cheers.
dylang
contestantI wish the game mechanics matched the work put into the inspirational graphics and personality.
- contestant
Thanks for the design love. It really means a lot to me. The game should ideally be played with more then one person, so if you want to jump on just let me know. I promise that it’s a lot more fun.
What knocked us down from a 5 on the design and completeness scores? We’ve even got a favicon. :)
ricardrobin
contestant- contestant
Thanks Ricard! I thought Nodecraft was pretty nice too.
stagas
contestantmilani
contestantmustardamus
contestantncb000gt
contestantI love that the moon actually has physical pull on the bullets.
I couldn’t tell if it fully worked as I was the only user, but it seemed to. I also was unaware of the full goal since there wasn’t an opposing side (for me).
Beautiful. Cool sound design. Game play wasn’t that awesome though. I found it hard to control the ship, and kept hitting spacebar to fire, which would annoyingly page me down the screen. The physics of the bullets curving were pretty cool though.