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Chain Reactor's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #7 | 4.368 | 4.368 |
| Overall | #15 | 4.184 | 4.184 |
| Music | #16 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Sound | #30 | 3.842 | 3.842 |
| Aesthetics | #51 | 4.158 | 4.158 |
| Mechanics | #54 | 3.868 | 3.868 |
| Theme | #226 | 3.632 | 3.632 |
| Story | #359 | 2.132 | 2.132 |
Ranked from 38 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio Jsfxr was used to create all original sound effects Feel by More Mountains was used for effects, icons, and foundation of Snake Some particles and sprites derived from "2D Space Kit" on the Unity Asset Store
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Comments
I like your take on Snake. I think this is a very cool implementation of the core idea with a lot of neat power ups and room for the player to improve their skills as they shoot for a high score. Great aesthetics and mechanics all around. Also love any game that plays nice on arcade stick. Perhaps the most clever part of this game is how you implemented the enemies. The spread and approach is dangerous but not overwhelming for this kind of game, which allows the player to spend more time improving. Great job!
Thank you Bear Shaman! Yeah the enemies were a evolving balance to get right. They start off very mild but get more twisted as time goes on. I cut some particularly nasty patterns near the end of the development time to go a little easier on players, I think that was the right call. Thank you for your kind and generous assessment of my game 😊
Really cute and nice game. Adding just left and right controls for movement was a nice touch. It made the game more interesting. Great work.
Thank you Captain, aye aye Captain! Glad you appreciated the controls, that was a tough decision, but ultimately I think it's right for this game too.
This is a really fun game! The controls take a little getting used to, and collecting the little squares can be a bit of a pain without a magnet, but I got really invested. The upgrades were really cool, too. Great job!
Ah, I'm glad I got you invested! I suppose we all wish we could have magnetism all the time, but life just isn't that way. Thanks for playing!
A cool new spin on the classic snake game. Had a lot of fun, but wasn't very good at it (I never was 😂). The music fits perfectly to the scifi-y graphics. Well done!
Thanks Brandt! Glad you had fun :)
Absolutely impressive! Loved the aesthetic and the general concept of merging Snake with bullet hells. It works surprisingly well and it makes for a really fast-paced and addicting experience. Felt unique in a lot of ways and it must have been fun to make too. Well done!
Thank you Anthony! Yeah, it was fun to make. I knew the scope wasn't too out of control this time. I figured that I had to be on the right track when I caught myself not just playtesting code changes but continuing to play the game for itself afterwards and having to make myself stop and get back to work, of course usually forgetting what I was testing for that time and whether it worked or not 😂
That’s when you know you got something good on your hands hehe Hope it ranks well my friend!
Snake meets bullet hell. And it can be catching.
The blend between both concepts works well. Luckily it's more permissive than the real Snake, as self-biting and contact with the enemy ships doesn't game-over.
I liked the synthwave music. I do like synthwave music to start with, and it just fits so well with space and anything coming from the 1980s. And I discovered this jsfxr site, I'll give it a shot someday.
I could run your Windows build flawlessly under Linux and Wine. I was only missing a button to leave the game. I instinctively grabbed my controller when I heard it vibrating, but I ended up playing with Left and Right on my keyboard like with the real Snake.
Are you saving the scores somewhere ? The game communicated with some server ... And I found my high score !
Hey thanks Taz, glad you enjoyed it. And ah yeah cool, thanks also for guinea pig testing it on Linux. I want to stick it on my Steam Deck but haven't had a chance yet. I have the Scores saved in a Google Sheets document.
A very unique game that was quite fun to play.
That's what I like to hear! Thanks for playing, Roger.
i knew id see games that made mine look like shit. but this makes me want to delete mine. awesome graphics, sfx and music all in 10 days. jealous AF.
You'll look back on your early work with nostalgia eventually, don't you ever dare delete it. Keep at it, trust the process, remember the only real competition is with yourself. Thank you for your kind and generous assessment of my game.
Such a well done game overall!
Thank you!
Really nicely done! Great graphics, music sfx and fx. The fact that you even put in high socres etc is a great addition. Nice work for 10 days!
Thanks Collider! It was a busy ten days 😅 I felt that a Leaderboard was an absolute must for this particular game to complete its Arcade hook, I think I built it on Day 5. Glad you enjoyed.
Controls are a bit janky, but it definitely captures the feel of a good old arcade classic! I love the art and sound so much aaaaaa
aaaaaaa thank you Biscotti!
Perfect game.
No other words. What do you want me to say?
Its just perfect.
BTW the retro graphic are so gorgeous.
I'm putting this in the Accolades trailer 😂
This game was absolutely a blast. Genious to combine Snake with a bullet hell kind of game. Pacing was on point and even someone like me was able to get a decent score. I felt like my Nokia had returned in the current times. GG's.
Yo DSG! Great seeing you play this on stream this morning while I had my coffee. So glad you enjoyed it. I have had multiple people tell me about their Nokia snake nostalgia! I am right there with you guys. Simpler times...
Bullet hells are not my genre (too many traumatic Ikaruga memories), but this is a pretty great example of one. Love the powerups, especially my little companion buddies. The steering mechanism is really well done; It could've been just "it's snake, push the direction to go," but the turning buttons were smarter than that. Great job!
Ikaruga is an all-timer but I have to admit I never beat it either. I also share a soft spot for the companions. Glad you appreciated the novel controls, that was a tough choice, but it felt more right to me to hit the level of flow I was seeking to induce in players. Thanks for stopping by!
This is really nice and a really good challenge and really brings something new to Snake. I really like the particles and small animations to make things just feel that much better. Nice post processing effect achieved too. Good job!
Yeah, I was lucky to have enough time to try and add a layer of game feel to every "thing" that happens in the game, with only a couple of exceptions. Including SFX, it took multiple days! Worth it though, I agree. Your game was super cool too, it needs a life on mobile devices. Thanks for the kind words and thanks for playing 🙏
Snake++, love it!
Snake++ would've been a great name! I wonder if its under copyright... 🤔 Thanks for playing, Chroma
Awesome job with nailing the retro vibe. I would occasionally hit the wrong button turning the character but still was able to get a score of 18300. I had a lot of fun playing, great game!
Damn Mongrel, top dog of the Leaderboard. LEN is me by the way, the only score above yours as of this comment, and yeah, that's my personal best, left there as a challenge to ambitious players. You might be the chosen one! 😝
Great entry! The combined aesthetics of the visuals and sounds really sells it.
The Snake inspiration is obvious enough, but you mentioned that this was inspired by multiple 80's era games. After playing the only other inspiration I can think of is Asteroids, so I wonder what elements of other classic games did you draw from? I'm also wondering what does the name mean, why is a reactor in space? (I'm reading too much into this aren't I)
Personally I would change the control scheme to use all the arrow keys or WASD and make the snake move in the direction of those respective keys. Binding the unchanging directional movement of the snake in a 2D space to "turning" left and right just doesn't feel as intuitive. One could get used to it but personally speaking I think the current control makes for slower reactions and clunkier gameplay.
Anyhow, this is still a pretty fun game. Great job!
Hi Lestavol, glad you enjoyed it. As for inspirations, I'd say Snake and Asteroids are the most prominent ones yeah. There's also some Space Invaders in there, one of my buddies even insisted I should name the game Snake Invaders. Also Gradius was a big influence for me personally, I played the hell out of the R-types. I could similarly list any number of Bullet Hells and Schmups emerging from that era. Pong or Pinball is present, I'd argue there's even a bit of Pac-Man here too, where you switch from Prey to Predator at the drop of a hat. I even prototyped a Pac-Man style power-up in this game that would make enemies flee from you, but ultimately scrapped it as it was buggy and shared too much ground with other power-ups.
But mostly that's just name-dropping. I was inspired by the vibe of that time, when you'd go into an Arcade with some quarters and randomly play something really weird but fun above all, maybe with an offbeat name, barebones graphics and no tutorial. Maybe it wasn't even in a language you could read. So many ideas were connecting and cross-pollinating during those early experiments, you might recognize some part of the gameplay but be surprised by other elements emerging. There would be only a couple of buttons to learn, and while some cabinets would capture interest for a few minutes/quarters, some players would become determined to get their initials on the Leaderboard. I thought I'd try to make a game that would've fit neatly into a corner of one of those arcades.
amazing entry! the feel and mechanics are on point and have obviously been iterated, love to see it!
great aesthetics too!
Thank you Kraft! Yeah, I had all the major systems in by about the halfway point of the jam, including the enemy waves, the powerups, and the Leaderboard, so I had lots of headroom to give everything a second or third go-over to make it all shine and work together. I am pleased you noticed. :)
Really cool to hear, its the same approach ive been using the past few jams and its been serving me extremely well!
Just checked the game on mobile to see if I'm still on the leaderboard hehe... it ran perfectly even on web!!
Maybe a future mobile release?? I could see it
Yeah, I tried to get it fully supported on mobile browsers before deadline except I couldn't figure out how to get the right turn working with touch input. I wanted it to be Tap Left half of Screen -> Turn Left, Tap Right half of Screen -> Turn Right, but I was surprised to find I could not find a way for the itch browser to determine whether a click was from a real mouse or a touch input. If I just put that logic on for all clicks, it would be very confusing for mouse users left clicking on the right half of the screen so that doesn't work, I need to filter based on device type. If anyone knows how to do it, please chime in!
I suppose I could focus on an .apk for Google Play, but browser seems so much more accessible, but not sure if that's also true for mobile devices. I might need to take another dive into it, several people have mentioned mobile at this point. Thanks for your input. And yeah, Leaderboard is getting crowded, defend your spot! 😝
have you looked into this?
i think an apk would definitely be the way to go, i dont know if anybody plays mobile games in a browser...
which engine are you using?
One of my few five stars! This was really exceptional. Soo polished and snappy and stylized while also being just simply super fun!! sfx really popped and music was great too. Seriously great work!
Thank you Sam! All I wanted this time was to make something fun and that was fun to make. Real happy with how it turned out and happy players like you are enjoying it too 😊