Nebulords

Nebulords is a fast paced retro-inspired local 4-player game created in 30 days for the Global Multiplayer Game Jam 2022. Influenced by Atari classics, the game combines the space movement and screen wrapping of asteroids with the frenetic paddle and ball gameplay of Warlords and Breakout. Catch and shoot the bouncing ball to destroy your opponent's core while defending your own. Music by Juhani Junkala.

Nebulords Game Trailer

Controllers are highly recommended! Make sure to click in the game window first to focus the game and click on the fullscreen button in the bottom right corner.

There are optional keyboard/mouse controls for up to 3 players. Keyboard controls are quite difficult to use, but the mouse is on par with using a controller. Here are the optional controls:

R - Reset level

Arrow Keys - Change Level

Escape - Exit Fullscreen/Exit Game

Player 1: 

W - Boost/Start Game

A - Rotate counter-clockwise

D - Rotate clockwise

Space - Join Game/Hold Ball/Shoot Ball

Player 2:

Up Arrow - Boost/Start Game

Left Arrow - Rotate counter-clockwise

Right Arrow - Rotate clockwise

Control - Join Game/Hold Ball/Shoot Ball

Player 4:

Left Click - Boost/Start Game

Mouse Pointer - Aim

Right Click - Join Game/Hold Ball/Shoot Ball

Game Jam Post Mortem:

This game was a ton of fun to make in the little spare time I had over the course of 30 days. With the exception of the music, I made everything from scratch and I think what I was able to accomplish a decent level of polish for a game jam game (though there are still a few bugs). However, it was not exactly smooth sailing. The goal of this game jam was to implement online multiplayer which I tried and failed miserably at. I'm allergic to programming and I quickly found that online multiplayer was way over my head, so I opted to make a an offline multiplayer game instead. I also had some additional game mechanic ideas to keep in line with the "Reconnect" theme, but I didn't have time to implement them. As it stands, the game is inspired by 2 of my favorite childhood games which were Asteroids and Warlords, so in a sense, making this game helped me reconnect with my younger self (as cheesy as that sounds). Many thanks to my awesome wife who helped me playtest and helped design the UI.

I would love to work on this game further and even aim towards a Steam release with AI and possibly online multiplayer.

 I welcome any feedback, and if you're a programmer who would like to collaborate and help me take the game to the next level, please hit me up! 

Enjoy the game! :)