Are you crab enough?

Destroy the incoming helicopters as the Nuclear Crab, the world's most advanced crab based heavy weapon.

Collect power ups to strengthen the nCrab power core and gain temporary new abilities!

Controls:

WASD to move, LMB to shoot.

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  • Jackaroo
    Lv. 9

    This was pretty fun but I just could not get to grips with the jumping for some reason. The weird cooldown after a jump just threw me off everytime and for some reason I could not figure out the timing of the cooldown. To be honest I'm not quite sure why a cooldown is needed after the jump (Is it a crab thing haha). But either no cooldown or an indicator of when you can jump again would be nice.

    That said it was pretty easy to just camp powerup spots and take down the choppers with them. I think it could've used a bit more enemy variety to force you to move around some more otherwise I could generally just stay in one space and not really have to move much.

    Still I had fun with it. The art is nice, I especially like the city background and the crab itself of course. Could've done with some music and/or sound effects though.

    Overall a good entry.

    EDIT: So after reading the other feedback, apparently the game does have music. However I just cannot get any sound out of the game at all for some reason. My volume is fine, I've checked the sound mixer to ensure the Games volume is up, I've checked the game for a mute option but there is nothing that I can see. Other games are playing their sounds no problem at all but I'm getting no sound out of this one so I'm not quite sure what is going on there unless I'm missing something. If you have any idea why sound wouldn't be playing then let me know and I'll give it another try.

    EDIT 2: Ok, for some reason the sound only works whilst I am using headphones. If I'm just using my regular speakers there is no audio at all (I even maxed out the volume just to see and got nothing). So not sure why that is but I've heard the music now and I quite like it. I do think now that it really could've used some sound effects too but at least the music does give it a bit more atmosphere.

    Revert
    Submitted

    Revert

    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! The jump cooldown's purpose was to try and make the crab feel weightier, so you're not jumping around willy nilly in what's supposed to be a big mech. It plays bad though....

      There's definitely stuff we could have done to improve the game but we didn't really have time, even the first enemy was cutting it pretty close haha.

      Also, that's the strangest bug i've seen yet, i'm not sure how the music could only play on one audio device. Not clear on what's going on there.

      Thanks for playing, I hope you check out our stuff in the future!

  • baku
    Patron

    Appreciate that someone went hard on the crab theme 🦀!!

    Felt the game was a bit of a mixed bag. I like the music, and the IK on the crab is really cool! But the controls feel so unresponsive due to the jump cooldown and kinda slow movement—ultimately that doesn't really matter though considering you can just sit on the first powerup, shoot the choppers as they enter the view, and live forever. I gave up after 300 kills

    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      I definitely agree there's a lot wacky with it. The slow movement was originally going to also have a side dash but it didn't end up happening. Overall, it was a learning experience and something i'd love to do again.

      The crab IK was like, the majority of the first day of work for me lmao

      Thanks for playing, baku!

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    Well, I'm glad someone went ahead with crab theme! The shooter survival gameplay is kinda cool but there's a couple things that hold it back from being super fun: The jump cooldown is pretty annoying (there should at least be an indicator for it) and the crab is so big that avoiding bullets isn't feasible.

    There are some cool ideas though. It's neat how kills restore time and damage drains it. This makes the timer aspect feel more interactive. The powerups are also sweet, though it's a bit tricky to get the ones on higher platforms due to the aforementioned jump issues.

    The crab walking animation is really impressive, though the flat style sort of clashes with the detailed background buildings. The music is quite nice. Some sound effects are sorely needed though.

    Dreamscape
    Submitted

    Dreamscape

    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      The crab beckons us all.

      I agree we should have made an indicator for the jump cooldown, we just never got around to it <_>

      I'd say a lot of the reason for the inconsistent art assetry is because i spent 100 percent of day one and like, the first 10 percent of day two making the crab animator, and then had to kind of rush to get the rest of the art assets looking good enough to ship. I'll have to address that in the next jam. This is also the reason i didn't make many (any? did i add any?) sound effects, the time crunch (read, burnout) was just too great.

      Also, thanks for liking the music, i worked hard on it :)

      Thanks for playing!

  • 2102
    Patron

    Pretty fun! The jumping was a bit weird, but it controlled well enough!

    Sixio
    Submitted

    Sixio

    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      Believe it or not the jump was weird on purpose! That doesn't excuse it for feeling real bad but it was on purpose.

      Thanks for playing!

  • Chris
    Patron

    The crab is great and deserves to be the hero in future games. Overall Nuclear Crab was just below a masterpiece

  • GameDevDan
    Lv. 5

    I knew somebody wouldn't be able to resist the call of "Become Crab" - and I appreciate the humour (plus the time and effort it took to make the crab walk cycle which looks fantastic).

    The gameplay is a sort of bog standard side-on shooty shooty. It's stable, and it does what it sets out to do, but maybe not very innovative / ambitious compared to some of the other games.

    Scribb
    Submitted

    Scribb

  • Jupiter Hadley
    Lv. 13

    Fun little game! I included it in my GM48: Sixty Seconds compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/g5B8P6iV1PI

    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing, and thanks for your continued hard work and dedication to playing and streaming all of the GM48 games, we all appreciate it!

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    2yrs ago
    • Interesting concept - a crab being able to shoot bullets
    • My favourite part was how the crab was animated, it seems that's where the bulk of the energy of development went!
    • Interesting how some of the art looks great and some of it looks like a scribble from a paint program
    • I wish helicopters didn't fly through walls
    • Did you start early, hoping there would be a different theme? ;) Or perhaps were you the submitter of that theme?
    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing!

      I was responsible for the crab animation unit, or the crabimator! I didn't start early as badly as I did indeed want to... We had already had the idea for the crab game ahead of time though, and we really were banking on the crab theme getting picked.

      Once I had finished the crab animator, I had largely already burned myself out. That thing is more complex than anything for a jam should have been for sure, so i'm glad you liked it :)

      A note about the helicopters: We originally had them collide with walls, but that would end up with a conga line of helicopters stacked up against the wall of the first building, and when you went to go defeat them they'd all shoot at the same time instantly killing you. Wasn't a fun mechanic. The other option for fixing this would be making them have pathing that would let them go through the doors, but we simply didn't have time.

      All in all, thanks for playing! I hope you play the next game in the Laxx and Grace supergroup 3-4 jams from now!

  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    I like how crabby this game is, interesting concept where you get more time with more kills, the jump was a little tricky to get the hang of but overall, I like it! :)

    • Laxxia
      Lv. 4
      Laxxia Coder of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      The jump is certainly a funky part, I think giving the player a jump charge visual to know when it was off cooldown would have been super beneficial looking back, but thanks for giving it a good ole play!!

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    2yrs ago

    Game and theming gives distinct impression that development team was really invested in a different theme that didn't end up being chosen. Crab animation is well done. Music is great. In terms of art, the aesthetic is a bit all over the place, but I suspect that's what you were going for anyway. Some sound effects or indication of helicopter damage would have been nice. But the game was engaing enough for me to want to come back and play again, so good job gameplay wise.

    • Grace
      Lv. 17
      Grace Artist of Nuclear Crab

      2yrs ago

      Well, you're not wrong. We were SUPER invested in the crab mech idea. I had the idea as soon as i saw "becoming crab" as the theme and immediately sold Laxx on the proposition. I am ever grateful we didn't end up with a theme we simply couldn't do this with.

      I worked hard on the crabimator, so thank you for the compliment :)

      The aesthetic... well, I'll say now that i had a different vision for it when we started. But the way it came out is honestly super stylish for the kind of thing it is.

      The music is a jam, I agree. Helps that i'm the greatest musician of all time. Kanye watch out.

      I was supposed to make more sound effects, but i was too tired by the point where it would matter to put serious effort into it. Sorry!

      Thanks for playing! i hope you stop by for our next game whenever that happens!