Free Tera-Turbine, a one button arcade thing

[Tselmek]

Howdy everyone, here's one of the creations I'm the most proud of: Tera-Turbine. It's a tiny little frantic arcade game that only requires one button to be played. Get the best score in 30 seconds and prove to the internet that you're the strongest and most beautiful human being in the world, all that thanks to online scoreboard magic. It's free, it works on Windows and soon-ish to be ported on Android and it was also submited to the One button game jam

Get it on the Itch​

Now here's a couple of gifs to show what it looks like if you're too lazy to hop on the itch.io page. (which is perfectly understandable)

Spoiler: Gifs and screenshots

 

[chance]

... frantic arcade game...

It's frantic alright -- but I'm referring to the controls, not the game. I mean, I must have pressed every key trying to figure out how to start the game. The intro demo plays, and it displays a message saying "press any key but Space". The demo was a circle of letters and numbers, with each one highlighted in sequence. (Nothing like what's on the download webpage.)

Not knowing anything about the game, I figured that demo WAS the game. LOL So I started pressing various keys, but none of them did anything. Eventually I tried Enter, and another menu popped up, before the actual game started. I wasn't sure what the objective was, but it appears to be staying within the red semi-circular arc. So I did that awhile.

But then the game ended abruptly and I found myself automatically cycling through a menu I couldn't escape. Arrrgghh... Or maybe that's part of the game too?

Seriously, the game does seem fun. But it needs better explanation and a menu that's easier to navigate. So yeah, it was "frantic".

 

[Tselmek]

Thanks for the feedback, I hadn't realised the menu were so tough to go through. Might be too late for first impressions but I shall explain myself on the issues you've encountered.

I mean, I must have pressed every key trying to figure out how to start the game. The intro demo plays, and it displays a message saying "press any key but Space". The demo was a circle of letters and numbers, with each one highlighted in sequence.

This is the Name Input menu, the not-so-practical one button input was left in for the sake of the jam's theme but you are still able to use the keyboard to complete the same task. By "any key but Space", I implied that you can type your username with all keyboard keys except the one that is used for the one button control.

I started pressing various keys, but none of them did anything. Eventually I tried Enter, and another menu popped up, before the actual game started.

It is in fact weird that pressing different keys didn't have any effect, if you did press letters or numbers this is a bug I apologise for.

I wasn't sure what the objective was, but it appears to be staying within the red semi-circular arc. So I did that awhile. But then the game ended abruptly

The goal of the game is to reach the best highscore before the 30 seconds countdown reaches zero. I'm gussing the abrupt end was the game over. Infos on the types of arcs are in the Help menu but I got that the menu was a hassle to navigate so I shall explain. Red arcs are regular targets, they give more points the greater the combo. Blue and Yellow arcs are special targets, they only appear after small combos. Blue ones freeze the timer for a couple of seconds and Yellow ones activate a bonus phase when 5 of them are collected (see BONUS in the bottom left corner of the game).

I found myself automatically cycling through a menu I couldn't escape.

Is this another bug? I don't see which menu you're refering to.

The game's purpose was to be fully playable with only one button but I understand that this made a lot of things confusing but I also realised that the gameplay should be better explained for first-time players. The name input has proven to be quite troubling in general, should be improved in a next update.

Thank you very much for taking the time to test and comment your experience with the game.