This game theme started yesterday and I’m willing to just keep going with it. Here’s ship_game, made by the same author as minefield, from yesterday.
ship_game follows the Space Invaders formula, but pares it down to a bare minimum. On-screen cues call for left-and-right movement, and spacebar to fire. Scoring seems to involve hitting invaders while they are dim, which removes them from the board. New ones spawn randomly.
I’m happy to say ship_game does not insult the player for losing; in fact, ship_game appears to be the kinder, gentler relative of minefield. This pleases me.
And aside from its somewhat slow pace, wide spacing (stretching the game board over your terminal width) and lack of --help or man page information, it has very few shortcomings. It’s colorful, playable and easy to learn.
Like stardork though, it could do with a few enhancements. And I’m not clear on what’s happening when invaders are bolded, and when they are dim. More information on scoring would be nice, too.
I am willing to call ship_game a good game, with the understanding that it will take a bit more work for ship_game to be a great game.
Inconsolation 