Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD32 → When Planets Collide
By encryptedcow
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | 786 | 2.00 | ||
| Theme | 849 | 2.94 | ||
| Graphics | 881 | 2.47 | ||
| Innovation | 920 | 2.53 | ||
| Fun | 1030 | 2.24 | ||
| Overall | 1099 | 2.35 | ||
| Coolness | 2090 | 26 |
Hi,
I like your idea but I think the execution fails to deliver a little ; it's hard to actually encounter other planets to absorb, and the inertia is too high, making the planet hard to control when you actually locate something you can absorb.
It took me a while to understand the voice was saying "collision" :p.
You may want to write up a bit more on how the controls/radar work. I never understood the radar, but I did eventually realize that the mouse did actually move you. It was hard to tell because the planet has so much mass that it takes a while to tell that it's moving.
If you work on a post compo version, I'd recommend lowering the mass/weight, or at least giving some way to upgrade your planet to be more agile.
Once I understood that the red and green dots on the overlay were a map I got on a lot better with this, though the fact that larger bodies exert inescapable gravitational pulls at times can be annoying.
feels like it needs a bit of polish and playtesting.
The idea is good, but there are some issues. The movements are badly managed and it's hard to find something to collide against by the time you got to the point of leveling up.
Very interesting idea !
Handling the movements are realistic and adding to the universe of the gameplay, I didn't find it difficult.
But for the last green dot, I had a game over screen...
Good game. I had fun, and it was nice having moons, but the planet was hard enough to control that it seemed like it was almost entirely luck. I couldn't react enough to move closer or farther from anything.
Really cool idea! I felt like I didn't have much control over the planet, and the minimap was difficult to figure out (you start "right on top of yourself" so you can't really see the dot at the beginning). With a little more work this could be a great game, though.
The controls weren't listed here or in the game, so I just jumped in. It didn't feel like I could make the planet move with the mouse or keyboard. So I read the comments here, which mentioned radar and very high mass. So I gave it another shot and still didn't feel like I was controlling it.
Then I figured out that the red/green dots weren't moving like the starfield, and figured out it was a radar overlay. That really wasn't clear. Then I spotted the blue dot which was definitely moving in the universe, even if it didn't feel like it on screen. So there was control, just very slow.
I never managed to make my planet intentionally collide with a smaller body. I think the force applied by the controls needs to be higher.
The idea is sound; this is basically what Solar 2 does, but they make the galaxy density a little higher and the gravity lower so the matter doesn't all end up consolidating into larger bodies in short order.
Higher force, lower gravities, and maybe some more material in the universe would get you on track, I think.