chris0903 2016-08-30 08:20
I have no idea what to do, but it seems cool
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD36 → Into The Universe
By novotmike
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I have no idea what to do, but it seems cool
@Chris0903: Game starts paused. You are supposed to send out scouts to nearby planets to collect "Scrap". You can unpause the game using a button (top left corner) or by pressing space on your keyboard. You have limited time to scout each system.
- Hope it it a bit more clear, I did not have time to implement proper tutorial
Cool game! Very neat basic idea. Could've gone for a step-by-step tutorial or something like that - I felt a little uncertain as to what I should be doing. Some sound effects for stuff other than shooting would've gone a long way too, but now I am nitpicking - besides that, there is a very nice core game, would love to see it elaborated more
The base concept is pretty interesting. I have no ideas how this game related to the LD36 theme, but anyway was quite enjoyable 20 seconds! х)
However, the game mechanics are a bit weird at first. You really need a good tutorial or step-by-step demo level.
The soundtrack is cool, btw.
@TheFlyingSatan
@cushycode
I'm glad you liked the game mechanics. As you both said it needs the step-by-step tutorial a lot! I had it all planned to play in the beginning, but time wasn't on my side.
I like the idea. In my first run I could barely reach the closest planet in 30 seconds. Might wanna check that. Is there a goal other than survive?
I had a lot of fun playing this game! Probably the most fun I've had playing Ludum Dare 36 games so far. It looks great, it plays great and the audio is nice.
Except for when you die, that sound was horrible and scared the shit out of me :P
I should add that for an endless game where you try to get as far as possible I think it's too easy.
In my second playthrough I got really far really easy and I think you get more powerful quicker than the game gets more difficult, which results in an endless positive feedback loop meaning it could pretty much go on forever.
My suggestion is, make the game progressively more difficult. Increase the prices of hull upgrades everytime you purchase it or something.
That's my two cents anyway :)
@teamBallShui I originally planned to have end game goal, but there wasn't enogh time to pull it off. So I made it into endless game.
@Geared Games: Thank you very much for your feedback! I know exactly what you mean! I found out about the lack of challenge too late to do anything about it. Enemy power (maximum possible amount + damage) depends on number of systems you already visited. I think that making Hull upgrades more expensive everytime you purchase it would balance the game quite a bit. Sadly it is too late to change it (even though the change would be a one-liner).
quite a nice concept, wiht a little more details it can became a good simulator. I was playing FasterThanLight a few minutes ago so i have that feeling xD
very nice :D
This is a great concept! I love the the feeling of helplessness of not knowing whether a scout might make it back in time. Even more content e.g more goals, more variation etc would be nice but being a jam there's only so much you can do. I would definitely play it if it was improved on!
Fun idea and plays nice!
I really liked the mood of the game, it reminded me of mass effect even though its not the same gameplay at all.
the music is nice and doesn't get boring.
I think the game has nice potential, if you would add some sort of story mode it would really make a great game.
I liked the game would love to see more of it.
I died when I was shot down by another space ship which resulted in an endless loop of some crashing(?) sound playing, very loud, very horrible. But besides that, it was very enjoyable!
@Geruhn: That is the only bug I know about. If you die being killed by another ship, there is endless loop of blowing up sound. Sorry about that!
Pretty catchy game! I played this one over hour :D Game mechanics are pretty interesting! Sometimes enemy ships spawn one one place so i can't really tel how many are there. But that is just minor flaw! You should play this one too!
I felt like there could have been easier to see the health of things without having to click on them, and I wasn't really sure what scouting did. A timer would have been really helpful as well, but the core of the game was pretty fun.
I love this game, i played a while when i realised it's doesn't end. :) Graphics are nice, Gamplay is fun, only "bug" is the enemys spawn a group, and you can only click one, but it's makes a bit harder. At the end I let them blow my ship.
I liked Stargate Universe, so the theme works for me.
Spaaace! I love this one, obviously. It was fun to play and I'd love to see how it would feel with actual objectives and balancing.
Bonus: when you die in the game you die in real life, but that's ok :D
You should upload WebGL to itch.io or something so people can play it online
*WebGL build, sorry
@Alsatian Studio: You can play WebGL version here - or on my website:"http://ld.novotmike.com/". Hope that helps.
Game was easy enough to get into, even without reading the instructions. And I commend you for that, since making a strategy game clear during a LD is something I very rarely see.
For a strategy game though, I feel like this doesn't offer any real choices to the player. You send out scouts to the nearest planets, if you can, then select the nearest enemy and target them, rinse and repeat. Selecting an upgrade every minute doesn't really add much to the enjoyment.
A lot of the actions you're having the player do could easily be automated, and -in other games- often are. I think the game ought to have these sort of mechanics running in the background (send scouts out to nearest planet, target nearest enemy) and focus on something else for the player interaction.
Maybe it could've helped to be able to move around the mothership, either to dodge enemy attacks or pickup scouts about to get left behind. Or to be able to use the resources gathered to launch fighters or shields. Plenty of things you could do with this format, just a matter of being a bit more engaging and giving the player a bit more agency.
Awesome game! My final score was 21320. I found the rules really easy to understand and the game really deep and fun, my only complaint was that it wasn't clear how you acquire additional scouts, it seemed very random. Also I think the damage might work better if it's DPS (continuous), as it was there really wasn't much difference between doing 55 a second to 75 a second but it still cost 4 upgrades to go between them.
Really well made game, super polished, awesome job.
Score: (because I like scores)
Overall 5/5
Innovation 4/5
Fun 5/5
Theme 2/5
Graphics 5/5
Audio 5/5
Humor 0/5
Mood 4/5