endurion 2017-05-01 18:42
Technically rock solid game, but IMHO you don't feel really in control. The idea to jump between planets is interesting nevertheless.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Planetary Escape
By w1n5t0n
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 425 | 2.93 | 64 | |
| Fun | 387 | 2.83 | 63 | |
| Innovation | 292 | 3.06 | 63 | |
| Theme | 335 | 3.21 | 63 | |
| Graphics | 399 | 2.83 | 64 | |
| Audio | 350 | 2.40 | 61 | |
| Humor | 1 | |||
| Mood | 1 |
Technically rock solid game, but IMHO you don't feel really in control. The idea to jump between planets is interesting nevertheless.
The idea seems reasonably good, but there are too many moments when you forget to press space or are locked into a trajectory without any chance to avoid ceratin death (or then I'm just not skilled enough)
Hey. I can't seem to get the game to open. I'm on a Mac, and I've opened other .jar files in the jam no problem. Any ideas?
The game currently does not work on MacOS. I plan on getting a patch for the game by the end of this weekend.
I like the idea for this game and that you managed to introduce a tutorial. However the game could have benefited greatly from some music and a little more control.
This was a great concept for an arcade style game, that could have benefitted from a bit of added control. I was never able to get more than a few points, because I kept shooting myself, which probably shouldn't have been possible. I liked the gravity effect, and it was fun to try and time the "space" properly. Good job and thanks!
The idea for the game is super great, and it is actually also fun to play. The idea of sending the bullets back into the level, after they have left the screen, is a fun idea, but it made the game a bit too difficult to play. But overall a great game. Well done.
I like the idea of jumping from planet to planet, but at first I didn't get that you have to press space again to enter the orbit of a planet. I died in the tutorial because of that, and then there was no more tutorial. Luckily, I tried some buttons and soon learnt how to fire, and then killed myself. For a game so simple, it is damn fun. I wish it had some background music to set the mood, but well, good job overall! Keep it up!
Ha, during the tutorial I died by hitting a planet before I saw all the tutorial and then played for like 2 minutes without knowing that I could shoot. Forutnately I saw that there was a score and I restarted the game and learned how to shoot. The controls are a bit awkward to me, with w and up usually both being associated with up but I got used to it but then the boost felt like a very non-intuitive control setup for me.
The controls aside, the gameplay itself is very original and was fun to try. Haven't seen anything like that before!
Unique idea for a game. I enjoyed it.
Some improvements: - Have better controls. Using the up key to shoot but then using up and shift to boost seems strange. - Have a quicker tutorial, it wasn't fun waiting for the text to slowly fade in. - Make the police ships not be able to fly through planets. - Some nice explosion effects when ships are destroyed.
I did like the way you had to use the planets gravity but I feel it would be better if it naturally changed your trajectory rather than having to press space to make gravity work.
Overall an original game to play.
This has a pretty unique gimmick, I liked it! Would be cool if there were some more in-depth physics, tho - and if you could control your ship out of orbit at least a tiny little bit. Maybe spin it?
Took me a while to get the hang of the game because the tutorial ends if you crash and I liked to immediately try the things it was suggesting. Once I got the hang of it I really liked this twist on a shooter.
Idea is pretty good but many elements could be added to make game more fun and interesting
Crashed a lot on the planet before realizing that space key can go surround the planet. It's a good gameplay. With elements expanding there would be a really fun game!
This is hard. My highest score was 2 before I rage quit. I actually love the simplistic design, but the fact that the mechanics are so unforgiving right at the beginning is VERY frustrating (dying from own laser, shooting at slightly wrong angle and missing, launching at slightly wrong angle and missing...). But with a little bit of tweaking, this could be a very enjoyable game! Also, props for making your own engine! :thumbsup:
The game idea is there, but the mechanics are extremely unforgiving. I literally died about 20 times before I was able to score 3. At that point I really gave up.
The mechanics should be more 'orbital' like in my opinion (accelerate/deccelerate -> therefore implementing actual orbital mechanics). Orbital transfers are quite hard and unforgiving themselves (which is common knowledge around for any space enthusiast), and by doing this discrete (direction change + just straight line after ignition - you made them even more unforgiving) ... this would make them more forgiving.
Enemies are also extremely hard from start, by making them easy to kill, and later making them harder you could improve the feel and help player in the start (otherwise most players will just get frustrated and rage quit).
Congratulations, especially for making your own engine, and Vulkan support!
This is awesome. It reminds me of old atarii game Combat. I am not sure if you are familiar with it but you have recreated the atmosphere of it almost perfectly. I would love to play this with controller.
It was quite hard not to hit a planet in the first 20 s. It was also almost impossible to shoot at the police, because I had to fly away all the time. Overall you had a good idea, but there are still some points in which the game could be improved.
Interestingly, the best strategy I found was just staying at the initial planet and shooting bursts when pointing in the general enemy direction. the fact that you can shoot yourself is really annoying, because most of the time there is not much I can do to avoid or even predict it.
Love the idea of jumping between planets! However it was kind of hard to aim as you can only aim straight! Although it may of been that I am just terrible as this game because I never got above a one!
I like the core concept of the game and it seems very polished. But I had a hard time evading my own laser shots. :'D
This game is deceptively hard. I don't think I got past 5 points. I killed myself 90% of the time haha. I like the wrap around (adds to the difficulty... what with lasers and all). I feel the controls could have been done a little differently, thought I don't have a good suggestion of how to change them. Nice work on a clean game!
Mmmh, it crashes on a stack overflow when I try to run the jar, though the error was not very explicit at all: I might try to run it from source if I get the time. This was on Windows 10 on a shitty Dell laptop.
This was actually really fun, despite being frustratingly hard! I managed to get a high score of 7. (Also, it would be better if the game kept track of high score)
The control scheme made it feel like you didn't have much control of the space ship, but I actually think this makes the game better and makes it way more punishing if you miss your shot and have to try and get back in position to take another one. Also I found out early on that you can be killed by your own lasers and so spamming shots wasn't a very good strategy.
The concept is greate and the game is real fun if you manage to figure out the controls :slight_smile: The hint on the spacebar to enter the orbit is way too late.
Siple, but need skill to jump. Supercasual hardcore platformer. I like graphics.
I'm unable to get this game to work. With VK disabled I get an ISE: There is no OpenGL context current in the current thread. And with VK enabled I get an NPE.
Definitely like the idea behind this, though like others have said it feels a little out of your control sometimes. I also like how difficult it is with the lasers reappearing once off screen, it adds a nice extra challenge.
This game was much more interesting than I thought it's going to be!
After making it through the tutorial (which ends if you die, so I had to restart a few times), I was happily planet hopping to freedom.
Graphics are solid and consistent.
Sound effects are good, but I would've liked to hear some sort of music.
Loved the idea a lot! I had fun playing it and that is what is all about. Controls are hard to grasp at first but after a while you start jumping around planets like a pro. Managed to have 6 space police after me before I got shoot down so I am very proud :P Good job overall!
Cool little arcade game. Died half way through the tutorial so had no idea what I was doing/how to get points but muddled my way through. Also would've been nice if the police could crash into the planets. Nice work.
Enjoyed this game quite a bit. Pretty simple idea but the mechanics felt really satisfying, and the game was also really challenging. One thing that I would have liked to see was more complex orbit jump mechanics, but that is just a minor nitpick :) Great entry!
I thought the way you controlled the ship's movements is interesting. Makes the game more than just an ordinary shooting game. I think you could make the player teleport back to the original position if they die during the tutorial, because I missed out on some information after flying into a planet :P Great job!
Can't get it to run unfortunatel. With VK=false I get:
``` Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalStateException: There is no OpenGL context current in the current thread. at org.lwjgl.opengl.GL.createCapabilities(GL.java:350) at org.lwjgl.opengl.GL.createCapabilities(GL.java:302) at code.engine.graphics.gl.GLRenderer.createWindowandContext(GLRenderer.java:40) at code.game.Main.main(Main.java:150) AL lib: (EE) alc_cleanup: 1 device not closed```
And with VK=true I get
``` Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at code.engine.graphics.vk.VLK.createContext(VLK.java:87) at code.engine.graphics.vk.VLKRenderer.createWindowandContext(VLKRenderer.java:26) at code.game.Main.main(Main.java:150) AL lib: (EE) alc_cleanup: 1 device not closed ```
Lovely game, very arcade-y feel. While the graphics and sound may not be extraordinary, the game itself is lots of fun, gets quite challenging. Even better that it's so easy to just play again once you (inevitably) lose. It would be nice to have a score, though. Brilliant job!
What a great game dude !!
Oh hey, here's something funny. In my previous comment I mentioned there was no score. After playing this game again on a bigger screen, I realised there was, but it was cut off by the size of my laptop screen. Sorry about that, great game!
Very good core rules, and interesting mobility - but way too harsh a learning curve. Some ideas to smooth that out: - Hitting planets should not kill you, just put you in the orbit - Base weapon should be more powerful, wider spread/damage area - Your own standard bullets should not kill you - Add lives / hitpoints so single errors do not kill outright - Add powerups (esp life gain) in locations so that players have an extra reason to be more mobile
Then when people get a hang of something, add more enemies, or enemies with more hitpoints, etc. (but very good core concept!)
I died by crashing into a planet during the tutorial before learning that I need to press space again to "latch back on". The game seems simple but okay - I wish the orbital mechanics were more complicated than just going in a circle, even if you're going head on into the planet. Also, it sucks that I can get hit by my own laser! D:
I have a degree in Physics and I find this game offensive.
Just kidding. It's a very enjoyable game. I like the controls, they are simple and to the point. Planet-hopping is a lot of fun. In the beginning I tried gunning down the police ships, but then changed tactics and tried to get as many of them on the screen as I could without being caught. Both options were fun!
I wonder what the high-score is.
And seriously, you can't change trajectories like that in mid-orbit. It makes the Kerbal in me go crazy. But I swallowed my pride and enjoyed it anyway!
I liked the concept of the game. The orbiting and launching from orbit with space mechanic was solid and original. I didn't like that you could shoot yourself with your own lasers, especially when hitting the police doesn't destroy your laser. Surviving felt a bit random because of it. An ambient music would've been nice, but the SFX where good for an arcade style game. Good job!