simonhutchinson 2017-04-28 23:26
Cool.
A very fun little game. I'm not a big bullet-hell kind of guy, so "Planet X" was a bit too much for me, but since I didn't lose my progress on death, I eventually made it.
Very nice work.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Meteor Jam
By xelphyre, peachtreeoath, Equinox, gswong, Allenia Lee, SegFault, elykyevrah, DoubleDragonBimmy, evedoll, Shantarr Dalrae and Chro
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 144 | 3.81 | 62 | |
| Fun | 86 | 3.84 | 61 | |
| Innovation | 304 | 3.27 | 61 | |
| Theme | 347 | 3.50 | 61 | |
| Graphics | 426 | 3.39 | 61 | |
| Audio | 211 | 3.42 | 61 | |
| Humor | 447 | 2.40 | 52 | |
| Mood | 374 | 3.25 | 56 |
Cool.
A very fun little game. I'm not a big bullet-hell kind of guy, so "Planet X" was a bit too much for me, but since I didn't lose my progress on death, I eventually made it.
Very nice work.
Very fun. It is easy to play, You level up your skills so you have the sensation of progression, the graphics are more than enough. Very good work. Congrats.
I escaped Planet X! Excellent game. Luckily you keep all the parts of your rocket when you get smashed to bits.
Played this quite a bit of the ways through but full disclaimer - I didn't finish it. It was fun and I like how the different planets all feel a bit different. Are they randomly generated? They looked it at least - which is an added bonus.
It took me a bit to realize I could climb walls by spamming jump, and the game got a bit easier after that. I almost liked not knowing I could climb walls, because I had to plan whether or not I was going to jump into a hole for all the ore.
The animations on the little dude were quite good too! One of my higher 'fun' rated games
Holy crap, that was great. The last level wrecked me. I don't really have any negative feedback here. Great work.
This was a good game. I did not see any negative flaws. I gave all the categories 5 stars except for humor, as it was not exactly very funny. I believe that this game has the potential to be expanded on in the future and be a professional product.
Pretty fun game, though by Pluto it had started to get a bit boring to me, I just jumped around and farmed ores until I had everything maxed and just pranced around (didn't find the game too difficult at that point). What really saved me from the boredom was your last level, whew did I have fun on that one. Took a good 3 tries or so lol.
Sometimes the game is capable of leaving you in uh...awkward situations at the least (was forced to take a meteor once) and once I managed to glitch into a block, which gave me immunity to meteor blast damage lol.
Overall really fun game, just wish the difficulty was harder, with planet X difficulty maybe being the 3rd planet instead of 5th.
Great job, really enjoyed this one. I especially liked the upgrade system, seems well balanced. There was a bit of a difficulty spike at Jupiter, but all in all I liked the level progression.
Amazing game! Nice graphics, fitting music, well done gameplay and upgrades. Planet X was a bit hardcore for me
Really cool game! Only died once on Pluto and twice on Planet X :) I absolutely loved the variation in visual aesthetic, sound, and difficulty through each of the 5 planets. I found that I could use the crafting bench as a shield from the meteors on the earlier planets, not sure if this was intended but felt like a fun little strategy lol. Felt very much like the bomb survival games I used to play in Little Big Planet but with upgrades! Very easy to pick up/learn and very clean/bug free. Well done! Also, I think I won the "Annoying sound contest", your jumping sound got to me a little bit, but it's no match to my game's walking sound! The rest of your audio was fantastic though so 4 stars in that category ;)
Solid title, with tight controls and great design. The graphics were pretty great for a jam, and the sound was awesome. The only complaint I have is that the gameplay feels a little one dimensional. If there was a post-compo version, I'd love to see some more mechanics in the game to extend its play. Over all a great title, and I had fun playing it!
Pretty fun game! I liked the way you implemented the audio and sounds to fit well with the scenery. Good graphics, game play, and use of a store. Could use more difficulty in the previous levels. Overall a fun and tight game!
Great game! everything was going so easy until planet X :P I almost dropped my spaghetti on that level, after a couple of tries I just waited under the rocket silos and run once around collect all the rocks and build one part of the ship, then repeat the process after beeing killed :D. The graphics are well made, the music fits, controls are smooth but sometimes it's hard to jump near walls, one time I got stuck inside the wall :P. other than that pretty sweet entry!
@croze Rocket blocking the meteors was something we discovered accidentally early on and left in because of how fun it was (pretty necessary for no-upgrade runs too). Thanks for the comments!
Very cool, I liked how you didn't lose any progress through death, made the last few levels a lot better and easier.
I did get stuck in a hole a few times while jumping about and had to wait till an asteroid came and made a path for me to get out.
I felt like the wall jumping (even though it seems like a bug) helped alot.
overall well done, it feels like some of those flash games on kongregate which is good
Well, that was annoyingly addictive :-) Really enjoyed this - the final level was hectic, but I was determined to get though it (always the sign of a good game!). Very satisfying when you get stuck in a hole, then manage to escape when a meteor blasts a way out for you.
One suggestion: would be nice if the fully upgraded radar gave an indication of time to impact - perhaps the target could shrink (or change colour?) so you can judge whether you want to risk running past it.
great game !!!
One of the most enjoyable games I played on LD38! Seriously. Simple mechanics, dynamic, nice visuals. All of those are great. The only thing that bothered me was pressure while crafting. I didn't see much because of big UI. Anyway, well done! :smiley:
Nice! The graphics are great with the planets being really cool both when looking at theme, graphics and gameplay. I loved the small touches with different music for each level, and the beautiful background with starry sky and clouds. I also think I saw two meteors collide with each other and explode, which is a nice touch of realism.
The music keeps the tempo up, and Planet X is really intense, but after dying on Pluto I realized that dying has almost no consequences, and I lost the feeling of being constantly on my edge to not get hit. I was afraid I would have to start over from the beginnning! A really fun game overall though!
I really like the game. In the beginning it was a bit hard, but in the end it was to easy, so I think it would be better, if you can respawn only 3 times.
Thanks for the volume slider, the music started to grate after level 1. That being said I kinda lost interest mid planet 3. I just feel like some sort of extra depth (something else to do) would've helped.
That being said, it's well constructed and does what you were going for. Thanks for the game <3
Pretty fun, was starting to get a bit repetitive after a couple of levels though, it would need some additional mechanics to keep up the interest I think. Quite liked the music, the jump sound started to get on my nerves after a while, doesn't seem to fit that well and you hear it ALOT. Picking up the whole ship seemed a bit of a weird thing to be able to do also. thanks
This was fun! Cool balance between platforming and crafting style game. The music is great! One thing that would have helped with the mood/theme is if the character wore some kind of space suit!
A Nice game with a cool mechanic.
I think it would be a bit more relaxed when the game is paused when you enter the crafting mode. So that you can have a look at all Upgrades.
But All together a nice Game, Good Job
A solid little game! Good concept, good execution, solid work!
I Played this on Livestream a bit ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwY1-PtcDqs
Solid game and well executed, it shows that it kept drawing me back in as I kept saying "Just one more planet". I think my one gripe would be the graphics being a bit inconsistent. Very good game!
Graphic can be improved, Overall fun and quite addictive game :D
Very solid, nice graphics, catchy gameplay, I like that you had to/could control the ship a bit after getting in it :) Good job!
Not a fan of crafting games, but this was nice. The platforming could be more solid, but it's enough for a jam game. Audio feels a bit repetitive, and graphics are ok. Overall, nice little game. Keep it up!
Last level is the fucking hell apocalipse xD It was defintely a fun game to play. Mechanic is simple, enough to start quickly to play and stay at the keyboard until you finished all levels.
I like the retro music and I still dont know how you makes the final level playable, but you did it xD
Great work!
A fun, frantic game! Here's the quick rundown of my thoughts:
PROS - Mechanics are solid - Satisfying difficulty curve
CONS - Planet X seems a little too tight for achieving victory - Graphics could be a bit more coherent
For full criticism and breakdown of ranking, as well as candid reactions to gameplay, do check out the video~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTU4u52qxrE
Nice game! I like how the graphics are different each level, although I was suprised by the lava in each level. ;) The first levels were too easy. And since you don't lose your upgrades when you lose, I was just carelessly walking and jumping around and buying stuff. Soon I had all the upgrades, and this way I finished the game. Therefore, for me it was not so much fun. Also, jumping while standing in front of a wall was a bit weird and the jumping sound soon annoyed me, but the music was quite nice. Overall, well done! :)
Wow this was awesome! I played to the end and escaped planet X with full upgrades. I loved the sense of progression as I built up my skills, and every one of them was nice in their own way.
I had a lot of fun just dashing across the landscape and doing quick dodges, so it was really nice that it looped back around. The constant danger but the fact that you had a light punishment for death was a great combo for an LD game. Instead of frustration getting in the way of the fun, the light setback of losing my carried money but keeping all upgrades and ship parts was a really smart choice for LD.
There's just one nitpick I have with the controls: when I'm moving and jumping, and I come to a stop against the wall, if I then hit jump, the guy has some kind of friction with the wall and it disrupts my jumping as he presses into the wall. I wish this hitch didn't exist, because it totally takes me out of the zone of flowing fluidly across the terrain. It breaks my zen.
But that's a small thing, and I still had tons of fun with this. Great entry.
This was a solid entry! I wasn't expecting much after finding out it was an upgrades game, but the core mechanic was actually pretty fun. It definitely feels unpolished (the artwork especially), but overall I enjoyed it.
Some criticisms: - not keeping your ore after completing a level made me feel like I had to grind on the early levels if I wanted to stand a chance at winning. It turned out this didn't matter since you can keep upgrades after dying, but I didn't find this out until the last area - the movement of the player/camera is very stiff, and you can easily get caught on the terrain - planet X is a bit unfair in difficulty; the player simply doesn't have enough time to react and pretty much just has to jump around randomly hoping they don't get hit - the rocket station behaving as a physics object feels a bit weird; especially when you can just carry it with you
The idea is good, and the game is also fun to play. To me it had not been necessary with more then one planted, because what I do on the next planets is the same as the first plant, just a bit more difficult. But overall the game is very well made.
Fun and well made game.
Every level has it's own cool music. The platforming feels right. Details like moving clouds in the background. Cool sprite art.
It might get repetitive after a few planets. But it has a well made grinding system and it's better to have a small well thought game system which actually works than some big vision which isn't playable at all.
So ... i had fun for a playthrough. I like collecting and investing stuff in abilities :D
And yeah ... the last planet would be kind of rage-something if you wouldn't keep your progress after death. I mean i could imaging beating it but the amount of asteroids and their speed just feels kind of too much ... and you can't see them in time to really do something about it ... even with the radar.
Perhaps with some patience, but since i keep everything after dying ... why bother :D
An outstanding LD entry. The gameplay is solid, the music is excellent and the intensity of the game ramps up nicely. Even though the later levels are insane because you keep the upgrades you buy and your ship's progress between deaths, you can always win if you keep trying long enough.
If I had a small nitpick its that the blocks are not the same height as the player. If they were you could move through tunnels without having to jump over things.
Really enjoyed your game. After reading the comments, I went back and tried using the rocket to shield me, as my only compliant was that the gameplay didn't pause as I was crafting. It helped, but I think having the action pause while in the crafting menu would be more beneficial. I liked the ability to improve my character, and the levels were increasingly more difficult.
Graphics were well done for the person and the ship. I like the flame animation coming from the ship. The ground textures left a little to be desired. Would have also like to see some kind of warning that the red tiles were harmful. Maybe steam or particles of some kind.
Music was good although it did start to get repetitive if stuck on a level after awhile.
Planet X was pretty hard, but I think the hardest part was not being able to see the meteors against the background. Was able to beat it, but without restarting it would have been hard.
Would have liked to have kept ore from level to level, or at least be given an opportunity to improve my character before moving on to the next world.
At first, I wasn’t sure how your game fit the theme, but after leaving my rocket deployed, I realized the worlds did wrap around. It was not noticeable, not sure how that could have been improved to make it feel like it is a round world.
Very good work overall! Screen Shot 2017-05-07 at 11.53.04 PM.png
Oh my, this is a fun one!
And it must've been one hell of a game to program. Okay, let's see what we have:
- gameplay is very fun, ~~kept me going long and I'll definitely return to finally beat it (Pluto bested me for now :) )~~ Yass, I finally managed to beat it :D - difficulty curve progress is well thought-out - mechanics are implemeted well - graphics fit not only the theme, but also the type of the game - the idea is not the simplest, yet it's fairly easy to pick up and know what you're doing on the first playthrough - I like how after just seeing the title of the level you can estimate the planet's structure - nice touch - sound, though simple, fits very well - Final stage really feels like final stage, great job!
** issue: jump** I was unsure about the multi-jump mechanic until Jupiter (In later levels yes, it could be used to jump over bigger chasms). When you hug the wall and spam jump, you can actually climb up, no matter the height (each jump caounts as new). I assume that's at least partially intended, since in some cases that's the only way of escaping - still, it can feel a bit glitchy in current state.
**my suggestion:** Differentiate between hitting block from the side and from the top/bottom. A 'wall slide' mechanic, utilizing multi jump could help this feel right :)
** issue: keeping upgrades ** I'm not sure about the consistency of keeping the upgrades. If we assume that player keeps all his personal upgrades between deaths, I'd remove at least the parts of the ship. Yes, I know it would up the difficulty, but it would be more fair - and death would have more meaning. It's not that much of a setback if you've already got permanent boosts, especially ore magnet and multiplier, though it would need some balancing (probably).
** my suggestion: ** On death, strip the parts of the ship already built if the player's keeping the personal upgrades. Or, introduce hard mode with this mechanic ;) I'm actually convinced that with parts stripped on every death, final stage would feel SO much better, you'd really have to work for it, yet it still would be manageable.
**issue: pause on craft ** - pause on craft would be welcome. From what I see you can't take damage while crafting, but the ship still can get knocked down. Pause would feel more consistent in this case.
It's really a great game you've made! I hope the suggestions I left can help in further development, but as a Jam game it's already good, and one of the games I've had most fun with in this LD.
Leaving my rating, and thanks for your earlier feedback on my project :)
Cheers, and stay awesome!
Incredibly solid game. I don't know what to say that other comments haven't said other than that the upgrade numbers should ascend rather than descend so that it matches up with most number pads.
Can I just say that you have one of the best looking titlescreens so far this Ludum Dare?
In general, I feel like the game has a great premise, but a lot of the problems I have with it involve all the parts working towards making it enjoyable.
**Gameplay**
- I thought the idea of mining ore by falling meteors was a clever idea. It combined a hazardous game element but also made it very useful at the same time. - As others have pointed out, this game is quite exploitable. I maxed out all my upgrades early on in the game by purchasing whatever I could and then dying, which kept my upgrades. I didn't realise this worked for the rocket as well until I read the comments. (I would just buy all three parts together and then take off as fast as I could.) I ended up using this exploit for the rockets to beat Planet X. - It wasn't until Jupiter that I realised this game was super glitchy. It's way too easy to get stuck inside the ground, and I don't just mean the parts with holes (though yes, those too). There were parts where I was directly in front of a ground tile, and had to rapidly tap jump to wiggle my way out. This makes the more difficult planets more frustrating than fun (screenshot below). Meteor Jam 03.png - I love how you go to different planets per level. For a future build, consider having each planet with a varying gravity, which would affect jump height and speed as well as how fast the meteors fall. - I actually didn't hate that you kept the upgrades upon dying, mostly because this game would have been unbearable without its exploits. That's not exactly the best way for players to beat a game, but if you are to have harsher consequences for dying, the game has to be a lot less buggy and a lot more responsive. - I know people have already mentioned the pause thing, but even though the rocket can protect you from meteors, it's extremely unstable and can tip over as a result of a meteor hitting either it or ground underneath it. And when you're bringing up the upgrades screen, it disappears the moment the rocket foundation moves away from the character.
Oh yeah I laughed out loud when my rocket tipped over as I finished building it and launched it. The game acted as though I was moving somewhere fast, but I was just coasting along the side. XD Meteor Jam 02.png
**Other elements**
- It's nice how you managed to make six different tracks for the planets. Chiptune was a fine choice for the art style, but since this isn't 8bit art, I think it would be fine to take more liberties with the chiptune and not be so "GameBoy" sounding. "Mars" and "Jupiter" are the tracks I enjoy the most, but some of the later tracks get a bit too annoying, but I think it's more because the loops are too short, which I get because, well, 72 hours. - I wasn't really fond of the sfx in the game. The jump sound is a bit too high pitched, and the rock collection sound is barely heard against the music and sounds too much like a bass drum. You would need something a bit more resounding for the collection to be satisfying. - The graphics in-game...I have mixed feelings about. The background colours are nice, but the protagonist is kind of too small in comparison to the screen imo and their walking animation looks awkward. I do love the title and ending screen graphics, though.
I've probably said too much, but this game had quite a bit to offer that was worth commenting on, so I guess that's good. I think when better executed and less exploit-dependent, this could be a lot of fun.
Really nice idea and execution, had a lot of fun with this one.
Having to deal with the collapsing world while also collecting ore felt great, but perhaps got a bit stale towards the end. Maybe having other hazards like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes or something would fix this.
The graphics and sound were all good enough, didn't feel jaunty or anything with the animations and the explosion effects and noise were sufficient to add impact to the meteors. The slight curvature of the planet was a nice touch, though this could maybe have been emphasized a bit more to make more sense with the size of the world.
There were some bugs that I noticed as well, that could use fixing. I think you messed up the double jump detection a bit, as touching a wall seemed to give you back your jumps, not just the floor. This wasn't too abusable in game, as hugging the wall seemed to slow you down, but it's still probably a good idea to fix that. Also, dying didn't reset your rocket progress. Not sure if that's a bug, but if it isn't you should probably change it anyway. It felt like it was making the game easier, bug in a bad way. Giving your player the option to reset twice to finish the level is not a good way of decreasing difficulty, as this promotes repetitive gameplay.
Despite those relatively minor objections, this was a great entry, and I highly encourage you to pursue the idea further.
Really nicely done! A lot of fun concepts working well together in a small space. Great work!
Excellent submission! And quite the impressive size team to coordinate for such a time-crunch event - excellent design and had a lot of fun playing this. My only issues was that on the first level I hopped in the ship and the ship was sideways and it launched, got stuck in some rocks and it said I escaped lol but never got off the screen. Very minor. But great work!
Nice concept and execution. Controls/movement mechanics are just right (being able to wall-climb out of a hole and to "put the rocket in a pocket" is useful and fun feature). The levels are nice, difficulty increases at a good rate and keeping the updated stats/objects when dying helps not-so-experienced-platformer-players (me) to finish the game without frustration. The music is great, especially the Jupiter track. It's awesome you have created so much great content!
Only one issue: when the FPS dropped (due to too many objects or something unrelated running on my computer), I was able to walk through the solid blocks for a few seconds.
Nice little game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjIIPVrvYI