2017-04-23 22:30
Not Bad Could be more awsome but stil
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Rock my Ship
By hethsin
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 297 | 3.25 | 33 | |
| Fun | 239 | 3.22 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 95 | 3.66 | 32 | |
| Theme | 37 | 4.16 | 32 | |
| Graphics | 394 | 2.86 | 32 | |
| Audio | 1 | |||
| Humor | 364 | 2.16 | 26 | |
| Mood | 349 | 2.88 | 29 |
Not Bad Could be more awsome but stil
Neat little game! The graphics have a nice feel to them, and the planet deformation looks and feels nice. I think gameplay-wise it would really benefit from a bit more telegraphing to make it fairer - if you're on the opposite end of the planet it's impossible to get all the way round to the other side in time which doesn't feel fun. Even just a vague "Danger!" indicator on one half of the screen would give the player a tiny bit more chance to react.
That's just my opinion anyway, still a fun one and a polished product regardless!
Pretty cool game concept, took a minute to understan the mechanic. I wish my guy moved a little faster it was really hard trying to collect the metal because you dont know from where the Planets are coming from. Maybe a warning would be helpful?
@articulated9 Thanks for the feedback, you make a really good point regarding the fairness of the game.
Could you put the controls and objective on the game page somewhere? The game window is too tall for my screen and I think that parts of the controls/objective sections are being cut off.
The character moves too slowly and it kinda renders the early game frustrating and pointless. But it went better as the game progressed. Also, it fits the theme very well.
Presentation wise, this game did very little to sell me on it, but once I got in I was actually really impressed! The conflicting desires to protect the planet and to allow it to get destroyed was a very interesting trade off! For this reason, I wonder if adding warning markers would actually be that good an idea, since being able to run around the planet faster once it's smaller was a unique for of progression. Maybe a very short warning, so reducing the planet's size is still useful?
I also liked how the colour for the asteroids and planet was randomised every game. It was a small touch, but showed more care was put into the graphics than was immediately obvious.
One problem I did have was with how ineffective the jump was, both for clearing craters and for getting past the spaceship. I'd suggest allowing players to have a larger jump, so they don't ever get stuck.
This game was satisfying enough that I played it all the way through, so congratulations on that!
Pixel art pulled me on this one to give it a try. At first I struggled a bit with the movementspeed which could be a bit faster:P Besides that I had a lot of fun playing this. And like other people mentioned before, you need some kind of indicator because you can't walk to the other end of the planet in time which is a bit unfair. But these things can be adjusted quite quickly so I hope you find some time to improve these points :-)
Cheers
Interesting take on an old idea. Need some polishing but it was fun. Never build the spaceship though. It was too hard. you could add a indicator to where the meteors are coming from. that might make it a little bit easier. Planets destruction was very cool by the way:vulcan:
Enjoyed the experience and the art style. Some retro sound effects could have been nice but a fun little game. Cheers.
I liked the idea here, I think it was quite original! Also the art did it's job well, although some audio would've been nice :) With a bit tuning for a bit more fluid and clear controls (perhaps faster and a usefull jump?) and instructions it could be really nice!
Cool tech, figuring out how 'build' worked took a while
Nice idea! Had a lot of fun jumping around the world and trying to hit the meteors with rocks. I'm a fan of the simplistic graphics too, although some sound effects would have made the whole game feel so much more complete. Good job on your first game jam entry :)
A fun little game. I would suggest that the building aspect to be explained a bit more. I knew that I could make a stack of metal but I wasn't too sure how to use that to make the game any easier for me. Overall, I liked it.
Nice work with the terrain generation! I think I see how you implemented it... a clever way to create a nice effect with a simple approach if I'm right.
Throwing the stones was another highlight, and I also liked the way the ammo came from the asteroids.
I managed to get the hang of it, and build a bit of my ship. But I never got all the way. I agree with the other commenter above about it feeling a bit cheap that I can't get around the planet to make a shot. But still, there were shots on the edge of gettable and it was fun to try to sprint over, leap into the air, and still get the shot.
In my final life I had some nice moments of just getting a rock off in time to save my ship and myself.
A game like the that's all about things crashing into each other, it would really benefit a lot from some sound to bring the impacts to life.
Nice entry.
Very hard to understand. A small tutorial would be helpfull!
That was a really weird experience for me. On the one hand the game feels very raw, with no audio whatsoever and a few game-breaking bugs. On the other hand I couldn't put it down although I failed to build the ship to completion for over half an hour (I got to twelve metal parts, how many do you need?). I think your game is a diamond in the rough.
I love what you did with the deformable terrain. It was a very clever trick building the planet from circles and removing each one on impact. The graphics were low-res, but very fitting in a retro way. The missing music is regrettable but missing sound effects is a crime for this genre. I liked the planet changing color each round. I also liked the core mechanics, balancing the need for stones against the planet's health. I feel that one could have been explored a bit more.
About the bugs: I was able to shoot my ship into space with a rock. Not only was that frustrating, but it also broke the game, because the guy didn't want to build a new one after that. The other bug occurs when the ship is hit by an asteroid while the guy is building it. If that happens, the poor guy never finishes his building animation and gets stuck. A minor issue was that I had to get really close to the ship in order to upgrade it. Also the clickable area for the menu items was shifted a bit, so it took me a bit to figure out where to press the buttons.
Now, I hope you don't mind if I shoot some possible improvements your way \*cracks knuckles\*.
First, I would suggest you head over to bfxr and create some cheap explosions for the asteroid impact, that should take about 30 seconds. Next, add some screenshake, and while at it take some more advice from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U.
With these two changes you will already notice a world of difference.
Now, personally I would tweak the mechanics a bit. Having the throwing stones interact with the ship doesn't add anything to the game so I'd get rid of it. I would increase gravity a little for the guy, the metal parts and the ship, so everything responds a bit faster when upset. I feel a round of the game is too long for dying in one hit, so maybe add some lives. Maybe make the guy a bit faster. While at it, why not make everything a bit faster, have more asteroids appear at the same time, while making the planet a bit more sturdy. Don't destroy the ship immediately but have the asteroids take away the last upgrade.
I know that the changes in the last paragraph will totally change the feel of the game, so please only understand it as a place to start exploring different mechanics and see what works and what doesn't. I would really be interested in replaying the game should you decide to keep working on it. So drop me a line in case you're doing a post-Compo version.
This is a great game. It's fun with conflicting goals to be balanced to succeed. I wasn't able to escape but enjoyed trying.
Sound fx and a better UI would really make this gem shine. Thanks for the fun!
My words pretty much boil down to what @cerno-b said. Music or at least sound effects would be great for the game. Everything else is good, especially the terrain. I did not encounter bugs.
Really good Ideas here with something that, maybe a little more polished could be a great game. The early game is a little slow but in the same time it allow us to comprehend what to do. Some audio feedback would have totally changed the feeling of the game. However , this is wonderful work! Good job!
Thanks to everyone trying out the game, especially @cerno-b, really valuable feedback overall. I'll be sure to take it into account in the future!
I really like the idea and how the asteroids deform the planets. The building is fun but i didn't like that the asteroids destroyed the whole build. Well done though! We made a game with gravity physics as well, check it out if you want: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/42-mikronikus
Challenging game! I think my ship almost was complete, and then it was hit by a meteor :( Really enjoyed it, but I found the build controls to be kind of unresponsive. It wasn't really clear when you was building successfully.
This game has a lot of potential, I really like it but I died so many time either trying to make my ship and a meteor falling on me or by the planet getting beat to pieces, with a bit of balance and like people pointed out, alerts when meteors fall this will be a really awesome game!