Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Aircraft Carrier Simulator
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 458 | 2.81 | 23 | |
| Fun | 496 | 2.38 | 23 | |
| Innovation | 126 | 3.57 | 23 | |
| Theme | 360 | 3.14 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 212 | 3.47 | 23 | |
| Humor | 266 | 2.52 | 21 | |
| Mood | 482 | 2.40 | 22 |
I played the WebGL version of the game. I tried really hard for about 20 minutes, but couldn't understand where the catapult was to get the planes to fly. Mechanically it was difficult to control the aircraft at first since they seem to have some sort of weird momentum, but it got easier with practice. Could somebody confirm the catapult is working and, if so, where it is?
@LarsDK If you look at the image above, the two catapults are where the two planes on the left are standing.
So I've put in my review. The game was interesting in that I haven't seen an air carrier simulator before, so top marks for innovation. It's an intruiging interpretation of the theme and I can definitely see the potential in it.
The 3D models were very good - maybe a bit more of a hull on the ship would be nice but it was ok. The "water" under the ship was a bit basic - it kinda looked like I was floating on clouds - and there weren't a lot of other interesting effects. I liked the splashes when I accidentally moved a plane off the tarmac, those were cool. The take offs and landings were cool, too.
The gameplay didn't really have a ton of depth. One plane at a time controls meant that mostly I was just waiting for the little plane to roll to the right spot. This wasn't helped by the UI lacking a bit, including tons of time trying to do something as simple as finding the catapult. I liked the little chat messages I got from the pilots. Overall it felt like I had no real decisions in this game - I was just dragging planes around to watch them take off and land. Even collisions between planes had no significant effects. On the plus side, the mechanics that were there, didn't have major bugs.
Final verdict: I really liked the concept. The execution probably could have used some further thought. Still, congrats on an interesting game and good luck :)
I agree with Lars. Interesting concept but the gameplay lacks depth.
But it's a good idea so there's lots of ways to add more depth. For example more resources and needs like money, morale, damage/repairs, ship crew, etc...
Did take me more time than nescesary to find out, that the planes need to go to the start of the dark grey lines. I manouvered them onto those rectangle shapes hopeng they would fly off. The chat messages where very funny, so you score with that! Landing on other planes or a physics glitch here and there also brought a smile on my face. As stated in other reviews it lacks a bit gameplay, but it was quite fun to play.
Very cool
definitely haven't see a game like it, i don't understand what sending the planes out really did, I kept sending them right to the catapults but the enemy was still getting closer (the first time i heard the catapult sound i got very spooked).
it would also be nice to see how many planes want to land, because was just clicking the land aircraft button.
I did find the game very slow paced, aircraft would go down and up so slow
Fun for a while then got repetitive. Great graphics for such short development time. This would be a good time/resource management game if there were more tasks to do.
Interesting idea!
I like the idea of managing a squad of planes as opposed to playing the actual combat itself. This is very unique. I think it would be a lot of fun to have a variety of planes to chose from, maybe with different loadouts to counter the incoming fleet.
Uniqe concept, and great retro style graphics, like an old simulator game. I liked very much the Top Gun quotes.
Haha, this was awesome, love sims like these. I think some more polishing would do good as others mentioned, but very cool nonetheless!
Firstly I want to congratulate you on the graphics you created. That must have taken a pretty significant amount of time! I'm very impressed with the amount you achieved in 48 hours! As mentioned above there is a lack of depth to the game in its current form but there is certainly a solid basis for a resource management game. You could add the gameplay of "Flight Control" as well as managing refuelling and rearming the aircraft. I hope you continue to develop this further!
Congratulations, the models seem quite solidand the game seems like a bit of simulation (resource management). The game lacks some more depth, but as this is for jam I guess it is still perfectly fine.
I miss to see some actual combat (although I know that it is impossible to do it in such short time).
Good models, physics and idea/concept. But wasnt really my type of game...not much happening and in the end I ended up just sabotaging it all and pushing other jets of the board :D But it is a good entry! Nice job
Cool idea, buggy as all hell.
Well, the gameplay isn't all that deep (as others have said), and the plane movement was pretty buggy (again, as others have said). But I must say I was rather amused by the message when I sent a plane into the water :P
And honestly, for a compo entry it looks really nice graphically!
This was an interesting one, I play around with the planes for a while but i couldn't get one to fly successfully. I do enjoy the overall concept but I feel as if the controls could been handled a little better. The models were really well made nice work
Interesting idea. It took me a little bit to figure out that I needed to zoom out, but once I did that it went fairly smoothly. I could never get the distance to enemy to decrease, though (not sure if that's intentional). If there's one thing I'd suggest adding, it would be an indicator of the status of all currently flying aircraft.