kabalatrance 2017-05-01 10:53
I like the mix of the scape shooter, and resource collecting I did't get te goal of the game. Time runs out when I'm on the planet, but increase when i'm flying???
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Limited Space
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 435 | 3.29 | 64 | |
| Fun | 424 | 3.08 | 63 | |
| Innovation | 204 | 3.49 | 63 | |
| Theme | 504 | 3.19 | 63 | |
| Graphics | 421 | 3.41 | 63 | |
| Audio | 271 | 3.24 | 60 | |
| Mood | 420 | 3.16 | 61 |
I like the mix of the scape shooter, and resource collecting I did't get te goal of the game. Time runs out when I'm on the planet, but increase when i'm flying???
@kabalatrance Yeah! Its the time before you´re catched by the gigiant sun explotion. You fly to escape (Increased the time) and land in planets to get resources but loosing that time. The goal its survive as much as you can. Obtain time and resources increase your score.
I like how you merged two games into one and the graphics are quite good. But in my opinion the space part of your game is way too easy and there is no real challenge other then the time running out. Still think it's well polished and all in all a good game, congratulations! We mad a space game too, check it out if you want! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/42-mikronikus
Nice game! I enjoy the feeling of the shoot-em-up part. It felt like the game aimed high with nice graphics, and a multi-mode gameplay, and didn't fully make it there. I think it overall would have benefitted by focusing more on extending and balancing one of the modes. Nevertheless, impressive work for a Ludum Dare!
This was really fun! At first I couldn't figure out why you put in the timer but it made sense the more I played. I got totally screwed by landing on 2 planets with no food or water - which is fine btw - it added a sense of fear to the game.
Graphics were good, music was good, gameplay was good, small world concept was hit - everything was well done!
1380 high score, probably not good but hey!
Really cool hybrid! I found myself completely in the zone trying to look at the timer and what resource I'd need. I was hoping destroying the asteroids would give some resources, you could definitely continue working on this and have some planets to stop by and trade resources and crew. On my first go I noticed that I somehow got a 4th crew member but couldn't say why... maybe a food surplus? I think it would be wise to convey these rules to the player, you had quite minimal guidance (but enough to understand how to play).
The music got a bit repetitive, but it really fit the game! There were some small bugs in moving the crew to the tiles, but I liked the concept a lot!
This game surprised me! When it first opened I thought I was in for a classic-style top-down shooter, but instead I got planet-hopping resource management shenanigans! Innovative mechanics which added depth and replayability to this entry!
A couple of bits of constructive feedback:
- It wasn't immediately clear what the resources were or what they did. I would have really appreciated some tooltip text when mousing over the various UI elements. The text could then also be written in such a way as to flesh out the world and tell the story a bit at a time.
- In a similar vein, it might be good to be a bit more descriptive with the text on the game over screen, so the player knows why they died. Could also be a good opportunity for world building!
- I don't think running out of time while on a planet should be a fail state. In my opinion it would make more sense just to dump you back into space? That might keep game flow going and allow players to make mistakes and learn the resource gathering mechanics without getting punished with a restart? I dunno. Just a thought.
Overall a strong entry though! Enjoyable, quirky and unique :)
Nice job melding two different game ideas! They both seemed to be fleshed out for how little time you had. Good job :)
Definitely one of the best games I've played so far for LD38. Loved the concept and gameplay. Can't wait to see what you are going to do next Ludum Dare.
Very good game. Good mix of different mechanics. The only comment is that the assignment of the astraunauts when landing needs to be more intuitive since it's based on timing. A simple drag and drop of the little astraunauts on the desired square instead of having to click on the square then dragging the portrait.
Hey man the game is really cool! Definitely one of the better ones that I've olayed this time.You used the theme really well.I managed to get to 1300! Great job!!!
Awesome quite fun :)
Got a crash when I tried to land on a planet: ``` ___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ FATAL ERROR in action number 1 of Step Event0 for object o_cell:
Variable o_cell.tem_pop(100005, -2147483648) not set before reading it. at gml_Script_scr_crew_to_cell ############################################################################################ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- stack frame is gml_Script_scr_crew_to_cell (line 0) gml_Object_o_cell_Step_0 ```
It wouldn't let me submit my second record which was 2500 :( cool game though! Took me a while to notice that the timer goes up in space and down on planets, it felt like you could have done more with the planets but just didn't have time to implement everything you could have. Same with the resources, it seemed like there could have been more uses for them, and the health bar, the space level was just too easy to ever die. I like where the idea is going, and hope to see a post mortem status update eventually!
Very impressive game! The graphics are top-notch and the UI looks really smooth. The spaceship controls feel very good, just the landing on the planets is a bit difficult. I am unsure what the resources are used for and if it is worth to land at all. It feels like the time limit is very short, so maybe just flying is better? Not sure how the mechanics work there :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: The sound and music are fantastic and nicely set the mood of the game. The title screen music is also great!
I love the combination of a classic space invaders with some resource strategy elements. It feels like the tile based planets don't really have a purpose though, because you can just put any number of astronauts anywhere. Maybe some additional constraints could make this more interesting. All in all, this is one of my favorite games so far. Very well done guys! :thumbsup:
The idea is intriguing and the presentation top-notch. Unfortunately the design leaves a lot to be desired.
That timer, what is it for? The timer is completely arbitrary and unnecessary. You already have 4 resources to limit the time flying in space and gathering resources on land. Here's my suggestion.
Traveling in space doesn't consume a lot of food or water, as most/all people are in hibernation, but flying consumes fuel and shooting consumes metal. If you run out of fuel the ship will just keep drifting forward until it hits an asteroid and blows up or hits land, a last chance for the crew to collect resources.
Being on land consumes food and water for each working astronaut. Idle astronauts consume no resources at all. This gets rid of the annoyance of having to quickly order the workers to their posts if the resources started draining the moment you land.
With these modifications choosing when to land and when to fly is a much more natural and compelling decision, me thinks. More asteroid and junk floating in space would also add to the risk/challenge of flying, consume more ammo making metal collection more pertinent and just make the whole thing more fun and thematic (in relation to your own *the sun has exploded* idea, that is)
So, good work on putting it together. Some more design and play-testing would have helped.
I liked the two-dimensions, I mean, when you put the cosmonauts and fliying with the ship. The difficulty level is balanced, when you have to manage the time fliying and collected resources. Maybe with more interaction in the planets it could be more a "two-games-in-one". I could imagine many other things, like buying things with the resources, but I know we have not too many time to do all that, any way, it means that the game dynamics it is very interesting, congratulations! (I am in third position!)
Very interesting approach to combining multiple mechanics :) I just don't understand how/why the time system works the way it does! Good entry.
Really cool game ! Very nice graphics and music, they set the right mood, and work just fine with the timer to stress me out :wink: The controls are excellent in the space part, but a bit counter intuitive on the planets. I had trouble at first to understand that I had to click on the portrait of the crewmember to drag it on the right case, and just kept dragging the little astronaut directly where I wanted him(I'm stupid when I'm stressed...). Maybe it would make more sense if they were different type of astraunauts (i.e. one faster to gather food, another one who consumes less ressources when flying, but not so efficient at gathering...), thus allowing us to choose the more adapted one with the portraits... Some people said it before, but I also fell like a mouseover text giving a little more explonation on some ressources (what is the purpose of the sand/rock one ?) and the health bars (the one on the left drains when I'm out of water and food, but I don't get the right one). I liked the fact that some key ressources aren't available on all planets, and that some planets are ressourceless, because it forces you to explore more... Great game overall ! I won't say "the best I tried this LD", because it's the first I tried, but really nice entry :smiley:
@wheerd thanks for the notice ^^. I work to fix it.
Thanks to all for the comments. I will try improve and expand the game and apply any of this tips.
Nice hybrid! The time mechanic is pretty great, but I died from it my first two tries because I didn't realize the timer was counting down. Changing the color of the count down text would be helpful to indicate the direction it's going. Great game!
The concept of the hybrid is great with a strong visual/UI polish but I feel a simplification of systems and more efficient navigation of the interface could have really helped it shine more.
|+ A great overall style and atmosphere, landing on the rectangular planets and how they build out makes for fun visuals and charm. |+ Balancing your resources and hoping the next block of land has what you need creates nice tension. |+ The combination of mechanics (flying in space and collecting resources on separated land) feels like a natural and great combination
|- It's not obvious what resources you need to help maintain what part of your ship. |- Having to select the tile astronauts are on before moving them to another tile feels unnecessary and interrupts the flow of gameplay when you're limited by time (otherwise it would have felt tactile). |- The navigation of asteroids felt empty compared to the resource management.
Maybe if you had asteroids hint at what they had in them visually, and you have to attack them to access blocks to land on it could help both add to the asteroid segment and connect both areas of the game even more with a constant thread of engagement. Also if resources were gathered quicker but could run out it would increase the value of finding blocks with multiple lakes/etc while increasing the games momentum while giving you more reason to move your characters around. Adapting or combining resources may help the game be more accessible as a fun small experience, for example color coding the resources and having both food and water keep one bar afloat separate to the others. Regardless you've got a solid idea here that was great fun to try, so I hope you're able to find a way to strengthen it even more :)!
Really nice game, you could explain the resources (i didnt understand what the stone cube does?) and how the timer works
The game concept is great! I really like this survival aspect. The game is enjoyable and I think has potential to be a full product someday. And I love the way planet chunks shows up!
I Played this on Livestream Today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_6NTcovuI0 The Video doesn't seem to have recorded (It happens occasionally), but the Audio is there. I had the game crash when I was dragging astronauts around. If I have time later (And you get a patch in) I may give it another shot as I liked the concept.
Very good game! This is a very well done game with a good concept, great visuals, music, and is well executed. The hybrid concept is very cohesive with the fact that it is balanced between flying through space helps gain time, but you still have to lose some while gaining resources on planet fragments. Very nice job!
Pros: Your game, like I said before, is very well executed and polished. It has very good graphics and UI as well as good background music that sets the mood. The game play is not terribly difficult to figure out, but still presents a challenge that is fun and interesting.
Cons: You could add slightly more text or possibly a tutorial to help people figure out the controls just a little better. What you have so far is great, and having a tutorial or more text describing the controls would make it even better. Also, having to click on the tile the astronaut is on to move him is a little tedious as well. Maybe having the selection buttons for them always at the bottom to make it easier to move them would make the game run a little more smoothly. Other than that, I think it is very well done.
Overall, this is a very well done game and I think it is a great game for only 72 hours of development time (It seems like a lot until it isn't). Amazing job! :)
I like the 2 types of games inside this one. Graphics are cool and music is amazing! A very good graphics effects when you go down on a planet (I love Game Maker ;D).
I really liked the concept of two games! The art and the music was on point! I really enjoyed playing this! :D
The game runs very well, has a nice gameplay and good implementation. Maybe you could add bigger sprites to clearly see when you shoot and hit the asteroids and other enemies as well, good job!
Your idea is great, I love that grab and run feel of it, and I think the part with the timer works great for that, I'll agree with others here that the asteroid shooting needs more challenge,but overall the game is challenging already!
I like the time limited resource gathering, that part looks really pretty, good work o the graphics! the music is nice, it fits and does not distract from the game itself. I'm still not sure what the resources do, I manage to stay rather long with all of them on zero without Dying.. a small tutorial/explanation would have helped.
Please expand on this, I'd love to play a game like that! I think it has potential. Great entry, thanks for making it ^^
Cool game! I loved the resource management part, really cool! Anyway I found an exploitation: infact I made 3950 (I'm in first place!), you need only to take water and nothing else, so you can go on for the maximum time! Maybe you need to balance this aspect of the game! Anyway, really good job! :)
I like this game and the frantic intensity it creates. The timer and resource aspect really helps with that. As I see others have said, The space part is way too easy. You can pretty much ignore any resources but food and water and just dodge asteroids. I know that content and difficulty is always capped by the time restraint though. I felt that the health meter should drop quicker, but be replenished more quickly as well. I feel that would make it feel even more risky, without actually making to prohibitively harder.
This is a really cool idea, combining two different genres. I like the shoot-em-up part though it might be a bit to easy, but I absolutely love the resource management part. Still, both parts together create an interesting dynamic. Cool game! :smile:
Also I think the music is awesome, it really gets you pumped for the game and creates tension. And the graphics were nice too, it's always clear what is what.
One minor nitpick: It took me a few seconds to figure out what to do on the planets, the tutorial could be a bit more... "visible" (I only played the original LD version, but I will take a look at the new one later.)
Anyway, I had a lot of fun. :smiley:
This is a really solid game! You did a really great job and managed to get in a lot of different elements. I wish there had been a more over-arching objective other than just the time running out. But overall, very well done! :)
Best game I have played yet. Loved the music and atmosphere. It took me a couple of plays to figure out what was going on, but I liked the game play. I didn't really have too much I didn't like about this, although I would of made the bullets larger. It is very difficult to seem them sometimes. Great Job!
It would be cool to see (in the future) :) -Enemy space ships that shoot at you. -Bonus time items. -Ultra rare resource spawn like +2water/+3water. -Upgrade your ship with resources that collected. -Recruit more space dudes. -Space dudes can die during resource gathering if trying to collect rare resources.
And again, thanks to everyone!
I'm still working on the game. I have many ideas and I want to apply your advice, so keep an eye on itchio; D
Some ideas that I will apply at some point:
- Possibility for crew members to die on planets - Recruiting more crew - Variety of enemies in the space part - Collect secondary resources to improve the ship (And more things ...) - Add a final goal to the game in addition to getting the highest score - Limit the resources that are removed from each box - Different types of tile
And more...
Interesting merging of genres. I wish you could speed up the planet phase, since it's pretty boring. I'm not sure what I needed the rock/ore resource for. But overall, very cool idea. Good job!
It was quite confusing, but a very interesting game nonetheless. Graphics fit pretty well and I liked the mixed genres!
Interesting project which fits originally with the theme. I like this gameplay. The timer and resource aspect really helps with that. At start, it was a little bit confusing :) Overall, an impressive entry ++
It took me a while to figure out what I was meant to be doing. On the first play-through I actually thought the green squares were power-ups so I was flying close to them thinking I was powering up my ship or similar. It wasn't until I noticed the message in the bottom left of the screen that I discovered I should land on these "Small Worlds" (I see what you did there).
Overall this is a nice idea and well polished given the time constraints. Of course there are a few minor issues such as:
* When dragging an astronaut to a location - I always seemed to end up putting him in the square above the one I actually wanted! * A little tutorial text on the title-screen would be nice
Nice work!
hey sweet game! i really liked the console that typed the tutorial and informs the player throughout the game. i especially liked the little glitch effect that the console does every now and then. although i must say that the typing speed of the console is much to slow, it should be faster. i also think that you should add a button to skip the tutorial for players that have died and are restarting the game. the music was nice and fit well with the game. the UI was fantastic! really nice job with that, it made the game feel clean and tight. i think the player bullets should be larger. another thing that might be nice is when a player is landed on the remains of a planet and time is running out, a warning alarm when time reaches a certain number would be a nice touch i think. i also think it would make sense for the crew members to have to return to the ship in order to leave the planet. it was unclear whether or not gathering resources was faster if more crew members where on that tile. for example if two crew members were gathering resources from the same tile, i think it should collect faster than if one crew member were gathering. i think the game needs a little more balance as time seems to run out very quickly and resources gather very slowly. i also think it would be nice if at the game over screen you included text that tells how you had a game over. for example, 'game over, you ran out of food." because there were a few times that i had a game over and i had no idea why. i really like the concept and i had fun playing. i can see a lot of potential in this game and i think you should continue to work on it and expand the game! great work!
Challenging, complex 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=nf9jH1KZdXw
This was a really cool concept, I liked the reciprocity of the timers a lot. The graphics (and especially the HUD) were nicely done, and the music was energetic and fun. Good job!