baben 2017-08-02 20:28
The game was a good idea but maybe to expensive in time for 1 person in 3 days. But you did a playable game and it was good. Very well played !! A little bit hard to move and play.
The music was really cool.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Drifter
By feips
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 639 | 3.03 | 28 | |
| Fun | 698 | 2.70 | 29 | |
| Innovation | 694 | 2.55 | 29 | |
| Theme | 650 | 3.11 | 29 | |
| Graphics | 539 | 3.21 | 30 | |
| Audio | 205 | 3.50 | 30 | |
| Humor | 592 | 1.87 | 26 |
The game was a good idea but maybe to expensive in time for 1 person in 3 days. But you did a playable game and it was good. Very well played !! A little bit hard to move and play.
The music was really cool.
I'm really bad with these momentum based games, but overall I quite like the balance and the upgrades/game loop
This is a really good start! I think there is a really good game in there, it just needs a few tweaks and adjustments. Here are a few suggestions:
-Starting fuel should be a little bit higher, and the first fuel upgrade should be a bit cheaper to get. When you first play the game, as you get used to moving around, that starting fuel is frustratingly low, even just to mine the nearest asteroids, and it takes many, many trips to accumulate enough to get the first upgrade. And its very easy to mine just one asteroid too many and run out of fuel on your way back, and then have to completely start over. That is enough frustration to make someone stop playing immediately!
-Reduced penalty for death. Your progress in the game feels very slow, so losing all cargo and credits on death is basically a reset. Maybe consider having some sort of storage bank you can automatically unload all of your cargo into when you are back to base, so you only lose the cargo that was in your ship upon death, but not what you stored? As for your money, maybe lose half of it instead of all of it. Consider that like, the price of buying a new ship or something! Another recommendation would be to give the player one free "death" at the start of the game, like they get towed, and the first towing is free. Maybe you can pay the towing company a fee after that to get the safety back (starting 1000 units or something, but it doubles every time you use it). Just an idea!
-A bit more play-feedback in general. For instance, an on-screen display of the ore you just collected, when you destroy a asteroid. Maybe small floating text popping up from the asteroid when it disappears, that says like "iron + 7". Also, player should flash and shake upon taking damage, and a warning that your fuel is running out would also be a good idea, making the meter flash etc. Im sure some of this you were already planning to do, its the kind of stuff people sometimes just skip in a game jam setting, but dont underestimate the importance of it, its the kind of stuff that makes the basic actions satisfying and keeps people playing in the short term, while your upgrade systems keep them playing in the long term! Also, sound effects in general would add a lot.
-A possible upgrade would be a minimap? Showing nearby asteroids and the direction of the home base from where you are right now, that would be very useful, but would take away one equipment slot, so people who can do without can have one extra upgrade in exchange.
That was just some suggestions! I'm sure some of this is stuff you already realized since the end of the jam though. Cheers!
Floaty space mining (?) action.
Likes: - starts off with a really nice audio track - very floaty gameplay, feels much better than many jerky space games I played in the Jam - upgrade system... quite impressive! - loving the wording on some of the items. Rockomax fuel tank for the win!
Challenges: - ... but I was for the most part not able to earn any reasonable amount of money? this is hard work. I guess that's what space mining is... - add a tiny grain of parallax to the background starfield and BOOM, feeling of depth and all. - more feedback on mining stuff. took me a while to figure out I was gaining loot
Overall: - promising entry, looking forward to you future jam submissions!
i like the simplicity of the graph and it's a chill game, it's cool ! I agree with Thygrrr, more feedback will be good
I felt a little out of control of the space craft, and some sfx feedback would be nice to know I'm actually hitting the asteroid. I like the audio track and the graphics you had.
Cool experience, I really like the music and I wanted to continue to get the best spacecraft ever x) If I can give you an advice, it is that an arrow should indicate the port. Otherwise, the game is really cool, congrats ! :)
First up i've noticed the audio track to be rather high in pitch, and then comes another higher pitched instrument... it's a bit hard on the ears after a while.
The art is really nice, it looks clean and works very well. The ships trail looks great too!
I first had no idea what to do, just checking the shops. After seeing that many different ores i could sell it was getting clearer this game was about farming ores.
The movement feels nice for slower velocities, if you fly any faster though the ship is uncontrollable.
Oh and you can crash into things, loosing your progress. And that seems to be the biggest threat in the game.
I didn't encounter other ships or maybe even enemies who got in my way. With the movement being rather sluggish i didn't feel much drive to mine more than a few rocks.
Oh, it would have been nice to have the stars move with the player.
Overall: The game is obviously not for me, i still would like to comment on it to hopefully help you improving on it. With that many ores to harvest you've must spent quite a bit of time on it.. With mining being the core gameplay i would work more on the atmosphere, having different shaped rocks, moving parts, stuff that gets more in the way of the player and giving him more reason to upgrade his ship. Thanks for reading
The trail looks great, I like the movement of the ship. I found somehow strange to "undock" with R but after I found the key it was fine :D I somehow got into negative with coal and diamond in my inventory, which surprised me tho :D but good job overall :)
Nice use of the theme and nice concept for the game too! Graphics look nice and the soundtrack really does help set mood for the game. Controls feel nice and the game plays fairly nice, but there are things that can still be polished in the game, for example: - A compass, so you know where to come back to when you drift away too much; - Visual feedback and information when mining, shooting a laser and having the asteroid disappearing doesn't help much, so at least some text with what you just mined would help a lot;
Also, I felt that the initial upgrades were quite expensive. You could introduce them in a progressive way, or make it so that the closest asteroids give enough material to upgrade and make the player feel confident about travelling further.
Overall, the concept is great, I loved it and it can turn into a really nice roguelike game with the right polish. Keep up with the good work and keep making!
Good job there! :D
I really like the aesthetic of the game, retro and utilitarian.
A visual feedback system for the mining of materials and ship/rock collisions could be implemented to aid in clarity.
Colour coding the health, health, laser and fuel UI elements to correspond to the visual output of each would also clarify things for the player off the bat!
Well done, I enjoyed the experience!
Surprisingly difficult game! Took a while to get used to what everything did, and by the time I had explored each of the 4 stations, I was almost out of fuel. Took me a bit of playing to realize I was supposed to destroy the asteroids, THEN sell it at the shop... There was no clear feedback that destroying the asteroids did anything! Still, after a bit of trial and error, I got the gist of the core gameplay loop. Interesting game with a lot of promise.
Not bad! Took me a minute to get used to the controls, but they were fun after that. Liked the music a lot.