FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD39 → There's No Place Like Home

There's No Place Like Home

By remzo

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3333.4959
Fun5372.9659
Innovation2263.4158
Theme1064.0159
Graphics1564.1759
Audio3973.0158
Humor3612.5551
Mood2123.6157

Comments

jamie-mcclenaghan 2017-07-31 22:46

I love the art style. And the asteroids.

littlelegend 2017-07-31 22:55

Its a bit bizzare to be onest, but in a good way XD It has a unique Atmoshere and the Asteroids feel really powerfull. Gameplay is ok and supports the rest well :)

peremily 2017-07-31 23:02

I loved the feel and the atmosphere, it felt very odd but enjoyable

arnage 2017-08-01 14:20

It's a bit hard to respond to the asteroids in time, but overall the style is indeed properly weird in a good way :)

remzo 2017-08-01 14:43

Thanks for playing, everyone! Did you all actually manage to escape?

rijnswand 2017-08-01 15:25

Nice idea, and excellent execution! I, like the others, loved the mood and graphics.

The beeping sound gets a bit annoying after a while, but, overall, this is a great entry.

pouleyketchoupp 2017-08-01 15:55

Really nice! Your game is visually interesting and the concept is promising. I like the mysterious atmosphere and the possibilities around exploring unknown objects and testing interactions.

About my playthrough: I enjoyed the trial and error mechanics. In order to figure out what's going on, I started again several times to try different things.

I didn't manage to escape or to use the TV set (?) in the right side. I don't know how other people manage, but maybe the difficulty is slightly too high? After some time it started to become frustrating when I was stuck on my attempts to fill the energy level, put the shield on/off and avoid meteorites at the same time.

As a suggestion, more feedback on the incoming meteorites might help. It could lead to a more solid gameplay by letting the player strategize a little bit to order their different actions, once they understand how it works.

Hope that helps :)

remzo 2017-08-01 16:06

Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback @pouleyketchoupp! The TV set is a little bit of a joke since I only placed it there to be smacked by an asteroid. You should not be watching TV when trying to escape! If I had more time I would activate its socket and display something on the screen (maybe static) but at the moment it can't be interacted with.

eott 2017-08-01 16:48

Very nice game! I think the difficulty is just right - I died twice but escaped on the third attempt due to strategic switching between the shield and the spaceship.

The graphics are also good and help build the atmosphere. What I was, pleasantly, surprised by are the controls. They're minimal and do exactly what one would expect. I hadn't to think about it for a second.

daniel 2017-08-01 19:38

Very cool look and colour choices. I think I got lucky because I escaped on my first try.

remco 2017-08-01 22:06

I got it working on Linux, as you requested people try. I had some trouble with getting it to work full-screen until I tried my native resolution (see my comment on your post for a screenie).

I like the subtle 'Geiger-counter-like' warning for the asteroids that isn't really explained, but easily grasped. ... But not explaining things also leeds people to assume the TV is important.

Really like the art-style in this. Neon seems to be the hip thing this time around for some other entries as well (but different enough thankfully) :smile:

jorbits 2017-08-02 00:08

The game looks great on the pictures, sadly my pc won't run it. Windows defender is blocking it. It always pops up a bugged window, where I'm not able to click the 'run anyway' button.

kapricorn-media 2017-08-02 00:18

I loved it! This gets surprisingly stressful and intense once you've almost charged up your spaceship. I liked the vibrant, in-your-face coloring. I see you mentioned the TV was put there as a joke, that's great. If it actually displayed something it would've been great, though. While I was playing, I was just confused by it.

Simple game that, I think, is very effective. I wouldn't say it's too difficult. It's difficult enough to keep you on your toes, which is always the ideal difficulty!

veak 2017-08-02 00:26

It was very difficult but I finally escaped. I love this game.

angela-he 2017-08-02 00:34

It doesn't work on my Mac - I get "You can't open the application 'ld39-020817' because it may be damaged or incomplete." I really love the graphics, though. :(

indiemaniac 2017-08-02 00:45

that battery silo or whatever seems useless, maybe i needed another cable or something like that the art is pretty good *edit realized now its a ship, even better :P

jwin 2017-08-02 01:26

I really liked the vibrant but simple art style!

moostifur 2017-08-02 01:35

Man, this is a pretty looking game. Love the use of film grain and chromatic aberration on the peripheries. Enjoyable to play as well; like the experimentation required to progress. Great job!

arthur-iung 2017-08-02 01:38

Great fun, but I have not found a purpose other than staying alive. The art is very beautiful, with this tonality of Normal Map, in addition to the minimalist art that worked well together. The fact of having only one source of energy is very interesting, but I do not see why not always keep the shield. Maybe give more purpose to the other machines? =)

kakureta 2017-08-02 01:51

Very nice and unique art style I love it. The game felt a bit difficult but maybe I'm just bad ahah

brendan-engelman 2017-08-02 02:25

Cool game! I really like the art, and the animations all feel very smooth. The gameplay is difficult but fun.

remzo 2017-08-02 08:38

Thanks for playing and all the feedback!

@angela-he: I think there was a problem with the .zip file. I think I have fixed it now. Please try again. @arthur-iung: Your purpose is to escape! Stay alive while you fully power your ship.

flukeshot 2017-08-02 09:58

That beeping sound is perhaps too alarming - it did annoy me a little. I found the game very challenging to say the least. A more gentle difficulty curve may have helped me. I did like the look of the whole thing though.

jorbits 2017-08-02 10:22

I got it running now.

I was not able to escape. I felt it was a bit difficult. The environment looks really good, the colors fit.

justinooncx 2017-08-02 15:43

It took me a while to figure out what the heck I was supposed to do (at least two minutes to figure out I can pick up the power socket, and another minute to figure out I can't plug in the TV), but once I got the hang of it it was rather simple. Pump energy into rocket, hear lots of beeps, pump energy into shields. A little too simple, although the lack of clarity on what the player must do and how to do them certainly makes it a tad difficult. Glad I read the instructions! The art style is pretty pleasant, though; I'm a sucker for abstract simplicity. All in all, a short experience, but not a bad one~

Also, I won't ask how CO2 emissions and damaged ozone layers cause meteor showers.

yetman 2017-08-02 18:27

That was fun. The art style and sounds are awesome. I felt that the grain effect helped shape a mood of being in a dangerous place (noisy screens scare me a bit). After a few trials, I finally got a grasp of what I should do and for a short game, that is okay since the penalty of losing while exploring is not very punishing.

randomphantom 2017-08-03 14:46

Very gorgeous graphics in this one, love the shield effect. Got to escape, there was some nice escalation there at the end. Simple gameplay loop, but im not sure if I like the ragdoll effect as it doesn't feel very cohesive with the style of the game.

terribly-awesome-games 2017-08-04 00:21

I was going to say "gorgeous graphics", but I'm not sure how helpful that would be given that I'm sure you know this already since everyone is saying it. But it's true - gorgeous graphics, really makes the game a pleasure to play when combined with the cool sound effects.

I found the game slightly difficult, and a few of the animations, such as grabbing the plug and seeing what appeared to be the power cable breaking were slightly confusing. But overall this is one of my favorites visually so far.

terribly-awesome-games 2017-08-04 03:31

I also really like the way you made the asteroids. Just now noticing that they are spheres inside rotated cubes. Really cool.

player2point0 2017-08-04 13:45

A really beautiful game that reminds me of no man's sky style.

eptwalabha 2017-08-04 21:18

Nice game, you should put a text at the beginning (at least the controls) to guide the player about what to do... I stood and died like an idiot on my first play because I thought I was in a sort of cut-scene. The graphics are nice, but the player looks a bit like all the other devices. Once again, nice game and good job.

pavel-kouril 2017-08-04 21:27

I love the graphic style.

Also, how did you do the "rope" physics for the plug?

remzo 2017-08-04 21:43

@terrible-awesome-games: Thanks! I can't model, so I had to make do with what I had!

@pavel-kouril: It's a simple line renderer that I manipulate the positions of manually using [Hooke's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooke%27s_law) to connect each position with the positions next to it as if connected by 2 springs (except for the end points). Glad you enjoyed it!

jahndis 2017-08-05 03:02

This was pretty nerve wracking! Beautiful art style too. Nice work with this.

ruerob-hyky 2017-08-05 12:00

Hahaha! What a great game!! It is really fun to manage the plug change and the tapping. :0) The renderer looks beautiful and I like the colors! :0) It's really fun! Thanky you for this game! :0)

captain-laserstorm 2017-08-05 13:39

Cool art style! Also, the concept is pretty interesting. However, its pretty hard to plug in the machines, which can make it a little frustrating at times. But overall this is a pretty interesting game. :)

smbe19 2017-08-05 14:40

I'm not really sure, what the game wants to tell me... But it looks very cool and the audio creates a nice mood.

thinkofname 2017-08-05 15:35

Love the art style the game was pretty confusing however. I'm still not sure how you are meant to manage the shields and power the ship at the same time by juggling the plug. I always ended up getting hit.

Fun idea though

tori 2017-08-05 16:13

Beautiful game ! it was a bit hard at first, took me time to understand what to do and how to play, and i couldn't finish, but it's a cool game, and i love the idea !

simonhutchinson 2017-08-05 20:52

This is a neat game. I love the vaporwave graphics and the controls. It's a little opaque how to best split your resources. Maybe if the shield stayed up a little longer after you pull the plug? I know I'm trying to allocate resources well, but I don't feel like I have enough guidance how to do so.

spetsdod 2017-08-05 23:46

Visually a very interesting game. I liked the graphic style. I felt like it was a bit hard to get the plug into the sockets from time to time, and for me, trying to switch the plug between the ship and the shield was not an option. The power cell drained too fast so trying to switch it from one to the other would have been tough. Overall, a good submission for LD. I would be interested to see where you take it from here. I never managed to get the ship charged, so I don't know if there are more levels later, or if this marks the whole game. Thank you for the game, all the same.

togis 2017-08-06 02:44

I uploaded my gameplay of this game on youtube, you can find it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HmqIOA3LDE

Thanks for being part of the stream :)

kubenexion 2017-08-06 10:48

Great game, with nice graphics and mood.

I succeed to escape by only plug the generator to the ship and pumping, without using the shield. I think that the game needs a better balancing, but it's a really cool jam entry!

klianc09 2017-08-06 12:42

Looks really cool. Spent too long trying to power the TV. Didn't understand at first, what the beeping was connected with, and just panicked and got annoyed. Maybe try to have a small light blinking when it beeps, so the player knows, where the beeping comes from. Also plugging the power cord in could be a bit more forgiving, sometimes dropped it accidentally. Eventually I managed to escape, but with the decharging escape pod, I felt like Sisyphus.

delalandii 2017-08-06 13:58

I finally escaped! Nice game with a simple but well developed concept. It seems harder than it is when you start, but after playing several times I don't think the complaints about difficulty are justified.

vodzik 2017-08-06 14:10

Nice! I think the TV should explode, so it would not be confusing :)

schizoid2k 2017-08-06 16:40

Interesting and fun idea. I liked the style.

roguenoodle 2017-08-10 16:23

Really fun! Managed to escape after a couple of attempts - the trick (for me) was finally getting the rhythm of the generator pump. I had to play it muted, unfortunately - the sound of the pump hit some pretty ear piercing pitches that made it actually painful to play. I like that the radar at least provided some visual feedback for the escalating meteorite attacks - nice touch. Excellent entry overall.

seconddimension 2017-08-12 16:23

I personally found this a bit too difficult, I wonder if it might have been easier with a gamepad? I think it was just that you couldn't really respond to the asteroids quick enough (it was hard to quickly move the plug). I know that the generator pump was a big part of the game, but I think it could have been fun if the power recharged whenever the plug wasn't connected - so you could run around trying to avoid the asteroids until the power had recharged.

The idea and atmosphere were both very good though, it was sort of mysterious but it also made me smile. The colours you used were really cool. Also the asteroid impacts were amazing, they felt super powerful.

blinry 2017-08-12 21:35

I tried three times, and while I got better at surviving, I didn't manage to escape! :(

The graphics are really well-done, and it's fun to explore the scene to find out how it works! Very literal interpretation of the theme, I enjoyed it! Overall, this is a very impressive entry!

EDIT: I managed to escape on my fourth try! It gets a little repetitive, but it's a good challenge! :)

lukezaz 2017-08-14 02:34

Very nice graphics! The gameplay could use touching-up, given how repetitive it was, and the music would obviously add to the experience, but even without that you managed to make a very pretty game that was enjoyable to play. Nicely done!

franklins-ghost 2017-08-19 15:17

The colours in this are great, loved the visual vibe going on. Did have issues where at times as I was pulling the cord the wire would disappear and I'd be left with just the plug. Which for me was good cause it meant I could carry it wherever I wanted but did seem to be a bug. The forcefield looked really good when it came in and charged up.

2017-09-04 16:25

Nice graphics! I included it in my Ludum Dare 39 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtKz5DBYziE