FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → Memories of a Captain

Memories of a Captain

By owlycode

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1403.5647
Fun1643.4046
Innovation1843.2645
Theme2103.4147
Graphics1373.7047
Audio703.6246
Humor2552.6340
Mood973.5747

Comments

mia-devs 2019-04-29 19:05

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD IDEA

flightless 2019-04-29 19:07

Great mood and graphics. The game was extremely fast on my machine, it was not humanly possible to dodge the asteroids. Or maybe that is by design and you are a Jedi.

notsoepicgames 2019-04-29 19:17

Great idea, the music creates an amazing mood and the story is moving! I think that the difficulty curve could've been a little smoother as near the start it wasn't that intense and then it got much more difficult. I think a gradual increase in asteroids could work.

rustycrow 2019-04-29 19:24

Damn dude, this game was intens. You dont become a hero by making easy decision. The effects of these game really immersed me into the whole space ship through asteroid belt. Even when reaching the space station it felt good how it came at you only to come to a slow halt, Very cool :clap:INTENS.PNG

nick-rafalski 2019-04-29 19:29

This is a super polished game for 48 hours! I like the little details like the asteroids being less dense at the start of a segment so you can read the story text. Speaking of which, the story is very good. I'm not sure if it was just my monitor, but I found the overall scene to be very dark which made seeing the asteroids hard to see. Overall it was still a really fun and well made game

owlycode 2019-04-29 19:31

@flightless Thank you for playing! Here's what speed should be on the level 2, is it different on your machine ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0VmETDrJng

I found out that I forgot to use a delta time in my movements in the compo release... I'll upload a bugfixed version.

@Mia-devs Thank you for playing !

sassages 2019-04-29 19:31

Despite the mechanic being really simple, I had a blast playing the game. It was really stressful getting through the last level. The sad part is that I bought the final shield upgrade, but when I made it through the final asteroid belt, I never got hit, so I never actually needed it :(. I liked the story as well, gave a nice feeling of progression, but the ending was kinda sad. I assume there are better endings if you don't get upgrades :P

In terms of the dialog, I'd suggest you move it closer to the center of the screen, I keep having to look at the bottom left to read the dialog, even though I should be looking at the center to navigate. Secondly, the difficulty may be a bit steep for a ludum game, most people want to finish the game in 5 minutes and move on, for what its worth I couldn't put the game down until I finished it. Finally, you should consider making a web build so that it's easier for people to play the game.

Besides those negative points, great game! (And cool music too, forgot to mention that)

flightless 2019-04-29 19:56

@owlycode Here is a video from my machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU1NwQHPMzQ

owlycode 2019-04-29 20:04

@notsoepicgames @rustycrow @nick-rafalski @sassages Thank you so much for your time and playing this game. All the efforts I put in it are rewarded knowing the fun you had with it.

I spotted a bug with the framerate that was reported an hour ago by @flightless and will provide a bugfixed version.

I'll pay a visit to your game soon, but first I need a good sleep :)

owlycode 2019-04-29 20:49

@flightless I uploaded a fixed version, let me know if you encounter any trouble with it ;)

c0d3d 2019-04-30 01:10

This was a great entry! At first I thought it was really boring. However, the difficulty really is unique in the ludem dare and it was a welcome change! I really liked all of it honestly with the difficulty, mood, and music being the best in my opinion. My only compaint was when I had to look down to read the dialogue only to find that I ran into an asteroid

ruddgasm 2019-04-30 01:11

Great premise, one of the more creative uses of the theme and I like that. This game is definitely unique. The art is simple but effective and the story is cool too. All in all it was fun to play.

owlycode 2019-04-30 08:20

@c0d3d @ruddgasm Thank you for playing! Indeed those dialogues in the asteroids phase of the game are a problem. I dropped some tasks from the todo list to complete the game in time and shouldn't have dropped the UI/UX review.

kylazaur 2019-04-30 23:37

Reaallyy good, would like to of have some audio feedback for the text when the game starts and for it to be more readable, but great game!

minibobbo 2019-05-01 01:26

I didn't read the comments and just started with the original version. I was wondering how this game was possible :) I really enjoyed the game and the your take on the theme. The music and mood was great and the graphics were simple, but did the job extremely well. This was a very nice entry!

You should keep the super fast version of the game as sort of a hard mode. I made it all the way to level 3 before giving up and reading the comments!

marcus-gambit 2019-05-01 01:55

Very nice looking game with a rich and effective atmosphere. I wonder how you manage to do that in a week-end. I felt like a jedi dodging the asteroids : I am not good at this kind of game but it made me feel good at it! I like also the humor "She found a new job as a waitress on Kaz-III" :smile: Of course, as others already said, I would place the text in a place where it's easier to read while flying. Maybe, during the text, there could be less asteroids ? Also, I didn't understand how to use the engine upgrades and why it's good to buy them. Very nice job anyway!

owlycode 2019-05-01 02:14

Thank you for playing! It makes me really happy to know the game is enjoyed.

@minibobbo I thought I could make an endless mode as a separate game that keeps getting faster and faster, denser and denser and tells you how far you went so you can compete with others. When the LD play+rate is over maybe?

@marcus-gambit Concerning the engine upgrades, it increases the translation speed so you can dodge better.

mantou 2019-05-01 05:53

Nice graphics and nice audio. But I can't read the text when I drive. Anyway, good job.

michaelsonbritt 2019-05-01 09:24

Holy cow, after ancient years of flight sims, it blows my mind pressing the "UP" to travel upwards.

Otherwise, looks very nice, and beautiful music. The second level asteroid belt felt like a genuine challenge in a good way.

erik-brunnstrom 2019-05-01 10:30

Wow! Super uniqe take on the theme. I played the original version without reading the comments but it didn't run as fast as others have reported. I accualy liked speed of the game. It led to many close calls and butt-clenching moments. I had some problems with judging the depth and often ran in to the sides of asteroids I thought I had passed. The music is really good and fit the game perfectly which is rare in LD games. I think the game look a bit "flat" so I tried adding some stars and increasing the exposure slighty in photosop. Let me know what you think! Test.jpg Probably the best game I have played so far. Great job!

owlycode 2019-05-01 11:49

Thank you for playing!

@mantou Definitely this text placement is one of the major issues of the game. I don't know what I was thinking when I made it that way.

@michaelsonbritt Sorry for that, I wanted to give it an arcade feel. An option menu to change that would do the job I guess.

@erik-brunnstrom That looks very nice! I might end up implementing this once the jam is over. Initially I wanted to add Solaria (the planet you have to reach) in the background, getting closer after a level is completed but ended up having no time left for this... The last line of code was added 5 minutes before the end of the compo.

dflinders 2019-05-01 13:32

cool :)

cozmic 2019-05-01 13:39

I'm reeaally liking this idea! And the graphics and audio is nicely fitting, too! Could maybe have a little more color variation though, but that's subjective. I have one complaint: I think the position and size of the text is really something to overthink.. In my opinion, all text should be larger and in the top center of the game screen, because that's where I'm looking the most.

Other than that, it's great!

seriouslycrunchy 2019-05-01 14:29

The game is good enough that I spent well over half an hour trying to complete the last level without any upgrades! Not much else I can add! :D

pedro137br 2019-05-01 16:48

Loved the idea

flightless 2019-05-01 17:41

@OwlyCode The new version works great. Really intense gameplay - I was afraid to blink when navigating the asteroids :)

teo989 2019-05-01 18:19

Awesome game man!!! Loved every tiny bit of it. I even sympathized with the characters from reading just a tiny dialogue. Did you ever think of becoming a writer? :smirk: @seriouslycrunchy Same here :laughing:

fashionbatman 2019-05-01 20:57

This was super cool, and I'm a sucker for the art style. Really all around great job!

cikyt 2019-05-01 21:36

❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )

skylark721 2019-05-02 12:19

So they really do have fun in movies when they steer through densely packed asteroid belts! Haha Pretty cool idea and fun game. Held my breath a few times. There were a few times when one impact counted as 2 or 3 and killed my ship instantly when I had a 3 impact shield. Other than that, I had no other problems. Smooth piloting commander O7.

owlycode 2019-05-02 20:15

@cikyt @pedro137br @dflinders Thanks for playing!

@teo989 Ahah, I don't think I have what it takes to become a writer. Thank you for your kind words!

@cozmic Yes that text placement is a problem... I'd have loved color variation too but some critical bugs I had to fix before submitting forced me to drop some stuff of the todo list :(

@flightless Nice! I hope you had fun!

@seriouslycrunchy From what I know, you're the first one so far to get the good ending!

@skylark721 The powerups would need some care, I implemented them really fast as the compo was nearing its end. I'd add a short invulnerability period after being hit.

@fashionbatman Hey I just saw your game on Elysia's stream, I liked the humor and sounds!

arqcenick 2019-05-02 21:43

This game has a great narrative, even if I died several times, I tried again and again to see what will happen with my decisions. The writing is exceptional for a jam game(dialogue can be improved but the general premise is perfect) This was the best game I played this jam. Excellent work!

kydies 2019-05-03 13:18

Everything useful was already probably said before, so I'll be simple: very enjoyable entry! The quality of your work really shows. The only thing that bugged me though is a great challenge the game gives me which is trying to avoid asteroids and reading the dialogue line somewhere down in a corner at the same time, but at least I learned a skill while trying to do that I guess. xD I hope you're proud of your game!

awesomealliterationalliance 2019-05-03 20:14

Nice story, especially when you consider that you were just using text to convey it. Was quite fun to play, but I struggled on the last part (your difficulty curve is quite steep :D) I made it on the 10th try, but then I think I got killed by a small asteroid, right when I was about to upload the thing. That was a bit frustrating, but still, I liked the mechanics very much. I think you nailed the experience of flying through an asteroid field quite well! Overall very nice atmosphere, design and great take on the theme. nice work!

adam-clayden 2019-05-03 22:20

Really nice game and quite unique! I like the perspective of moving into the scene which is a nice break from side scrolling. The ship snaps to the centre when changing from left to right, so it might be worthwhile lerping the movement instead. The text on the bottom left could be emphasised a bit more as well. Other than that, good job!

jlv 2019-05-03 23:18

Really liked the game, and especially the way you tried to mix arcade gameplay and narrative elements. The asteroid-dodging gameplay is also really fun, with tight controls and varied patterns.

Pros : - Nice storytelling - Tough as nails gameplay, with nice in-station breathers - Good polish overall (controls, graphics, ...) - Checkpoints !

Cons : - In-action text is somewhat hard to read while dodging asteroids - Steep difficulty curve, not helped by the narrow view distance and the distances that can sometimes be hard to grasp.

Overall, great work !

snowtv 2019-05-04 03:19

I just wish I can shoot!!!

owlycode 2019-05-04 12:23

Thank you all for playing and the kind words!

@arqcenick I wish I had more time to improve those dialogue, the memories one are too short.

@kydies I'm not sure "proud" would be the exact word because there is still a lot that could be improved. Maybe "happy" is a better one. Happy to have completed it (I struggled a lot the first 24 hours) and even happier that people plays it and have fun with it.

@awesomealliterationalliance Those small asteroids are great for the visual but getting crushed by one is not. I might add some kind of invulnerability when you get out of the level so this can't happen.

@adam-clayden I didn't even spot that snapping. I have not tested enough with the keyboard I suppose. The controller does not have that problem. I add this to the post LD fixes list :)

@jlv Thank you for this very detailed feedback. The text is the major issue I get reported. For the view distance, I spent a lot of time tweaking for performance vs depth of view and found it was not an easy topic. I would need to learn some techniques to apply them to this game.

@snowtv That would have been be so cool, a laser upgrade that crush the asteroids into smaller ones! But the amount of work involved could'nt fit in the compo...

elysiagriffin 2019-05-08 19:22

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421747576?t=06h16m30s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

coleslaughter 2019-05-10 01:10

Heeeyyyy, I like this quite a bit! It's a nice simple arcade game with a simple premise but still fun to play. :)

I'm not sure if it's intentional, but I did encounter quite a bit of stutter/slowdown when flying through dense fields of asteroids. It certainly added to the challenge but was also kind of jarring.

Also, I didn't notice until *way* too late that dialogue was scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Seems kind of tricky to read it while also dodging hundreds of asteroids (especially when the text was so small on my monitor).

Still though, I like the aesthetic of this game, and the music is super peaceful despite the fast-paced action. :) This is all especially impressive considering you did this all by yourself, well done!

mrjoshuamclean 2019-05-11 14:42

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/419497157?t=10h56m36s

owlycode 2019-05-13 17:27

@elysiagriffin @mrjoshuamclean Thank you for reviewing my game on stream! You're doing a very valuable job for this community!

@coleslaughter The stutter is not intentional. I think it's an optimization issue as I had to balance between time invested in that and other things during the compo. There are a lot of asteroids to handle with colliders and rigidbodies. Thank you for trying the game, it warms my heart you enjoyed it!

randomhuman 2019-05-16 20:01

Ahh this f**king guy again: the game. Really good but really hard, I couldn't get past the gamma sector but I reeeeally want to because the story is so intriguing! I think it needs an option to invert the y axis controls, I couldn't really play it with a controller because of this. I was able to invert them on the keyboard which made it a bit more intuitive for me at least. The colliders on the asteroids seemed to be a bit off sometimes, usually in my favour but sometimes not. Minor issues though - a stylish, addictive game with a very interesting story.