ejmejm 2019-04-30 04:36
Cute art style, particularly liked the alien space ship.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → 99 Days To Earth
By shaolin-dave, flyinmayan and Axle Fox
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1038 | 2.84 | 38 | |
| Fun | 1082 | 2.48 | 38 | |
| Innovation | 742 | 2.93 | 38 | |
| Theme | 464 | 3.47 | 38 | |
| Graphics | 928 | 2.79 | 38 | |
| Audio | 676 | 2.16 | 38 | |
| Mood | 908 | 2.81 | 38 |
Cute art style, particularly liked the alien space ship.
Good art work ans I like the minimalistic SFX !
Ok this game is way too long, 99 days is far too much. I do like the idea of game but what you need to make it more interesting than what it is currently. Also I want to note that the game doesn't tell you how many crew members you have so I don't feel any morals when it comes to giving one up.
This was enjoyable for the time I played it! I stopped around 67 days left, so I didn't see the end, but it's got some good promise! The main critique I'd give, is some way to mix it up a bit. Maybe less time to finish, or more variety in the gameplay. Nicely done!
The very first impression is not undestanding what's going on, but as soon as the capitain appears everything is more clear. I like the concept of counting days and having to balance resources. It will be worth a future development. It isn't very clear what the icons correspond to and when/how to use them. Also your life resources are not visible in any infographics, this can be on purpose of course. Even if everything is very minimal I had fun playing and would play this until the last day :)
I (like @tommyflower) was very confused about what was going on at first, it was cool that you tried to make a cutscene, but maybe make it a little more clear. I actually think the ui was very easy to read, I pretty instantly knew what everything was. My only real confusion was how and when to use my items, I eventually figured it out, but that could use more explaining. Overall, not to bad.
Thank you all for playing and reviewing! I've realized that the game isn't very self-explanatory (had to pretty much dev this in one day, so a lot had to be cut for time). I've updated the game page to instruct players.
@ejmejm , @jedineeson : Glad you both like the graphics. FlyinMayan always delivers amazing visuals on these games. The simplistic sounds were mostly because I didn't have time to replace our standins, but I'm glad you like them anyway!
@guiltyking - The goal of the game is to see how far along you can get, and most times players shouldn't be able to make it. Perhaps 30 days would have been a better time, but I was afraid that there'd be too many of the same encounters in such a short timespan. The game does tell you how many crew members you have left, it's on the upper right corner of the screen.
@mrpiedpiper - 67 days to go? Great! I was too busy deving instead of playing so without cheats (for testing) I only got to 71 days to go. Variety was sacraficed for time, but after the jam maybe we'll add some more features.
@tommyflower - My goal is to make my games very intuitive and self explanatory. I obviously failed this time. To compensate, I've updated the game page with play instructions. Let me know if you give it another chance. The life resources are displayed on three bars at the top of the screen, along with the remaining crew members.
@fizzpowmike1 - I hear you. Clarity was sacraficed for time. I seriously only got the particle effects of the attacks seven minutes before the deadline, before that the feedback was audio only! I can't add features now, but I've updated the game page with instructions. Hopefully that makes the gameplay more clear.
Really clever concept to fit the theme.
At first I was confused about when to use the shields and lasers but I started to get it around day 96 or so. I like the risk/reward idea of this game and how you need to think about if it's worth it to trade water in order to blow up some ships. Also I thought it was nice that you had time to add dialogue in the game.
I think I would have liked a little more explanation about when to use weapons and how the game works. I know many people skip tutorials but I would have liked a little more explanation.
Overall, nice work!
@shaolin-dave No problem, I get the time constraint, I always like to explain what I think people should add in case they decide to develop it after the jam :)
99 may be a bit long (or at least it would be better to be able to skip the animations), but the concept is pretty good ! I liked how the theme is not only a mechanic but also justified by the story Maybe a little explanation could help, I did not understand the difference between lasers and torpedos for example Keep it up !
@russ-moonbase @inferture Thanks guys. Yeah I wish I had the time to explain the mechanics more and probably will after judging is completed. tbh there isn't much difference between the lasers and torpedoes. I think the torpedoes have a higher hit rate? Mainly this is because there wound up being no difference between the enemy bomber and fighter. If I had another day (or even a couple hours) I would have had the torpedo be more effective on the bombers and the lasers more effective on the fighters.
Good job! A nice survival and strategic game. Maybe if there were more time, you could've added animations but you've done a really good job!
I liked the way you did the theme. Very neat little game. It was a little slow for me tho.
This was a really interesting take on the theme - lots of other games with a similar idea around trading resources necessary for life, etc., but I think yours was definitely one of the better mechanical takes on that. I think you also did a really good job with the buyers and sellers that came through, and the frequency there. I was able to make choices about which resources were important, and sometimes some trades were good deals that would have been terrible at others, so that was really cool to see! The sound effects were between simple and hard-to-hear/scratchy at times. It took me a few days to really get the controls and what I needed to do, but your description that you added was really helpful. I think one way to improve the game going forward is to add somewhat of a skill curve or give the player some control over their own fate - maybe there are some controls where you can try dodging enemy attacks or something similar. Additionally, there's a ton of potential in the mood for this game - lost in space, under attack, trying to get back to earth. Definitely some really cool things you could focus on there. Overall though, a really good game and one I enjoyed playing! Made it to about day 70.
Great idea and good implementation! In my opinion, the game is really intuitive, the gameplay description makes it crystal clear. Liked the story and the dialogues in the beginning, adds a lot to the atmosphere. Some improvement suggestions: 1. As mentioned above, the game is way too long. And it would be okay if it was challenging so that you die after around 10 days. But the balance is a bit off. I reached day 67 with 89 crew members, a lot of guns and almost full resources, so there was no way I could lose. But it seems that you have a lot of parameters to play with (enemy damage, trade quantity etc.), so it shouldn't be a problem to fine-tune the difficulty a bit. 2. For some reason if I put it full screen it still shows the game with the original small size in the corner of the screen. 3. Sounds are generally good, but the new day sound was a bit annoying starting from day 10 or so :slight_smile: 4. Of course some Star Wars-ish soundtrack would add to the mood a lot. Maybe the game wouldn't seem that long when you can listen to the music. But all in all, quite an original idea and solid implementation, I did enjoy playing it. So well done!
Great concept :D Good interpretation of the theme :)
good job !
At first I thought it was going to be like ftl. The combat is pretty simple but it definitely fits within the theme. the main problem is repetition. since there isn't much variety in the encounters. I think some sort of minigame to make the attack more effective would be a nice improvement.
Small nitpicks: 1. The icons are a bit weird, The oxygen symbol looks like a water bottle. Also I think that the food icon doesn't fit with the game.
2.The player ship is on the right which feels weird. Maybe I'm too used to ftl.
3. Sfx can get a bit boring after a while. Though I do understand that they were placeholders.
Overall, I like the resource management aspect quite a bit. Good job!
A very interesting take on the theme. The implementation is unfortunately rather lacking.
@obalfaqih Yes, time constraints is exactly what prevented animations from being done. I'd actually started on them but removed them completely because I couldn't have finished them all. Next time I'll try to actually make good use of the full three days.
@sharks Not sure if you meant "snow" in general design or just how it ran. I did notice that the web build is slower than running in editor, which is weird for such a simple game. but both are things i need to work on.
@joe-bustamante thank you. my interpretation of the theme is very important to me and the main reason i abandoned my work up until i had this idea. I like your idea of allowing the player to control their fate, I hadn't really considered a more proactive approach but I'll have to think about that between now and when I'm allowed to make improvements.
@mykola 1. I'm not sure i agree that the game is too long. I'll agree that it SEEMS too long, because most people see everything the game has to offer in 10-15 days (though it did take my wife about 40 days until she was offered space mines!). When I rework this I don't know if I'll make the game shorter or make the events more varied and tweaked for balanced gameplay. 2. I'm not sure why that happens, but I did notice too. I'll have to research Unity/itch.io to see if there's a solution 3. Yes that sound is annoying! It's a standin sound that I never got to replace, maybe I should've just taken it out. 4. I'd like some music with mood and ambiance, but maybe something more energetic would work for battles.
@rakowu, @gregoire - Thank you, glad you like!
@fahim-faysal I did consider so FTL-like game mechanics but as usual, time prevented it. I'm not sure if I'll go that route later or not. Minigames during encounters are a good idea, I'll consider that. The ship being on the right was chosen because of this being a return to Earth. I thought right-to-left movement would've conveyed that, but in retrospect I probably should have made the view be from behind the player ship.
@flying-dog-fish - glad you like the take on the theme. I guess the implementing problems you're referring to are just what everyone else has already mentioned?
@shaolin-dave By slow I meant, the games pacing. Maybe if there was a way to skip the day counter? Once the animations are in it would probably be more interesting but I felt like i was waiting a lot.
Nice relating it to the theme!
I wonder if FTL was some inspiration for this. I'm a sucker for space games so I loved this. If I had to critique I'd prefer no sounds instead of the recurring static rumble noises but I can totally empathize with the reluctance to opting out of a rating category!
I really like the premise here, and the idea of a days based gameplay, having to deal with one day at a time, striking deals, etc. Also, a great interpretation of the theme!
I think a full game with this premise could be really cool, having to deal with the crew, resources, etc. The character art is cute!
As it is now, I think 99 days may be a bit too much, ad it gets a little repetitive, but that's to be expected of a jam game. Overall solid work!
The gameplay was a little static, and a bit too predictable. That said, I found myself strategizing on resource management to decide what to buy or sell. At times, I wish I had the choice to buy a specific thing, but I suppose the randomness plays into having to be prepared.
The instructions on the page are totally necessary. Tried to play without reading it and didnt understand nothing. However its quite simple to get the mechanics with a single quick read in the instructions.
I find the mechanic interesting because you have not only one resource as in many games i played this jam (usually life), but three and tradable for several aspects.
However, i find that it deserved more polishing in order to make the game more appealing, like the graphics and animations, and some background music to set the mood of the game.
Good job!