Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD46 → Space VIP: The Needyon Ambassador
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1487 | 3.37 | 43 | |
| Fun | 1975 | 2.93 | 41 | |
| Innovation | 1396 | 3.20 | 41 | |
| Theme | 890 | 3.80 | 42 | |
| Audio | 935 | 3.31 | 39 | |
| Humor | 831 | 3.18 | 39 | |
| Mood | 1263 | 3.37 | 42 |
Really nice concept and imnplementation. It seems ship map is missing - the ship is quite big and it' hard to find the reactor when it goes down. You simply don't know where to go, and exploration is a bit tough, when lights are out.
I want to talk about the mood set up. That lighting and the sound made the game feel really tense for me, but there was some funny cognitive dissonance for me because the aliens are so quirky. I think that made me like the game more. It's fun, but I did need to see the hint to solve the puzzle.;)
Nailed the theme and you guys set a really good atmosphere for the game. Well done!
Good interpretation for the theme.
Nice and interesing idea with really good implementation. Amazing graphics and sounds. As for cons: 1) Lack of context control hints makes it difficult to understand what to do (and it makes you press every single button to find out required). 2) Too random events. Generator failure happend for me only during one try. As for me, it should have been mandatatory at some time point, so every player would have similar experience.
Cute Pear man
Man I really wanted to love this, I really did. The theme is on point, the graphics are super impressive, the atmosphere is a knockout. Unfortunately, after trying 3 times looking in vain for a hull breach (wandering over what seems an extremely large ship), I only succeeded one time and it was in a place I had already passed, implying that there was more than one breach? I lost either way, and never figured out how to patch anything. I found a patch once but couldn't figure out how to pick it up (nor could I ever find the breach).
I wonder if this is exacerbated by me running this on a trackpad (Mac OS laptop)... the camera look speed was dizzying so I had to drag my finger *very* slightly to look around, and sometimes I'd rotate like 720º in an instant and get confused about where I was, haha.
Anyway, this really does *look* like an amazing game. I'll try it on another machine later and hope I have better results.
@l3glon thanks for the feedback! I 100% agree about the random events. Curated > random 99.9% of the time and yet I always fall back into the old "but what if *procedural*" trap. If I do anything more with this that will be one of the first things on the list. There is text that pops up in the center of the screen for context on certain actions, but it can be really hard to see and likely missing in a couple places. A controls tutorial image would have helped a lot too.
@eli-delventhal terribly sorry about the mouse sensitivity - I have no idea why the web player is so much more sensitive than any other build. You can get by with a mouse but a trackpad must have been torture. I've added the controls to the game's description, so hopefully that will help. There are 16 locations where holes can appear in the ship, and every room has 1-2 locations for holes to appear (with the large hall leading to the bridge being the exception having 3. The 3 bunk closets can *not* have holes in them because that would be horrible.
As for patching holes: The small ones are small enough that some duct tape can cover that up, which it turns out you always have on you. The large holes require a patch though, and there are two rooms with stacks of patches. These are definitely areas where being able to do playtesting mid-jam would yield tremendous dividends.
Is it bad that my favorite part is when the cute little alien thing explodes into green fog? Lol. Seriously though, I really did like this game!
Really good looking game. I like this take on the theme. Well done!
@eli-delventhal any better on your second attempt?
The game looks really good. Well done!
Cool entry :D Really loved the sound design, especially the background soundtrack was soothing and on point!
The game has a lot of polish and details in it, but I really wish I had more clear directions on what to do
Really good concept ! The spaceship and the ambiance reminded me the ambiance of Alien licence, especially when there is no more lights :D
It is fun to manage between the ship and the VIP, but I think that the percentage of the VIP goes too fast, indeed, I could only do one repair at time and I had to return to see the VIP whereas other issues appeared at the same time, it was kinda frustrating. Furthermore, I think that some UI hints of where the issues appeared on the spaceship could help to play faster.
Anyway, good work !
@taran-unraveler @trexxak @khud0 @edalbung - Thanks for the feedback! I've added some more info to the hints in the game description to help offset the lack of in-game instruction. Communicating these things in-game would definitely have been ideal however.
Super funny! That simple mechanic of making the baby fly off a bit is just hilarious, specially in this setting ajjajaaj One of the funniest of the jam so far!
hard to find air leaks, and it runs out too fast
Really fun game, had fun playing it. Good details too!
Hi ! Nice concept and good controls !
Didn't manage to find anyè breach in this huge ship without a map, something indicate where to go (or global direction of problem) cause I try many time to understand the ship architecture but it's quite hard ^^. Any way, excellent job game is really polish in term of graphic and sound ! I will try it again if you have some helpfull tips :p
@arktas the lack of a map is definitely a major issue. My only recommendation is to pay attention to the direction of the impact sound when it happens and try to zero in on it by following the wooshing air sound. I also recommend trying to get a feel for the layout during the first 30 seconds where things are less likely to happen.
It took a few tries to explore the layout of the ship. A pretty reliable way to win is to immediately turn on the oxygen generator and then just camp with the alien, only stepping out to restart the reactor and occasionally step out to fix holes. I never used the shields because asteroid fields just didn't do enough damage.
I think a minimap or pointer isn't strictly necessary, but an image of the layout of the ship would help a lot. That said, the ship is strangely empty yet busy. As in, there are rooms that have a lot *stuff* (chairs, desks, lockers, etc.), but those rooms doesn't have anything you can do in them (besides fix holes). Because there's no reason to remember those rooms, it's harder to keep a mental picture of the ship. Of course, adding more gameplay takes more time, so instead you try making the ship smaller. With that you could make asteroid fields more dangerous without feeling impossible, and make shields a viable option.
I would have liked to listen to the music more, but I had to turn my volume down after being deafened by a hole right next to me.
Overall though, the game makes good use of the theme and when things line up there's hints of *Overcooked* or *Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime* in there!