FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → It's Not Rocket Science

It's Not Rocket Science

By gallahron

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall6573.3027
Fun4673.3627
Innovation1933.7427
Theme6353.5627
Graphics6753.1827
Humor7782.1427
Mood9072.6227

Comments

2020-04-20 10:16

Great game. love the control inteface, very simple but effective. The tutorial is good too, really drags you in. Keep it up!

curiouslycory 2020-04-20 14:01

Totally thought I had hit the jackpot when I got my rocket to orbit a gravity well, then a big ball of fire came and proved me wrong!

sode 2020-04-20 14:05

I just got in to orbit of one planet and died multiple times :(

joonamo 2020-04-20 14:07

Difficult, but interesting. Reminded me of my favourite Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Space. I wish there was something in background to make you feel like you're moving, but I've understood space is very dark.

cagibi 2020-04-20 14:21

Gameplay is pretty challenging but has some potential. Game art is the right amount of simple.

simonbeats 2020-04-20 14:27

Innovative idea! I think zooming the camera out a little more so you can plan ahead would be a great improvement. Good work.

nyunesu 2020-04-20 15:53

Heyo Gallahron!

So, here's some more feedback!

Feel free to ignore most of the things due to jam scope etc, but as always I’ll give feedback considering you’ll work on it after the jam.

Could’ve been better: - Gameplay feels rushed, everything moves too fast and the game ends too quickly when getting the gasp out of the controls. Probably tuning the variables down before the player get to experience the game would be great - There's a lot of information going on as soon as I start, and again, not much time to understand each element - Highlighting the ship on start to show exactly where you should drag would be cool - Lack of audio makes the game "less immersive" - Increasing the field of view would also make it more based on strategic instead of reflexes

Overall it's just presenting your game slowly, it's really cool to play once you get to know the game.

Good points: - great nice orbit mechanic - minimalist visuals are great (I'd decrease the saturation and increase the value a little bit, but that's my personal taste)

Hope that helps, and if you happen to update this game, drop me a message on discord or twitter, and I'll be happy to give you more feedback!

If you have time, please give me some constructive feedback on my game, vote, etc (:

See ya!

edalbung 2020-04-21 21:32

Nice work ! The concept is neat ! I liked the flat design style, it makes the game look very clean !

However, I found that the camera was too close from the spaceship, I would have like a camera zoom out, in order to have a better visibility of the direction to take. And, the audio missed me a lot, in order to be totally immerged in your game.

Overall, good work !

100th-coin 2020-04-22 16:56

Oh I love the gravity mechanic! I just wish the camera was zoomed out some more, it felt cramped and claustrophobic. I had no clue what was in front of me, and whenever a planet whooshed by unavoidably killing me, it felt like had I known about it sooner I could've done something.

jharler 2020-04-23 11:57

Very interesting gravity mechanic and I love the simple visuals. Very well done!

batswinger 2020-04-23 12:04

Nice, love space games! It's very difficult, but in a good way. The use of the gravity mechanic is original, and makes fun gameplay. In the start i just put a lot of gravity wells, but quickly found out filling the scene with them made me die more easily later. I don't know if it is a bug, but sometimes my spaceship would point in a new direction without any gravity affecting it. But still liked it. Great job

gallahron 2020-04-23 12:56

@batswinger Thanks for the feedback! The spaceship pointing in a new direction is due to reaching the edge of the play area. I should probably make that more clear in a future version :)

fussenkuh 2020-04-23 13:09

For the last year or so I've been telling myself I should make a game whose controls rely on Unity's 2D Point Effectors... after playing your game, I'm even more inspired to give that a go. I **really** enjoyed the 'you don't quite have control' control scheme!

I think you have a great concept for your game. The graphics were crisp and controls responsive. However, I would have a wider field of view or maybe a dynamic field of view; if the ship is moving faster, you see more of the screen; slower? less of the screen. That might make the game feel a bit more dynamic. The game would have also benefited from audio. But, like all jams, there's only so much time available to do everything. Overall, great job!

gallahron 2020-04-23 13:21

@fussenkuh Thanks for the feedback! I didn't actually know about point effectors before I read your comment. Looking into them it would have made making the game a whole lot easier!

fussenkuh 2020-04-23 14:24

@gallahron Holy hell! You made this without point effectors?!?! That's even more impressive! Kudos to you!

devharts 2020-04-24 05:54

The gravity well mechanic was interesting and actually felt like a pretty fresh spin on the 2D top-down spaceship flying genre. It admittedly took me a few tries to get the hang of the controls, though the tutorial was surprisingly well done especially for a weekend game jam. Fitting use of the theme as well. Nice work! :)

sheetcode 2020-04-24 15:12

Nice

bemmu 2020-04-25 10:45

I liked the idea of controlling the ship by affecting the nearby gravity. Found it hard to play thought as it was so zoomed in that I couldn't anticipate the planets.

martiansteve 2020-04-25 10:54

Nice idea, I enjoyed playing it. I think the view could be more zoomed out and the space should be endless rather than looping back the spaceship. Perhaps allowing smaller/larger mass of gravity wells based on how long you hold down the mouse for could make the gameplay a bit more varied too?

weirdybeardyman 2020-04-25 11:44

Very nice concept, maybe a little too hard though :)