FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → Universal Friend Organization (UFO)

Universal Friend Organization (UFO)

By thepelranthean

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall5903.3621
Fun6293.1521
Innovation5063.3121
Theme8213.2821
Graphics7303.1021
Audio3473.3121
Humor3733.0618
Mood7142.9720

Comments

rigdonware 2020-04-20 23:55

Great job! That's awesome you made this in unreal. Did you use the blueprint system or c++?

perfectsquare 2020-04-21 00:05

Nice job! I loved the puzzle aspect of trying to plan which planet to save next so none would die and the difficulty level seemed pretty good. The planet models are a bit plain but the UFO model is super cute :)

thepelranthean 2020-04-21 01:40

@rigdonware It's pure blueprint. When it comes to the Ludum Dare, I find the switching between C++ and the editor a bit slow. Since I'm still learning how Unreal works, blueprints are faster for me. I look forward to understanding the engine well enough to write logic in C++. Thanks for asking.

@perfectsquare I agree; the planets could use some work. Glad you liked the UFO though. :smile:

tylla 2020-04-22 01:39

I had a lot of fun with this game! A couple things:

- The controls were at first unintuitive, but I learned them quickly. One frustrating thing is what I called "missed drops" in my playthrough, where I would hit the E key when not directly over a planet and lose the cargo I was carrying.

- If there is a way to exit a level without waiting for the timer, I don't know what it is. There were a few times where I got stuck once a planet that provided a key resource died; it would have been easier if I could just exit the level and restart instead of waiting for the timer.

- One time I got stuck to the point that *all* the planets died. Yet it still said "level complete" and still let me progress to the next level.

defectivemelon 2020-04-22 01:44

Who knew logistics could be so much fun? :) I enjoyed this quite a bit, was just the right level of challenge, with some tense moments that I could pull through from. I will echo the "missed drops" comment, maybe would be nice to have some visual indication when you're in range of drop off / pickup.

technodragon253 2020-04-22 01:47

I really loved this game it is the best game I've played so far! I have only one complaint that is that I felt that level 4 was harder than level 5. I loved the graphics and sound as well as the general design! Really great game!

quinn-patrick 2020-04-22 01:53

This is a pretty fun, well balanced game. I will say that, while it's cool that you used Unreal, a consequence of that is that the file size is tremendous for such a simple game. It took a few minutes just for me to download! Beyond those technical aspects, though, it was a well conceived and well executed game, so good work.

thepelranthean 2020-04-22 02:04

@tylla Thanks for the feedback. The controls were indeed unintuitive. I locked them in early in development and ended up regretting them most of the weekend. @defectivemelon Your suggestion to have a visual "in range" indicator might have solved the issue quite nicely. Thanks both of you for pointing that out.

@tylla As to your second point, that's a good point. There isn't a way to exit/restart a level early. I don't think any level is longer than 2-3 minutes, but that's still a long time to wait if you miss one of the early dependencies. Sorry about that.

And for the final point... that's just a bug. I wasn't able to iron it out before I pushed the build.

Thanks both of you for pointing out these problems. I'll have to see if I can set aside some time to make a friendlier build.

thepelranthean 2020-04-22 02:06

@technodragon253 Thanks for the compliment. Level 4 was definitely harder than level 5. At that point though, I just wanted to use dirigibles and unicorns. :unicorn: Sorry for the drop in difficulty.

@quinn-patrick Glad you found it fun. I'll have to keep package size in mind in the future. This definitely wasn't my most optimized game ever. :slight_smile:

wubbaduck 2020-04-22 02:18

This was really entertaining. I like the concept. The momentum of the UFO was a little much though. I constantly overshot the planets or was going so slow that I had a hard time getting there within the time limit. But overall, well done!

spacewizardj 2020-04-25 05:11

I like the concept. I had a hard time in levels 3 and 4 because I couldn't tell which icons on the map were planets that had and planets that needed. The music is really good and contrasts against the urgent (and grim) nature of the game. What would you do to deepen the gameplay? Thanks for letting me play your game!

clayton-does-things 2020-04-25 05:20

Interesting concept. A little pause before the level starts would be nice though.

thepelranthean 2020-04-26 14:26

@spacewizardj Thanks for playing! As for deepening the gameplay? Hmm... good question. It would have been fun to add enemies of some type to chase you and make you drop your cargo. Something like space jellyfish would be good. :smile_cat:

It may also have been interesting to have planets that accept multiple types of resources at once to add a bit of choice... that would have enabled me to build more flexible levels with a bit more challenge built in.

In the end, though, the game degenerates into a run here, now run there, now run back again sequence. My main goal in anything I add would be to spice this up and try to make interesting decisions. Thanks for the question!

@clayton-does-things That is an excellent idea. It didn't even occur to me. Thanks for the suggestion!

danilo-freire 2020-05-05 20:11

Stuck in level 4, but love the concept! Had fun playing it :)

ididgame 2020-05-12 12:01

enjoyed figuring out the order of operation, movement could have used some tweaking(higher de/acceleration with lower top speed?)

dreadeddruidstudios 2020-05-12 12:27

I thoroughly enjoyed that game. I found it a bit on the easy side, but the gameplay was very solid. I loved the graphics and the music fit well with the game. Good job!