FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD47 → Returning Home

Returning Home

By hansj

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4283.7630
Fun7873.3530
Innovation7203.4130
Theme10573.3530
Graphics4823.9130
Audio3623.6829
Mood1963.9828

Comments

nohac 2020-10-05 22:36

Cool game, addicting gameplay. Really hard to land tho!

vadzim 2020-10-05 23:20

It is good, but quite hard for me

cristi-aby 2020-10-06 07:40

Good game, hard to play. Well done.

jazkottaja 2020-10-06 07:52

really fool but also really hard!

bjornstahl 2020-10-06 08:12

Good game, the UI vas really nice, fun to earn resources and upgrade. Sometimes a bit too few objects turning up, and the aim was a bit off to the sides, didnt shot at the cursor.

hansj 2020-10-06 09:29

@bjornstahl Thank you! Did you zoom out with the scroll wheel? There are a lot of objects! Anyway, it's true I could have added even more, but the game started to become a bit laggy here, so I kept the entities at around 1000 :) Yeah, the shooting seems off because of the speed you're moving at I believe.

bjornstahl 2020-10-06 13:18

@hansj Oh did not realize you could zoom out... ^^ Gotta play it again now, and that speed thing makes sense. One thing I remember now that I forgot to write is my first death was while reading the intro text, should probably be invulnerable while reading :)

blotosaur 2020-10-06 21:40

Really nice upgrades UI and music. Most of the fun for me was shooting stuff that was really far away. Upgrades felt more like unlocking than improving. Great game!

bobparis75 2020-10-07 09:30

Good game!

etrealjunior 2020-10-07 09:31

I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection

snotax 2020-10-07 09:34

Really nice music and graphics. The gameplay was not that interesting to me personally. But great work !

macmist 2020-10-07 09:41

Liked the idea, gameplay is simple but achieving the landing is not that easy. Did not succeed lol. Pretty cool game! I'm not suree I understood what the crystals were for though.

The music and graphics were also nice

joedev 2020-10-07 09:47

Ooh I enjoyed this quite a lot, I enjoyed the casual drifting around sniping asteroids and upgrading my ship so much I almost forgot I had to land! The UI and upgrade system is especially very impressive for a jam game, and even though I didn't manage to stick the landing at the end (I only hit the ground at like, 12000 mph... oops) I still had fun :D

eden-shazar 2020-10-07 10:01

Solid game! I liked the interpretation of the theme - stable orbits are natural endless loops, why didn't I think of that? The graphics and audio are simple, but fit the game perfectly. The slight gradient of the background gives a feeling of emptiness, and the music sets the spacey atmosphere nicely. The core gameplay loop works well as the collection of crystals aids your survival in two ways: gaining currency for upgrades and clearing a path in your orbit for your ship.

A few small things that I think might make it a bit more interesting without too much added work: 1. Upgrades that also enable you to better collect crystals, as it becomes a little tedious as the costs grow and your method of looting stays the same. 1.5. Being able to shoot constantly by holding the mouse button down - help battle repetitive strain injuries! 2. Being able to direct the thrusters when landing, adding another degree of freedom and making sure the landing portion of the game is still challenging even with a fully upgraded ship. 3. Start with the camera zoomed out! We want that beautiful planet view, and all those rings of debris!

ryan-paton 2020-10-07 10:04

Really good mechanics, cool graphics and great use of the theme, Awesome game

moffkalast 2020-10-07 10:29

Pretty nicely done, though the KSP nerd inside me was mildly disappointed it didn't involve actual orbital mechanics. First few rounds I basically died instantly getting hit in the face by asteroids but after I figured out the controls it was smooth sailing. After a while I had enough power to just fire constantly in a "beam" that cleaned asteroids as they hit it, maxed everything out and landed easily.

I'm a bit biased as I mentioned, but I think the main improvement one could make here is to draw orbital lines and give the player an option to tweak their orbit by rotating the ship and firing thrusters.

eugenik 2020-10-07 11:05

this is really damn good, and so hard

marcmagus 2020-10-07 14:15

Fun core gameplay loop, although I didn't see anything in the game that told me I could click on my ship to upgrade. I played an entire time (losing) thinking I just had to collect "enough" crystals to, ummm, power the landing thrusters?

I also managed to achieve escape velocity and leave the map entirely. I'll post a link to the video later, it was pretty funny. Probably suggests the control scheme around the landing thrusters could be made clearer to the player.

hansj 2020-10-07 16:38

@macmist Thank you! The crystals are for upgrading your ship. If I may be so bold to ask for a favour: try again and now upgrade the ship! Might be a better experiene. And for the sake of clarity, I have now update the game description on itch.io to make this feature a bit clearer. Thanks for playing!

hansj 2020-10-07 16:39

@moffkalast I absolutely agree! The actual spaceship uses orbital mechanics, but you're not allowed to manipulate the orbit without landing the ship. This was on my feature list, but I didn't have enought time. Thanks for playing the game! :D

hansj 2020-10-07 16:41

@marcmagus Thats a good point. Mu justification when making the game was thinking that the hovering over the ship higlighting it would entice you to click, but I totally agree this should be clearer, maybe via some tutorial. Anyway I added it to the itch.io description, so hopefully someone doesen't have to go through the same. Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback! :D

hansj 2020-10-07 16:42

@Eden Shazar Thank you for playing the game and for the very constructive feedback! I agree with all your points. These are things I definitely would add. Landing the ship is too easy when your hull is fully upgraded.

hansj 2020-10-07 16:43

Thanks for playing @joedev! If you upgraded your ship you should totally be able to land! Did you remember to press SPACE to engage the thrusters when appraching the planet? :D

macmist 2020-10-07 17:27

@hansj Ah yes, that's a lot better indeed, I did not see the first time that you could upgrade the ship, thanks for clarifying it :D I managed to land safely this time, pretty cool that upgrade system, makes it even ,ore interesting that what i thought in the first place, well done! One thing though, I got hit several time, either during the intro sequence, or when in the menu to upgrade the ship. It might be a nice touch to either stop or slow down the time when inside a menu so we have time to react

marcmagus 2020-10-07 17:45

@hansj Yeah, on my second play after I was kindly informed about clicking to upgrade I saw what your intent had been. I think I perceived that glowing circle as being some sort of energy shield or something. It's amazing what we can miss when playing games.

bea 2020-10-07 20:25

I thought this one was a lot of fun, one of my favorites of the jam so far. I think there's a real possibility for this sort of thing to become monotonous but this game really struck a mood. I just finished Outer Wilds a little while ago and I feel like this scratched a bit of that itch. Really enjoyed the slow thoughtful orbit, had a good time with this one.

doraemon 2020-10-22 19:58

Great Game!