lakshyaisagod 2021-04-26 04:17
TODO: review game
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Mars Cave Explorer
By oddballdave
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 394 | 3.52 | 21 | |
| Fun | 399 | 3.39 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 307 | 3.47 | 21 | |
| Theme | 359 | 3.72 | 20 | |
| Graphics | 372 | 3.55 | 21 | |
| Audio | 263 | 3.47 | 22 | |
| Mood | 231 | 3.63 | 20 |
TODO: review game
@lakshyaisagod The itch.io page has 0 views and 0 downloads, how did play the game to vote? :8ball:
Great game with great concept. First try I flipped my vehicle on the docking place upside down and couldn't do anything. Also I misunderstood the battery indicator quite far down and died :( But still 5/5
Fun game! I included it in my compilation video series of a bunch of LDJAM games! https://youtu.be/R25_tXZwmbw
The controls take time to get used to but once I did, they felt great.
Very well made but very difficult! ๐ญ I played for a long time because the controls felt good and the music was nice and relaxing, but I just never really made any progress, even with a gamepad I just kept dying before I collected enough stuff. ๐ The fact that you can drop things if you go too fast is too cruel for an already tricky game I thinkโฆ ๐ But the controls did feel really good and there was a great atmosphere. Feel like I could have kept trying for a long time if I didn't have all these other games to go through too. Nailed the feel!
Pleasant and atmospheric vector graphics! Appropriate music. Nice physics.
Some remarks: 1. Self-destruction on pressing [esc] didn't work when the ship got stuck. 2. Flipped thruster controls are more comfortable to play.
Good entry!
Cool game. Mood is on spot, fun to play as well. The aesthetics are very simple, but it all works together very well with the audio.
I did ragequit after getting stuck in the charger upside down.
Anyway, good job!
Really interesting concept, but quite tough to learn and feels a bit frustrating at times. For the most part, if I ever landed at all on my side, I couldn't get up - which made hull upgrades not feel particularly useful. Once, I landed in the mothership upside down and could neither escape nor self-destruct. Several times I got a gem to the mothership only for it to get caught on one of those protruding little nubs. I think the mothership could be made a little more forgiving - it would be cool if it would sort of automatically pull you in, grab the gem, and spin you upright once you got close enough, because I think I spent a disproportionate amount of my attention on trying to land back on the mothership rather than, well, actually going and getting gems.
The graphics are simple but quite pleasant to look at and the music is atmospheric. Fun experience overall.
I really liked your game, the visuals and mood were very cool! The game idea is pretty simple but works very well with the theme. It's very hard to control correctly the ship, I don't know if it was intentionnal or not but I think it give the game a little bit of comedy, so it didn't frustrate me too much! Good work!
Maybe it would be easier to play if you swapped controls for the left and right thruster. As is, this is impossible to play for me. My ship got stuck upside down, my ship got stuck on the side, I lost cargo all the time.
@blubberquark You can swap the left and right thruster controls if you press [Tab] on keyboard or (Select) on controller.
The movement was an interesting take, I think that's what really makes the game work. I found it a little bit frustrating how easy it was to take damage especially considering that the movement is hard to be precise with. Maybe it should be based on velocity so you don't wreck your ship trying to get off the ground. The graphics were easy to read, if a little simple and the music helped the mood for sure.
It is very difficult to handle the steering of the ship. I got stuck a few times, and found any gem I could get back to the ship a major success. I am unsure what upgrading the engines did, but it seems to have given the thrusters more power? The look and sound of the game is nice, makes it clear where the ground is once I touched it. The ship gets destroyed rather quickly too. Good work overall.
5/5. Loved the scope and execution of this project. Best game I've played yet.
It is soooo hard! I managed to bring only one piece and then always get destroyed or stuck :D
I would cap the speed maybe to make the ship more maneuverable.
Anyway, great graphics, nice music and sound effects!
I would appreciate a tutorial right in the game. I had to go back and forth from the game to the LD page and then back again multiple times.
Also going upside down means game over. How about making the ship with a pointy front, therefore it wouldn't get stuck?
For a compo entry, very solid game! Cheers!
This was an amazingly hard game to play, until I died a couple of times and inverted the controls and got the hang of it. Than it was still hard, and a surprisingly lot of fun.
The only thing I can remark on the gameplay is that there could have been a bit more reward for the little victories (getting your ship back in one piece the first time).
The graphicst were simple, but really neat, which I liked a lot.
The music was good, gave off the right mood, and was not too short of a loop. The sound design was as well cool.
Audio was nice and effective, graphics were simple but nice and consistent.
Gameplay was challenging, but the controls just pushed it over to frustrating territory. Maybe it's just not for keyboard, maybe it's the s for tractor beam instead of something more comfortable(like space), maybe it's the fact that I played for way too long with initial controls, switched because it still felt too clunky, then did not feel much better since I was now kind of used to other mode. Also did not help that the controls reset after each death. Even tried using two hands, one for each thruster, both default and inverted. Still felt too frustrating, still felt like s was not the best place to put the tractor beam. Maybe I'm just not patient/good enough, but it felt like I was being punished too much, so unfortunately half an hour and 5th ragequit later I have to stop for real to preserve my sanity.
So yeah, liked the idea, feels like it would have been really satisfying to master, but wish gameplay was a little bit more forgiving and controls had a better button for tractor beam.
Cool game.
Nice job with this! I love the concept and the application of the theme. The art was great too and the choice of music contributed to a nice overall atmosphere! I definitely found this very tough though, it was very hard to control the ship and not crash into things and be precise enough to pick up orbs and bring them back properly. I also found that on my Xbox One controller the Tab to reverse thruster directions wasnt working I think, so I would regularly get stuck. Overall though great job with this submission!!
Nice music and overall aestethics. The graphics are simple but they convey the "mood" very effectively. As for gameplay it is fun to play, but I wish it could have been more forgiving. The difficulty set aside, I found the game to be relaxing in a way. Well done for a compo entry. Missed a quit button.
This is a slick game. Very challenging controls, but fun to master. I would love to play something like this with a bit more progress mechanics. I found the collision damage unintuitive as it seemed to be based entirely on how long you were in contact with a surface and not at all on your impact velocity, so I wasn't able to land gently on surfaces but I could go careening off of them all day. The health and battery bars also got me at least once as they both reach actual zero long before you expect (half of the health icon is green at 0 health and same for the copper cap on the battery).