nicholassoen 2021-04-26 15:29
Cool concept!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Ringularity - Black Hole Orbital Combat Simulation
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 643 | 3.17 | 22 | |
| Fun | 674 | 2.95 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 269 | 3.55 | 22 | |
| Theme | 794 | 2.85 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 860 | 2.21 | 21 | |
| Humor | 576 | 2.03 | 17 | |
| Mood | 755 | 2.62 | 22 |
Cool concept!
very very good game i like it
Very nice and clean!
Not sure about this but, it could be nice to have some length of predicted trajectory for the ship.
Nice concept! The realization I was orbiting when I unzoomed felt nice, the bad endings are a good touch as well
I did not understand that my moves had inertia and were on a larger scale until I zoomed out. After that pew pew pew the red triangles. I live that it's a small C++ program instead of using an overkill game engine.
Your inputs uses the virtual keys instead of scancodes. When you do that, the inputs are bound to the actual letter instead of the physical position. On non-QWERTY layouts they are move around. For example the moves should be ZQSD on an AZERTY keyboard, and WASD feeld like you are moving with ZQSD on a QWERTY keyboard. You could have used scancodes instead (so read msg.lParam), those do not move but are assigned to whatever letter is here.
@sentmoraap Thanks a bunch for the feedback! I might push a bugfix patch to address the scancode point - ironically enough I forgot that I had solved this problem on my current main project, Sir Happenlance (https://happenlance.com). I'm happy that you appreciate the work I put into writing a bespoke codebase rather than using an engine! :pray:
A very clever take on the theme. This game is quite fun and challenging. I like the use of the orbits to throw off my instincts for the trajectory of my shots. I do think that the game could have benefited from some form of predictive pathing for either the player ship or the shots, it was difficult to tell from the slow movement when I had slowed my orbit enough that I would end up trapped forever instead of doing a cool slingshot around the center. I don’t think that that detracted from the game however, it was very engaging. Well done!
Oooh, custom binary, so rare.
A little confusing at first... but that's actually worth it for the realization of the orbit mechanics when you zoom out and see why your bullets move the way they do. Some extra visual indicators of a few things would go a long way.. I was unsure initially if my WASD inputs were on global orientation or local to the ship (little thrust markers would help). Orbit lines might be nice, but might also take away the challenge.
This was really interesting. I love the idea of combat on a more realistic scale. Accounting for gravity was really fun when it came to the projectiles, but I felt that the movement was more of a danger than it was worth. I kept either falling into the black hole or leaving the system. Being able to see my orbit would have been really cool, I think, and would have helped give me some more confidence in moving the ship. Overall I'd say this was a neat concept that could have benefitted from some more direct feedback for the player. Nice work!
PS: Falling into the black hole looked astonishing. Brought a big smile to my face. Very cool.
Pretty cool idea, there's definitely a nice framework here. Took a bit to realize I was in control of the spaceship- I was able to figure it out and move around eventually, but I think my difficulty had to do with the slow speed of the game. The slow speed really did make each movement feel really weighty though. Felt satisfying to fire a salvo of shots at an enemy ship and see their flight path move with gravity. Very cohesive idea!
Wow that's really nice ! I guess that you made it with c++ ? I also made my game coding it in c++ but I used OpenGL for the display. That remembers me a lot asteroids good job overall !
Ps : It would be nice to have more feedback when we are moving ;)
The core concept has great potential! Lacks feeling of control, though - it's so slow, and the firing direction feels off on the Y axis
That said, zooming out gave me quite an impression! That feeling of distance...
Interesting concept! Could need abit of polish! it was quite hard to tell if your moving when zoomed in a times :P but a good lil game! Some thrust indicators + sounds would really improve it!
Very cool. I noticed everything speed up when I near the black hole. How much physics is here? I don't think I've ever seen black hole time dilation.
Some sort of velocity display on the UI would be nice for feedback.
@googlefrog Yes, black holes slow down time when you get close! And since time is slow for you, it looks like time is fast for everyone else. This happens for all gravitational bodies, including Earth :smile:
I agree that velocity indication is useful, thanks a bunch for the feedback!
I really like the orbital mechanic. Very challenging to maneuver with the speed/scale of things, as well as no immediate feedback on the force you are imparting with your inputs, but I liked it. Fun to see how close I could skirt the black hole to try to catch up to the enemies without getting sucked in! Much respect for not using an engine.
Very cerebral game - enjoyed playing. I'll have to look at the code to see how you did the time dilation - did you go to first principle equations? Others mentioned it, but some vector velocity relative to the black hole would help visualize. I never killed all the enemies, but I sure tried. Nice submission.
Really cool, unique take on the theme, and a very challenging and addicting game. The orbiting mechanic is difficult to figure out at first, because the background is pitch black. But once you zoom out and see what's going on, it makes sense, and the gameplay becomes fun. Never quite got the hang of the movement, I feel the gravitational pull fights with the player inputs too much, and it's hard to tell how responsive the movement is. But really impressive entry, I can see this becoming a bigger game, with multiple unique solar systems and enemies. (is it still technically a "solar system" if the star is now a black hole?)
A bit hard to see where you are going and where you just were being zoomed out so far, but a fun idea. Neat having it be pure c++, I should learn how to do that.
Also I'm your 20th rating, congrats!