Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Meteor Power
By ukulelefury
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 142 | 3.73 | 40 | |
| Fun | 305 | 3.35 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 70 | 3.93 | 40 | |
| Theme | 370 | 3.50 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 98 | 4.02 | 40 | |
| Audio | 129 | 3.64 | 40 | |
| Humor | 363 | 2.55 | 39 | |
| Mood | 282 | 3.29 | 38 |
Very nice retro graphics and a very fitting soundtrack. Difficulty gets harder and harder over time, thereby fitting the theme also very nicely.
Took me three tries to actually figure out how not to run out of energy so fast ;) , but it worked out better then. Is this somewhat good?
meteor-power1.PNG
Also, i noticed a small graphics glitch when you zoom out very far - maybe you should just limit how far one can zoom out a bit more?
meteor-power2.PNG
Very nice! I loved the art. Controlling multiple auto-platforming bots was quite fun!
@games-by-tom :) Yeah, I _think_ that's pretty good! I honestly didn't have time to playtest enough as I tried to balance everything, but I think that's a higher score than I usually get, and I have all the background knowledge of how it works!
And thanks, I'll fix that zoom-out bug in my next project!
@mwillsey :) Thanks! I'm glad the multi-bot controls worked out!
Really clever game. Well done! I really like the music. Nice and relaxing. It's still on in the background whilst I'm typing this :smile: :notes:
@cogcomp :) Thanks! I'm so glad my simple (and way too quickly thrown-together) chiptunes inspire joy!
Audio and visuals are very nice! Took me a good second to figure out how the game works. The multi bot controls are really interesting and work nicely. Difficulty was a little bit too hard to start I think. Maybe it would have flowed better if level one was smaller and doable with 2-3 bots and then you went into what is now level 1.
Impressed at how much you were able to get done and how polished the game was. Nice work.
I loved the uniqueness of it, and I'm mega impressed with what you accomplished ALONE. Kudos!
I did find it super difficult to understand what everything was doing but that seems like the spirit of it.
@zackavelli and @baconeta :) Thanks! Yeah, it really needs a few more indicators for what's happening, and the balance is a little rough. Also, I just realized I'd broken the music in my last build! I just pushed a fix to turn that back on.
@ukulelefury I had music so I think somehow it was okay for me :D
@baconeta :) Phew!
Very cool game idea! You can publish, optimize this for android. And succeed cool casual game
Very promising, cool graphics! Something you can keep working on. The purpose and controls are a bit confusing though, might be something to put more emphasis on. Really cool entry!
Although the connection to the theme is a bit lacking since the power can technically be increased enough to build a self-sustaining base, the game really shines on the technical side. The graphics, audio, UI/UX, etc. is all on another level for something finished in only 48 hours! Besides what I've mentioned about the theme already, the only other critique I have for this game would be to include a tutorial (despite the time constraints this would have been a good investment seeing as I spent the first 10 minutes or so just figuring out how to play)! That said, once I got the hang of things, I thoroughly enjoyed both the levels and thought it was a nice, innovative spin on the classic platformer. Good job!
The amount of polish that went into this is insane! To see so many options in a jam game is crazy. It took me a while to figure out the meteors were destroying the power stations but I can imagine getting good at this game could be a lot of fun to control multiple bots. You should consider continuing this project and making a mobile app.
Fits perfectly with the theme, sounds are nice, art is especially nice. I found it annoying how robots could only tend to solar panels they built. But I guess I just need a better strategy then letting one robot do everything at the start of the game. Good work this is very impressive.
nice game! couldn't quite figure it out at first, not all that intuitive, but really awesome concept and very well made. Lovely art too! great job, thanks for taking part!
Very nice entry. It was a bit hard to understand how to move around, but it is possible after a while:) I really enjoyed the music, it reminded me old Atari games :) Congrats!!!
Not going to lie, I was about to close the game and write a comment about how it's super easy once you figure out how to connect the panels, but then meteors started to speed up and I realised where the challenge comes from. That was quite fun! Made me wish there was some way to protect connections other than just reconnecting them again and again, but still fun, well done! Also good job for making it work in browser, but it took ages to load :smile:
The game is surprisingly polished, with a very detailed settings menu. I really like how you can zoom the camera in and out. The graphics and music are also very good. I like the controls, even if they did take a while to learn. I feel like a way to pan the camera would make things significantly easier. However, I can't seem to find out how to finish a level. I built all of the solar towers and seemingly plugged them in, but I always inevitably end up in a massive meteor storm that inevitably wipes out all of them. Unless the game is meant to go on forever, but the fastest time and total score in the menu seem to hint at the level having an end goal. I feel like a more detailed tutorial would be very useful.
This is really neat.
It took me a while to get the controls down, (and I'll echo other sentiments about indicators/UI), but overall it just worked.
Bot movement felt nice and juicy, cables even jiggle; really there's not a whole lot else to complain about.
Nice work!
@yamaisiukdranko, @cresceda, @arihan10, @remicraft, @oxnh, @myazuid, @filgru, @dilem, @lako, @fireslash Thanks for all the kind words! I'm so glad you liked my game!
:) Next time, I promise I'll have better in-game indicators all over the place!
Very interesting. I like the idea behind it. The controls were very tricky for me to figure out but your instructions on the web page helped a lot. Retro music was spot on. Graphics were very charming.
Great game, really well-polished for a jam game!
I liked that the gameplay had depth in it, it even took me some time to figure out how to properly play it. It is an actual full-fledged game if you just add some levels, visuals and audio are amazing too!
I'm impressed with the amount of options you have in the settings. This is a very well done game with a lot of strategy involved. The only bug I ran into was some music skipping when loading up the level.
At some point on level 2 a robot jumped off the platforms. I think since the dawn of his creation, he always wanted to be amongst the stars.
SpaceRobot.gif
... I'm not really sure what force of gravity was pulling him down though.
Anywho.
I like this game! It probably wasn't intended, but Meteor Power had what felt like multiple paradigm shifts. First when I realized that I had to be patient, then when I realized I could connect solar panels with multiple wires. I felt smart.
I definitely don't think I ever had a reason to have 6 robots. Having more than 2 just made me spam through the buttons trying to find the one closest to the destination. I don't think it was mentioned anywhere that time slows down when you hold left click, which is a shame since the effect was well-made.
As you said, more indicators would be nice. You might not even realize that meteors are a threat until they bombard you completely. But! I imagine you were busy implementing other things in the game... like jumping robots.
Nice entry! You better make it to Ludum Dare 51. You better!
This almost feels like a full-scale game!
It's great fun. I had a great time playing it.
The soundtrack and effects are not too-interrupting which is very nice.
At first it was a bit hard getting used to the controls and trying to survive. But after that It's all good.
Suggestion - Maybe you could allow connecting powerlines between unpowered solar panels? - Yo should add more indication to controls / threats / how to play in general - Nothing more. This is really good!
My verdict: If there's an award I could give, this game is one the award-receiving list!
// Also, what is that font you used in the menu ui?
Neat concept! I like how you can control a bunch of robots at once. Figuring out how to wire up the stations to the solar panels was a bit tricky, but I got it eventually. It helped when I realized I could just zoom out so both were on screen at once.
Very good game, as someone said I would love to play it on my phone :)
Very nice gameplay idea! Found the controls quite frustrating at first: I thought you'd control the robot with WASD, and WASD was actually displayed in the bottom, but somehow pressing them doesn't move the robot and only highlights the button, of which only A is active and others are disabled, so I guessed you can only move to the left at first, and you need to press A and click to actually move left, etc, you get the idea :)
(I know the controls are written in the description, but I usually only read the description if I can't figure them out, while in this case it _seemed_ that I did figure them out, which was kind of infuriating later)
Maybe just selecting a robot by mouse and then clicking where it should go would be much simpler for the player? I ended up keeping A pressed all the time anyway. Given this controls, and the fact that robots have their own pathfinding (which is great, btw!) it's pretty much impossible and useless to have more than one robot at once. There seems to be a glitch when part of the solar stations' network gets disconnected from the main station: some disconnected stations are highlighted as active, so aren't, which was a little distracting. I didn't realize you can zoom in/out at first, and that background is rendered in a bit strange way when you zoom out. Anyways, I managed to build the solar stations and it seems that the only thing left is connecting them over and over again, since they get destroyed by the meteors, which gets repetitive quickly.
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I agree with @lako , the interface suggests you that a level could be "finished" or "won", but it seems there is no such thing. We have to try to get the highest score, and that's enough.
I did not believe the robots could make giant jumps until I clicked on a top platform. I like how they manage to path-find, wherever you click. It makes them more alive and more "independant".
Like many other people said, controls could have been simpler. Click on a robot to select it, then click on a destination, or click on two stations to connect them. Click on another robot to change selection. That's all.
The stations seems to be powered off or powered on, but I couldn't determine when. It does not seem to depend on wether it's connected or not.
Nice music and graphics. The background deserved more variations. These two moons infinitely copy-pasted looks quite weird.
Thank you for this cute game.
I love the movement. The music is also great. Very nice game you made
Nice game. Love the way in which the robot connects the wires :)
I read in the comments above, that the meteors speed up over time and make the game more difficult. I already connected all the stations and nothing happened. So I stopped playing too early it seems :(
Good job!
@iambaangkok :) Thanks!
I made the font! You should go check out [fontstruct.com](https://fontstruct.com/), it's really fun/easy/free to use to make a font!
Or here's a link to my simple pixel font: https://github.com/SnoringCatGames/scaffolder/tree/master/assets/fonts/pxlzr
@ukulelefury Thanks for sharing!
I'll try and make some for my next game (:
That was really fun! There were lots of times where I felt frustrated because I was building a line and my little robot decided to go off on an adventure without the line, but I think that this might be one of those issues that is best solved with more time than a game jam gives.
Really fun, I liked the feeling of the music and graphics and it really absorbed me. :D
Great game. Graphics are great. The controls are a little weird at first and not all that intuitive. Overall though a good entry and well made for being a compo!
neat little game. Tad frustrated at how easy it was for the lines to be destroyed at times, but once i overcame the controls the rest awas preatty neat. :D
I am impressed with the amount of polish that this game has. Maybe I'm not playing it right but I feel like it was annoying to connect the power lines up. I like the indicators for where the bots are going to go. I don't like that the meteors destroy the power lines although I suppose that is part of the theme. I wish the game didn't start until you had clicked out of the initial text box with instructions. Thanks for the game, I enjoyed it!
I like the game, the concept is really good and fits the theme well. However I found the game very unintuitive at first, It took me 3 playthoughs to realize how exactly you connect the lines. Likely because I'm stupid, I guess the way you can move without tapping icons confused me a lot. It looks really good zoomed in but soon you need to see more around you and when zoomed out the icons are too small and it doesn't look as good. Anyway you did a good job overall, cheers!
Very cool game! :smile: The controls, art and sound were great! I just found it weird to understand the cost of new robots and buildings but after I understood that they had a relatively high cost I always saved a bit before building them :sweat_smile: Great job!
I was a bit confused with the controls at first and made a bunch of robots and ran out of power really quickly. The game was a lot of fun after I figured out what I was supposed to do, but it was still pretty hard to avoid the meteors. I really liked the idea and the art! Impressive work for a compo =)
Thank you for sharing your game on my Twitch stream (MsMiaChar). Here's a link to the video (game starts around 02:42:00): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1446760516
@charq :) Thanks for playing! And thanks for the link! It was fun to watch you figure it out. Yeah, I definitely need to improve on the controls and indicators and difficulty balancing. I'm glad you liked it!
I didn't seem to understand how to play? UI and wasd were working, but left clicking didn't do anything so I couldn't move the robot. Am I missing something? :D Game looks super pretty and menus are really polished!
@nyxkn You have to hold-down A, then click somewhere! Sorry the controls are so confusing for this one!
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holy cow, this one's going in the bookmarks for me to dissect later! It's got it all: rope physics, rts elements, and 2d platformer pathfinding for goodness' sake! I also had the "bot leaps off to explore the great unknown" in level 2. I don't have any criticisms you haven't already heard. I really like the shine animation on powered solar panels, that's a nice touch! The bot animations help quite a bit to make them feel more alive and active. It's a nice little thing that if you're lucky they can block asteroids with their bodies as they jump around. The feeling of playing this game is nice, it's fun to lean back and watch a bunch of busy bots running around tripping over wires and themselves.
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Definitely something to be proud of, especially in a compo setting! Nice work!
@markopolodev Wow, that's the highest score I've seen! Nice! Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!