bingtheping 2022-04-04 15:09
Don't know about this game, mixed opinions.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Starline Rescue Squad
By tigerj and GingerJams206
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1307 | 2.85 | 54 | |
| Fun | 1275 | 2.69 | 54 | |
| Innovation | 1158 | 2.74 | 53 | |
| Theme | 1122 | 3.21 | 54 | |
| Graphics | 1194 | 2.74 | 53 | |
| Audio | 443 | 3.54 | 52 | |
| Humor | 561 | 3.13 | 54 | |
| Mood | 1116 | 3.05 | 51 |
Don't know about this game, mixed opinions.
There is one obvious win in this game: It's funny. The instructions very casually explaining that the only thing to do is party while trying to survive jives well with the absurd visuals. While the graphics themselves are not amazing, the simple addition of everything pulsing to the beat brought this game up a couple of notches. It's definitely a bit irritating to look at on the player character, but the collectibles pulsing to the beat was definitely win.
My biggest criticism is that the physics for flying around feel reeeeeaaally rough. I felt it was too hard to make interesting maneuvers reliably. Another thing is that the instructions should mention that you need to return to home base to get additional time (obvious in retrospect, but not obvious first time I played).
Thanks for making this interesting piece.
@the-neon-shark thank you! we definitely ran out of time to tweak the player controller more =D it is high on the post LD list of stuff to do. Thank you for playing and the feedback!
Who else played this game dancing in the chair? Good job! I just miss an audio cue for when you pickup items.
@filipe-leal YES! TY! good feedback I totally missed that during the jam!
whole song is here: https://soundcloud.com/tigerj-1/ld50-starline-rescue-squad
Really great audio, love the mood !
Hey, I got some Toe Jam & Earl vibes from this game except electronica instead of funk haha.
Though a bit overdone, things pulsating to the beat of the music really helped setting the mood of the game, it really feels like a party in the middle of nowhere :smile:
I agree with neon as my biggest issue with the game were the ship physics and input feedback. Sometimes the ship just seemed to fly away for no apparent reason and I had to really fight the controls to get it back where I wanted it.
Oh, and I had a real nice time vibing to the music :wink:. Thanks!
Hey! Space games are not my kind of games but this is funny and different! Congratulations on the idea and the execution!! I had fun playing it!!
Super groovoy! Love the way everything was pulsing with the music. Made me want to dance along.
@conradoclark I am so happy about that! As I was playtesting I was making "ooo money" noises from the top down TJ&E. :laughing: @jitspoe thanks for streaming it!
I really liked the animations in the ui and in the game. The controls could be improved it is a little hard to steer.
Really fun game, encountered a bug where i went too fast and got stuck in the wall :0. i can see that a lot of care and love went into this thumbs up for sure.
Top mood
@tahamimarlar indeed, it was a tough balance between good controls and the feel we wanted the game to have. Bad controls are not necessarily a (good) mechanic, but a pilot that has been partying too much shouldn't be a great driver either. Thanks for playing! @danonino wow we didn't get a wall bug, but there are plenty others :laughing: thank you so much for playing! @ruruie :fire:
This game vibes hard, well done!
The controls are real touchy, but once you get a feel for them it's not too bad at all
thanks @bougiebirdie :rocket: !
I think I was traveling so fast I broke reality
Captura de Tela 2022-04-05 às 19.08.37.png
really thought those were flags
Captura de Tela 2022-04-05 às 19.07.41.png
Love the music! I like how the controls are a bit icy, I think that might be intentional?
This might be isolated to just myself, but the splash/controls pulsating text was difficult to concentrate on. The other indicator text was fine though!
@velvetlobster yes! we were joking with that calling it "the terminal velocity issue" not really a bug but I never governed the velocity and you can go so fast you slip by the proc gen colliders. (it generates the level during runtime) @jcg yup intentional and I made them slightly better before submission after the first few comments were focusing on them. I've been thinking about it, when they are too good the game isn't really as silly and loses it's feel. when they are terrible it's just annoying and hard to get a good session. I think they are at a sweet spot now, there were a lot of tweaks. glad you noticed. Thanks for the update on the splash text! I'm pretty sure we're gonna spin this one into a full game after LD ratings are over. All the feedback is appreciated.
Gotta love this music!
Ooof man, the controls are something else. It felt like no matter how hard I tried, my ship goes wherever it wants. I liked the music, but its hard to enjoy your game when it controls like that.
@kszaku indeed this is great feedback thankyou! I'm noodling on adding some exhaust effect for when thrust is being applied and a menu to adjust the controls a bit. post jam though. :) @jonrei thank you! I rarely do my own music but I had time this time due to having a teammate. means a lot man!
Great entry, you really did nice work on this game ! I think it would be more clear for the devs if I just make a list of what I thought works, and what doesn't, so :
The things I liked : - The plot and humor - Satisfying feeling of augmenting tremendoulsy your ship lifespan - The controls, it fits perfectly for me the general theme you set for this game, it's like controlling a drunk dude - Music and SFX
Things I didn't like : - The background, I think modifying it so it fits the art style of the game would be a nice thing to do - It's a little unclear what elements do what, for example, I have no idea what the thing ressembling the suedish flag did - The elements all do the same thing, adding more effects to the differente pickups and differentiating them would really help making them feel unique
Overall a good game !
@joselor thanks for the comprehensive feedback!!! all great points, thanks for the positive note on controls. We're working on a post jam GDD (game design doc) now, so your suggestions are very helpful.
I'm not a fan of this type of control, I kept sliding around and doing nothing. But I do enjoy the attitude it shows, the music and beat serves the concept very well. I still had fun.
Changing the rotation point to the center of the ship would make things look a bit more natural.
@vivyhasadream ty! @lerc great idea!
Now that's a fact-paced game! I liked the freedom and the fact that losing control of the ship did not lead to instant death, but instead to discovering other parts of the map.
Strengths: - Good speed sensations - Expansive map - Fun soundtrack
Possible improvements: - Objects purposes is not always clear - It is maybe a tad too easy to lose control of the ship
All in all, good job!
This was an interesting one, a bit difficult to control but once you get the hang of it the game gets a bit easy. In the end I got around 2000 seconds. As you said in chat, quests would be a great addition because they would make you stay away from the collection point and give you a bit of a risk
Ha! This game was hilarious! I love the throbbing ship graphics and the overall look and color palette. All the colors, why not it's a PARTY!
I think the looser controls are totally fine. Since there aren't any threats, it's ok to push the players a bit on their execution.
I really struggled at first, but I eventually got the hang of it and had a massive surplus of days, maybe 2000? Sat at 133,000 population too before I think I saw most of the content.
It was kinda neat to see the doodads and buildings in the galaxy, though it can feel sparse after a few minutes of play. Was it just me or were there no fries around except for in the beginning? They were the most satisfying to collect so I was bummed!
Were items supposed to fly off the ship when you moved to fast? That seems to be the case with visuals, but when I dropped them off I still seemed to get full value so I didn't really mind.
All in all, it's a fun core concept. I lost some intensity in play due to having so many excess days, but I can totally see why you would balance it that way. In my first playthrough I struggled to even get back to the station haha.
Very insightful feedback @peachtreeoath ! Thank you for playing and your detailed notes. We may have forgotten to place extra fries in the “chunks” used to proc gen the levels. You are spot about the jam balance there, was too hard on first play and too easy when you get the hang of it.. I bet a tutorial level would fix all of this hahaha. The items falling off is a bug, I’m going to dig into it after ratings and reviews is over and I have more time to dev.
“the terminal velocity issue” I like that one :slight_smile: . I had no idea what was going on when I started the game. Controls were all over the place. Are we in space? If not, maybe have the ship slow down once you have no key pressed. I enjoyed the music and the fact that the beat connects with the UI. Nice job!
Fun little game but I could only catch the first fries and bring them back to the drop zone. After that the ship flies way too fast and I keep losing the things I catch. It almost seems that there is a delayed response with the thrusters, very difficult to steer. I had the same problem as @velvetlobster where it scrolled completely to the bottom and I lost sight of my ship completely. I also feel like I almost want to zoom out so that I can see the map more clearly and find my way back to the drop zone. Graphics are really neat and the music is fun. Just a pity that I just couldn't seem to get the ship to slow down and steer nicely.
Nice work! Loved the vibe and mood. Font, audio and general tone of the game were on point! But, unfortunately, I didn't really like the movement in the game. For me personally it is way too unpredictable. Anyway, keep up the good work!
P.S. I see zero reason to make player press P to play, instaed of W. Just makes me look at the keyboard and reflect on my miserable life :)
@alexhonor thanks for the feedback, the reason to not use a gameplay button or key to restart is that some players like to monitor their score or progress, if they are in an exciting moment of gameplay they may accidentally bypass the score screen.
Reqlly enjoyed the music ! Too bad I wasn't able to keep the party long enough :cry: to hear it entirely (thanks for the sound cloud link).
I'm a bit confused by the gameplay though, I picked up several things but they didn't seem to do anything and sometimes were left behind for no reason I could understand. I'm quite puzzled, maybe a missed something ?
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my stream!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1450188475?t=1h44m30s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
This may seems a bit harsh of a review, but the game for me was unplayable, I had a really difficult time controlling the ship even after trying the game like 6-7 times. I didn't really understand what i should do even after reading the instructions the first time. After the 3rd trying i did get that you needed to bring stuff to the drop zone, but the purpose of why picking certain object over others, i didn't quite understand... Also the fact the ship is always changing size and colors is super hard on the eyes. On top of having difficulty to control it, I was losing sight of it... You should put epileptic disclaimer on your game....
Good job on the music tho, I really enjoyed it :)
Nice fitting audio with all the pulsating visuals. I would have liked some explanation as to what the different items do (is there a difference?). Also if there is any way to prevent item loss on the way back to the drop zone. Also at some point the background music stopped?
It was fun to play, nicely done!
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Managed to survive 70 days before everyone died! GOOD JOB!
I absolutely love how the ship and items you picked up dance! The song is such a bop! I got to 400 days before everything got sad.
@steve7411 thank you so much for the play and for swinging by the stream! great times!
I love the sound effects and the music is amazing, congratulations. I wish you had worked a lot more on the assets but I know it's a Game Jam so we have a lot of problems, but its cool :D
The game is confusing. At first I didn´t know what to do until I started to flow with the music and everything was ok.
Now seriously, it´s a good game that lacks a tutorial and some sfx. Do each object to collect have a purpose? I didn´t find one.
The art pumping in rythm with the music gives a nice touch, but after a while the theme becomes repetitive. A longer song would be great to have the player engaged.
Overall is a good game. Congratulations for the entry!
I really liked vaporwavey vibes. I really like the font, design, and art. The acceleration was punchy at first, but after some time I got the hang of it. I liked this a lot.
It's impossible not to dance in my chair while playing this lol. Even the pickups and the ship are vibing and everyone's having a good time.
I was going to add an opinion for the controls being too icy, but I read your explanation that making them any tighter started to lose the fun feeling. It's awesome to see that you had the presence of mind to try different controller settings and pick the version that is the most cohesive with the game design. Nice job!
I had a good time flying around at warp speed. The music and dancing UI was great. I think the origin/pivot point of the ship should have been at its center instead of the thruster to make turning around feel better though.
The idea is fun but the game is currently way too easy. I accidentally bumped into supplies while feeling out the controls and very quickly amassed way too many days. I got to like 700 days before I decided to just see how fast I could fly off the map.
I could only play by thinking: Why am I collecting flags of Japan? lol
Just like some other people, I was left with mixed feelings about this game. Overall, the game seems to have a solid concept but unfortunately, it wasn't executed to the best of its potential. The controls can be hard to adjust to and the pivot on the ship is a bit odd to say the least. All that being said, it was still a pretty funny entry.
The music is good, but the goal wasn't really clear. Basing on other comments I would assume the movement where the ship slides off is intentional, would have been great if we could have gotten some sort of feedback or any other indicator for movement, where the thrusters are, and where the ship is currently going (directionally). Some rockets at the side of the ship that could have flipped depending on forward or backward thrusts for example. Other than I think the music is still a bop, it has a certain mood. Great job.
Damn I'm bad at this game XD. Love the overall feeling of the game! I Like the music sync with the animation of items. I love space games and use to play with that kind of 'spatial physics' so for me it's pure joy. It's really fresh and simple! Maybe it lack of sounds but that's me being picky! Good job :)
Definitely a neat game, and for as much as the velocity of the player is kinda wack, it could work if the camera could keep up with it or if the player was allowed to hard steer during it