Summon the Armada

bloodyaugust 2024-04-15 04:00

Man, this puzzle "physics-former" is tough as hell, and lots of fun! It was so tough, in fact, that I gave up and broke through the asteroid wall to secure a win. :sweat_smile: My only gripe with the mechanics is that hitting an asteroid doesn't zero your momentum, and there's no "brake" button. From a technical standpoint though, this is well done! Interesting design, and some great choices on the puzzle mechanics. Juggling thrusters, "big screen" mode, and stealth was genuinely fun.

Side note: you should opt out of audio, as your game doesn't have any.

Nicely done entry! :tada:

pres2300 2024-04-15 04:02

Nice game! I enjoyed playing it. I had some difficulty with the controls (and had one incident where a specific key combination closed my browser tab). I think if you implemented some kick back when hitting an asteroid it could make the game a bit more interesting, and perhaps make it less likely to get stuck. Otherwise, this was fun and I think it could be expanded in some pretty simple ways to make it even more fun.

andreas-decker 2024-04-15 10:09

Thanks so much for playing!

I had left audio in because my exhausted brain thought it would be funny, since sound doesn't travel in space, but my foggy but less tired brain now says: You'd still hear sounds in your own vessel. Either way, I took it out of the ratings.

The velocity issue is not something I could fix at 2 AM last night, unfortunately, but I have several good ideas on how to tackle it now. I won't change stuff because of COMPO rules right now, but I will be releasing a new version on itch when I have it. If there are any new builds there, they will be marked "non-compo".

Commenting here after rating is a great way to get me to play and rate your games, by the way, to anyone reading this ;)

lakea 2024-04-15 10:23

A very good entry, I too found hitting the asteroids should reset velocity but other than that it was very enjoyable.

patbgames 2024-04-15 10:25

Very interesting game, the collisions with asteroid are strange, but the overall feeling is very good 👍

andreas-decker 2024-04-15 10:37

@lakea @patbgames yeah, the collisions are an issue. Momentum is preserved, but shouldn't be. Couldn't quite get a wrap on that for the Compo deadline, but I'll definitely revisit this one in the future and round off some of those edges.

rakowu 2024-04-15 10:45

I'm clearly doing domething wrong xD... I was following the arrow. Screenshot 2024-04-15 123225.png

But those who read have a clear advantage.... Definitely kept me on my toes. I think it's very good that you can defend yourself from the sensor. My only constructive criticism would be to limit the maximum speed, which makes it easier to steer the ship

andreas-decker 2024-04-15 10:50

@rakowu haha, yeah, in a way one follows that arrow automatically :D The maximum speed is a good idea! It's on my short list of stuff to do, because going too fast isn't ideal for physics, and I want to make levels with more open space.

worldofmush 2024-04-15 13:40

Interesting game, it was a bit annoying in the beginning until I learned vision of the enemy ships. I got stuck in asteroids too many times too, haha

You mention you might develop the game further, fixing getting stuck into asteroids would go a long way for the enjoyement. Other than getting stuck i enjoyed it, controls where smooth and fun to fly around.

alex-mulkerrin 2024-04-15 15:34

Nice clean and simple graphics. It's good to see momentum respected in a game set in space :)

ooboob 2024-04-15 18:26

Funny, I was gonna post almost the exact same screenshot as rakowu did above

Go arrow-following crowd

frib 2024-04-15 22:25

Interesting game! I think my main gripes have already been mentioned; no way to brake easily, and hitting an asteroid doesn't nullify your velocity. It's a very tough game because of this! But I like the idea of don't-touch-anything-until-we're-past-the-baddies as a gameplay element. So tempting to just hit a button while cruising past a sensor array :D

coatline 2024-04-17 18:24

The asteroid field is pretty frustrating to get stuck in, but it looks good! I think instead of having a constant velocity, you should make it to where you boost in whatever direction you are moving, that way when you hit a wall, you don't have to turn around and hold down the thrust key until you overcome your previous velocity. But it was fun to carefully maneuver past the bad guys! Overall, nice job!

velvetlobster 2024-04-17 19:54

this is like a stealth ship type of experience don't remember seeing anything like this, hope can speedrun this, its real tough

cogcomp 2024-04-17 20:42

Interesting game concept but the physics need a lot of work. I agree with some of the others that the velocity needs to be reset when colliding or at least some type of minimal bounce to avoid making the player die so quickly. An interesting idea which isn't easy to do in a 48h compo. Well done!

josion 2024-04-18 02:09

This is a really cool concept for a stealth game! The puzzle design looks challenging and engaging. I agree that tweaking the physics interactions, like adding a braking mechanism or adjusting asteroid collisions, could really enhance the gameplay experience. Keep up the great work!

denvil 2024-04-18 03:42

Nice stealth game. Took few tries to understand the detection areas. Maybe add some kind of visual indication where the detection area is. Also bumping into the area detector and just continuing on when in stealth really shows how vigilant those are :spy:

krakadushka 2024-04-18 10:22

Cool spaceship physics! I think, It would be nice if you'll add restart button. And, I think, it's quite tough to understand enemies range, so you can add something link non-immediate loose. If you in the enemy's range one second should be passed to loose. But still really cool!

willhoit 2024-04-18 15:09

Really nice to see games that focus on bypassing the enemy instead of destroying it! Flying the ship takes some practice... and collisions get a little weird by the asteroids.

andreas-decker 2024-04-18 16:17

@krakadushka you mean a restart button for during the game? That's a good idea. I definitely want to have a menu. In your game I actually failed my almost victorious run by accidentally hitting the on-screen restart button :D

@denvil maybe you missed the Shift key activating the scanner. This zooms out and shows where enemies can see you, and it's color coded: Red will always see you, and yellow will only see you if you have not "gone dark".

@willhoit that was my thought, too. I have an expansion planned wherein you can choose a weapon from a loadout, but it would only contain one or two shots. I much prefer just being outgunned and having to get past by your wits alone, so I may leave the weapon out entirely.

@coatline @josion thanks for the feedback! I have to say I am very married to the idea of inertial movement, but I do plan to add a loadout selection, and one of them is a reverse booster, which will allow you to brake without turning. Maybe that'll help :D

Welcome to the club, @ooboob xD

Thanks so much to everyone for playing, and for the feedback! I try to play all games of the people who reviewed me and leave a review. If I haven't left one, it's probably because there was only a Windows build, and I currently don't have a Windows machine. If you add an HTML5 or Linux build, hit me up again here and I will catch it up!