BeltCo Mining Inc.

smilewood 2025-04-07 01:53

I am going to put my retrospective in the comments this time! I had a lot of fun going back to a solo project, and while I missed the extra day the jam rules get you it was a fun challenge to cram this project into the 48 hours. I feel like I got all the pieces that I wanted to into this game, the real thing that started the concept in my mind was the upgrade tree. While with more time I would probably have added several more different upgrades (bouncing/penetration on the shots, laser beam attack, and some sort of warp drive were all ideas I had) I do feel like I committed to a reasonable set of upgrades that was actually implementable in the time.

My only real regret is that I did not have time to do any sound effects at all. I decided to focus on having *most* of the art instead of leaving a bunch of things as just white squares, so that was the tradeoff. I think if I was doing this in the Jam time-frame the polish that I could have added would have been awesome. (who am I kidding, I would have increased the scope and still barely gotten it in in time).

Overall good time, I am happy with what I ended up with. Now I just need to play it and find out how horribly balanced my prices are for the upgrades :)

subsolar 2025-04-07 04:37

cool! very unique controls and great pixel art

atsh 2025-04-07 17:53

I liked the space background, the ship, and the idea for the game is tried and true

I think it's currently too stingy with resources - the fuel runs out way to fast, and you don't always have gems in your vicinty, and also it's takes a long time to get 1 gem (which most astroids have), and the first upgrade cost 10. (BTW, the arrow confused me, I would show it only if the station is not visible)

I did like the fact that shooting astroid cluster damage all of them, cool touch

dnp 2025-04-07 17:55

I like these kinds of upgrade games. I think that gems are too rare as the progression feels very slow. But overall, well done.

azimiro 2025-04-07 17:56

Nice game ! Would have been even better with movement independent of player's rotation in my opinion ;) Very impressive Compo game, lots of potential !

smilewood 2025-04-07 19:21

@atsh @dnp With more playtesting after the compo ended I would tend to agree with you, in retrospect I wish the ship started with more fuel. I set up the starting amount before having the central station that you have to get back to. I was just guessing with some of the upgrade numbers and looking at it with fresh eyes I think that the way it is now is probably rather grindy to get any progress. Thanks for the comments!

smilewood 2025-04-07 19:23

@azimiro Movement independent of the facing was my original design, but I had too much fun drifting the ship while testing it (and I did not want to try and figure out a way to get the thrust effects to work to my satisfaction while still rotating the ship) Thanks for the comment!

solmaris 2025-04-09 03:13

The skill tree is cool! I am bad at driving the ship but getting the hang of it after a few rounds. I agree with others that it gets pretty difficult, but also balancing difficulty/features is pretty hard in 48 hours. The core concept is well executed, nice job!

camcomduck 2025-04-09 04:30

I think this game could have really benefited from some kind of playtesting before submitting, I unfortunately found the controls too difficult to manage and I was going days with exploring, running out of power, and not having seen a single asteroid. Just a few small balancing things that could definitely be fixed if you had a bit more time, overall fantastic job for a compo game :)

floppynub 2025-04-09 05:30

Cool game, I love the fuel management aspect of it and the way the ship flies. I think you could benefit from slightly increasing the density of asteroids with crystals, but it was still perfectly possible to play and progress. Good work!

Oh and nice stars in the background, I like how you handled that!

grimwitch 2025-04-09 05:52

Love this type of game, like many others I really really wish that there were more gem asteroids. It took me 4 days to get even the first upgrade, however I understand how difficult economy balancing is. Overall its a fun little game, great job getting it done in the short time the jam permits.

chuckiee 2025-04-10 17:27

I wanted to get all the upgrades, since it was the most important part to you. I think it might not be possible in current state (or it might be my bad luck) since I've never seen a blue node even if I got all green fuel upgrades and went in one direction using my whole fuel tank :cry: I think it'd be nice with some UI that shows total gems I had, and maybe little less drag for the ship so we could travel further. I'd also like camera to pan to where I'm going instead of lagging behind for more effective exploration :spy: Only bad part is it being unbalanced, otherwise very nice game implementation. Also impressive with the upgrade tree :clap:

jeremyfa 2025-04-10 21:06

We can see the hard work you managed to put in the game and its graphics so kudos to that! Unfortunately the difficult controls coupled with "not enough fuel" made it quite hard for me. I guess it would just need some more polish to tune better the mechanics though. Great job anyway!

rainbeau 2025-04-11 04:45

Other than the balancing issue others have mentioned, I was very impressed with the stylistic choices of the movement and the art especially for a compo. Mining asteroids was very satisfying, although I wondered a few times if I was better off spinning in a circle between asteroids to save fuel. Really interesting take on the theme, well done!

quasilyte 2025-04-11 12:54

A couple of random ideas came to me while playing:

* if inetria would be x10 times stronger, then you would have an opportunity to return to the base even when low on fuel if you know the general direction. This would include a fuel conservation mechanic: the less you rotate/correct your path, the less fuel you use (as inertia can get you pretty far without efforts). This economic would make teleportation back to the base unnecessary (although it could still be an extra life mechanic). The only downside is stopping after getting too much momentum, as if it would require a dedicated way to decrease the speed. I don't know how to address that at this moment

* the asteroids (?) could be more fragile. I'm not sure hitting them 3 times adds to the gameplay. It looks like this game is mostly about managing your movement and fuel. Destroying them in 1 shot would make the gameplay a bit better paced in my opinion. One problem with firing more than 1 time is that you can't fire at where you want, so it can interfere with the movement. Another option could be to make them auto-collected as soon as you reach them.

The graphics are simple, but the space background is surprisingly good. It might be a basic spray tool, but the colors and the overall composition make it work. The fact that you can move your vessel sideways is an interesting addition that I haven't seen in games with tank controls in this jam so far.

jtap 2025-04-11 21:37

Interesting game concept, good work for 48 hours, controls seemed complicated, thanks for this experience

wisstopher 2025-04-11 22:28

Really good entry here, lots of work. Movement was good yet challenging. Well done!

xoreaxeax 2025-04-13 09:15

Nice! Even though the game feels very grindy during the first days it still is fun! Some ways of looking ahead where asteroids might be would have been cool but on the other hand, flying into the depths without knowing whats coming fits the theme better :)

Note: (At least for me) the embedded webgl loads but does not start up. Maybe you have data caching activated in the player settings? This must be unchecked: datachaching.png if you already unchecked it ignore my comment :D

lcstark 2025-04-13 09:44

Nice, someone else went with a similar idea to mine! :D

I like the way you implemented the movement and rotation system. Free rotation following the mouse, but pretty slowly, does work pretty good for an old mining vessel. I also liked that there is some inertia to the movement, though I think it would work better if the level didn't end until your ship completely stops - a couple of times I was drifting towards the station and I think I'd reach it with inertia if the overzealous rescue ship didn't decide it needed to "rescue" me.

The mining system is pretty great too, makes me regret not finding some time to implement one I had in mind for my game. Having to extract the mineral asteroids from clusters to get more resources makes for more interesting gameplay than just firing and collecting the result.

Graphically the game is pretty good. I love the parallax effect in the background, with few layers of stars and the variously coloured nebulae.

Overall, it's a really cool game. Pretty impressive compo entry, well done!

eyedromeda 2025-04-13 18:26

Really cool game, the station and background art were very nice. I do wish the controls were a little snappier, and I would've preferred having no deceleration when not touching the controls. As you already mentioned in one of the replies, the starting fuel amount could've been a bit higher. Alternatively, it might be cool to have some asteroids that give you more fuel when destroyed. Good work!

commanderstitch 2025-04-19 18:18

it was all quiet in space. Everything felt amazing when I was on the ship. Figured out the weird pointing arrow was just a return arrow later, figured out that you had to click the button on the base, figured out that the first upgrade was only weapon. i felt stranded in space. I felt alone. It was so deep.