Arktrail by DaanVanYperen

[raw]
made by DaanVanYperen for LD30 (COMPO)
You are the captain of a futuristic interstellar ark that quite honestly, left space-dock months too early.

Will you patch up your ship and survive the long journey between worlds to finish the space gate you are tasked to build, or will your ship succumb to the perils of interstellar space?

Hope you enjoy my FTL and Oregon Trail hybrid! I myself enjoyed this LD a lot, hope to check out your entries soon!

MAIN TIP: USE THE BUTTONS IN THE BOTTOM TO EXPAND YOUR SHIP!

HINTS:
- You will need to produce fuel and food! Expand your ship to survive!
- Click 'engage' to warp to the next point. Crewmembers build sections, age and eat during each step! **Warning: Your ship will not stop until a warp point has been reached, unless you are out of fuel.
- Placed ship sections do not function until constructed by the crew.
- Finished sections randomly generate food, fuel and other pickups.
- Bigger crew means faster building! Bunks increase your chances of births! Watch your food though!
- Plan ahead, if the distance between warp points on the route is long, your ship will not stop for a while. You can only build and scan at warp points, but your crew will build and your ark will produce and consume resources each step of the way!
- Don't place too many sections at once, your crew might build the things you don't need first.
- Crewmembers age. Additional drives will cause long warp paths to take less time! Did you know Biogel can revitalize the elderly?
- Brainslugs have benefits!
- Don't give up when you run out of fuel, scan around for a bit, you might get lucky!

Ratings

Coolness 82% 2
Overall 3.93 45
Audio 2.81 482
Fun 3.63 133
Graphics 4.07 81
Humor 3.48 72
Innovation 3.46 321
Mood 3.52 158
Theme 3.15 637

Feedback

Andrew Shouldice
25. Aug 2014 路 02:47 UTC
It took me a little while to figure this one out, but I'm glad I took the time. (After giving up, I saw your screenshot of the giant ship and I loaded it back up to try again.) This is neat! I could see it turning into a larger project. Nice work.
jsmars
25. Aug 2014 路 08:09 UTC
Nice entry! Was a bit hard to understand exactly what was going on at first, but then I got the hang of it. Could have been fun to see a graphic representation of each crewmember walking around the ship.
DragonXVI
25. Aug 2014 路 08:59 UTC
2755 points & everyone's either dead or brainslug'd. Interesting little spin on Oregon Trail. Thank god I produced more crew :p Was down to like 1 non-slugged guy at the halfway point.
reidrac
25. Aug 2014 路 09:21 UTC
My favourite entry so far!

Did you do some sound effects with your mouth? :D
馃帳 DaanVanYperen
25. Aug 2014 路 09:48 UTC
Added some hints to description, to get people started!

@DragonXVI Brainslugs are my favorite aspect of the game. :D
@reidrac Thanks! Ran out of time for sounds, so had a 10 minute yell things into the mic session. ;)
callumW
25. Aug 2014 路 10:22 UTC
After working how to play I really enjoyed this. I managed to get to the end of the game but I think everyone was infected by slugs..
nicotuason
25. Aug 2014 路 10:24 UTC
Took a while but I finally beat it! It's a little too unforgiving, but the charm makes up for it.
Hypnohustla
25. Aug 2014 路 12:04 UTC
Really good looking game. It was fun to try and see how everything works. Pretty damn hard to get to the end tho :)
xgeovanni
25. Aug 2014 路 13:07 UTC
Took me a while to figure out how to play it, but once I did I realised that this game is great. The only thing is that the "Scan" button seems to do far more harm than good, and as such I see no incentive to use it.
chriskdev
25. Aug 2014 路 13:13 UTC
Took me a while to understand everything, but it's really great to play. Good job!
psychomonster
25. Aug 2014 路 14:42 UTC
Wow this is a really good job. As you said a well good ftl and oregon trail mix. Awesome artwork, it's running fine... feels very polished too. Will play it for a while.
phi
25. Aug 2014 路 19:03 UTC
When I started to understand it, I loved it! It seems like a very complex game, but the controls are very simple. It involves strategy, a story and creative thinking, and you combined these things really well. And the sounds made me smile.
Larzan
26. Aug 2014 路 11:17 UTC
Wow, a very good implementation of the FTL type thingy, really liked it although it is quite difficult to get the right mixture for the ship.
Fun to play but a bit frustrating after a while, but maybe thats just me not being able ;)
sharpcoder
26. Aug 2014 路 19:40 UTC
So far I've caught a Firefly reference and a Galaxy Quest reference. I'm sure there are more :) Nicely done! Though it feels like my crew has a strong propensity for dying. Very fun nonetheless.
bushmango
26. Aug 2014 路 23:59 UTC
We enjoyed it, although it's a bit too much based on luck in the beginning!
Mezzenstein
27. Aug 2014 路 00:07 UTC
Nice!
Mase
27. Aug 2014 路 00:09 UTC
This was very fun. I played a few times... the first time I didn't read the instructions so I just "built" a giant, unfinished ark and everybody died.

My second attempt was kept tense by the constant threat of brain-slugs and 6 accidental plasma-conduit deaths in a row (someone should put a sign on those things!) but I eventually made it.
I am curious about the effects & benefits of brain slugs... maybe a faster build rate?

At the end I had so many crewmembers that I think I couldn't see the entire list. I thought I'd cured everyone but the next turn they all had brain slugs. (I guess they have benefits though! So maybe it is for the best :D)
mechabit
27. Aug 2014 路 00:46 UTC
Brilliant game! I played a couple rounds but only managed to get to the end once. Hope you can expand on it post jam.
Rahazan
27. Aug 2014 路 01:25 UTC
You managed to pull off something quite big and beautiful, good job! It was hard to understand what I was supposed to be doing, as my crew kept dying of slugs, lack of food or age.
hbocao
27. Aug 2014 路 01:30 UTC
Awesome crossover!
What bothered me was the lack of a soundtrack (can't blame ya. but it would make so much moody). Overall, you did a great job.
I want to play this on mobile. Please fix this. :D
bushmango
27. Aug 2014 路 03:07 UTC
I keep playing this so I had to go back and rate it even higher :)
kumoi
27. Aug 2014 路 03:50 UTC
This is a lot of fun! Tip of my hat on an interesting game with dynamic ship building. Learning curve is a little sharp and a little unforgiving, but it makes it enjoyable... kinda like FTL - Faster Than Light.
marudziik
27. Aug 2014 路 08:25 UTC
My score: 3095. Out of my surviving crew of 4, 2 had brainslugs. :P The game is really good, but it needs patience at the beginning - I didn't know what is it I'm supposed to do with the buttons at the bottom of the screen. It's only when I realized how building ship works I was able to finish the game. Nevertheless, this is a great entry.
voxel
27. Aug 2014 路 08:38 UTC
brainslugs with benefits!
KayZ
27. Aug 2014 路 20:02 UTC
On my first try I lost because my crew of four was taken over by brainslugs. In the following games I never let any crew with a brainslug back on board.

Then I read the comments and finished my last game with 13 brainslugs on board. Cool game :)
Crefossus
27. Aug 2014 路 23:01 UTC
I really like the parallax stars during the jump and overall pixelated art feel.

The overall mechanics are interesting even though I don't get it. I actually wish there was a limit to what you can build because it gets a little tedious to add stuff and I can't tell if the ramscoops even add fuel (the reason I usually die). I seemed to get a little further each time but I'm probably missing something. Ah as reading now "placed ship sections do not function until constructed by crew". I think that's it.

Extremely polished overall.
runvs
28. Aug 2014 路 09:26 UTC
Nice Game. Some background Music would have been nice, though i like the soundFX. Quite complex for an LD Compo game.
ElectricSeagull
28. Aug 2014 路 16:53 UTC
Made it! Three quarters of the crew dead, the rest infested with brainslugs, but we made it! Cool idea and a fun game.
mrexcessive
29. Aug 2014 路 19:40 UTC
Hi there. Like the pixel graphics and the sounds. Reminds me of spacecraft building board games. Played with it a bit, and got captain smeared on walls, but ran out of things to do. Good job so far!
PapyGaragos
31. Aug 2014 路 12:44 UTC
"Don't give up when you run out of fuel, scan around for a bit, you might get lucky!"

yeah right. The button only brings death... I managed to get to the end without clicking it. I had a very small ship, though. It feels like I was being lucky, not that I made the good decisions...

1940
markusfisch
31. Aug 2014 路 14:17 UTC
Interesting game with good humor! Well done!
bytegrove
01. Sep 2014 路 17:42 UTC
Haha, I love the little messages! It's a pretty hard game. The graphics and build system are really nice!
majorcrampas
02. Sep 2014 路 12:46 UTC
Nice humor, nice art.
Hard, but that's the challenge. :)
SecondDimension
06. Sep 2014 路 17:10 UTC
Great entry, a little difficult perhaps but still a really cool idea. I'm really impressed you got something like this working over a weekend. I played it for quite a while
snooze82
07. Sep 2014 路 09:17 UTC
took a few minutes to get it, but in the end, i liked it :)
ghenoroc
10. Sep 2014 路 12:15 UTC
Very well done. Maybe a bit too challenging.