Good News Delivery Co. by DragonXVI

[raw]
made by DragonXVI for LD30 (COMPO)
UPDATE: Post-48hr Compo EASIER VERSION released! More information at:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/08/28/good-news-delivery-co-easier-version-released/
UPDATE: Retrospective added:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/08/25/good-news-delivery-co-how-it-was-made-retrospective/#more-385598

Good News everyone! I've coated the ship in an experimental adamantine coating - It's pretty much indestructible!

You've got 3 minutes to ship as much cargo as possible. Grab it up from nearby planets and deliver it safely to its destination! There's a bonus if you manage to carry loads of cargo at once, but don't think hauling that around the solar system'll be easy! There's Pirates and Gravity Wells to avoid, and each destroyed cargo will result in a penalty!

How much money can you make? (Or at least, how little can you lose? :p)

(Best played in 1024 x 768 with a gamepad)
(Apologies in advance for the ridiculous difficulty!)

RETROSPECTIVE:
- http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/08/25/good-news-delivery-co-how-it-was-made-retrospective/#more-385598

HINTS
- Start off ferrying single crates, then try carrying lots of cargo at once for a delivery combo bonus.
- If in doubt, follow the arrow. It'll direct you to the nearest cargo or your current destination.
- Try stay away from the surface of plents. Physics & controlling the ship gets a bit tricky :p
- Having trouble dropping cargo off quickly? Try slingshotting it to the surface by releasing the cargo while turning, but watch your aim!
- Pirates will destroy your cargo - Avoid them at all cost! They're pretty dumb though, so lure them into crashing into planets!
- Your ship is invincible! Your cargo is not!

CREDITS/TOOLS:
- Code, Art, Sound, etc. - Malcolm Brown
- Inspired rather obviously by Futurama. (And maybe a little bit of Kerbal Space Program. And maybe Inner Space too if anyone remembers that)
- Unity 4.3 (Free)
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Pro
- FL Studio 10 Pro
- Audacity
- Paint.net

Ratings

Coolness 97% 2
Overall 4.01 35
Audio 4.28 5
Fun 3.92 40
Graphics 4.33 29
Humor 3.27 122
Innovation 3.51 291
Mood 3.63 112
Theme 3.61 291

Feedback

馃帳 DragonXVI
24. Aug 2014 路 19:44 UTC
My best score thus far is $3400. Plenty of room for improvement (I usually end up with negative score anyway!)
TheThirdOne
24. Aug 2014 路 21:21 UTC
Awesome game. Very hard though.
togie
25. Aug 2014 路 01:29 UTC
-$900, damn im good lol, good game though cant wait to rate it
Bemmu
25. Aug 2014 路 03:54 UTC
Not as awesome as Hot Diggity, but the best game I've rated so far out of this LD. I like the randomly combined (?) item descriptions. Audio is top notch. Nice particle effects, too. Feels more polished than a typical LD entry. Something about this makes me feel like I'm playing an old Amiga game (that's a good thing).
Cheshyr
25. Aug 2014 路 05:42 UTC
Very smooth gameplay. Controls are slightly awkward, but not too bad. music, effects, theme. All good stuff. nicely done.
eatsleepindie
25. Aug 2014 路 06:58 UTC
This game got my attention immediately and kept it throughout. Fun gameplay and it definitely poses a challenge. The music just makes it that much more exciting. Great work!
PixelMonkey
25. Aug 2014 路 07:19 UTC
Very fun! I managed to get to $1500 on my third try and then progressively got worse. The graphics and audio are fantastic, even if it's relentlessly difficult to turn a profit.
馃帳 DragonXVI
25. Aug 2014 路 08:38 UTC
Re: Difficulty: yeah, I've had several attempts where I've ended up with negative score :p I think I should've introduced pirates over time so you get a minute of freedom first.

Right now the best strategy seems to be loading up on as much cargo as possible and trying to make at least one delivery to get the combo bonus :P
midgard
25. Aug 2014 路 11:52 UTC
Awesome controls, nice concept and well done execution!
zapaman
25. Aug 2014 路 12:28 UTC
Any chance of getting a timeless version so I can dodge and make pirates crash into the sun for ever and ever and ever and eveeerr? Loved the way the ship controlled o/
sP0CkEr2
25. Aug 2014 路 12:34 UTC
Extremely well polished game. Already added to my favorites for LD30. It was a tad difficult and my packages kept getting destroyed. But alas, that is the risk of space delivery.
OmegaVesko
25. Aug 2014 路 12:36 UTC
Wow, amazing job on this. The graphics are incredible and the game is fun.

You weren't kidding about the difficulty. :P
rantt
25. Aug 2014 路 12:54 UTC
Fun game, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I got $0, managed to break even after blowing up all my cargo ...lol.
Posva
25. Aug 2014 路 17:47 UTC
This is just very good. I only got negative scores xD
Split82
25. Aug 2014 路 18:44 UTC
Great visual effects. The game is hard as hell :D Got negative score only.
katanagari7c1
25. Aug 2014 路 19:28 UTC
My best score is $-800 so far. It's tough but really fun to play.
The only thing that annoys me a bit is the pump effect in the text during the tutorial, but its all personal taste. :)
Pirate Hearts
25. Aug 2014 路 19:28 UTC
Wow, this is super polished. I love the way the whole game pulsates in time with the music.
Ervin
25. Aug 2014 路 19:28 UTC
Amazing music and graphics! Can't believe this is 48hrs :).
naksrifati
25. Aug 2014 路 19:29 UTC
Awsome graphics, music and gameplay. Had some trouble with control, but they are responsive enough. And I think the difficulty is too hard, always end with negative score)
Dabuuker
25. Aug 2014 路 19:35 UTC
This is just pure awesomeness and complete it with 48 hours is even more cooler. It's quite difficult and needs some practicing Graphics, audio, visuals 5+
Bozwellox
25. Aug 2014 路 19:39 UTC
Awesome game, really well made especially considering the time constraints. I love how everything pulses to the music!
Fanttum
25. Aug 2014 路 19:50 UTC
Maybe a bit complex for me but it works well. It is clear you put a lot of time into this and it shows. Like a finished product from an entire team.
c023-dev
25. Aug 2014 路 19:53 UTC
Actually pretty good fun! Liked the pulsating UI that was actually on time with the music! Good work on that! Overall congratulations! Solid work!
someone9999
25. Aug 2014 路 20:11 UTC
$200 was my score after about ~5 attempts. The game is brutally difficult, but very fun. Great game!
mihaivdev
25. Aug 2014 路 21:16 UTC
Right. This game is absolutely awesome. Sure it's a bit difficult and feels even unfairly so at times but you had 48 hours and balancing is not something that I'd expect from just that time.
I really want to see this as a full game for PC and Android (since you're using Unity I'm guessing porting should be quite easy), and don't even think about not doing so or I will nag you for life to do it! Good luck :)
馃帳 DragonXVI
25. Aug 2014 路 21:31 UTC
If I've time in the next few days, I might release a post-jam tweaked version for anyone interested. Main fixes would be:

- Removing speed limit when delivering cargo to its destination (i.e. Cargo no longer explodes if it hits its destination too fast) so you can just slam dunk it home.
- No pirates in first minute, then more pirates as time increases.
- Fix ship collisions with planets as it gets stuck sometimes too easily.
- Maybe reducing one-hit kills for Pirates shooting cargo/giving Cargo 'Health'.
- Maybe reducing penalty to $50.

Then at least you still get the challenge of moving stuff about & dropping it off before everything goes horribly wrong :p Will see what I can get in the coming week or so.

And thanks everyone so far for playing! :D
porglezomp
26. Aug 2014 路 01:30 UTC
Excellent! I made the tremendous profit of -$800! This is by far my favorite game this LD so far, and since it's the first one I'm rating, that's not really saying anything!

In all seriousness though, it was excellent, good job.
kebabskal
26. Aug 2014 路 20:27 UTC
Really nice! Felt polished. Superb music and audio :) Great job!
hb3p8
27. Aug 2014 路 19:31 UTC
Mega cool. All 5 stars. Very polished gameplay!
hogtrick
27. Aug 2014 路 19:37 UTC
Your game is awesome. I think the gameplay shoul be more explained though. Didn't know I could take crate so far away.
One of the best games I've played so far in this jam.
The music and graphics is top!
MintArcade
27. Aug 2014 路 19:47 UTC
Awesome game! Played for the way to long.
chas
27. Aug 2014 路 21:55 UTC
That's a pretty fun mechanic. Well made.
synchingfeeling
27. Aug 2014 路 21:58 UTC
Fun game, very difficult but well polished. Hard to believe this was done in 48 hours. Well done!
blurryroots
27. Aug 2014 路 22:00 UTC
Boy those pirates really know how to ruin your business! This sure is a hard game =P I like the catchy tunes. Nice game.
chongdashu
27. Aug 2014 路 22:03 UTC
Great game! Very polished and well executed. However, the difficulty is pretty high, even at the beginning. Perhaps not let any enemies come until the user has delivered at least package (just to get used to the game?)

The controls are a little hard to grasp, though. But that might be intentional as part of the difficulty. Well done!
MaesK
27. Aug 2014 路 22:42 UTC
Nice game! It reminds me of my own, but without gravity. Which is good, as I lost almost all cargo anyway :D. It seems I'm not good at this! Great music, graphics and use of the theme. I like it.
LTyrosine
27. Aug 2014 路 23:38 UTC
I saw this one coming from posts during competition. Really amazing, solid game. Very polished for such short time. So far, easily in top 10 imo.
ATTA Games
28. Aug 2014 路 07:19 UTC
Great entry! Difficult control make this game addictive and funny. Nice graphic and idea.
HotBoxGames
28. Aug 2014 路 20:50 UTC
Good news everyone! This game is great!
Really splendid job Malcolm, impressed that this was all made in just 48 hours!

Particularly enjoyed the music along with the overall space setting. I could imagine this being released with multiple levels, co-op, versus - all sorts!
doos
28. Aug 2014 路 21:58 UTC
What a waste of haggis! ;)
pythong
29. Aug 2014 路 10:46 UTC
awesome music. but my cargo was always destroyed by the kamikaze pirates. love the beating radar screens!
liquidminduk
29. Aug 2014 路 12:06 UTC
This is a really great game, made around 1000$
Love the visuals and audio, and the gameplay is really well balanced
danbo
30. Aug 2014 路 08:47 UTC
Excellent game, and really well-done for a compo entry!

I get a crazy taxi vibe from it... probably the one thing I'd like to see is some tweak to dropping cargo off, I'd love to be able to toss it out at planets and boost off for my next cargo. Maybe I just need to practice more.
rogueNoodle
30. Aug 2014 路 12:00 UTC
Had a Crazy Taxi vibe that I really enjoyed, and the music was awesome - nice job!
andrewkennedy
31. Aug 2014 路 02:49 UTC
This was pretty difficult, but I had a lot of fun and the art was nice! Maybe a mouse-based click to move system would have been easier to navigate?
Linusson
01. Sep 2014 路 19:30 UTC
Pretty hard game, at least in the beginning, but really really fun. I loved it. :D
JaJ
07. Sep 2014 路 12:40 UTC
Great presentation, end very fun! I don't know why E-R or Z-X is so pupular for controls, but I'd like some keys that are a little farther away from AWD for picking up and dropping off.
klianc09
12. Sep 2014 路 16:45 UTC
Incredible hard but fun. Awesome graphics and music.
I really would have liked a reverse button, I often got stuck on the surface of planets and destroyed all my cargo trying to get away.
Sometimes the drop button would not work, and dropping off pakets carefully is generally difficult.
mechabit
12. Sep 2014 路 22:22 UTC
nice thumping sound track. game takes a bit of getting used to, don't think I've managed to turn a profit yet.
馃帳 DragonXVI
16. Sep 2014 路 08:49 UTC
Ah well, not as good a result as Hot Diggity (Which was crazy well recieved) but I'm happy enough, and awesome that I got 5th in Audio too! :D

Hopefully next time I won't make something so ridiculously hard to play :p Thanks to everyone who played and voted! See ya'll next time!