Stargazers by Cake&Code
"What do you see when you look up to the heavens?"
"Stargazers" is a simple game of drawing in the heavens. Use the stars to
quickly draw paths and fill your gallery of artwork one constellation at a time.
We approached the theme "Minimalism" through simple gameplay;
you click on a star with your mouse and click on another star to create a path.
Your final score will be based on how fast you draw and how accurate your
drawings are. A perfect accuracy score will reward you with a special entry in
your gallery log of constellations.
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Coding and Audio Editing: Zeik
Art and Visual Design: Cake
Special thanks to...
Music: Apiarist
"Stargazers" is a simple game of drawing in the heavens. Use the stars to
quickly draw paths and fill your gallery of artwork one constellation at a time.
We approached the theme "Minimalism" through simple gameplay;
you click on a star with your mouse and click on another star to create a path.
Your final score will be based on how fast you draw and how accurate your
drawings are. A perfect accuracy score will reward you with a special entry in
your gallery log of constellations.
-------------------
Coding and Audio Editing: Zeik
Art and Visual Design: Cake
Special thanks to...
Music: Apiarist
| Web (Flash) | http://microcake.org/stargazers/ |
| Cake's Timelapse | http://youtu.be/clXzFJTSJ58 |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=10976 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.98 | 23 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.65 | 76 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.51 | 84 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 4.50 | 18 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.94 | 106 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.54 | 91 |
| Mood(Jam) | 4.04 | 18 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.34 | 245 |
The mechanic was unique and fresh but aged poorly. It needed to be spiced as the levels progressed. The difficulty ramp was good with the increasingly challenging patterns... but the interest ramp was flat since nothing about how I would accomplish the patterns changed.
So, what if some stars moved left and right or up and down. If I incorporate them into my drawing then I win once they achieve proper alignment. This forces me to think about more than just points as I draw.
What if I had the ability to create 1 star. Now I have to imagine the picture but with a missing point that I can insert myself. Potentially a big difficulty spike.
The music loop was too short--I think--at least, I was annoyed with the music within a few levels.
The graphical style and cohesion was fantastic. Your presentation on all levels was top notch. Well done.
One comment (just not to say that I didn't make any): I think there could be a small "twinkle" sound when you click on the stars during gameplay.
Thanks for the lovely game!
nice level design flow
Very well done.
The gameplay itself was alright. It had a good difficulty curve, and I loved the references made. Felt like it was a twist or two away from being a genuinely fun puzzle game though - I like some of the ideas proposed in this comments section.
Keep up the great work!
I agree with @netguy204, one or more gameplay aspects should be added to make it more challenging!
Great team work, as usual. :)
The tutorial guy feels a little out of place, really. I feel like the instruction text could be better substituted by something more visual, like an arrow pointing to one star, then the next after you click the first...
The visuals are just as good as always, and the gameplay feels nice and relaxing. Good job!
The music suits perfectly with the ambience, a great game.
Too short sadly! :p
Great job
- I like the menu music. *Listens a while longer.* Okay, this might get annoying.
- Much better. Really like this.
- Very well polished. Bunch of detail put in. Character is pointing to stars (the cursor), a moon used to show the passing of time.
- Journey!
- More nice music! Beat seems a bit schizo, but still liking it.
- There's a gallery. Nice. I have only unlocked 7/10.
- Went back and got all 10.
Things I would change:
- Add variation to the main menu music.
- Make the menu hover sound trigger as soon as the mouse is within its bounds. It feels delayed.
It's too bad that the game is so short. Levels are sometimes a bit too simple, and we'd like to see more.
But good job overall!
I like your audio as a visuals and game mechanics!
Well done, man!
Replicating those constellations, especially the ones with crossovers, was difficult! I think it took me four or five tries to complete the origami killer.
Playing with a touchpad, I really wanted to be able to just drag between stars and have them connect the dots as the cursor went over them. That would be nice to add.
I think the game would play beautifully on a touch-enabled device. It could be interesting as a two-player tablet game, where players sit on opposite sides and draw constellations competitively or make designs that merge together in the middle.
I think the music could've been softer or perhaps sparser to fit the mood of the game.
I wish there were more levels and gameplay mechanics.
The description in the gallery makes me think that 6 is Minecraft.
Beautiful game!
@netguy204: Thank you for the indepth critique! We really appreciate it~
@caranha: We too wanted to add more sounds but we're not the best sound engineers and we kind of ran out of time! If we get some time to make a post-LD version we'll definitely look into something that. Thanks!
@Monxcleyr Productions: We'll be sure to add twists and turns! :)
@Puzzlem00n: Yeah, the tutorial could definitely be more demonstrative than narrative, that would've been a million times more thematical... darn. Thanks for the comment!
@WiseGAMER: Haha, oh no!
@plash: Thanks for the stream of consciousness! Very interesting to see the though process at work :D
@mildmojo: Ahhh, yeah. We didn't consider an actual touch screen having drag controls rather than tap... or a two player experience... we'll keep it in mind for the future!! Thank you~
@Dohan: Nice list! #6 was not meant to be a Minecraft reference but wow, I can definitely tell why you'd think so! It was supposed to be referencing another game that is very much about fire and burning things :)
I love this game!
Good job! :p
I love the references. (Finn <3 And I've been watching Harry Potter again!) The artwork is great, the music is greater. The gameplay feels a little too... 'sniper-y', which I do play a lot of in Team Fortress 2 :P
The accuracy metre is a little off. In killer, I only made a triangle and I got 31% accuracy. Only thing that needs work, And maybe increase the resolution.