Keeplanet by HellSquirrel
Developer: Hell Squirrel Games
Genre: Casual, maze
Game engine: Unity 5
About: A tiny planet flies in orbit around the Sun. Begin to develop it. Arrange trees, mountains, houses and other objects to make the planet rotate around its axis. The most important thing is not to let the planet stop, because, then the planet will die out.
How to play: Evenly distribute objects around the planet to make it spin. If you distribute objects on the planet not evenly, then the planet will stop because of the imbalance of one side to the other. All objects have different weights. If the planet stops, then one half of it will burn out in the sun, and the other will freeze. The population of the planet will begin to die out. The more objects you put on the planet, the larger it becomes. In the queue are the objects that need to be placed around the planet. In the storage cell, you can place the object that is first in the queue.
You need to balance right and left side. If on the left side whole weight of all objects more than on the right side then planet stops, but if on the right side whole weight is more on the left then nothing happens. Right side should be always more or equal to the left.
Objects included in the game:
- Tree weight: 1, population: +1%;
- House weight: 3, population: +2%;
- Desert/plain weight: 6, population: +1%;
- Vulcano weight: 8;
- Mountain weight: 8.
Controls: - Mouse ScrollWheel - Zoom In/Out - Mouse Movement - Move camera
LINKS
- MAIL: hellsquirrelgames@gmail.com
- TWITTER: https://twitter.com/squirrel_hell
- VK: https://vk.com/hellsquirrelgames
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/keeplanet |
Ratings
| Overall | 448th | 3.276⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 528th | 2.897⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 287th | 3.31⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 314th | 3.567⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 134th | 4.2⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 206th | 3.429⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 465th | 2.36⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 465th | 3.071⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 197🗳️ | 6🗨️ |
I couldn't ever get further than around year 1200 though because my attempts to balance the distribution of weight were pretty much entirely random/unguided. I tried to guess where more weight was needed based on what things where where but apparently I didn't do a very good job. Some form of indicator for how much weight is where or generally what the weight distribution looks like would be really useful (possibly the planet's mantle/core can shift off-centre towards where the most weight is, and then you're also kinda trying to keep it centred...or something like that).
Other than that, pretty cool, fits the theme, really pretty. Good overall!
The graphics and audio fit the theme of the game well. The UI is a bit lackluster. The directions could use a different font, as it's a bit hard to read all caps.
I would really like to see this game polished as it could be a lot of fun.
Very well done, although if I'd improve one thing it'd be to give me some kind of indication what the weight is of some of the stuff I'm putting down on the planet as a player, to allow me to make some more strategic choices. Cool stuff, keep it up!
I managed to get to year 2500 before my planet died. Although once I got past 2000, it became impossible to actually see most of the objects on the planet so I was placing them blindly! I do think it might be easier to have some kind of balance indicators, but it was actually kind of fun trying to figure out the balance by simply placing an object and then observing what kind of effect it has on the planet.
The biggest issue I had was trying to place hills. I kept getting stuck because it there was actually no empty area on the planet large enough to fit a hill. I think it might make more sense if you could place a hill "underneath" trees and houses. Or maybe placing an object would shove other objects out of the way? The "held object" slot was definitely a good feature, I managed to save myself a couple times by storing the hills until the planet expanded and gave me more room.
The graphics were probably my favorite part of the game. Not only were the models good, but the lighting and even the UI were done very well. Also, nice job with the slow zoom-in to the planet at the start.
Moments I liked a lot:
- Consistent low poly style, assets, color scheme, lighting work.
- Game atmosphere and ambient music
- Main gameplay concept seems pretty unique
- Local gameplay progress -- when a planet gets bigger
- The main menu idea, game saves.
Moments I doubt:
- Camera control, it's quite hard, and I can't zoom out to see the Sun.
- It is possible to block the game if you put a lot of trees and then you have two mountains in a row and there is no surface to place them. An ability to remove objects in this case could help (not everytime, but only when the game detects that there is no free space).
- The planet weight distribution is not that obvious, may be in case of planet stop the game should highlight with a red glow the overloaded part of the planet? Or show the problem somehow at least.
- Is there any global gameplay progress? Between two planets for instance.
Here is my playtest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g95A42iczW4
Привет русскоговорящим! :ghost:
Играя в твою видеоигру, мне казалось, что я стал каким-то всемогущим богом, живя в пространстве, руководящим человечеством - и мне очень понравилось. Спасибо большое тебе за то, что тоже ты попробовал мой проект. Друг мой, тебе желаю успехов.
My game needs some votes too, so if you have some spare time I would love to hear your feedback. Sorry for the plug :P
PS: It's great that you have a menu screen! KUDOS!
Not only was the concept unique, cool, and innovative, the graphics were amazing! I know you've probably heard this alot, but those graphics are awesome! It was also quite a blast to play, though at first I couldn't really find any motivation too.
But as time went by and my planet grew, I wanted to make sure it would be sustainable.
So great job!
Presentation is GREAT. That opening shot of the sun was one of the best visual things I've seen in LD so far (I just wish it was visible for longer). The planet itself worked really well - a lot of different items, a lot of different scales. I did find that some of the items started to get hidden the larger the planet grew.
Audio was great - music really fit the tone of what was happening and never got overwhelming. The sound effects clearly communicated the actions going on. Really like how all the pieces fit together on this game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knRl6LSzZ9c