LudumData

Cold Galaxy by PixelMeal

[raw]
made by PixelMeal for LD 43 (COMPO)

When you were nine, your parents died at the hands of slavers. You were fourteen when you killed a man in self defense. At eighteen, you led your crewmates in a mutiny and took command of a pirate vessel.

Life has taught you well: This galaxy is not your friend. Others must die for you to survive. Sacrifices must be made.

Inspired by FTL. Lead your crew to certain doom and destruction while trying to avoid a mutiny. As you explore, your crew will level up and gain traits -- some good, some bad. Earn money, upgrade your crew capacity, and fight off psychic raiders as you navigate through a cold galaxy.

Didn't have time for audio/music unfortunately. Recommended listening: your favorite ambient space mix!

Fonts used: - Airborne by Charles Casimiro Design: https://www.fontspace.com/charles-casimiro-design/airborne - HK Grotesk by Hanken Design Co: https://hanken.co/product/hk-grotesk/

Windows Download only

Edited 10:17pm, 12/2/2018: 2 minor bugfixes - Fixed rewards granted from "smuggle contraband" option. - Fixed stability penalty when sacrificing crew in oxygen leak encounter.

Windows https://pixelmeal.itch.io/cold-galaxy
Source code https://github.com/ntkyger/LD43
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/cold-galaxy

Ratings

Overall 66th 3.825⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 35th 3.975⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 164th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 39th 4.175⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 185th 3.55⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 138th 3.175⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 70th 3.775⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 5🗨️

Feedback

kaiagan
03. Dec 2018 · 21:21 UTC
Very interesting game!

You quickly understand that you must not attach yourself to your crew members because they must be constantly sacrificed!
The only downside I see is the lack of a greater goal. The fact that your crew is so vulnerable makes it so your only objective is to earn more money. Customizing and improving your ship could be great (but 48 hours may be too short for such features).

Feels very polished and I think the theme fits perfectly!

Oh and I love when crew members suddenly become racist, or jealous when someone just died :D
MadreDeDios
03. Dec 2018 · 21:28 UTC
Nice, very nice! Even though it's a text-based game, it looks very very good and the gameplay is quite innovative I think :smile:
tanis
05. Dec 2018 · 00:23 UTC
It looks like I can keep going with my ship for ages. It really feels like you're accomplishing something, but it would be nice to have more goals other than making money and keeping up the stability of your crew. Overall it feel very polished. I like it.
Trifectuh
05. Dec 2018 · 00:28 UTC
Cool take on the FTL formula, much more challenging than I expected. Wish there was an easier way to restart after a game over... Good problem to have I guess.
CodeKim
05. Dec 2018 · 00:33 UTC
Giving me some serious ftl vibes, but more fast paced and of course completely fits the theme. Some more confirmation on decisions, a pop up like "-10 stability (50 --> 40)" would make it easier to follow your actions.
Cargo drop of felt kind of arbitrary as you never know where you're bringing it. Choosing a planet type for each unique cargo and tracking it would bring a clear goal and let the player choose their path better. Had a great time anyhow and the game looks great too for being mainly text based. Well done! (34 days is my record lol)
James Dunlap
05. Dec 2018 · 00:35 UTC
Very interesting approach to the theme. I could see this game going somewhere post jam. I would have liked to see more branches and some more graphics, but I will balance that with the fact that it was done in 48 hours. It seems that there are many different traits and several different scenarios for you to encounter which would have taken a good chunk of time to complete.

Great work!
Wizard.Exe
05. Dec 2018 · 02:23 UTC
I loved it. This is a great game idea and it is well constructed. The graphics were inviting, there were plenty of choices that had meaningful impacts, and the theme was core to the mechanics. I was really getting attached to certain crew members and found myself taking probably worse choices to save them. Would have loved sci fi audio and music. Also balancing and tuning of course, as I had to intentionally run my stability out to end the game because I needed to move on, and still got to day 86. Great job!
Slashee the Cow
05. Dec 2018 · 03:10 UTC
I lasted 33 days (I'll admit that was my bad, I killed a telepsychopath without thinking about it... I was right that he was skimming off the top, but the thief trait was a dead giveaway). A great choose your own adventure sort of thing.

I'm just wondering: I seemed to attract a lot of racist narcissists. Are you trying to tell me something?
christina-antoinette-neofotistou
06. Dec 2018 · 05:47 UTC
ok this is great, I don't know how you had time to balance it, maybe you're amazing at math. Doesn't matter: my playtrhroughs are still enjoyable after 6 times. I love that you removed guesswork from choices: 1 random empath will die. Not "24% chance of empath dying".

Excellent, excellent entry. Top marks!
mirsakka
09. Dec 2018 · 14:24 UTC
My fav crew member was Raghu Jagatap, who was sexy and lazy. Sadly I had to give them up for alien research... Nice jam game!
Hempuli
11. Dec 2018 · 04:41 UTC
Very slick and pretty! The visual look of the game made it seem very in-depth, but my planet trees were always identical (two branches at first, no branches after that) and there didn't seem to be any place where I could've sold my cargo so ultimately my options seemed fairly limited. The amount of traits was very interesting but the lack of choice between events & the uncertainty about my goals made it hard to know what to do in given situations. The Brain Parasite seemed a bit of a bummer because it overwrote other traits and once someone contracted it, there didn't seem to be much to do to prevent it spreading other than luck. Nevertheless, a very cool experience! I could see this expanding into a very interesting game.
Antti Tiihonen
12. Dec 2018 · 07:44 UTC
The game is a little overwhelming at first but it gets real good real fast. Ultimately though it would still require a little bit more meat around its bones (more encounters, more opportunities for meaningful choices and a little more involved resource gameplay) but what you have here is already a really intriguing package. I really enjoy how cleanly the information and choices are delivered to you without room for guessing.

The visual style is super clean and cool and the writing is solid. I enjoy that the characters here feel a lot more fleshed out than FTL's and you can easily get lost in a role playing mood where the characters are more than mere containers for different abilities and traits. Overall, a pretty awesome package and I'd love to see you continue developing the concept further! :thumbsup:
timeshapers
15. Dec 2018 · 14:27 UTC
I enjoyed the story and choices, though there doesn't seem to be any interesting decisions to make. I'm sure with some more work this could be very interesting. Visually, it looks great while being very simple.
BloodyOrchidDC
16. Dec 2018 · 04:50 UTC
Really good and careful word description with the events. The Brain worm host spread too fast and all my crew member is affected, so sad.