Into The Universe by novotmike
===========================
### READ BEFORE PLAYING ###
===========================
- HOW TO PLAY : QUICK TUTORIAL -
1. Game starts PAUSED (you can Unpause/Pause using SPACEBAR or Button)
2. SELECT PLANET: Click on any planet and choose "SCOUT"
3. UNPAUSE THE GAME - Scouts should fly to their selected planes.
- You can select scout and make it return to ship
4. KEEP EYE ON TIMER
- If AUTOJUMP is enabled, ship will automaticly jump when timer reaches 0
- If AUTOJUMP is disabled, you can go past 0 s, but your ship can blow up
5. JUMP: Click JUMP button to jump to another Solar System
- Jump is enabled once HALF of the time in solar system passes
- KEEP an eyo on your SCOUTS, you can leave them behind
6. ENTER NEW SOLAR SYSTEM
- On each entry you GET 1 Point to assign to 3 categories + possiblity to repair/upgrade your SHIP HULL
- ENGINES category will add 10 seconds more for you to spend in each system
- WEAPONS category will add 5 more damage to your weapons
- SCOUTS category will increse SCOUT speed
7. FIGHT ENEMY
- You can target 1 Enemy Ship at a time
- Click on Enemy ship and choose "TARGET" to make it a target
- You can see Enemy info, by selecting it
# Your goal as a player is to survive for as long as possible => to get the best high score.
I know there is STEP-BY-STEP tutorial missing, but there was no time. Mechanics are pretty easy to undestand.
- Connection to theme is explained lower in "Story".
=================================
==================================
##STORY - (Theme interpretation)##
==================================
***Disclaimer: I got inspired by StarGate quite a bit!***
The game is set in our time when an Ancient SpaceShip lands in our Solar system. A group of people is dispatched to research this ancient ship. Unfortunately right as the researchers arrived, ship jumped to hyperspace and to another solar system.
Ship engines (or drive) are powered from Stars. Ship always jumps conviniently near the Sun to power up. Engines are complex and people on board cannot really control them. They found out that drives must be charged half way to be able to jump, but if you stay longer in star than you should, ship will be destroyed. Their main goal is to survive.
=================================
## Controls ##
=================================
Left mouse: Select items + Drag the view
W,S,A,D (arrow keys): Move the view
Space: Pause/UnPause
=================================
## What the game contains ##
=================================
- Randomly generated solar systems
- Each planet has 6 biomes, 2 of which are used for game (scrap amount,...)
- Each planet has individual size, orbit speed and rotation speed
- Stars are divided in 6 classes, planet biomes distribution is directly dependant on the star type
- Player cannot move - but can send out "Scout ships" by selection a planet and clicking "Scout".
- Player can fight enemies
篓
=================================
##Things that are just missing ##
=================================
- Fighting does not have visuals (only audio)
- There was absolutelly no time to balance the game or to test the gameplay properly!!!
- No animations on enter/leave Solar system
- No animations on explosions
- No TUTORIAL (:/)
### READ BEFORE PLAYING ###
===========================
- HOW TO PLAY : QUICK TUTORIAL -
1. Game starts PAUSED (you can Unpause/Pause using SPACEBAR or Button)
2. SELECT PLANET: Click on any planet and choose "SCOUT"
3. UNPAUSE THE GAME - Scouts should fly to their selected planes.
- You can select scout and make it return to ship
4. KEEP EYE ON TIMER
- If AUTOJUMP is enabled, ship will automaticly jump when timer reaches 0
- If AUTOJUMP is disabled, you can go past 0 s, but your ship can blow up
5. JUMP: Click JUMP button to jump to another Solar System
- Jump is enabled once HALF of the time in solar system passes
- KEEP an eyo on your SCOUTS, you can leave them behind
6. ENTER NEW SOLAR SYSTEM
- On each entry you GET 1 Point to assign to 3 categories + possiblity to repair/upgrade your SHIP HULL
- ENGINES category will add 10 seconds more for you to spend in each system
- WEAPONS category will add 5 more damage to your weapons
- SCOUTS category will increse SCOUT speed
7. FIGHT ENEMY
- You can target 1 Enemy Ship at a time
- Click on Enemy ship and choose "TARGET" to make it a target
- You can see Enemy info, by selecting it
# Your goal as a player is to survive for as long as possible => to get the best high score.
I know there is STEP-BY-STEP tutorial missing, but there was no time. Mechanics are pretty easy to undestand.
- Connection to theme is explained lower in "Story".
=================================
==================================
##STORY - (Theme interpretation)##
==================================
***Disclaimer: I got inspired by StarGate quite a bit!***
The game is set in our time when an Ancient SpaceShip lands in our Solar system. A group of people is dispatched to research this ancient ship. Unfortunately right as the researchers arrived, ship jumped to hyperspace and to another solar system.
Ship engines (or drive) are powered from Stars. Ship always jumps conviniently near the Sun to power up. Engines are complex and people on board cannot really control them. They found out that drives must be charged half way to be able to jump, but if you stay longer in star than you should, ship will be destroyed. Their main goal is to survive.
=================================
## Controls ##
=================================
Left mouse: Select items + Drag the view
W,S,A,D (arrow keys): Move the view
Space: Pause/UnPause
=================================
## What the game contains ##
=================================
- Randomly generated solar systems
- Each planet has 6 biomes, 2 of which are used for game (scrap amount,...)
- Each planet has individual size, orbit speed and rotation speed
- Stars are divided in 6 classes, planet biomes distribution is directly dependant on the star type
- Player cannot move - but can send out "Scout ships" by selection a planet and clicking "Scout".
- Player can fight enemies
篓
=================================
##Things that are just missing ##
=================================
- Fighting does not have visuals (only audio)
- There was absolutelly no time to balance the game or to test the gameplay properly!!!
- No animations on enter/leave Solar system
- No animations on explosions
- No TUTORIAL (:/)
- Hope it it a bit more clear, I did not have time to implement proper tutorial
However, the game mechanics are a bit weird at first. You really need a good tutorial or step-by-step demo level.
The soundtrack is cool, btw.
@cushycode
I'm glad you liked the game mechanics. As you both said it needs the step-by-step tutorial a lot! I had it all planned to play in the beginning, but time wasn't on my side.
Except for when you die, that sound was horrible and scared the shit out of me :P
In my second playthrough I got really far really easy and I think you get more powerful quicker than the game gets more difficult, which results in an endless positive feedback loop meaning it could pretty much go on forever.
My suggestion is, make the game progressively more difficult. Increase the prices of hull upgrades everytime you purchase it or something.
That's my two cents anyway :)
@Geared Games: Thank you very much for your feedback! I know exactly what you mean! I found out about the lack of challenge too late to do anything about it. Enemy power (maximum possible amount + damage) depends on number of systems you already visited. I think that making Hull upgrades more expensive everytime you purchase it would balance the game quite a bit. Sadly it is too late to change it (even though the change would be a one-liner).
the music is nice and doesn't get boring.
I think the game has nice potential, if you would add some sort of story mode it would really make a great game.
I died when I was shot down by another space ship which resulted in an endless loop of some crashing(?) sound playing, very loud, very horrible. But besides that, it was very enjoyable!
I liked Stargate Universe, so the theme works for me.
Bonus: when you die in the game you die in real life, but that's ok :D
For a strategy game though, I feel like this doesn't offer any real choices to the player. You send out scouts to the nearest planets, if you can, then select the nearest enemy and target them, rinse and repeat. Selecting an upgrade every minute doesn't really add much to the enjoyment.
A lot of the actions you're having the player do could easily be automated, and -in other games- often are. I think the game ought to have these sort of mechanics running in the background (send scouts out to nearest planet, target nearest enemy) and focus on something else for the player interaction.
Maybe it could've helped to be able to move around the mothership, either to dodge enemy attacks or pickup scouts about to get left behind. Or to be able to use the resources gathered to launch fighters or shields. Plenty of things you could do with this format, just a matter of being a bit more engaging and giving the player a bit more agency.
Really well made game, super polished, awesome job.
Score: (because I like scores)
Overall 5/5
Innovation 4/5
Fun 5/5
Theme 2/5
Graphics 5/5
Audio 5/5
Humor 0/5
Mood 4/5