Spaceships Must Explode by Maksim Chugunov

[raw]
made by Maksim Chugunov for LD 43 (COMPO)

ld43-3.gif

This game is turn based. You control a spaceship which consists of modules.

Modules

Any flying module that hits the ship will be attached to it. Only if module is reachable from Main Module it can be attach to the ship. A module can't be reached through a Block Module.

There are few types of modules: - Main module. If this module is destroyed you lose main<em>module.png - Empty module module.png - Engine module. Allow you to move. engine</em>hor.png engine<em>ver.png - Block module. Other modules can't be reached from it. block</em>module.png - Swap module. Allows you to swap 2 modules at the en of a level swap_module.png

Movements

You move by turns with burs fires from engines. You can only move in a direction if you have an engine facing opposite direction. E.g. if you only have 2 engines facing left, you can only move right 1 or 2 spaces.

Enemies

Your enemies are orange asteroids that fly around. If they hit any of your modules, they will be destroyed along with module.

Engine blast

You can destroy enemies (or flying modules) with blasts from your engines. Those explosions will also destroy any module underneath an engine, so be careful.

Sacrifice

You can sacrifice any of your modules in order to overload your engines. This will last one turn and each engine will be able to move the ship 2 spaces instead of 1. Click on any module to sacrifice it.

Swapping

For each Swap Module at the end of a level, you can swap two modules. Simply click modules to swap them. You can swap a module with an empty space to just move it.

Ratings

Overall 235th 3.451⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Fun 238th 3.293⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 16th 4.073⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 216th 3.573⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 357th 2.907⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 48🗳️ 8🗨️

Feedback

Erendelous
02. Dec 2018 · 20:18 UTC
The game is really interesting to play, we have to think about strategy or some kinda:)But I do not understand: is there a "game over" thing?
🎤 Maksim Chugunov
02. Dec 2018 · 20:22 UTC
@erendelous well I didn't make a game over screen, but basically it's over when your main module (the one with blue circle) is destroyed
J0ye
02. Dec 2018 · 22:11 UTC
Its difficult at the beginning, but its great when you get the hang of it. I like it, tho there is a lot to improve like:
- Graphics (They always can be imporved, you might aswell ignore that)
- Stabbility (I had a couple of bugs, i think)
- Content (Same as Graphics, there is always more)
- And nothing really beats a start screen, decent control descriptions and so on. The game feels a bit barren.
artbohr
03. Dec 2018 · 15:22 UTC
Felt like a really interesting mechanic, but I was a bit confused on how exactly to play the game.
Sun-Wukong
03. Dec 2018 · 15:43 UTC
Interesting idea but I couldn't make out how asteroids moved. Or they just change speed and direction at random?
gilborn
03. Dec 2018 · 17:09 UTC
Cool and smooth game, maybe a bit to easy.
koltzow
03. Dec 2018 · 19:54 UTC
I really like this gameplay concept. It has great potential, got the hang of the mechanics quicly. The graphics look decent, but i just wish there were some sounds or music to give it a tempo or sense of urgency as the silence really slows the gameplay down. I also wish i had a bigger canvas to play on. There aren't that much space to move around to make those long term strategic choices. Now you only have one or two move until you hit something. Overall though i think this is great for such a short amount of time.
xesenix
03. Dec 2018 · 23:04 UTC
I love that sacrifice build in game mechanics it quite fun maybe you could balance it little bit more like for example less meteors on beginning so players can build up ship and more later on so they can feel disadvantage that sacrificing some parts makes them suffer. You could have given the possibility to rate graphics it's simple but consistent so in general looks good. Also its really easy to create some soundtrack give it a try check bosca ceilo for start and maybe LMMS after that.
🎤 Maksim Chugunov
04. Dec 2018 · 00:23 UTC
@xesenix thanks! Will sure try to work on sounds and music in future jams, thanks for advice. And yeah, I should've kept graphics rating, but I don't think I can now.
🎤 Maksim Chugunov
04. Dec 2018 · 00:25 UTC
@sun-wukong asteroids never change direction, only a little bit right before they hit the ship (if any module is in path of asteroid movement). In general they move in direction of arrow-like projection that is shown.
Zayah0_0
04. Dec 2018 · 04:08 UTC
i really like this concept....rather unique ..... great job
Jimbly
04. Dec 2018 · 17:43 UTC
Great game! I found it really engaging. Really gets difficult after you lose an engine or two, but still keeps being interesting. Other than adding some sound, I don't really have any suggestions to make ^_^. I could see this being interesting to expand with more ship modules and more obstacles.
Codesity
05. Dec 2018 · 13:20 UTC
very difficult game, I think. But overall Good Work! Also the Graphics are awesome.
Jupiter_Hadley
06. Dec 2018 · 13:45 UTC
Nice concept! I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/QGU5NZBTfXo
velvetlobster
07. Dec 2018 · 01:36 UTC
Its like Nimbatus, a game I really like... seems real complex to accomplish within a ludum dare, so congrats people, this must have been quite a challenge
🎤 Maksim Chugunov
07. Dec 2018 · 20:00 UTC
@velvetlobster thanks! it's compo, so I've done it all myself :)
velvetlobster
07. Dec 2018 · 20:57 UTC
@maksim-chugunov have you idea how you managed to accomplish it in a compo, great work man!
Sam Reid
08. Dec 2018 · 16:07 UTC
Interesting concept, though I can't say I completely understand what I was doing or why I was switching modules. A brief intro or backstory would be a welcomed addition.
mosaic
08. Dec 2018 · 16:51 UTC
One of the best games I have seen so far. Great Work!
mrnyarlathotep
08. Dec 2018 · 19:13 UTC
It took me a while to figure out, but this was a really interesting take on the theme
HuvaaKoodia
09. Dec 2018 · 04:30 UTC
A solid... *turn-based, space ship building and asteroid dodging challenge*? I have seen some similar titles a few times, but for the life of me I cannot remember any of them by name. No-one has had tremendous success in this particular genre so far it seems.

The user interface is cleverly designed to accommodate movements of multiple moving bodies in a grid. I can think of a few small improvements though. Showing movement vectors for incoming modules would be good and removing the unclear hit detection would be an improvement too. Asteroids and ship parts should always land in their designated positions without hitting the ship on the way. This way they sometimes fly through the ship for sure, but UI clarity beats *"realism"* any day. It is supposed to be a 2D representation of a 3D space after all.

The sacrifice mechanic works, but it took a long time before things got heated enough to really require its use. Additionally speeding forward in one direction, turn after turn, does break the asteroid spawner; really easy to not get hit at all.

The graphics are ok, functional. I do like the movement *"animation"* with ship parts jiggling around. Some audio would go a long way. Either an ambient loop in the background or simple, generated, sounds for movements and hits. It only takes ~30 minutes to find and implements something rudimentary; you can always disable the audio category when using third party assets.

Good work! Could be extended, this one?

Overall: *Good (4.0)*
Fun: *Above average (3.5)*
Innovation: *Good (4.0)*
Theme: *Good (4.0)*
Graphics: *Above average (3.5)*
Audio: *N/A*
Humor: *N/A*
Mood: *N/A*
pantoufle
10. Dec 2018 · 14:46 UTC
I had fun with this game. The challenge is easy to understand after a few tries, then it becomes quite addictive.

A few elements frustrated me, like during a swap, the game didn't tell me beforehand which parts would I lose.

Other than that, the game feels balanced and interesting. Good job!
Arvejeitor
12. Dec 2018 · 12:49 UTC
Graphics could use some improvement, core gameplay is very nice and fun
🎤 Maksim Chugunov
12. Dec 2018 · 20:27 UTC
@huvaakoodia thank you for a great feedback!

I see now that my biggest mistake was not working on level design as much as I should, I just threw in some random generation of asteroids and modules, thinking that people only need to understand the concept of the game, but most of them don't even get a situation where you would need to sacrifice a module.

And yeah, for some reason I thought that realistic movements of asteroid would work better, even though I spent some time working on that algorithm and in the end it kind of confuses the player when asteroid actually hits the ship.
Also, in future jams I will for sure work on sound :)

Again, thank you for an awesome detailed feedback, I really appreciate it!