LudumData

Escape Pod by aevek

[raw]
made by aevek for LD 43 (JAM)

Story

The process for picking a ship captain has always been purely political, and as such the captain of this ship is an incompetent buffoon. Your job, whether you like it or not, is to help the captain escape his ship at whatever costs necessary. Simply click on a crew member to make them run, and click them again to make them stop - but look out for the space bear traps!

Controls

Click on crew members to start or stop them

Click/drag or WASD or arrow keys to pan camera

Scroll to zoom

R to reset a level

Esc to pause

6.PNG 2.PNG 3.PNG 4.PNG 5.PNG

HTML5 (web) https://aevek.itch.io/escape-pod
Windows https://aevek.itch.io/escape-pod
Source code https://github.com/jacobmcleman/LD43
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/escape-pod

Ratings

Overall 67th 4.048⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 85th 3.905⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 142th 3.695⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Theme 30th 4.393⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 303th 3.93⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Audio 191th 3.631⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 144th 3.679⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Mood 239th 3.663⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 44🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

AidanMarkham
04. Dec 2018 · 04:36 UTC
Oof, that level with the trickery! (I won't spoil it)
Blarfnip
04. Dec 2018 · 04:39 UTC
This game is really fun! My favorite part about it was how intelligently each new mechanic was introduced. Unlike many other jam games, the difficulty curve of your game was balanced perfectly. I can tell a lot of thought went into your level designs. Good job!
Nobongo
04. Dec 2018 · 04:42 UTC
Great puzzle game! The levels were fun and packed with good mechanics. My main gripe with the game was that as the levels went on, they slowly got more and more buggy.
izi
04. Dec 2018 · 04:47 UTC
What a game! Keep up the good work! (:
Jeffrey Hwang
04. Dec 2018 · 04:50 UTC
I love playing puzzle games! Interesting take on the sacrifice :zap: I loved the difficulty level too.
MrPiedPiper
04. Dec 2018 · 05:03 UTC
That, was one quality game. Everything was spot on! Played through each and every level. Beautiful job.
Toast Toaster
04. Dec 2018 · 05:17 UTC
Awesome game, and amazing use of theme. I did find two bugs, though. Guys can get stuck on the retractable stairs, and when they bump into other guys, they start moonwalking all over the place. They can also moonwalk if they bump under weird circumstances.
skettyNmeebs
04. Dec 2018 · 05:18 UTC
Very well made and very well put together. The puzzles were punshing in the good way (if I made a mistake I usually learned why and adapted). This was really good, I'm impressed it was made in only a weekend lol. Good stuff.
Bongard22
04. Dec 2018 · 05:22 UTC
@toast-toaster Yeah that was one of my favorite bugs and we couldn't figure it out before the deadline. Another good one was that unpausing would resurrect corpses, we fixed that one though.
Joseph Manley
04. Dec 2018 · 05:55 UTC
I really like the Star Trek-esk theme. The roles of each crew type were relatively easy to understand the mechanics behind them. Good job, I had a ton of fun!
mtanton
04. Dec 2018 · 06:15 UTC
Really fun puzzles, reminded me of Star Trek + Saw. Last level was too hard for me but it was still awesome :)
pandan
04. Dec 2018 · 06:15 UTC
pretty good, the early levels seemed to be too similar. I didn't finish it, a very content rich Jam game! nice work.
royur
04. Dec 2018 · 09:13 UTC
love the redshirt reference.
nanocube75
04. Dec 2018 · 12:05 UTC
really great loved it!
Ece
04. Dec 2018 · 18:11 UTC
I enjoyed a lot! I couldnt pass a level after the elevator ones, the one with 2 stairs, 1 blue button, 1 blue 1 red 1 yellow character. It would be good to write the level names/numbers for each level :)
godsboss
04. Dec 2018 · 20:47 UTC
The game plays, but I can't see the people, although I can click them (and they move, I finished the first two levels half blind). Firefox 63.0.3 on Linux. :-(
Coda Highland
05. Dec 2018 · 04:44 UTC
@godsboss I think that's a Firefox issue. Try Chrome or Chromium.

That was a fun little diversion. Very gruesome. XD
Kobrar
05. Dec 2018 · 04:49 UTC
So I finished all 15 levels. This is probably the most complete and best game I've played this LD. And we share theme interpretation :) Good luck to you and your team!
Meenners
05. Dec 2018 · 04:55 UTC
As a trekie, I approve! The glass level, my captain died and my ensign was left alive unable to board the escape pod... stupid ensign... clueless what to do without a captain... (might of been a bug :)) great game!
CaryStringfield
05. Dec 2018 · 05:25 UTC
This game is great. Best I have played in this jam so far. May have discovered a bug. I died on lvl 4 I think. The ice one and the game kept on going.
scottgoldsmith
05. Dec 2018 · 05:31 UTC
Pretty awesome. Creative puzzles that are just challenging enough. The pixel art is pretty decent but the gameplay is great! Love the creative use of the theme.
svntax
05. Dec 2018 · 05:39 UTC
Really cool game! I liked how well each new puzzle element was introduced. I did get stuck on level 11 because the blue and red crew at the bottom would get stuck moving up the stairs.
aCuriosity
05. Dec 2018 · 20:21 UTC
This was fun, and well star trek, you either love it or hate it, and i despise anyone who would even think of hating it.... tehehe

But fur cereal dough... this was a well polished, fun, challenging game with pretty good use of the theme, and a great progression... it took me a bit before i realized i could pan the level, you know, not reading directions and all...

Live long and prosper!(and make some more fun games while your at it)
Bongard22
06. Dec 2018 · 00:07 UTC
@acuriosity That's a good point about not knowing how to pan. Bet you didn't know that R is restart either? That's definitely an issue with the game and one that'll try and get next time. Although I am a big fan of how @zebshee tutorialized all of the actual puzzle mechanics in the level design.
frenchie
06. Dec 2018 · 08:06 UTC
Nice puzzle game! I managed to beat all 15 levels, although I did have some difficulty on a couple of them. Like the others, I also ran into quite a few physics bugs. Not sure if I'll include this in my Play & Improve series yet, but if I do I'm probably going to re-implement the physics to be more consistent.
Bongard22
06. Dec 2018 · 18:45 UTC
@frenchie If you do that'd be awesome. The physics bugs were our biggest issue. The elevator fixes should be pretty easy but the buggy stair collides are a whole other beast.
rjhelms
07. Dec 2018 · 01:28 UTC
Niiiiice. Had a few physics bugs as others have said, mostly on stairs, but this was a well-polish blast of fun. Great work!
frenchie
07. Dec 2018 · 01:51 UTC
@bongard22 OK, I'm gonna tackle these physics bugs on my stream! Starting in ~10 minutes. I'll send you a link to the recording if you miss it :smile:
cdunham
09. Dec 2018 · 20:01 UTC
Fun game! Nice level designs, makes you think about where each guy needs to be before you start moving them. A couple physics bugs are inevitable in a platforming jam game, but the levels are so short and accessible that they don't really matter. Also had nice sounds and decent graphics
saoi-games
17. Dec 2018 · 04:12 UTC
Thank you for sharing your game with me. I played it on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames

I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream.

You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/350164861
LDGamer-43
25. Dec 2018 · 00:01 UTC
Why from 3D to Pixel Art?
Bongard22
27. Dec 2018 · 19:10 UTC
@cdunham Thanks, the stairs bug is very frustrating and in fact @frenchie took a look at it for a few hours and couldn't figure it out either.

@saoi-games Thanks for the video, it's unfortunate none of us were there live. Also unfortunate that you got stuck on that bug.

@ldgamer-43 2D is, in general, a better style for puzzle games. Also our 3D artist wasn't available this jam and none of the rest of us are artists.