Starboard: The Pirate Entrepreneur by FlashViper

[raw]
made by FlashViper for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

Everybody be liking money, arr? And there be no better way to make money than ye old piracy! Ye have been so shocked by this here information that ye just sold everything ye own to sail the seven seas, and hopefully bring in more than you spend.

YAAR!!!!

Ye olde Features:

  • Sail the seven seas, with realistic sailin' physics!
  • Lay ye waste to th' tyrrannic Brütish Empyre and th' Evil White Pearl Syndicate!
  • Visit ye many different locations, such as a lighthouse, and a wretched desert island!

Ye Olde Controls:

[W][A][S][D]: Sail ye ship [Left Mouse]: Aim yer cannon [Left Click]: Fire ye cannon

Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 4.39.05 PM.png Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 4.46.39 PM 1.png Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 4.36.04 PM.png Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 4.36.50 PM.png

Ratings

Overall 654th 3.364⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 690th 3.114⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 803th 2.864⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 928th 2.773⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 566th 3.5⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Audio 414th 3.273⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 248th 3.386⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 639th 3.25⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

BrotherBondProduction
08. Oct 2019 · 02:17 UTC
Arrgghhhh. What a fantastic way to set sail and plunder all the coming enemy ships. This has definitely been one of the harder of the games I've played during this jam but it was an enjoyable challenge.

I'm not to sure if I missed this part of the controls but I couldn't find a way to leave a level and return to the main menu.

Love the music and UI!
Jake Marks
08. Oct 2019 · 02:27 UTC
Funny names for your levels!
The enemies are very erratic and the whole things needs to be zoomed out a bit I think.
Great piratey theme.
🎤 FlashViper
08. Oct 2019 · 02:27 UTC
@brotherbondproduction Nope. No way to leave a level. Sorry... I thought about making you die and return to the menu, but I forgot. I'm glad ye had a rousing fun time though!
WelshDivision
08. Oct 2019 · 02:28 UTC
Very enjoyable experience with some nice music and graphics. The game was quite challenging, especially staring with nothing and doing a 900 coin quest. Everything functioned well.
🎤 FlashViper
08. Oct 2019 · 02:29 UTC
@jake-marks The levels are randomly generated from a list of 20 adjectives and 20 nouns. There are some good ones, but most of them flop hilariously. Glad you liked the theaming!
🎤 FlashViper
08. Oct 2019 · 02:31 UTC
@welshdivision Thanks for playing! I know it was challenging. I still have trouble with winning after spending the better part of 3 days working on it. And the shop was a bit of a last minute addition, so I'm sorry if it wasn't well balanced. Thanks for playing!
mattdotam
08. Oct 2019 · 03:03 UTC
Avast ye! A quality submission for LD. A good challenge. Great execution in the available time. Seriously impressive. Good job.
Shaolin Dave
08. Oct 2019 · 04:03 UTC
Things were a bit chaotic so it was hard to get into, but I still found it fun. I love the pirate lingo, and that you even worked it into the website's instructions. Music was great. I liked how you used the squash and stretch animations for the cannon firing.
Nick Parry
09. Oct 2019 · 03:04 UTC
Very chaotic but a cool game. I found the font almost impossible to read. I also founded it a bit hard with too many enemies or not enough fire speed.

I always like seeing shops in games and the controls and graphics are very neat. Well done.
Jake Marks
09. Oct 2019 · 08:44 UTC
Hey, I have a short video of me playing through the game if you are interested!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/492123983
AMastryukov
09. Oct 2019 · 12:17 UTC
The graphics, music and the atmosphere was well done. I enjoyed seeing the pirate lingo and the entire game felt silly in a good way.

My only gripe with this were the controls. To me, they felt completely unnatural and inconsistent. The movements resembled how a person would move in a top-down game but at the same time both the movement and turning felt sluggish because it's a ship in the waters. Stopping to fire the cannons made the problem even worse, and the hectic nature of the game didn't make it any easier.

I've played top-down ship games during LD before and this is a common problem I've noticed with sailing controls - ships are by nature sluggish. It takes a lot of work to make controls for a game like this to feel just right.
🎤 FlashViper
10. Oct 2019 · 02:12 UTC
@mattdotam Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you liked it!

@nick-parry So sorry about the font. I really wanted to go all in on the pirate theme, but I realize that it might be harder to read. If I do a post-jam version, I'll definitely make that an opotion.

@jake-marks Your video made me laugh, then curl up into a ball and whimper. The enemy count was my biggest gripe about the game, and I never had any time nor ideas on how to deal with it. And the WASD controls have always been a little quirky. I've heard that I should zoom it out a couple times. Will do. It is very hard to tell what is happening, especially when 5 ships at once are all firing at you. Your video was so informative. You're my favorite person of the day.

@amastryukov Glad you liked the graphics. But personally, I hate the music. It's way too repetitive. And the controls do feel weird. I think it might be a combination of how you drift slightly, and that your ship rotates towards the direction it's moving, making things really confusing. Thanks for playing!
🎤 FlashViper
10. Oct 2019 · 02:12 UTC
@mattdotam Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you liked it!

@nick-parry So sorry about the font. I really wanted to go all in on the pirate theme, but I realize that it might be harder to read. If I do a post-jam version, I'll definitely make that an opotion.

@jake-marks Your video made me laugh, then curl up into a ball and whimper. The enemy count was my biggest gripe about the game, and I never had any time nor ideas on how to deal with it. And the WASD controls have always been a little quirky. I've heard that I should zoom it out a couple times. Will do. It is very hard to tell what is happening, especially when 5 ships at once are all firing at you. Your video was so informative. You're my favorite person of the day, even if you don't want to play my game forever.

@amastryukov Glad you liked the graphics. But personally, I hate the music. It's way too repetitive. And the controls do feel weird. I think it might be a combination of how you drift slightly, and that your ship rotates towards the direction it's moving, making things really confusing. Thanks for playing!
🎤 FlashViper
10. Oct 2019 · 02:13 UTC
Gaaaaaahhhh! Ludum Dare is a great site and all, but it can be very weird sometimes...
Catusfelony
10. Oct 2019 · 03:09 UTC
Quite a fun one this was! Got me hooked like a captain's hand.

Although it felt like a bullet hell without the precise controls, I found it a little difficult to steer the ship, and initially expected tank controls instead of moving in the direction of arrow keys.

It's quite stylish, the music is good and the description is exciting (love your pirate speak!!) and it could also be addictive, but the flaws mentioned prior kept it from being the perfect time waster.
Adam Saudagar
12. Oct 2019 · 16:25 UTC
really fun game, the map with the single island in the middle was the best, rest just felt like cluttered with rocks, when there were just 1-2 enemy ships it felt good and rewarding anything more than that was just confusing me... good job maybe u can polish this a bit more and publish it.
🎤 FlashViper
12. Oct 2019 · 16:36 UTC
@adam-saudagar I kind of feel bad for everyone playing this, because originally, the game would only spawn between 1 and 3 enemies at a time. At the last minute, I made it spawn 2 to 5. That mistake probably cost me some ratings. But I'm glad you mostly liked it!
Drjeebus
12. Oct 2019 · 17:58 UTC
Good submission, well done
🎤 FlashViper
12. Oct 2019 · 19:26 UTC
@drjeebus Thank you!
Alfadas
18. Oct 2019 · 10:41 UTC
Good Submision, I realy liked the music, all the artwork and the idea in itself.

Sadly I couldn´t realy play the game for a longer time because th controlls frustrate me.
They are, of course, fine for everything you can do in the game but if you want to dodge cannanballs and islands and still shoot at the enemy you are curently targeting- its nearly impossible.
Ok you can switch targets, but because of the relativly small map I had to turn quite often.
So i think controlls from the ships direction insted of the world direction would help- at least me- to controll the ship in the direction i want.(and it would prevent the ship from clumsily turning 180° nearly on a point)

I would like to playit again if you want to continue working on it
🎤 FlashViper
22. Oct 2019 · 16:44 UTC
@alfadas The controls are one of the biggest problems with the game. I didn't even think of tank style controls when I was making the game, but now that I think of it, they make a whole lot more sense. We'll see where this project goes, but it is definitely one of my more favorite prototypes. Thanks for playing!