Kessler by Vanea

[raw]
made by Vanea for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

You are the pilot for Kessler Station, a new orbital platform kitted out with the newest scientific innovations, designed to clear all the space junk from orbit over the next few decades before Kessler Syndrome can occur. However, nearly as soon as you were in orbit, a giant meteor struck the middle of America, sending up tons of debris out of the atmosphere and right into your path.

With this disaster, no help will come. It's up to you to bring the escape module online and deorbit before your station and corpse become just another piece of debris in this macabre loop of orbital carnage.

Z or [space] to fire laser (Consumes energy) X or V to fire gun (Consumes ammo) C or B to use shield (Consumes small amounts of energy) WASD or arrow keys to move (Consumes fuel)

(Please give the game a moment to load in the music on the title screen)

Ratings

Overall 1405th 3⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1340th 2.824⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1548th 2.456⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1388th 2.909⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1349th 2.818⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Audio 684th 3.318⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1214th 1.893⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1365th 2.75⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 56🗳️ 36🗨️

Feedback

Bentebent
05. Oct 2020 · 22:16 UTC
This is a seriously hard game. I like the rock-paper-scissors aspect of swapping between weapons, shield and juggling your speed. Well done!
KingDwarf
05. Oct 2020 · 22:18 UTC
Really cool that you orbit the earth and that the obstacles are spacejunk and astroids floating in the orbit :smile:

Sounds are also very pleasant to listen to.
Elmos Minion
05. Oct 2020 · 22:20 UTC
Pretty fun game! Might be an improvement if you introduced mechanics and keys one-by-one rather than all at once (for shields/guns/rockets, etc.)
ZEST_is_BEST
05. Oct 2020 · 22:20 UTC
Really hard, wasn't sure what to do at the start - just kept getting sent back to the main menu :P Well done guys!
gemberkoekje
05. Oct 2020 · 22:21 UTC
The game doesn't really communicate what you should do. I know the menu says to use x against y, but while playing it ends up being a really confusing shootemup. I think this has potential, if the hazards and the ways to counter are communicated better, with colors or better symbols. Also, when you die a small popup or anything would be nice.
KingOfNova
05. Oct 2020 · 22:22 UTC
good grief my ears good thing you have a volume slider
I feel like that should be defaulted to much lower.
The power ups are hard to tell what they are they are very small.
The way the debris spawns makes it way to hard to dodge.
though this game will be fun when finished development.
Alan123
05. Oct 2020 · 22:23 UTC
It's like frogger, but fresh, fits the theme well and is very hard!
Sentynel
05. Oct 2020 · 22:23 UTC
Super hard and it's not super intuitive what to use where, but it's fun and I like the mechanics. Would be good with a bit less of a learning curve (and scores when you die).
AllBetsAreOff
05. Oct 2020 · 22:28 UTC
I understand the satellite is floaty intentionally, but I think it might be a bit much. I'm not huge on the dust clouds either. I think it's kind of hard to notice them i the middle of gameplay. I do really like the earth in the background and the fact that every player will probably see the giant crater in the background at a different point. Also, I think the concept of kessler syndrome is very interesting and I appreciate the reference to it.
StellarBearGames
05. Oct 2020 · 22:36 UTC
Great! I'm addicted. Actually the gameplay is challenging and has potential to be very rewarding. However I need a score feature because it's hard to gauge progress. I don't think I cleared zone one - maybe more missiles or a faster shield would help? The music & graphics give me XCOM/80s/90s sci-fi vibes. Nice job!
Unicornfrog
06. Oct 2020 · 00:06 UTC
Good idea!
FroggiMarc
06. Oct 2020 · 17:19 UTC
Gave it around 9-10 tries. Took some time to understand what was happening. I liked the idea that it depends on the speed.
As people before me said, a hard game. But had o good time :)