Terminal Charge by Gal Afik | LudumData

Terminal Charge by Gal Afik

made by Gal Afik for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

ludum dare 46.gif

Prepare for your worst nightmare. Imagine the horror of being stuck at the airport with no smart-phone. In Terminal Charge, players take on the role of a desperate air-traveler as they zig-zag through a bustling airport while attempting to reach their gate and keep their phone alive. Rush from outlet to outlet and evade your fellow pedestrians as you make your way to your gate. But beware, gate changes are frequent and this airport was built by a madman!

The game is available to download now via Google Drive and play via web browser at Newgrounds.

This game was a ton of fun to work on. As soon as the theme was revealed ("Keep It Alive", for those not in the know), my wife and I began brainstorming ideas:

"Maybe you're trying to keep plants alive?" she said. "Or a game where you keep patients alive?" I added. "Well, what is the most important thing to keep alive? Something you couldn't live without?"

And there you have it! Keep your phone alive in the most distressing situation.

My wife is not technical, but she contributed ideas, jokes, hot tea, and precious play-testing time. I couldn't have done it without her!

IMG<em>20200420</em>193223.jpg

This was my first time doing Ludum Dare and my second game jam overall. After this experience, you couldn't keep me away if you tried. I can't wait to do this again! Though, maybe with a team next time...

PS. I did not make many of the icons used in the game, only slightly altered them. Likewise, I did not make the audio for this game, and will be opting out of both categories for judging. Otherwise, give me your honest feedback!

ChangeLog::

4/20/2020 11:45 - I added a link to the Newgrounds page for this game. Note that this game was not optimized for smaller screens and some UI elements may be cut off.

4/21/2020 1:05 - A critical bug causing the player to lose after reaching their goal has been fixed. Also, Linux and MacOS versions have been uploaded to itch.io!

Youtube	https://github.com/GalAfik/Ludum-Dare-46
Youtube	https://mythosinteractive.itch.io/terminal-charge
Youtube	https://mythosinteractive.itch.io/terminal-charge
Youtube	https://mythosinteractive.itch.io/terminal-charge
Youtube	https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/753120
Youtube	https://www.kongregate.com/games/GalAfik/terminal-charge
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/terminal-charge

Ratings

Overall	573^th	3.773⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Fun	599^th	3.636⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	168^th	3.955⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Theme	599^th	3.955⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Humor	439^th	3.568⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Mood	705^th	3.67⭐	46🧑‍⚖️
Given		41🗳️	52🗨️

Feedback

21. Apr 2020 · 05:19 UTC

very creative game! i love it
good job.

21. Apr 2020 · 05:33 UTC

Very original! I really like the simplistic art style and the music.

After a while though the game kind of gets repetitive.

21. Apr 2020 · 05:35 UTC

@darylsteak Noted! I had so many more ideas for mechanics that didn't make it into the final game, but don't we all? The challenge curve could certainly be improved. Thank you for playing!

21. Apr 2020 · 08:16 UTC

Cool! I scored 1311 points after several tries. The experience is awesome and the game contains many details, such as colliding with people and the indicator on the floor. I found that the familiarity with the game map really matters.
Nice work!

21. Apr 2020 · 12:35 UTC

@arisl Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the game. My siblings have started competing for a high score but none have made it quite as far as 1300 yet

21. Apr 2020 · 14:58 UTC

Ok, I've been in this situation before so this is stressful, I kept hoping for the next gate to be the correct one! Good fun, and good job.

21. Apr 2020 · 15:56 UTC

@palsina Thanks :) I really tried to get the right level of stress through the mechanics. It's a delicate balance for sure. Who knows? Maybe the next gate will be the right one!

21. Apr 2020 · 17:31 UTC

hey nice short game, seems like you are in a rush. The game animation , sounds are really nice. Good color theme too. Had fun playing it. its a bit difficult to play though. Maybe its just me but I was never able to figure out where the gates are :).

21. Apr 2020 · 18:23 UTC

@vivek-sharma20 Thanks for playing! I tried directing the player towards the gates using the signs scattered around, but, realistically, you just kind of have to figure it out over time. Once you play it a few times, you should have a good mental map of the airport.

21. Apr 2020 · 21:26 UTC

Super clever idea! I think we've all been there and you captured the anxiety of the moment. Some of the UI elements got scaled strangely on the web versions and are cut off the page. Great job!

21. Apr 2020 · 21:31 UTC

@elbapotsnugg Thanks for playing! I didn't scale my canvases with the screen to start off with and only discovered the issue with the UI after the game was submitted. I feel like it would be cheating to make such a major change at this point :P

21. Apr 2020 · 22:38 UTC

airports and time management are already very problematic for me, so this game made me SUFFER. this was a great idea and it's full of nice details that i loved: integrated theme in the UI through notifications, random messages that annoy you when you're stressed out (very relatable)... btw, the display of the game is cropped if not played in fullscreen!

21. Apr 2020 · 23:05 UTC

Hi @vulgaris . Thanks for playing the game! I'm hoping you didn't suffer too much :) The UI issue is my next to-do once I get some rest and get back to this game. The other is a real difficulty curve!

22. Apr 2020 · 00:00 UTC

really fun! not much to critizise, and it's a pretty well rounded game.

22. Apr 2020 · 00:03 UTC

@llamallove Thanks!

22. Apr 2020 · 02:53 UTC

I enjoyed this! (unlike the real life experience lol) Game captured the feeling really well and it had nice touches of comedy to it. The overall vibe of the game was consistent and the visuals, sound design, and gameplay meshed cohesively together. I feel like you guys accomplished a game about catching an airport flight pretty well.

Some critiques for the gameplay:

-It got really repetitive. Adding some more spice like random obstacles, etc. would help a lot

-It was weird to have two similar game over conditions: the timer and the phone. I feel like this could be condensed into one.

-Being dropped into it was a bit overwhelming at first. I didn't know what I was looking for or where to go. A bit of easing the player into the gameplay would be nice.

Good job for what it is!

22. Apr 2020 · 04:45 UTC

@dummydojo Thanks for the useful feedback and honest review!

22. Apr 2020 · 09:11 UTC

Delicate ui, comfortable control and nice idea. Getting a little bit boried after few minutes playing. Good job tho!

22. Apr 2020 · 10:17 UTC

Really fun idea! Thanks for bringing it by the stream!

22. Apr 2020 · 13:17 UTC

@celvin Thanks for playing! Yeah, the UI issues will need to be fixed, for sure, but it was a good learning experience.

22. Apr 2020 · 13:18 UTC

@erebus Thank you for checking it out! Your feedback and suggestions have were very useful and I really enjoyed the rest of the stream. :)

22. Apr 2020 · 14:25 UTC

Awesome! Fits the theme perfect. Music speeding up when you're on the baggage carry things is a nice touch. Lots of juice. Would be really cool if there were more levels with different airport layouts. Great work!

22. Apr 2020 · 15:52 UTC

This was actually a really accurate simulation of what it's like to catch a flight, which would be fun in real life if it weren't so stressful. So this lets you have the fun without the stress. The phone dying added an additional layer and some comedy. It took me a few plays to figure out how to read everything. Maybe making your flight number more prominent would be good.　It felt a bit random whether or not your flight would be reachable in time (just like in real life!) I'm not sure if you could do something to ensure that the combination of terminal changes never produced a route that was too long to walk in time. よくできたね！

22. Apr 2020 · 16:10 UTC

@daltonleavey Thanks for the feedback! I had so many ideas for different mechanics and elements to increase replay-ability, but alas, time ran out.

22. Apr 2020 · 16:12 UTC

@scott-steffes I'm glad you enjoyed your time in my totally-normal airport. I had a similar thought about the gate distances and timing later in development, but ran out of time before I could implement a more "fair" system. Someone else suggested getting bonus time for reaching earlier gates early enough. That could be an interesting way to help the player out a bit. ありがとうございました

22. Apr 2020 · 16:26 UTC

Clever and fun mechanics! Completely different take on the theme of what I've usually seen, so props for uniqueness!

It has been mentioned earlier, but a bit of extra fairness would've been cool cause it was sometimes a bit too hard - either too little time or the gate was a bit too far away.

I do love the little animations, and the way the little guy walks made me giggle. I love those little touches. Attention to detail is key!

RobotsAndMuffins

22. Apr 2020 · 17:49 UTC

Wow! What a great idea! I felt exactly that houndreds of times! It's frustating sometimes but it looks like it's on porpouse, and I love it!

22. Apr 2020 · 17:58 UTC

@sndr Thank you for the valuable feedback. I'm going to work on improving the fairness and difficulty curve for the next version of the game. I, also, enjoyed the little walking animation. It was the first thing that I got done and really sold me on the concept.

22. Apr 2020 · 17:59 UTC

@robotsandmuffins The frustration was somewhat on purpose. I tried balancing the player's stress over the phone/gate with a feeling of speed as you make your way through the airport. I'm glad you liked the idea!

22. Apr 2020 · 20:42 UTC

That was fun, the graphics while simple (still good) didn't need to be more complicated. The urgency of moving from gate to gate and charging your phone on the run was real, you really felt the need lol. Keep it up, loved it.

22. Apr 2020 · 23:59 UTC

@nodlehs I'm glad you had fun playing! I've been avoiding doing my own art by using assets from thenounproject.com for years :)

23. Apr 2020 · 19:50 UTC

Great game! I know you didn't make the graphics but you made a good use of them! You've quite an eye for it.
This is, indeed, one of my worst nightmares, so it was difficult to play (in a good way, haha). The idea and mechanic are clever and I really had fun playing it. As others said, it can be really hard, I guess the frustration is on purpose but maybe it could be more balanced.

23. Apr 2020 · 20:09 UTC

Captured the anxiety of a crowded airport extremely well! I really enjoyed the art as well :D Great job!

23. Apr 2020 · 20:59 UTC

@daniel-moreno I've had plenty of time to come up with ideas for balancing the difficulty curve as well as increasing replay-ability. I hope to take this game a bit further in the coming weeks. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention again how much I loved your game, tiny fragments! Thank you for playing.

@01010111 Hi there! Thank you so much! I'm glad you had the time to check out my game.

23. Apr 2020 · 21:30 UTC

Wow, very similar to our game! Great minds think alike I guess :wink: Nice job, I really enjoyed it!

23. Apr 2020 · 21:47 UTC

Woah, very ui-full game, I reaally hate ui overall. But you guys nailed it. Great game, keep up the good work!

24. Apr 2020 · 00:40 UTC

@lukas-shiley I hadn't seen your game yet. It's neat to see how we started off with almost identical ideas and created two completely different games. I really like the graphics you guys used. Great work for it being during finals time!

@vaizaragorn I tried to integrate the UI in a way that was thematic, but not too overwhelming, though a certain level of overwhelming was intended :)

24. Apr 2020 · 19:13 UTC

We streamed your game with Danae: [link to Twitch VOD](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/598538752?t=03h51m56s) (approximate timestamp)

Very cool! The aesthetics were very coherent, and the mood of airport travelling was communicated nicely. The difficulty curve seemed to be a little bit too gentle. I would have welcomed the timers getting less forgiving (compensated for by an increase in walking speed, for example), or additional challenges (a "pee bar" was a great idea in the chat).

25. Apr 2020 · 00:14 UTC

I really liked the look and feel of this game. Very very polished. I had a lot of fun with the gameplay as well, but once I got the layout of the airport it was actually pretty easy. I was able to keep the timer up indefinitely, so I am not sure if there was any difficulty scaling. I would love to play more levels!

25. Apr 2020 · 03:06 UTC

@aurel300 Thank you for playing the game during your stream! It was a pleasure seeing you play through and receiving great feedback. Your commentary was hilarious and very welcome!

@iamscissors Unfortunately, I ran out of time to really implement a solid difficulty curve, but that is one thing I am working on for future releases. Thank you for playing!

27. Apr 2020 · 23:39 UTC

Loved it! Your take on the theme was really clever, your choice for graphics and music fit the theme well and set the atmosphere nicely, and you managed to capture the rush to arrive in time, the added pressure of having some leftover battery and the infinite annoyance of having to cross the airport because they've suddenly changed the gates.

Besides, everything felt pretty clear to me.

I had a few minor issues with collisions vs other passengers, but well, just like real life :grimacing: Jokes aside, other than that controls felt quite tight.

Amazing entry, congrats! :clap:

28. Apr 2020 · 02:23 UTC

@ithildin Thank you so much for the glowing review! I'm glad you enjoyed my little stress overload simulation :)

29. Apr 2020 · 09:48 UTC

Fantastic premise for a game!
It captures the stress of many travel memories really well.

29. Apr 2020 · 14:03 UTC

@eran-haas Thank you and thanks for playing!

01. May 2020 · 18:17 UTC

one of the funniest and most innovative games i played in this ludum dare. really great! But is it possible to reach a flight at all? :-)

02. May 2020 · 06:05 UTC

@turritom Thank you for playing and for the amazingly kind comment! I'm sure if you play long enough you'll reach your gate eventually... maybe.

04. May 2020 · 15:19 UTC

Interesting concept! I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/SML2NB40RxM

04. May 2020 · 19:02 UTC

@jupiter-hadley Thanks for playing the game in one of your videos! I've enjoyed watching them as they've come out these past few weeks. I mentioned in my youtube comment, but the game has to be played in a maximized window because of the UI issues. Feel free to give it another go and check if you have more fun without the UI getting cut off :P

07. May 2020 · 23:12 UTC

haha this is very funny. captures the frustration of the airport well.