My Friendly Planet by Joule

[raw]
made by Joule for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

You are a star, there is a planet in orbit around you. Asteroids comets and more are coming towards you and your planet. You can save your planet by attracting it away or your can transform into a black hole to eat threats. How long can you and your planet survive?

Ratings

Overall 1868th 3.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 2245th 2.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 401th 3.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 798th 3.842⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 2198th 2.579⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1331th 2.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1916th 2.088⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Mood 2170th 2.706⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

PrimalShadow
22. Apr 2020 · 15:02 UTC
I love the use of gravity in this game. It was a little confusing that the game would end when the sun was hit by and asteroid - my instinctive thought was that you'd use the sun as a shield for the earth and on one play-through there was a glitch where the earth shot off to the right of the screen but the game kept on going.
Overall I had a lot of fun playing this.
Dje Ricane
23. Apr 2020 · 13:26 UTC
Love the idea even if I find it too hard to read the asteroids trajectory on the dark backgroun
Very nice music too
Jorim
23. Apr 2020 · 15:12 UTC
I like the game, though it is a bit too difficult for my liking. The gravity feels really fun to play around with, though I struggle with either being unable to use the black hole feature without instantly destroying earth or being able to use it but losing earth entirely. Good entry! I think this would work well as a standalone title when more polished.
Lee Beever
23. Apr 2020 · 15:14 UTC
A cool concept. I like the idea of balancing 'eating' the asteroids but also keeping the earth in a safe orbit. A little tough though due to the speed of the asteroids. Maybe slow them down early on.
just-stanley
23. Apr 2020 · 15:14 UTC
I feel this game is too difficult. The small fast moving asteroids are hard to see on the dark background and don't give you a lot of time to react. To balance things out, I would look at making the sun invulnerable and making the asteroids brighter and slower.
Concept is very cool and original however, but the imbalance makes it less fun to play.
🎤 Joule
23. Apr 2020 · 15:21 UTC
The time constaint gave me no choice but to let the asteroids be too dark... Sorry for that. Those who said that the sun should be invulnerable are right... The speed of the asteroids will be reconsidered. I might work on developing a polished mobile version if enough of you are interested... Thanks for playing my first solo Game Jam!
adsilcott
23. Apr 2020 · 15:25 UTC
I really like the concept here. I kept getting killed by asteroids at first because I couldn't see them, they could use more contrast. It's really challenging but fun, and I like the idea of playing as a sun protecting its planet. :)
AidanMarkham
23. Apr 2020 · 15:25 UTC
What a great innovative mechanic! Like others have said, there are issues with the readability of the graphics (asteroids too dark, unclear if sun can be killed), but other than those small issues this is a great entry!
Pyrotrap
23. Apr 2020 · 15:29 UTC
Very interesting idea, but it's really hard to wrap your mind around. The black hole mechanic is really hard to use too.
BoarGames
23. Apr 2020 · 15:32 UTC
The idea is very cool, i already tried to code some gravity like this, but failed. The mechanic is interesting, but hard to understand and to play. Very good music. I think if you added a parallax background the graphics would improve significantly.
Karenin Dmitry
23. Apr 2020 · 15:44 UTC
Nice gameplay, but it asking for more balancing :thumbsup: You really fast loose control of planet. Sometimes i was loosing planet and had no idea where it is. This game about getting highest score, so it make sense to show player's best score - with best score player instantly get the challenge. And please, choose more readable font for tutorial :)
Good luck with next projects :v:
🎤 Joule
23. Apr 2020 · 15:57 UTC
Thanks for the feedback!
Vertuga32
23. Apr 2020 · 16:15 UTC
That's a cool idea! It's kind of hard and interesting.
Craig Cordeiro
23. Apr 2020 · 17:28 UTC
I love the gravity mechanic!


Just pitching an idea, do with it what you will. Use the Sun as a blocker for the asteroids so that they hit it instead of the planet. But, every asteroid that hits the Sun makes it bigger, making it slower and the gravitational pull stronger. Moving as the Sun reduces its size, making it faster and the gravitational pull weaker. If the Sun gets too big, it collapses into a Black Hole, making it very small, but extremely slow with an gravitational pull that's extremely powerful.
Maybe that's not the game you want to make, it's just what popped into my head when I tried to play it and thought I'd share.
🎤 Joule
23. Apr 2020 · 17:45 UTC
@craig-cordeiro I might take some of your ideas for the full release later on. Thx!
TheShamo
03. May 2020 · 12:21 UTC
Very nice entry ! I loved how the basics are easily understandable but how it's actually difficult to survive at the beginning, having to think "Where is my earth, is it in danger etc).

Well done !
Juice Lizard
03. May 2020 · 12:24 UTC
The music goes on without reset with your death and that is a good point. The mechanics are interesting. It is often impossible to avoid the asteroids coming… but you say you will improve that. Well done for a three days game prototype!
Eugenik
03. May 2020 · 12:25 UTC
Interesting take! Reminds me of Solar 2, but from the other side :D The game is very challenging to play, and I didn't manage to keep myself alive very long, but eh, need to get better at the game. The asteroids damaged even the star, a one hit kill, a HP system would be more forgiving, or at least 3 lives.
mypalmike
03. May 2020 · 12:31 UTC
Took a few tries to figure out everything that's going on. Very difficult - seems like there are too many ways to die. Often game over is due to the planet getting hit before you even know there's an asteroid there. Nice gravity simulation, nice music and sound.
pocarinnu
05. May 2020 · 15:45 UTC
Very fun and challenging game, cool music and very nice mechanics
After a few tries I found out the easiest way to play this game is to swing the Earth out in a very fast speed and you can just take care of yourself
awerar
05. May 2020 · 18:04 UTC
I found the game very hard. It was fun though! I think that the sound effects where perfect and I liked that you had time to add a volume slider. Maybe making the game a bit more forgiving would have been nice though.
LessThanRidiculous
05. May 2020 · 18:42 UTC
I like the idea for sure. I think giving the player time to adjust/ ramping the difficulty might be nice. Giving the asteroids more visibility, via a different color, a partial effect or simply making them larger could be helpful. Over all nice work!