Voyager by Jesús González

[raw]
made by Jesús González for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Travel through deep space from your home planet to the nearest star. Inspired by roguelike games like FTL.

1.jpg

While on your way, you will be faced with both random and scripted encounters. If you're asked to, use the mouse to power and de-power the connections (click the connections, not the system names) between your probe systems and accomplish your current task.

Made completely from scratch (code, graphics, music) as it was intended to be a Compo entry before I missed the submission time. I also took the opportunity to learn about the Zenject framework and used it extensively in the game.

* Tools used * * Unity with Zenject * GIMP * Blender * Mixcraft

I improvised the music in the last 15 minutes before the deadline, so if it gets annoying, you can mute it with the M key.

* Missing or incomplete * * Balance, the game is too easy and slow as it is. * An in-game help system to better explain the inventory and the controls. * Far more random events. Currently there are 21, and the game still feels like it is repeating them too often. * I didn't manage to add some of the planned mechanics. The probe systems and connections were originally meant to be able to fail and break, and the player would have to repair or work around them in addition to completing the tasks. * After I finished the game I realized that many of the encounters don't make use of the probe systems so they don't show any visual feedback, and I made models for them (happens with ringed planets and asteroid fields). * You can get blocked in an encounter if your fuel is too low. * The item icons are terrible.

Ratings

Overall 787th 3.587⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1538th 2.886⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 337th 3.75⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 440th 3.977⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 600th 3.935⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 978th 3.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 411th 3.886⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

deathray
27. Apr 2021 · 03:27 UTC
~~Will you release a web build?~~ This looks really interesting.

Thanks for the web build! Unless I'm doing something wrong it seems to be bugged though: During diagnostics when I click on anything, nothing happens.
junojop
27. Apr 2021 · 03:36 UTC
woah cool aesthetic
eryn
27. Apr 2021 · 03:40 UTC
The game had some UI issues for me so it was hard to progress. When there was a popup, there was no close button. I had to move my mouse around until I heard a click from the hover effect. My resolution is 3440x1440 @ 125% DPI scaling.
CeltiCo
27. Apr 2021 · 04:10 UTC
I disliked the popping sound, it was harsh on the ears, I think you were going for a Geiger counter effect? Past that, I feel the game would have been more pleasant with a smaller UI, namely the ability to see the Voyager. I didn't play too long because it felt like the same thing over and over, but I like the idea of controlling the Voyager through space, very FTL-like, just like you were going for. Nice thematic retro appearance, too. I hope to see you in LD49, cheers.
🎤 Jesús González
27. Apr 2021 · 04:21 UTC
Nice bug catches @eryn and @celtico (UI and sound), thanks for playing!
🎤 Jesús González
27. Apr 2021 · 13:26 UTC
@deathray Web version is now available if you want to try it.
youthfulIdealism
27. Apr 2021 · 15:26 UTC
I thought this was an interesting start. I particularly liked the spaceship UI, color palette, and sounds. I do have some more critical feedback. (disclaimer: I didn't finish 100%--you need a few more events, which you already know. :) ) All the critical feedback makes the assumption that you keep working on the game... I think you've got an interesting base to work off of.

- I thought the 3d view was completely unnecessary. I'd recommend either cutting it, or replacing it. Allowing the player to balance power management in-flight with different consequences to different powered modules would be pretty interesting.
- You need more components. Figuring out how to path to the right components is trivially easy (which is fine, because building a game in 42hrs is very hard). There's interesting puzzle gameplay to be had in making it a little harder to path to the components.

The experience was good, and I hope you keep working on this game! I can see a lot of potential here.
SageWare
27. Apr 2021 · 16:36 UTC
I found the graphics to be stunning, I love anything that looks old school DOS. I had no issues with sound. I could see your inspiration was FTL and other types of games, but you had a unique take I haven't seen before. Excellent work.
Nick Barrash
27. Apr 2021 · 16:39 UTC
Such a zen game. Love the art and the take on the theme. Kind of reminded me of Seedship. Awesome job! (And thanks for the HTML5 build!)
japes
27. Apr 2021 · 16:39 UTC
Dig the style/aesthetic, felt very retro like I was launching a probe in the 70s :ok_hand:

The peaceful cruising through space was quite relaxing as well.

I think the music is very cool, especially considering you did it in 15 minutes.

I don't have any criticism besides what you mentioned yourself in the description.
It's ambitious to make ftl in 48 hours :) I think you did well.
Cryptomnesic
27. Apr 2021 · 16:45 UTC
I liked the 3d view actually and would like to see features from the random events appear in that viewport. I'm not 100% clear on what the red ball represents though...
JakubBala
27. Apr 2021 · 16:52 UTC
Hi! really cool game, I love the idea and the graphics, however it did feel repetitive, although that may just be my very short attention spam :joy: Honestly great work though, you should be very proud :)
darkshadow
27. Apr 2021 · 16:56 UTC
I love the style of the game and the idea of controlling a probe through deep space is great, I like how the stars started to move as you get faster.

I got stuck when I found some fuel but didn't have enough power to active the robotics to collect it. A slider to control the audio volume would be good, I could barely hear anything when I had the system volume on max.
Theg
27. Apr 2021 · 17:05 UTC
I encountered UI issues (often the option I clicked wasn't the result) but I liked this! made it 78% before a lack of fuel got me stuck on the systems screen
ThatANoNoWord
27. Apr 2021 · 17:19 UTC
An absolutely great game. The audio was great and help set the mood of travelling through such vast space. The 3D rendered objects were cool, but I feel they lack enough detail. There is also not enough different encounters, and that interacting the modules of the ship should also have a small puzzle element instead of simply clicking where you need to. Great game, hope you continue it!
🎤 Jesús González
27. Apr 2021 · 17:25 UTC
@theg yes that happens! :( But I think it would be against the rules to fix that bug now. Thanks for playing for that long anyways.
kromeboy
27. Apr 2021 · 19:57 UTC
Good idea but way to long and repetitive.
Played for almost 20 minutes and got about 5% of the travel.
Nanda
28. Apr 2021 · 01:15 UTC
I adore the retro artstyle and the whole mood, but sadly i got stuck at the very start cause i couldn't press the buttons to power up the first system. Doesn't work on Web or Windows. Still rated in Graphics though.
johnryanaudio
05. May 2021 · 13:05 UTC
This was a very relaxing game. I started one of my play and rate streams with this and it was great to set the mood. Evern though it was slow and kind of repetitive, I was surprised when new things happened, and the upgrades felt more rewarding than they would have if the game were faster paced, I think.
🎤 Jesús González
05. May 2021 · 16:30 UTC
@johnryanaudio Thanks for playing! Is there any way to watch the stream?
johnryanaudio
05. May 2021 · 16:58 UTC
@jesus-gonzalez Unfortunately my streaming platform does not have a recording feature yet, so there is no replay :slight_frown: sorry
BluishGreenPro
07. May 2021 · 19:23 UTC
I think it would be ideal if you could perhaps keep a record of which events have occurred recently so you can avoid presenting the same one twice in a row. Also, it would be neat if you had potential trade-offs when it came to performing UFO repairs, and it wasn't always a guarantee that they would succeed.
cpv
14. May 2021 · 07:44 UTC
Very interesting take on the theme! Felt a bit like KSP :D


I got some speed, distance and improvements overall, until I hit a situation when I could not use the robotics because of not enough power/fuel, and I could not progress:
![voyager.png](///raw/349/3/z/42684.png)

Overall the game is great and unique!