Deep space by ancooper

Controls
- Move: arrows or W,A, S, D
- Dash: space button
- Interact: E
- or Gamepad
Goals
- Red: Nuclear reactor. Press up or down to keep temperature in green zone.
- Gold: Charger for droid. Press up to charge.
- Blue: Navigate orientation in space. Press arrows to keep it in green zone. Avoid lost signal.
- Fly near Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc. Go beyond the solar system!
Update
- Add post jam version
| HTML5 (web) for rating | https://ancooper.github.io/LD48DeepSpace/index.html |
| HTML5 (web) post jam | https://ancooper.github.io/LD48DeepSpacePostJam/index.html |
| Link | https://github.com/ancooper/LD48-Deep-space |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/deep-space-2 |
Ratings
| Overall | 732th | 3.023⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 851th | 2.42⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 552th | 3.034⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 667th | 3.193⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 247th | 3.761⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 468th | 2.412⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 661th | 2.89⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 134🗳️ | 51🗨️ |
I found that there wasn't very much visual indication if the temperature was getting too hot or too cold. The visual indication about needing to re-align antenna was good.
The need to constantly re-adjusting fine tasks made me think of Spaceteam.
i liked the sprite work a lot
what the heck am I supposed to do?!
It's not at all clear to me. There aren't any instructions on your jam pages or in the game, other than basic controls. I open up the things on the ship and see moving dots that don't seem to be affected by my inputs. Then I'm told "the antenna got too loose, game over".
I'm sorry, but I didn't end up liking the game. If I were in your place, I would probably update your description to be more... *descriptive*.
I was inspired by train in the Final Station game
I managed to keep the ship alive long enough (I guess), but couldn't find the goal of the game. Maybe I have to keep it alive further?
@yulotomorrow I wanted to divide the game into levels. Navigation would be lost faster in the asteroid belt and far from Earth. Loss of reactor temperature in the radiation of giant planets. And many many other plans...
@mdotedot I've been waiting for this comment! ha ha :smile:
I will never make fun of robots on spaceships again, they have a stressfull life up there
- core game loop has a lot of potential
- graphics have a good style to them
- the game is fun to play as is, I can imagine it having other machines had you had time during the jam to implement them; you've got a foundation here for a really fun game.
Suggestions/Ideas:
- add sounds to give a good feel to player interaction and maybe ambient ship noises to set the mood
- Have either visual or audio representation of the reactor even when the layer doesn't have it selected (like you do with the radar/communications system)
- I think the way the ship is set up; you intended for other machines to be present, definitely add those to provide some more mini games to juggle
Bugs:
- I didn't notice any
Sound would have been nice (as some already pointed out), but I think it works even without pretty fine :)
If you want some easy sounds I recommend BFXR. That's what we use, it generates random sounds that you can tweak.
A nice compo entry.
@super-hadoken @tengusheath The time has lost when I was engaged in graphics and animation. You can try the post jam version out of competition with sound ->
[Deep space post jam](https://ancooper.github.io/LD48DeepSpacePostJam/index.html)
**Thanks everyone for your feedback**
It does get "old" kind of quick, sorry to say. Seemed like I never really needed to address the battery, and moving back and forth between the reactor and the navigator was somewhat tedious, as they're on opposite sides of the ship with nothing to do between them.
The potential for additional components and needing to multi-task more and more stuff as progression is a fun idea that I've seen work well before for other jam games.
LD47 UFOMO: https://dvdfu.itch.io/ufomo
LD46 Keep it Alive: https://dmullinsgames.itch.io/keep-it-alive
I see you added an indicator to the reactor for the post jam, which is a plus. But I'm not crazy about the back-n-forth movement of the ship though.
Overall a very good entry for your first jam! Good job!
I would have loved some kind of progess indication, because I wasn't sure that there even is an ending :smile: The mechanic based on random walks is fun. Its nice that you see the status of the navigation orientation without interacting with it. The same would be great for the reactor, but maybe I just wasn't able to spot it. On my second run it seemed like I didn't ever had to recharge, but maybe thats already fixed in the post jam version.
Overall nice entry, I like the details you put into it like the intro and the planets in the background!
Thanks!
To be completely honest: I think there is quite a bit of legitimacy to making a robot game that ends up being very repetitive and mechanical. I certainly have a pretty good idea of how much I want to be a robot after I played this game. That sort of storytelling through mechanics can be pretty powerful--if that's the direction you want to take it.
I did find that the way I started completing tasks ended up as a sort of algorithm. I would dash to one station, dash and charge up, dash to the other station, dash and charge up, etc... it seems some commenters were unaware of the dash key? It definitely adds to the game, I think.
I did end up beating the game, although I too was not sure if the game was going to end or not.
I think the main graphics for the spaceship and the robot are pretty nice. I definitely like that I can see the charge of the robot and the status of the radar so clearly in the pixel art. I agree with others that I didn't find a way to read the nuclear reactor.
Overall I think this is a neat game. Right now it is very much a taste of being a robot, which I personally find a worthwhile experience, even if most people might want a more exciting game...
@honey-pony Fantastic feedback :slight_smile: The dash in the gameplay added dynamic. I want turn on music volume up and dashing between systems :smile:
Thanks!
It did get old fairly quickly, though I think some sound and/or music would've gone a long way to help the feel of the game. Also potentially some "!" signs over the equipment when one of them was close to "dying" might be a good way to add visual feedback and increase urgency.