Totally Rad by Marika

[raw]
made by Marika for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Totally Rad is a fast-paced 80s-themed nuclear power plant repair game. Get into the groove of fixing up a retro nuclear facility before it breaks down! (estimated play time: 5-7 minutes)

Warning: game contains (slowly) flashing lights and bright colors.

Ratings

Overall 923th 3.395⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 983th 3.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 912th 3.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 316th 3.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 662th 3.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 316th 3.722⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 560th 3.233⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 697th 3.474⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 7🗨️

Feedback

Mateu
05. Oct 2021 · 01:16 UTC
I like this game, up to a certain point. It's super calm at first, and as it progresses it gets really, really stressful. So I think that's good, and really sells the "unstable" aspect. Buuuut, after a certain point, there are less things to fix, because they all broke down, so the game becomes easy again. I don't think that's what you intended. But I could basically survive for as long as I wanted, or, in my case, until I got bored.
I really like how the music reacts to how unstable the reactor is. At least, I think it does.
Also the graphics are top-notch. Good job!
lukeoco1234
05. Oct 2021 · 01:19 UTC
Art was really nice and consistent. The game felt very polished overall, but there were a couple issues which stilted the experience. I clipped the restart button multiple times by accident during play forfeiting my progress. Having the button further from the playing area could be a good idea. Also there was no way to navigate back to the menu from gameplay nor a way to exit the game. Either way these are just small things and over all the game was super cool!!
TebionDL
05. Oct 2021 · 01:25 UTC
I lasted 5:07 min, it was fun =)
ZeldaTechie
05. Oct 2021 · 01:31 UTC
@mateu Yeah, it was hard to find a balance. We wanted to keep gameplay at around 5 minutes if you're really good. I could barely get around 4 minutes but I don't do very well under pressure sometimes lol. Thank you for your feedback it is greatly appreciated!
ZeldaTechie
05. Oct 2021 · 01:32 UTC
@lukeoco1234 I wish we had seen the restart button issue sooner! The selection of it is a little too big unfortunately. Also, completely missing an exit button and a main menu button is a real bummer. I was unavailable today so my teammate did the heavy lifting towards the end.
zeta0134
05. Oct 2021 · 01:38 UTC
I can't say I'm a fan of "rapidly switch between screens and click on circles," but what's here is well polished and whatever wizardry you're doing to get the audio to sound like an out-of-control casette deck is *very* on point.
Mateu
05. Oct 2021 · 01:43 UTC
@zeldatechie oh, I only went for about 3 and a half minutes before I got bored. And that's actually impressive, because a lot of other games can't hold my attention for that long. If you did eventually make this a full game, I would suggest adding more mechanics to keep the players engaged.
osh.studio
05. Oct 2021 · 01:57 UTC
Like the retro hackerman vibe but gameplay didn't keep me playing for long - too stressful when everything is popping off.
🎤 Marika
05. Oct 2021 · 02:20 UTC
@zeta0134 Thanks for playing, even though it's not your preferred game style. The audio effect ended up being pretty easy to implement; it's simply normalizing the percentage of total broken items and dynamically increasing the AudioClip pitch by that amount.
ZeldaTechie
05. Oct 2021 · 02:39 UTC
@mateu yeah it's missing minor "juice" to add to the the immersion. We're a team of 2 programmers so an artist could've helped us out
ryusui
07. Oct 2021 · 00:59 UTC
I liked what I played of it, but I found the controls really frustrating. Clicking the tools to switch them felt really, really finicky - like I would click directly on one but it wouldn't register. For a game that emphasizes swapping tools and repairing problems quickly, that killed my experience. Keyboard shortcuts wouldn't have gone amiss.
bradjste
07. Oct 2021 · 01:06 UTC
I had fun with this one, nice job on the look and feel. I dig it!
holbinski
09. Oct 2021 · 00:30 UTC
Love the aesthetic. Gameplay was pretty simplistic, but you guys did a good job of building stress as things speed up. Nice touch with the music pitch shifting and speeding up as well. Didn't encounter any bugs or weirdness, very polished :)
LDJam user 267116
13. Oct 2021 · 00:22 UTC
Funny game! Nice frenetic vibe. I clicked the restart button on accident a lot :clown: Probably wouldn't last long in a real nuclear reactor meltdown
PashaLoban
14. Oct 2021 · 12:07 UTC
Cool game
Rengo
21. Oct 2021 · 08:03 UTC
the execution is there but the idea of the game is just not interesting
some story or reason for fixing all the random parts would go a long way
LDJam user 248799
21. Oct 2021 · 10:00 UTC
Great idea, it's fun !

Maybe it lacks a way to manage smartly our actions. Like knowing in advance we will need to repair pressure on three screens, do it and then do something else, to let the player organize himself. Also have keyboard shortcut for each tool can help in this way too.

But great idea and great mood :)
LDJam user 268934
21. Oct 2021 · 18:23 UTC
Nice mechanics ,need some tweeking and you got a good solid game.