Orion by feiss
Use mouse and keys down/up (when required)
Follow all the steps and get to the space! I tried to do a full trip to mars, but.. timeout! :)
Chrome and Headphones recommended.
In mobile devices is runnable, although not tested and not really playable :/
Done thanks to the amazing CanvasQuery library. Thanks Rezoner!
SOURCE CODE: since it's an html+javascript game, you can view the source directly, with the "view page source" option in your browser :)
Follow all the steps and get to the space! I tried to do a full trip to mars, but.. timeout! :)
Chrome and Headphones recommended.
In mobile devices is runnable, although not tested and not really playable :/
Done thanks to the amazing CanvasQuery library. Thanks Rezoner!
SOURCE CODE: since it's an html+javascript game, you can view the source directly, with the "view page source" option in your browser :)
| PLAY (Web) | http://feiss.be/ld31 |
| Steam | http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=357103069 |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=8733 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 80% | 2 |
| Overall | 4.29 | 4 |
| Audio | 4.15 | 8 |
| Fun | 3.77 | 75 |
| Graphics | 4.68 | 4 |
| Innovation | 4.01 | 72 |
| Mood | 4.46 | 6 |
| Theme | 4.23 | 67 |
For the critiques, maintaining the pitch in outerspace feels odd, the same with the planet showing right below the ship all the time
Great anyway!
I'll take a look to the issues with some browsers..
This is what Ludum Dare is for.
Please continue it.
Wow. I'm blown away on this one. Them atmosphere is perfect on this one. Gameplay might be simple but it fits the game very very well. the graphics are also very good. This is one of the best entries I've seen so far. Great Job !
fleegle2000: thanks! All sounds and music are hand made (audacity, bitwig). The voice in the radio is my own voice with my nose closed and distorted, heh
Random Abductions: Thank you! Its a good tip, would be great to have all kind of levers, knobs and buttons in the cockpit to play with. I did the menus thinking of adding more kind of "minigames" in them, so it would have some more gameplay, but I had no time to do more :( but that would be less realistic, and it seems that people like the 'simulation' part of the game, so your tip could be great indeed!
Krisjet: passing near the moon, use its gravity to reach mars, and land on it could be amazing, uh? Yeah..
I loved everything, from the graphics to the sound.
The immersion is amazing, good job :)
Really hope there will be a post-compo version!
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=8733
Definitely a premium entry!
A few things, though:
Why is the planet or something always visible? The S shape to the right seemed to say I'm flying that path?
The game crashed just a little while into cruising, not sure why... The graphics stopped updating but the game still went because I could hear alarms go off when I left it for too long, and then I pressed up or down and it would go away again. Was weird.
About the graphics error.. You may turn the rocket way far up or down and exit the sky sprite. At that point you should get a game over screen, but you didn't.. Sure it's a bug! :P
rnlf: yes, i did! Well, before starting anything I spent a couple of hours researching about the actual orion and the shuttle take off sequence, and stuff like that. Thanks! :)
The graphics are incredible, and while the gameplay is incredibly simple I couldn't help but reach the end.
Lovely game. Amazing job. Congratulations. :)
It's amazing how much mood you can create with such a static view!
Thanks.
Bravo.
Thank you everybody! You are very generous :)
Also, I think fighting the pitch was a little too extreme. It was like you barely hit the one where you have to adjust 4 bars and before you finish the first bar it is already shaking.
Has the same sort of appeal as playing something like Euro Truck Simulator or Train Simulator - a fairly relaxing experience that immerses the player. Sadly, constantly having to manage the pitch feels like something of a conceit, tacked-on so that the player has something to do during the flight.
Apart from that, a fantastic effort! An amazing accomplishment for two days work.
Bravo sir. Bravo.
I found it a bit long but really fun if you have the time
panda: hmm.. I researched for 2 hours about launching sequences, so some steps and terminology is actual stuff, but many is made up.. and also, I don't believe that the astronauts have to press many buttons on take off, I suppose everything is automated and controlled from Launch Control, don't you think? dunno, really.. :D
Thanks everybody again! :)
THANKS !
I loved the combination of trying to drive, while also making sure everything is set correctly.
Seriously, can you please finish this game?
The experience of LD31.
Just kidding (ha!). This is ace! Well done on creating such a polished and engaging experience in only 48hrs. I wish there was more of it, which is always a good thing to hear about a LD game!
As far as gameplay goes, however, I feel like there could be more to it.
Luckily this is Ludum Dare, and this is simply fantastic for a compo entry.
Really pretty pixel art. The rocker switches in particular look great. The screen shake and blur effect is perfect and the soundscape is very complete. I do wish you'd had time to finish the mission to mars, or have the goal be to achieve stable orbit.
I played in Firefox for OSX, but the game would be perfect for touch devices.
I was expecting something to go wrong near the end of the trip, after I was told to relax. I'm glad it was smooth, but it would have been a nice test to see how quickly I could hunt down whatever button I needed to get out of a bad situation.
I forgot to start the engines and Kaput...
But, is very very nice game, Innovation, Theme, Overall one of the most different and nice game I played in this LD
GOOD WORK!!
This game is fantastic! I would love to see a bigger version of this game where you have to control all the little knobs and switches. It's deeply satisfying to me.
The effort put into it really shows.
I don't think it's weird that people expect science or realism. We did a game that had strong roots in biology, and people loved that part of it. They loved that realism. Finding that perfect line between fantasy and realism can sometimes be a challenge, especially for simulation games like this. You've done a great job so far though.
Thank you !
It felt a bit boring at first, but after take off it gets a bit more challenging. Loved the idea. Good job!
Well done! I love everything, graphic, sounds gameplay! Great work!
Also I am pretty sure I heard some of those sounds on freesound.org
Since it's html+javascript, you can check the source code by right clicking on the page, and choose "view source code". The main game code is in that js1k.js. (The same applies to my older entries but NONEX, which is Flash and for which I provided the source)
Don't know if there are similar sounds at freesound.org (maybe you could point those out), but all I can say is that all sounds are made with my microphone, audacity and bitwig. I have some original WAVs but not all, for I work very unorganized with sound.. :P
I'll try to stream my ludum dare next time X)
Thank you everybody for the comments!!
As an experience this was very cool, though it didn't feel quite like a game. Something more sandboxy, with more oportunities to misclick buttons, or do things wrong (maybe more complex or less direct orders), would have been nice, say deactivating the Radio and activating Orbital Radio when you needed orders from Mission Control, and if you didn't you'd miss a critical update on your trajectory. More options for failure due to precision or misinterpreted orders, less immediate failure (possibly your lack of precision cost you points?) and less "you took too long to hit the button" failures would have been nice ways to build on the experience, I think.
Excellent work on your entry!
Georgeous graphics that set the mood perfectly.
Very well done! :)
Even after I'd preformed all the required actions in the game, and there was basically no real gameplay but to "reach Mars" (aka, travel to the red dot) -- I still found myself casually playing. I loved the look and feel of the game. The sounds, the way it controlled. It was really smooth and peaceful. I wouldn't mind sitting for awhile and just enjoying the sights (a-la spaceship simulator).
It didn't even really need things going wrong to be entertaining. I loved switching all the switches and pressing the buttons. Really aesthetically pleasing. I liked it a lot. :)
Although I found the separation of first and second stages quite annoying since it was almost impossible to click the buttons with the ship shaking around. That caused me to lose and I didn't want to go through the slow start again just to reach that point.
Really impressive graphics, though.. the planet being there all the time is certainly weird =P
Not much interaction once you get into space and jetison the things, probably needs some kind of "oh no the thing is overheating, do the coolants" "there's a problem! radio Huston and they'll tell you what to do" kind of disaster or the like. Ideally some randomised things of that nature to really keep people engaged through several playthroughs. Obviously you wouldn't have had time for that here, but as you're considering working on this further, then those are suggestions I guess :P
Certainly the best entry of this LD31.
I would like to know what is the use of the random button ?
Good job, look foward to seeing more participations,
There's no source link though, I believe it's in the rules that compo games require source to be submitted?
Alyphen: since it's an html+javascript game, you can view the source directly, with the "view page source" option in your browser :)
Your timing with a game like this is so PERFECT now with all the Interstellar hype going on around the world.
Nice mood.
Sort of makes you feel like you have all of this vast experience because you're THAT pilot you see in movies that flips a couple of switches effortlessly to get a ship going. And then the countdown sequence started, and all sorts of doubt went through my mind. "I'm definitely not qualified for this, I was just following on screen instructions... I'VE ONLY DONE THIS IN VR TRAINING LET ME OUT". Then everything is okay because the launch ended up going alright, confidence restored.
I think the main thing that did end up taking away from my enjoyment was how direct and controlled the whole experience was. The only part that I truly felt like I had direct control over was the pitch, everything else I turned on or off because of the plainly obvious instructions. There wasn't any experimentation, I never really felt like I learned how to do anything or that I had to learn in the first place. The game led me with a carrot at the end of a stick the whole time, and even if I wanted to try to flip some other buttons on/off I couldn't. I can't, say, turn the engine off mid-flight like an idiot, or turn the radio off and pretend I'm going AWOL. It's just not allowed and that really breaks me from the experience.
Another bit of criticism was how the game ends (both when you succeed or fail). If you try to crash, you get this really sudden and static "game over" screen. It was just way too sudden, and a quick fade to black/white with a crash sound would have probably gone a long way to help with the consistency of the rest of the game. Actually even just a slow fade to black as you enter the fail state would have been a pretty effective transition by itself (then fade the game over screen in).
The "win" screen was pretty much the same, a smoother transition would have gone a long way to help reinforce the mood of the rest of the game. Of course, I understand that stuff didn't make it because of time constraints. It was just sort of disappointing to leave such an atmospheric experience on a flat note.
Overall, it's a really nice atmospheric experience which is excellent for Ludum Dare. 5 stars in graphics, audio and mood. But it sort of drops the ball a bit as an engaging interactive experience, so that aspect would need to be addressed more if you continue work on this.
Great job.