{"author_link":"\/author\/matthewj234\/","author_name":"matthewj234","author_uid":"9098","comments":[{"author_name":"zapaman","author_uid":"7159","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 7:40am","epoch":1408952100,"text":"Well, Initially I had no idea what to do, since I went straight up as i started and meet no planets in my way. Ended up building a route and purchasing a few planets. Didn't win yet."},{"author_name":"TinyHat","author_uid":"13754","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 7:55am","epoch":1408953000,"text":"I really enjoyed the first couple minutes, but the game is a bit too zoomed in so you cant really have an overview of your empire and you get lost easily. I wouldn't have minded a few extra features as well :)"},{"author_name":"oggyiu","author_uid":"26411","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 7:56am","epoch":1408953060,"text":"I stuck between the edge of the screen and a planet..."},{"author_name":"matthewj234","author_uid":"9098","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 7:56am","epoch":1408953060,"text":"Instructions\/Tutorial were on my todo list, but unfortunately I just ran out of time. Ill try and make the instructions more clear on here. Thanks for playing though!"},{"author_name":"varun","author_uid":"1675","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 7:56am","epoch":1408953060,"text":"Interesting idea - reminded me of the belief collection system in Godus. I'll admit, I would have preferred to be able to just click on planets instead of having to fly around to all of them."},{"author_name":"Ben Lehman","author_uid":"31743","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 8:08am","epoch":1408953780,"text":"This game is really fun! I played it to winning twice (you can see my high scores.)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>There is a bug which means if I start a new game after winning, I get a new high score with a time of &quot;0 sec.&quot; Also, it treats it as if I won instantly: won't let me play. I had to restart the application to play a second game.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>The controls are a bit fussy. The acceleration in particular feels &quot;off.&quot;\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Building trade networks is really fun. I would like to see more trade goods!\r<br\/>\r<br\/>As it stands right now, I am worried that there is a degenerate strategy which is basically &quot;find two weapons planets right next to each other, just hang out there and collect.&quot; That's sad, because the fun part is flying around checking on your old planets.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I would love to see bonuses for a diverse economy. I'd also love the mechanics to be slightly more transparent (how much money do I collect each time? How does money accumulate? Etc.)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>There's lots of empty space and a very small window. It can be really easy to get lost. Maybe have a minimap or at least a homing beacon?\r<br\/>\r<br\/>The graphics are meh but they get the job done. I'd much prefer to have planet appearance = good, rather than the random way its assigned right now.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Anyway, I really enjoyed the game! Hope you do something more with it and, please, let me know if you do."},{"author_name":"Nanofus","author_uid":"6719","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 8:15am","epoch":1408954200,"text":"Really fun idea! By the way, is the audio supposed to be disabled by default?"},{"author_name":"Lord Draficus","author_uid":"39561","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 8:16am","epoch":1408954260,"text":"Interesting concept! Played till I won (990 seconds).  Though, I did get lost in the universe as I could not see where other planets were, so it took me a few minutes to find any planet at all."},{"author_name":"Vallar","author_uid":"41060","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 8:32am","epoch":1408955220,"text":"The game was really interesting and I really liked the description. It was cool to travel between planets and buy them as well as get the goods. \r<br\/>\r<br\/>The problems I managed to encounter are that first, the view is way zoomed in. I'd preferred this to be an extremely zoom out camera so I could see more landscape of that universe and at least know when I am going when I go in a direction. \r<br\/>\r<br\/>The number of planets are small compared to the size of the area. Sometimes I had to keep going in empty space with nothing on the screen until I find a planet (which a zoom out camera would help in). \r<br\/>\r<br\/>Eventually I had to move around a certain &quot;area&quot; that connected my planets. The area was big mind you, but I hated how I moved extremely fast then inertia would send me a few screens away from my final destination and have to track back. \r<br\/>\r<br\/>After 10 minutes or so, I wasn't paying attention as everything pretty much was going on &quot;auto-pilot&quot; except me going around picking up money every few minutes to buy yet another planet. \r<br\/>\r<br\/>Could have used sounds definitely and a background music might have added extra atmosphere.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>All in all, very good job creating the game and the concept. I haven't encountered any bugs and the game is fun. Though the initial &quot;rush of fun&quot; starts to wear off when you are doing the same thing for long. I am guessing however, if this had more time, it could have evolved in a solid space trading Sim :)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Good work :)"},{"author_name":"matthewj234","author_uid":"9098","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 8:34am","epoch":1408955340,"text":"Thanks for the feedback guys, I have made the game window slightly larger, and disabled the bug which allows you to win with 0 seconds. As for the art, I will improve it with the post competition version. A minimap was planned but scrapped due to time constraints, but I will look into it again for the post competition version.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>The money you get for each collection is 80% of the bank value. More materials are planned and easy to implement, and bonuses for diverse economies were again planned. The controls was a bug which has been fixed.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Thanks for all the feedback guys!"},{"author_name":"coffeemuggames","author_uid":"41591","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 9:26am","epoch":1408958460,"text":"Interesting idea. But I had trouble playing it because it started lagging after a while.\r<br\/>Matches the theme well!"},{"author_name":"Terrabalt","author_uid":"38512","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 9:50am","epoch":1408959900,"text":"There's a bug where some colony ships go far off and lost, never get back to the planet, but i like the game nonetheless!"},{"author_name":"DarkEngineer","author_uid":"36929","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 10:27am","epoch":1408962120,"text":"Great game! But sound should be on as default"},{"author_name":"JosephLittle","author_uid":"15937","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 10:47am","epoch":1408963320,"text":"It's quite nice, but after a while it gets pretty tedious travelling between the planets using only WASD. It's also a little annoying not knowing where you are or how far you've gone.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>But that being said I did like the idea of having to navigate by following the routes between planets :)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Lovely little game!"},{"author_name":"PaperBlurt","author_uid":"26530","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 10:51am","epoch":1408963560,"text":"Good strategic elements.\r<br\/>And a lot of lore..."},{"author_name":"Norfinel","author_uid":"38359","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 11:01am","epoch":1408964160,"text":"Very good game!"},{"author_name":"ViliX","author_uid":"29167","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 11:51am","epoch":1408967160,"text":"The zoom-out feature should be added if you are making a post-compo version."},{"author_name":"Slooowpoke","author_uid":"5540","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 11:56am","epoch":1408967460,"text":"Got confused a bit because I lost my empire. Restarted and realised that to make money I have to push space while hovering over the planets. Game became much more fun after this. It lacks a bit of polish but the idea is solid. A zoom feature would be nice and some music\/sound effects.\r<br\/>Reminds me of Cookie Clicker in terms of addictiveness. Good job!"},{"author_name":"ZirconCode","author_uid":"5338","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 11:56am","epoch":1408967460,"text":"Fun and innovative. Enjoyed the strategic challenge (vs time element). Goes well with the theme.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Got lost a few times, wish there would have been a minimap or at least something pointing home."},{"author_name":"Aru Nyan","author_uid":"1645","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 11:58am","epoch":1408967580,"text":"It was a bit difficult to navigate around, some indicator of nearby planets (or zoom in\/out? or map?) would have helped."},{"author_name":"Zoomyzoom","author_uid":"7301","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 12:05pm","epoch":1408968000,"text":"I really enjoyed this :D I like these sort of tycoon like games :)"},{"author_name":"mess110","author_uid":"12300","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 12:18pm","epoch":1408968780,"text":"FPS: 1540 Ticks: 18 can't get it to work, will try it on my GF's pc"},{"author_name":"jojocanard","author_uid":"24933","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 1:54pm","epoch":1408974540,"text":"Nice application of the theme. \r<br\/>I managed to finish the game but the beginning is not easy and at the end event with mass money it is a bit hard to find the objective."},{"author_name":"DrCicero","author_uid":"33845","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 8:51pm","epoch":1408999560,"text":"Well, i read above that you increased the window size ... its too big for me now :( i cant see my current cash. Resizeable?"},{"author_name":"matthewj234","author_uid":"9098","time":"Aug 25, 2014 @ 9:01pm","epoch":1409000160,"text":"Added a smaller window version, hope this helps :)"},{"author_name":"kidando","author_uid":"31330","time":"Aug 26, 2014 @ 11:08am","epoch":1409050980,"text":"Honestly I liked the concept. I think there's a planet RPG hidden in there. Congrats on finishing the game. #thumbsUp!!!"},{"author_name":"vividhelix","author_uid":"35713","time":"Sep 1, 2014 @ 7:23am","epoch":1409555880,"text":"Interesting, bought 3 planets and went broke. Money was slowly going up but way too slow..."},{"author_name":"Raphy","author_uid":"24241","time":"Sep 4, 2014 @ 1:29pm","epoch":1409837040,"text":"Nice take on the theme and nice concept!"},{"author_name":"TimtheBo","author_uid":"42051","time":"Sep 9, 2014 @ 3:47pm","epoch":1410277320,"text":"Well I did manage to get quite a big empire, which was nice and fun, but then I got lost, completely. A pointer to your home would have been nice."}],"images":["ld30\/9098-f40b9c2a2940b941e74ade06f285a958.jpg"],"links":[{"url":"http:\/\/sparkedstudios.co.uk\/games\/RaceToColonisation\/LD30.jar","text":"Jar"},{"url":"http:\/\/sparkedstudios.co.uk\/games\/highscores\/RaceToColonisation\/highscores.php","text":"Highscores"},{"url":"http:\/\/sparkedstudios.co.uk\/games\/RaceToColonisation\/LD30_Smaller.jar","text":"Jar (Smaller)"},{"url":"http:\/\/sparkedstudios.co.uk\/games\/RaceToColonisation\/LD30.zip","text":"Source"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"16278","g_author":"9098","g_event":"LD30","g_eventkey":"24","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"16307","g_title":"Race to Colonisation","g_status":"UCHK1","g_place":"816","g_commentcount":"29","g_site2_node_id":"0","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":[],"node":null,"orig_images":["http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/375043\/9098-shot0.png-eq-900-500.jpg"],"text":"Race to Colonisation\r\n\r\nIn race to Colonisation the idea is to colonise as many colonies as you can, to build up an empire, and purchase a colony that has the rare Unobtanium material. But beware, the longer you take to colonise and build up your empire to purchase a colony, the more money it takes to buy the colony! Each colony you purchase will form a trade route with the nearest colony, these trade routes are extremely lucrative, so plan them ahead!\r\n\r\nControls:\r\nWASD\/Arrow Keys -> Movement\r\nSpace -> Interact\r\n\r\n\r\nInteract: If you haven't bought the colony, you will attempt to purchase it. If you have bought it, you will collect any waiting capital to purchase new colonies with.\r\n\r\nOnce you win, you are given the chance to upload a highscore, which is how fast you completed the game. (The highscores actually take a bit more information than that, but I will update the highscores page to reflect this shortly).\r\n\r\nThis is my second complete LD game, so any and all feedback is welcome!","title":"Race to Colonisation"}