80s space trains in hell by EatYourBeef_Doug

[raw]
made by EatYourBeef_Doug for LD30 (COMPO)
I was probably a bit too ambitious as usual so I haven't even really been able to test if the later levels are even possible.

I'll try and do a mac port tomorrow, after some sleep!

Aim:
Take your train from planet to planet, buying and selling stock. The prices of all goods are randomized on all but the first two planets, with the harder planets giving more variation so you can profit more, however you'll need to upgrade your ship first as more and more bandits will attack you when you start heading out to the further reaches of the Galaxy.

Controls:
Press 1 to access your turret when travelling mouse click to fire.
Press 2 to look at your sweet train (wasd to look around).
When docked on a planet its all point and click.

Uncompleted things:
I had really hoped to make this more Oregon Trail-ish, that's why you name your crew, I had intended for them to catch all kinds of crazy sexy space diseases, and maybe even jettison their coffins from the train, but alas I ran out of time.

Also all the planets are configured, but I didn't have time to make all the paths, so although you are theoretically travelling between planets the route you take always looks the same, but with the enemy spawning controlled by the difficulty of the chosen destination planet.

Bug/Typo Fix:
Thanks to Mechabit for pointing out that the enemies werent getting destroyed on level complete, thats now fixed

Ratings

Coolness 30% 1796
Overall 3.09 676
Audio 2.23 786
Fun 2.83 749
Graphics 3.46 339
Humor 3.11 170
Innovation 2.91 741
Mood 2.90 619
Theme 3.26 554

Feedback

Lyszie
25. Aug 2014 · 07:01 UTC
Cool visuals, nice game play!
goffmog
25. Aug 2014 · 11:26 UTC
Ah, the 80s was the decade for space trains. They don't make space trains like they used to anymore.

Fantastic graphics and engaging gameplay, what else can I say?

The one thing I'll criticize (but not much because I do this a bit too!) is having to get through a bunch of UI screens before getting into the action. I think the game would benefit from a short training (hehe) section immediately as you enter the game before it hits you with all that stuff. Not only because people are impatient but because the choices you're making about what equipment to buy are relatively meaningless when you haven't yet experienced any gameplay.

There was no option to give it spacetrains/5, so I settled for 5.
JosephLittle
25. Aug 2014 · 11:27 UTC
Nice graphics and I feel the gameplay could have been good but it felt like it took far too long to get between worlds. Plus, turret sequences get tedious very quickly.

But saying that, I did enjoy it and I liked the Train Squid :)
McFood
25. Aug 2014 · 11:33 UTC
Looked great! Fun gameplay. The laser sound is a little annoying though =)
mechabit
25. Aug 2014 · 12:25 UTC
I only managed to get to the first planet because the aliens kept shooting me while I was docked and I couldn't do anything about them. Otherwise pretty cool game :)
joonamo
25. Aug 2014 · 18:38 UTC
Another train game, cool! Nice graphics too!
John Drury
27. Aug 2014 · 07:59 UTC
Lots of depth and potential! Would love to see this polished! Really funny when we died, the squid dude was still smiling LOL
Hyoga-3D
27. Aug 2014 · 14:26 UTC
Very nice idea, the main char is very well designed.
Nuclear Napalm
28. Aug 2014 · 10:50 UTC
Nice entry! Good job!
Hexadecima1
03. Sep 2014 · 02:39 UTC
I wrote a poem about this for poemsaboutgames!
http://poemsaboutgames.tumblr.com/post/96506539337/80s-space-trains-in-hell
(sorry couldn't find any other way to contact you)
hb3p8
06. Sep 2014 · 14:51 UTC
Nice graphics.
psychomonster
15. Sep 2014 · 07:36 UTC
Really colorful 80's space :) But hey this idea is coll. Gameplay is really good. SO I enjoyed it...