Mission Luna by LTyrosine
After 10 seconds countdown your ship will lift off to moon, where you must try to take pictures of alien devices and return safe to earth to prove their existence to world.
*** HOW TO PLAY ***
All is done with the mouse. The cursor controls where are your view/hand. On game start, onboard computer will print information about the mission and you can hover mouse over cockpit controls to get some help on what it does.
This game was made to bring some real space flight feeling, so it will be hard to figure out controls at first. Firstly, the ship moves towards its velocity vector. You will get a strong push toward moon from initial lift off but in space this vector is adjusted only by rocket thrusts. This rocket (when active) push ship to its nose direction. So to bring ship at full stop for example, the rocket must be directed contrary to velocity vector. Keep an eye at moon and earth distance, as well the current craft velocity displayed in panels in front of you.
Did I mention that Earth and Moon gravity are in play? =)
So, the challenge is to reach moon, find orbital path and get gravitational pull to return earth with limited fuel.
Those black panels display information or device status (gray: off / lime: on). Each device that is turned on consumes battery.
Good luck!
*** HOW TO PLAY ***
All is done with the mouse. The cursor controls where are your view/hand. On game start, onboard computer will print information about the mission and you can hover mouse over cockpit controls to get some help on what it does.
This game was made to bring some real space flight feeling, so it will be hard to figure out controls at first. Firstly, the ship moves towards its velocity vector. You will get a strong push toward moon from initial lift off but in space this vector is adjusted only by rocket thrusts. This rocket (when active) push ship to its nose direction. So to bring ship at full stop for example, the rocket must be directed contrary to velocity vector. Keep an eye at moon and earth distance, as well the current craft velocity displayed in panels in front of you.
Did I mention that Earth and Moon gravity are in play? =)
So, the challenge is to reach moon, find orbital path and get gravitational pull to return earth with limited fuel.
Those black panels display information or device status (gray: off / lime: on). Each device that is turned on consumes battery.
Good luck!
Ratings
| Coolness | 93% | 2 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.50 | 118 |
| Audio(Jam) | 2.56 | 374 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.27 | 155 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.44 | 248 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.31 | 318 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.82 | 29 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.66 | 60 |
| Theme(Jam) | 2.05 | 578 |
Interesting concept, and fun idea. Clean presentation. But very disorienting. Having a mission control where you could plan things out in advance would have been awesome.
Also, if you continue on this, make the sound a bit more in-your-face. That would really add to the overall atmosphere.
Stars aside, the only thing I manage to relate to the theme was the launch countdown. Is that all? Because it's a shame such a well worked game would fail on the basic aspect of the competition. =(
Please, a download link!!! *-*
I REALLY hope you take this at least a little further and like ghRibacki said, let us play it fullscreen!
There are some little issues however, like how it's freakin impossible to find your way back to earth :3, (if you're lost in space,) there needs to be a way to end the mission and see your score as well as a way to restart the mission, and against all odds, I actually DID TAKE some awesome pictures of alien craft, but you gave me twice as many points just for breathing! :`(
See?
http://i.imgur.com/6REQE4F.png
Anyways, this is an AWESOME entry and I'm going to go back to trying to land on Earth now :D
p.s. My high score is 1941
Anyway, my first try killed me (forgot about oxygen, there was annoying beeping sound to remind me but as I turned off my computer I had no idea what was it for) but I'm going to try few more times. Consider me dead if I won't return to leave a comment again.
Btw, In post-mortem you said that you fail most of the times too, so I'm curious: have you actually ever succeeded in the game yourself? :D
I actually managed to go 50 km away from moon surface, take great photos of saucers and get back to earth and after all that time I got crashed on the Earth surface. I didn't even think it was possible! How do you get a success screen then? Is it even possible? Do you have to land really slow on the Earth surface?
Solar panel bug is annoying as hell. I had to spend half of the time in game just aligning myself in random ways, waiting until it will get some power. It seemed pretty much random to me whether it works or not. And sometimes it will stop working even if I don't turn around.
Another unpleasant bug is saucers detection system on photos. I had 3 or 4 photos with big clear saucers on them that said "No anomaly in this picture". On the other hand, most of my close-distance photos of the moon seem to have Alien Base on them even though I've not seen it even once.
Consider following screenshot:
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/1018/zz2d.png
Having said all that, it's still a great game for 72 hours. I hope you don't mind long reviews and criticism. :D
Reception and results was better than I expected! I can reinforce my will in finish a more playable post compo version with all features discussed in post mortem as well suggestions from this page.
Some answers:
- The "10 seconds" theme usage was supposed to be the initial launch countdown... Ok, I admit, very poor hahaha... did my best.
@ghRibacki: Thank you! Glad to see that you liked it, fell free to contact me, so I can write you a line when post-compo version is ready.
@Jedi: Post compo version will have full screen support =) Nice UFO picture! Sadly, the photo capture and rating system is currently crippled with bugs as it was made VERY close to deadline.
@mortus: Thank you for the review! Sorry about the bugs =D This project was far too ambitious for 72 hours so bugs runs free. And no, I didnt get better results =)... One time or another I did achieve very temporary moon orbit and then kissed moon surface for good. To return to earth in safety you must touch it in less than 20 of velocity (overall this part of game was very rushed)
I will post on Ludum Dare front page when its ready for a first beta test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HqpwgkNUkw#t=20