Maple by zazery

[raw]
made by zazery for LD24 (COMPO)
This game is incomplete but the core control mechanic is implemented. The concept is you are jury rigging your own control mechanisms as you build your ship out of parts you find. Currently there are no parts to add to your ship but you can re-arrange them and use button blocks to tie thrusters together. There is only one planet and no goal yet. As a personal challenge see if you can reach the edge of the stars and make your way back to the planet if you remember where it is.

DO NOT MAKE INFINITE LOOPS WITH BUTTONS (really, don't)

All feedback is appreciated.

Ratings

Coolness 45% 641
Overall 2.41 641
Audio 2.43 368
Fun 2.35 568
Graphics 3.04 332
Humor 1.62 536
Innovation 3.09 271
Mood 2.47 452
Theme 1.87 679

Feedback

Kayelgee
28. Aug 2012 · 23:57 UTC
interesting, but pressing on buttons to control the ship is a little weird. I would like to map those button to my keyboard.
Sverik
29. Aug 2012 · 10:05 UTC
Great idea for controls! Can I steal it? Although, the more I think about it and try to elaborate, the more it starts to look like 0x10c. Which is not a bad thing, I guess.
Benjamin
29. Aug 2012 · 12:05 UTC
Well great engine. It's a shame you could not make it a game. Even random wandering between planets for collectings new ship blocks would have been enough. I like the button on the ship and the way you can map them in edit mode. The edit mode control are good and intuitive.
Maple
30. Aug 2012 · 17:30 UTC
Not a bad bad entry! This has a lot of potential. Reminds me a lot of a game called Captain Forever.
diki
31. Aug 2012 · 18:10 UTC
Love the sounds & the atmosphere of a slow-moving space vehicle! Although the core mechanic is of course very Captain Forever, I wouldn't ditch it just for that; there are a lot of things that CF does not even remotely explore, and I'd say that 'shooting things' is only one among the many cool scenarios one can imagine in space. How about space station docking maneuver simulation, for instance? :)
Sgt Squirrelly
31. Aug 2012 · 22:43 UTC
Really liked the idea, not sure I see the connection to evolution (but as the idea is incomplete, that's to be expected). Seemed like it was going in the Captain Forever direction, which is never bad.
Switchbreak
31. Aug 2012 · 23:27 UTC
Really cool concept and I like the art and the interface. Not much to do in there yet, though.
Wampus
31. Aug 2012 · 23:30 UTC
Very good basic mechanic for a space exploration/warfare game of some sort. I'm sure many will now steal it after having played it. ;)

BTW after reading "DO NOT MAKE INFINITE LOOPS WITH BUTTONS (really, don't)" the effect was a bit like trying not to think of pink elephants. So, yes, I crashed my browser.
DevoreUK
01. Sep 2012 · 00:46 UTC
Shame you didn't get further I really like the idea. Are you going to carry on with development and see where it goes?
🎤 zazery
01. Sep 2012 · 02:27 UTC
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm glad to know people like the control mechanic and audio.

I was definitely inspired by Captain Forever for the ship building. I have been mulling over a ship building game for a couple years and once I came up with the button control system I knew I had to build it. One of the biggest influences for the game which might not be obvious from what I implemented is C&C Red Alert 1.

I'm definitely going to explore the idea further and see what comes out of it. It's pretty awesome people are asking if they can steal the idea since that means the idea is worth pursuing. As diki points out there is a lot of design space to explore.
hamster_mk_4
01. Sep 2012 · 03:02 UTC
Normally when you give the user the ability to customize their con trolls they eventually try and make a phallic. In your game that seems to be the optimal configuration since you get more torque the further the thrusters are from the center of mass. Shame you didn't make more of a game out of this.
ggiraldez
01. Sep 2012 · 03:08 UTC
This has great potential. I like the control binding and the whole circuits idea. I got a bit lost while editing though. At some point I didn't know how to exit edit mode. Sound is very very good.
DaveDobson
01. Sep 2012 · 04:52 UTC
Wow, the ship design, parts, and circuits are really, really neat, as is the ship physics. I was very impressed with this. There's no real game to go along with this, but the engine and physics are just so cool...
echa
01. Sep 2012 · 05:34 UTC
Super idea!
greg20man
14. Sep 2012 · 20:42 UTC
lol didn't listen I made an infinte loop and now the computer is making a constant clicking noise.