1 Seed by Gemberkoekje

[raw]
made by Gemberkoekje for LD23 (COMPO)
One Seed is an eco-friendly space game where you go around planets taking seeds for fuel, and planting seeds to improve the ecology of the planets.

Goal:

The goal of the game is to improve all planets to Class A by planting seeds.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es7_waJPT8c

Controls:

W, A, S, D, to move
Q and E to strafe
[Space] to get in/out of your spaceship, as well as plant plants.

Technical details:

Made in CinderLib, sounds with BASS, Music made in otomata, sounds made in Bfxr, graphics in Gimp2

Timelapse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUdHjOYPn6g

Ratings

Coolness 62% 3
Overall 3.56 121
Audio 2.44 450
Fun 3.12 262
Graphics 2.41 677
Humor 2.05 531
Innovation 3.53 153
Mood 2.91 305
Theme 3.53 169

Feedback

NeiloGD
23. Apr 2012 路 07:52 UTC
Good little game! I think it could be improved a little by showing you what class the planets are in the dial around you (perhaps only after visiting?), I found it quite tedious to find the last couple of planets :(
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
23. Apr 2012 路 08:39 UTC
Challenge! But it's a good advice for post-compo publishing ;)
matthias_zarzecki
23. Apr 2012 路 09:12 UTC
The idea of planting stuff is lovely. Space-mechanics gel nicely with that.
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
23. Apr 2012 路 09:43 UTC
Thanks :)
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
23. Apr 2012 路 13:04 UTC
I'm contemplating releasing this on IOS for free, but it'll need some work (on-screen buttons being the most pressing issue) and I'm not sure how long Apple'll need to check it.
Zed
23. Apr 2012 路 14:18 UTC
I was doing really well, until I instinctively pressed 'Escape' to pause, and ended up going back to the title screen...

Really enjoyed it, though. Y'know how you have a yellow line for the sun? Could you make the lines that point to the other planets different colours, depending on what class they are?
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
23. Apr 2012 路 14:22 UTC
Ups, I should make that a little less strict indeed, sorry I screwed up your game a bit ^_^'

Yeah, I had more questions for the classes/HUD, so I'm going to flesh that out a bit better.
jeroenimooo
24. Apr 2012 路 17:14 UTC
The flying controls were a bit hard sometimes, Fun idea though :)
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
24. Apr 2012 路 22:16 UTC
Just be glad i didn't include crashing on planets or you'd really have a run for your money XD
geekygenius
25. Apr 2012 路 07:10 UTC
This has gotten one of the best ratings I've given yet! Its really fun to fly from planet to planet. I keep forgetting the sun is a yellow line, and I end up crashing into it D:
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
25. Apr 2012 路 13:37 UTC
Thanks XD Should I add a "Warning, that's the sun you're heading for!" Warning? ;)
R3ason
26. Apr 2012 路 07:39 UTC
ack; my spaceship got stuck in a planet! :( But I really like what's going on here; great job, and a lot of fun to play! Thanks!
Topaz
26. Apr 2012 路 08:32 UTC
Pretty cool. I like it. The only thing is that sometimes when you land in a crater, you can't get out because the ship bounces off the walls. Other than that, good work! :)
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
26. Apr 2012 路 08:51 UTC
@Topaz I had that a few times, usually by meticular turning (and using an unnessicary amount of fuel) you can still get out.
@R3ason My greatest weakness! Yes, there is a bug on the far left of each planet, I'm very sorry!
colincapurso
26. Apr 2012 路 10:40 UTC
I enjoyed it, I think it has lots of potential with more objective and rewards. Do not like Bfxr sounds.
Sanguine
26. Apr 2012 路 11:38 UTC
I really enjoyed the flying in space, good job :)
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
26. Apr 2012 路 12:33 UTC
Thanks, and yes, I fully agree that the sounds are horrible.
Jeremias
26. Apr 2012 路 12:38 UTC
You should give the player more information like which class the current planet has, a map of planets with their classes and more. I had a little bug after landing on a planet: the spaceship vibrated because it was in a hole. It was impossible to start the ship again ^^ (as others said).

Another thing about clearer interfaces: Oh, here is a yellow dash! That must something very interesting! Speed... a bit to slow... more speed... yeah.... and more speed... CRASH and text on screen "The sun kills you"... (...) xD
rynti
26. Apr 2012 路 13:26 UTC
Cool game with a cool idea^^ And kept me entertained the whole time ;)
Nanofus
26. Apr 2012 路 15:34 UTC
Reminds me of Eufloria. Walking left didn't work a few times, but otherwise I like it.
Nidjo123
26. Apr 2012 路 15:42 UTC
Great concept! Sounds become a little bit irritating when you play it longer. And main guy could have some animation, then it would be a lot better. All in all, good game with some minor details that could be improved.
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
26. Apr 2012 路 17:39 UTC
Thanks and well, it was my first LD48 so next time I really need to spend more time on the details!
HeuGamer
27. Apr 2012 路 03:20 UTC
I found it humorous that i flew so fast i ran into the sun. Haha i had a good laugh.
caranha
27. Apr 2012 路 17:10 UTC
Hey, I liked your game a lot. Just like the warm up, the random trees were interesting. Did you add some of the genome ideas here too?

I found that once you populated one or two planets, you could just harvest the seeds from those, and the game became a bit easier. Maybe you should add extra complications for some of the planets?

I see a lot of potential to extend this game -- good work!
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
27. Apr 2012 路 17:28 UTC
I was a bit afraid I would run out of time, so I didn't do any DNA, I just made 1 tree type which looked about right. So including some different kinds of trees and having them cross-bred would help.

In addition, Trees from a planet shouldn't improve that same planet's class, so that you need different trees from different planets to improve the class (Akin to the space age in Spore(tm))

In the end, I had time left, so I could've made a bit more improvements, but it'll be for the next #LD48 - I can always hide behind the fact that this was, actually, my first :)
Chaoseed
27. Apr 2012 路 21:10 UTC
I think this game has a lot of potential, but it hasn't quite reached it yet. Some other commenters have left some good ideas, so I won't go over that too much. One thing I'd like to see is something in the tutorial saying "Warning, don't crash into the sun!". Another thing I'd personally like is to be able to control the game with the arrow keys instead of WASD; I don't know, I've just gotten used to arrow keys. ^_^;

The one thing that bothered me was that there really wasn't any reason to go back and forth between planets. The best thing to do is visit one planet, make it A class, build up some seeds and then fly to the next planet. I think it would add a lot to the game if there were some reason to fly back and forth between planets.

Still, though, good job for this first version. ;)
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
28. Apr 2012 路 10:36 UTC
There is this in the tutorial:
"Be careful for the yellow dash. The Sun will kill you!"

As I mentioned in my reaction to caranha, I full well agree with your observation about the planets; trees should be more unique and different trees should have different changes.
Hazard
01. May 2012 路 15:44 UTC
Even though different in gameplay, our games have quite a few similarities. :)
I really like your idea of spreading life in space and it has lots of untapped potential.
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
02. May 2012 路 07:08 UTC
Thanks, and yes,myou should see my future work ideas XD
dcolgan
02. May 2012 路 17:52 UTC
Not bad! Sound effects and audio were ok, graphics were unpolished but effective. Good use of the theme. There wasn't too much strategy involved - I basically planted a few seeds and then waited until they grew. The tutorial was very helpful and I knew exactly how to play after reading it.

As someone else said, there is a lot of potential here if you continue to polish the game. Nicely done and congrats on completing a working game in 48 hours!
Khayet
02. May 2012 路 19:01 UTC
Wow, I love this game. It has a really great concept and has a fantastic soundtrack.

There are two small things you should change IMO: 1. Make it visible what status the planets have while I'm flying so that I don't have to fly to Class A planets again because I got lost. 2. I got stuck sometimes while trying to lift off and burned my entire fuel - bug or feature?
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
02. May 2012 路 19:06 UTC
Thanks, as for the stuck while trying to lift off thing - it happens sometimes, it's sometimes possible by steering to get out of it but it's something I will re-evaluate for a post-compo polish.
ratking
07. May 2012 路 21:08 UTC
It would be cool, if you could give markers for the player to know which planet he greened or which class the planet is.
The space mechanic was a bit wierd at the beginning, but since I started to understand how to use it well (stopping for example) it worked quite well.
Nice idea!
ratking
07. May 2012 路 21:09 UTC
It would be cool, if you could give markers for the player to know which planet he greened or which class the planet is.
The space mechanic was a bit wierd at the beginning, but since I started to understand how to use it well (stopping for example) it worked quite well.
Nice idea! And the music is soo atmospheric!!
馃帳 Gemberkoekje
08. May 2012 路 08:02 UTC
Yeah, changing the markers is a high thing for post-compo polishing. As soon as I find the time to do it -_-'
robcozzens
10. May 2012 路 07:48 UTC
I would try it if you had a Web or OSX version.
Ranoka
13. May 2012 路 15:19 UTC
This game is a great accomplishment for the timelimit! you even had a tutorial. I really liked the idea, it was quite a fun relaxing game. At one point I ran out of fuel, but managed to land on a planet, get a seed and carry on :D
JonathanG
13. May 2012 路 23:46 UTC
I like the mechanic of getting in and out of the ship, and flying around the solar system! However once I got to the planets the seed collecting and planting mechanic seemed a little flat. Also it was quite easy to accidentally plant trees rather than climbing into the spaceship, since it's the same button for both and you can't tell if you're close enough to the ship.