{"author_link":"\/author\/hazard\/","author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","comments":[{"author_name":"VDOgamez","author_uid":"1634","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 5:39pm","epoch":1335202440,"text":"This is really cool, although I'm not entirely sure what's happening. I can't tell how the orbits are being modeled, so I can't really tell where to detonate the plants to affect the orbit the way I want. Also it took me a while to realize you weren't supposed to detonate the plants themselves, because then you run out of fruit, nearly. It's a very nice concept and is not the kind of gameplay I was expecting. Also, how does the combining the planets work? The world seems to get a bunch of grey material where the asteroid hits, are the planets dynamic or did I just get lucky to have them appear that way? One thing that I think would make this better would be to make navigating to other planets necessary, because when I started I assumed I needed to do that, and orbited my guys to the other two bodies, only to find nothing really there, and the game ended up just being about blowing up charges on the prograde and retrograde ends of the planet to make it hit stuff. Despite this, I enjoyed the gameplay, as well as the music and especially the graphical style."},{"author_name":"uprightpath","author_uid":"10562","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 5:49pm","epoch":1335203040,"text":"Ba-da-boom towards the center of the universe.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Interesting idea about the collision stuff. Nice effect that you can blow yourself out of the solar system."},{"author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 6:03pm","epoch":1335203880,"text":"VDOgamez, thanks a lot for your feedback!\r<br\/>Yes, my plan was to make it necessary to go to other planets before merging them, but those plans fell victim to the time limit. This leaves the explosive plants as the only relevant gameplay mechanic, which is quite one-sided, sadly.\r<br\/>When planets merge, the surface of the planet with the lower mass gets &quot;peeled off&quot; and inserted into the larger planet. Due to that you acrually see the materials and the surface structure of both planets on the newly formed one.\r<br\/>The orbits are always circular, to make it more simple. Explosions on the sun-ward side of the planet widen the orbit, explosions on the far side narrow it. Explosions on the orbital path can speed up or slow the orbit speed, but the speed has no influence on the stable orbit here. A slow orbit speed won't cause the planet to fall into the sun, in this method. Not realistic, but i wanted to make planet movements easy to predict and control.\r<br\/>I'm glad you still enjoyed it. :)"},{"author_name":"lasseastrup","author_uid":"7536","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 7:24pm","epoch":1335208740,"text":"Fun little game - had trouble figuring out how to blow stuff up at first. Fun game mechanic"},{"author_name":"AlwaysGeeky","author_uid":"11531","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 8:34pm","epoch":1335212940,"text":"blow it up!"},{"author_name":"Verrazano","author_uid":"10665","time":"Apr 23, 2012 @ 11:10pm","epoch":1335222300,"text":"hmm not to self be careful when playing with explosives, this was an explosive idea I think teaching the player how to change the orbit of the planet more clearly would have been better. But yet again I have found another great idea. I merged the two green planets then blew up two bombs which flung me into my grove of bomb plants that I had put all in the same place I then flew into outer space dying. my two remaining aliens collided with the sun, fantastic."},{"author_name":"Izzimach","author_uid":"11739","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 1:24am","epoch":1335230340,"text":"Liked the mechanic of smashing together planets. Can you jump to other planets? I tried a few times but couldn't get it to work."},{"author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 1:50am","epoch":1335231900,"text":"Yes, you can get to other planets. Two explosivle plants on the same spot are usually enough to get you out of the gravity field of your planet. In space you still have a bit of control over the character, allowing you to navigate to other planets. A direct shot is possible too, but difficult to aim. There isn't really any purpose of going to other planets, though... sadly. Except the fun of doing it, of course. :)"},{"author_name":"netmute","author_uid":"11213","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 11:35am","epoch":1335267000,"text":"Couldn't rate because I'm on a Mac. Sorry :("},{"author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 12:05pm","epoch":1335268800,"text":"I will provide a video playthrough later, for Linux and Mac users. It's definately more fun to blow your own aliens into space, but a video is better than nothing, i guess. :)"},{"author_name":"Gremlin","author_uid":"12047","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 2:07pm","epoch":1335276120,"text":"I think the running around on the planet speeds are a little slow, but I did manage to blow all of the little guys into space."},{"author_name":"Arkazon","author_uid":"6492","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 7:35pm","epoch":1335295800,"text":"Pretty cool idea,  I finally managed to win after catapulting one of my guys into the sun and another into space!  Agree with VDOgamez in that the orbit modelling seemed a little odd, some explosions seemed not to effect it at all whereas another explosion with the same number of plants managed to completely change it."},{"author_name":"icefallgames","author_uid":"11319","time":"Apr 24, 2012 @ 7:36pm","epoch":1335295860,"text":"Interesting concept... I think I was about to win (I think I need to smash all planets together then send it to the sun?), but the game hangs for me whenever I switch away to another window then back."},{"author_name":"devwil","author_uid":"7526","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 12:27am","epoch":1335313320,"text":"***I'm posting this on all non-browser games I bring up in an attempt to encourage folks to make browser games next time around. Do not take it personally.***\r<br\/>\r<br\/>When hundreds of people make non-browser games, that means that, to play all of the entries, I would need to download hundreds of games to my computer. I typically use OS X, so Windows-only entries are particularly inconvenient.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Please consider making a browser game next time."},{"author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 12:39am","epoch":1335314040,"text":"devwil, no, i won't. Not everyone likes to make browser games, you know? You are too lazy to download games? Well then just don't."},{"author_name":"omaha","author_uid":"5229","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 2:33am","epoch":1335320880,"text":"not having any luck playing xna games on my mac or linux+wine."},{"author_name":"robcozzens","author_uid":"10944","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 8:54am","epoch":1335343740,"text":"I would have tried it if it had a web or osx version."},{"author_name":"wzl","author_uid":"5751","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 11:06am","epoch":1335351660,"text":"Thanks for your comment ;)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Pretty neat entry you did, although it is hard to comprehend why and how the planet moves and will behave from explosions. The idea itself is interesting though. Good job.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>PS: There's someone else from hannover -&gt; TcStyle. We're not alone \\o"},{"author_name":"Tifu","author_uid":"7793","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 2:40pm","epoch":1335364500,"text":"Unique idea! Very fun :D"},{"author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 3:00pm","epoch":1335365700,"text":"Thanks for the feedback. :)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I've uploaded a playthrough video for those who can't play the game on their OS:\r<br\/>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L6j_jJtcF-M\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Bombing the aliens through space yourself is more fun, though. ;)"},{"author_name":"tcstyle","author_uid":"4834","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 6:49pm","epoch":1335379440,"text":"This is an awesome idea!\r<br\/>Besides of that I like the graphics of plants and aliens and the music. Some movement animation would have been great.\r<br\/>Glad to see more Ludum Dare output from our city. :)"},{"author_name":"the8donut","author_uid":"10453","time":"Apr 25, 2012 @ 9:53pm","epoch":1335390480,"text":"I LOVE the music, and the little monsters are soo cute!"},{"author_name":"jwolf","author_uid":"11073","time":"Apr 27, 2012 @ 12:01am","epoch":1335484560,"text":"Neat entry!  You may want to clump the keyboard controls a bit closer together, though."},{"author_name":"caranha","author_uid":"7847","time":"Apr 27, 2012 @ 6:06pm","epoch":1335549660,"text":"Great game, Awesome audio! I really like the idea of piling up the fruits to move the planets forwards and backwards. The aliens were really cute!\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Maybe you could add a little bit of an interactive intro story, like the aliens finding out about the bombing plant, crashing in one planet\/asteroid, and then having the idea of crashing everything together, that might make the whole story more appealing :-)\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Thanks for the awesome game!"},{"author_name":"Hazard","author_uid":"7512","time":"Apr 28, 2012 @ 11:53am","epoch":1335613680,"text":"Thanks for the suggestions! I might do a post-compo version that incorporates some of them.\r<br\/>Don't give me too much credit on the Music, though. Most of it is randomly generated with cgMusic. I just generated a lot with different parameters to find the most fitting melodies and then rearranged and tuned them to match the kind of style i was aiming for."},{"author_name":"Jezzamon","author_uid":"10217","time":"Apr 29, 2012 @ 1:17am","epoch":1335661920,"text":"ooh... the graphics look cool.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>It's a shame I can't run it on my mac. :C"},{"author_name":"Raptor85","author_uid":"7131","time":"Apr 30, 2012 @ 9:22pm","epoch":1335820620,"text":"can't test as XNA4 crashes in WINE"},{"author_name":"Fireblend","author_uid":"10166","time":"May 1, 2012 @ 4:11pm","epoch":1335888360,"text":"Cool concept! Although it needs lots of coordination and I think it's too easy to lose by blowing up the wrong part of the planet. A tutorial might have come in handy :P"},{"author_name":"someone","author_uid":"1207","time":"May 1, 2012 @ 5:47pm","epoch":1335894120,"text":"Cant test the game in Linux, but thanks for the video."},{"author_name":"matthias_zarzecki","author_uid":"3880","time":"May 6, 2012 @ 10:31am","epoch":1336299960,"text":"Nice idea! But in need of some polish."},{"author_name":"Terra","author_uid":"2414","time":"May 13, 2012 @ 4:22am","epoch":1336882620,"text":"Pretty cool! Took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to do (I didn't realize that if you pick the plants first then you can re-harvest them later and get more bombs), but when I did figure it out I thought is was pretty clever :)"},{"author_name":"Cake&amp;Code","author_uid":"10976","time":"May 13, 2012 @ 6:43pm","epoch":1336934280,"text":"Hehe, it's a fun little game with very interesting mechanics! It was a lot fun to blow yourself into space and landing on little planetoids was exciting, though usually counter productive :)"}],"images":["ld23\/7512-6fa98abac852568bca41496d69877ab3.jpg","ld23\/7512-56e33a726b39df26826dc32a6ee69e1a.jpg"],"links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.hazardx.com\/hazard\/ld23_spmerge.zip","text":"Windows (18MB)"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.hazardx.com\/hazard\/ld23_spmerge_src.zip","text":"C# Source (60MB)"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MU8jMqBkOy8","text":"Timelapse"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L6j_jJtcF-M","text":"Playthrough Video"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"31252","g_author":"7512","g_event":"LD23","g_eventkey":"10","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"31282","g_title":"Spaceship Planet Merge","g_status":"UCHK1","g_place":"292","g_commentcount":"32","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\/\/123793\/7512-shot0.png-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/123793\/7512-shot1.png-eq-900-500.jpg"],"text":"One day a voice spoke to the aliens:\r\n\"To fulfill your destiny you have to travel to the center of the Galaxy.\r\nTo do so, merge all your planets together, and afterwards, merge the large planet with the sun.\r\nYour entire solar system shall be your spaceship.\"\r\nAnd so they did...\r\n\r\nUse explosive plants to move planets and to leave gravity.\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\nKeyboard Controls:\r\nArrows for walking\r\nUp to jump\r\nX to pick up things\r\nM to show the map\r\nTab to switch alien\r\n\r\nGamepad Controls:\r\nLeft stick to move\r\nA to jump\r\nB to pick things up\r\nY to show the map\r\nShoulder to switch alien\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nYou can run CheckPrerequisites.exe to check whether all required Prerequisites are installed already. Run it if the game won't start or causes an error.\r\n\r\nPrerequisites:\r\n\r\n- Microsoft .Net Framework 4 Client Profile ( http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/download\/en\/details.aspx?id=24872 )\r\n- Microsoft XNA 4 Runtime ( http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/download\/en\/details.aspx?id=20914 )\r\n\r\n\r\nDevelopment Tools:\r\n\r\nVisual Studio 2010 and XNA 4\r\nMusic created with cgMusic ( http:\/\/codeminion.com\/blogs\/maciek\/2008\/05\/cgmusic-computers-create-music\/ )\r\n\r\nUnfinished stuff:\r\n- Aliens don't have any animations\r\n- Forgot to add the planet-merge sound. Duh.\r\n- Planned to add ropes and other things, but didn't have the time.<\/p>","title":"Spaceship Planet Merge"}