liftoff by Remco
Controls
In game: - left-key: rotate the ship counter-clockwise - right-key: rotate the ship clockwise - space: go! boosts the ship - up-/down-leys: go through menu options - enter: select menu option (buy / sell)
Links
- Windows: https://remco.itch.io/liftoff
- Source: https://remco.itch.io/liftoff
- Linux: https://remco.itch.io/liftoff
Updated with Linux port, exactly the same game, exactly(?) the same bug(s)! :smile:
Synopsis
Trade. In Space!
Fly your little space-ship between small worlds, buying and selling trade items for ENERGON*, the universal resource / shield / future-money-replacement. Well, until your luck runs out and the orange warning lights start blaring at least...
Fuel is automatically 'bought' from your ENERGON reserves (5 ENERGON to get a full tank) when you run out, but it's Game-Over when the ENERGON itself runs out!
*) I uh... can you believe that reference is unintentional? I never watched the show as a kid. Sorry to get anyones hopes up!
Scoring: - Credz are earned everytime ENERGON is maxxed out at 100, but you still sell items. - You've made a Trip when you've landed (or crashed) on a planet that wasn't the same as the last planet you've landed on.
You've only got 2 cargo-holds, so use them wisely!
Oh, and watch out for the green 'farce-field' :wink:
Notes
- Content Note: Oblique reference to alcohol.
- Bug: Score-screen (on game over) may show score of the game before the one that just ended. :sweatdrop:
- Workaround for bug: When game-over, go back to main, then select the 'continue' option (as opposed to start). It will now show the score for last time.
- The help-screen may be a lot more confusing than the description here, sorry!
- Font: Quirk Medium.
- Made with: \ code: C++ & SDL2 (& some cleaned-up base code from last 2 times), \ images: The GIMP2, \ music: BeepBox.co, \ sounds-fx: Bfxr
- The game(-files) itself (and source) is still identical to the one I uploaded before the end of the compo, but I have overhauled both this description-page and the description on itch.io completely!
Sceenies
Obligatory Humorous Disclaimer
small print May not be suitable for physicists: Only very loosely based on the real world (if at all). Future results may not predict past performance. Consult doctor if rash persists. Keep out of Martian childeren.
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/liftoff |
Ratings
| Overall | 345th | 3.143⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 305th | 3.086⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 159th | 3.457⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 306th | 3.286⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 333th | 3⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 302th | 2.758⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 221th | 2.71⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 212th | 3.265⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 44🗳️ | 63🗨️ |
try to check if the game is really published there and not configured in draft mode, otherwise it will only show to you.
I've changed the (order of the) link(s).
A minor suggestion, it might be cool to have config file or simple menu for changing volumes of fx and music levels. At least on my computer the fx sounded 10x louder then the music, so I couldn't hear it very well.
@wareification SFX being too harsh is defenitely something I need to work on in general. Adjustable options is always a nice goal to have in any case :slight_smile: (As for the ship righting itself; I was awfully smug with myself for having thought of that. It's not *just* there for 'cute' though; otherwise the player would have had to rectify the ship themselves!)
The music and graphics in the game is okay, but they could differently have been better.
Overall this is a interesting LD game, and I would really like to see a polished version of this game.
@spinaljack , @bluecakewithcows Thanks for the suggestions! :smile:
@bumblepie Also a lot of good suggestions :grin: There *is* a very slight predictable component to how the goods/prices are calculated for each planet; each time you complete a new 'trip' (land on a planet that wasn't your current takeoff-point): Namely, the larger the radius (and therefore gravity-well!), the more chance there is for higher prices (both w.r.t. sell *and* buy) and vice versa (that is to say; small planets have slightly more chance for lower prices).
My problem is mainly with the boost/control system, it feel... bugged? Idk it just feel random-ish to me. I kind of know to press space to apply booster force to my ship, but there's always other unknown forces apply on my ship that doesn't quite seem like planets' gravitation. Most of the time I see my ship thrown all the way to the end of the universe, slammed hard on God's barrier.
The trade system is cool but feel quite random, it would be nice to have "characteristics" of each planet so I could know what each planet might have to hope for.
The art and soundtrack are decent. I love how you move between the planets! But it's a bit frustrating that you miss some planets on the swing by. Or you stop at ones you didn't wont to stop at. The trading system is fun and with a little more time it could be a great part of the game.
Overall a nice compo entry! :smile:
Really enjoyed your game, really interesting idea you have there, the sound is really well done and the physics in this game makes this really challenging too!
Great job man, really enjoyed! =D
I guess I was lucky there, because sometimes it's hard to even get the ship going.
Overall... it's a nice trading game.
Graphics were good fun, was a bit confused about having 'infinite' fuel. Took me a while to realize it cost me Energon. Bob the sentient plant is my favourite, btw.
Impressed at the whole physics thing you have going on, with the planest having a gravitational pull, and all! Cool stuff!
@jk5000 Nice to know. I've copied your scores from my spreadsheet to the ratings as well :slight_smile:
@spaceman Also thanks! Hm yeah, it's not clear enough. You've got two cargo-holds, and the rest is 'for sale on :earth_africa:', but the different coloring for both catagoies is only barely visible, and also the holds turn to static when nothing's in there... I can understand the confusion :slight_smile:
@zebrainflames Thanks! Yes, the way I use the font could have been a little more carefull. It's actually a really nice font! (Not made by me.)
@jod Oh come on, you added an actual live guitar to your LD35 submission man, you don't get to complain :wink: Gravity's not too hard to implement actually! Number-crunching for missiles has been one of the earliest things computers got used for (for better or worse). Anyway, I'll let Bo know you admire him, it's not easy being green after all... also a plant :deciduous_tree:
Some trades were very hard for a bad trader like me (buy 40, sell 5? sure! because I want that plant.) - a way of knowing where to go with a specific type of good would be nice.
I like the planets' visuals, and that I could just ram my ship onto them to land, glad the automatic pilot is better at landing than I am at steering the damn rocket. :D
A 'goal' to reach for would also be cool, like a 200 ENERGON item that is just a big gold medal. (find the medal, and then enough E to buy it!)
The sounds & visuals matched well, got a retro feel going there. :)
It's funny to travel from planet to another to sell stuff. The concept is simple but work. Good job
@joror Heyhey :smile: Thanks! I wonder how much of the 'getting used to it' can be worked out by tweaking the physics system, and how much of it is just inherent in using any physics at all. I think 'Bo the Sentient Plant' may be the top favorite for many people! :herb: Funny what a bit of graphics can do, huh? Seems I'm getting just a bit better at art. As for the ramming into planets... you do loose more 'health' the harder you slam into a planet -- or the 'farcefield'. But I'm pretty smug with myself for making that damage quite low and thinking of the 'auto-upright' feature. A goal is a great idea! :grin: W.r.t. art: Yeah, I had a lot of fun creating the graphics this time around (and playing around with BeepBox is always fun of course). Except for that dang table ... it still looks ugly :wink:
@smiling-cat-entertainment , @vivoubos Thanks! The issues you two've raised seem to be the main complaints. Thanks for confirming this again, it makes it very clear what the first priorities should be if I ever decide to continue with this :smile:
I saw a few people mentioning that the physics feel odd, and I definitely got that sense too, but from what I saw, I can't help but wonder if it was the foreground layer doing it? Sometimes it felt a lot like I was being carried by a stream, even when a planet was capturing me with its gravity. That might be something worth looking in to.
Congratulations on getting this done in the 48 hours, though! It looks like you had to work hard!
There might be something you can do to stop the parallax feeling confusing, but I'm not sure what... Maybe experimenting with adjusting the speed, or applying effects to it around planets could turn something up?
I'll make sure to give it another go sometime (hopefully before the deadline) to see if I can find a better galaxy, or if I'm just not good at this game!
Reminds me of old days with Space Rangers game where you can trade too between planets (but it's turn-based, so has nothing common)
SFX sounds and orange screen need some love. Gameplay probably needs some long term progress system (new goods, higher prices, meteorites, floating scrap and etc.)
It was fun to play, thank you.
One thing that might help could be arrows showing which planets are pulling you in, and how strongly (length of the arrow being magnitude, like in wind maps), or maybe a trail of particles behind the ship so players have an easier time seeing how they're moving.
As a more advanced possibility, it may be possible to predict where the ship will be at a few points in the future (+.25s, +.5s, +.75s, and +1s, for example) and draw a curved arrow through them, so players can immediately tell when their burn is gonna take them away from their target. The maths and processing on that could be tricky though...
I definitely did have an easier time once I understood that, though!
@rockhoppergames Looks like you really got into it! :wink: I really appreciate the extra time you took! :rocket: While I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that someone *needs* KSP (or similar) experience to play this game, I can see what you're saying. It definitely wasn't the intention to make it hard to understand, after all! I think I underestimated how counterintuitive physics like these can be to the average user. 'Showing the trajectory' is one of the things that shot through my head (filed under 'awesome but less important than other things right now') during the weekend, but I quite like the arrow idea a lot as well! The maths for the trajectory might not be that difficult to code, as the planets are stationary and it's just a matter of doing a few (a lot of?) steps of ship simulation ahead of time -- minus the collissions even.
This is a nice little trading game. I was a huge fan of DrugWars (or more specifically, it's clone: Dopewars) and with a little more development time, this could easily be turned into something as addictive as that!
If I had to be critical then I would say this:
* I didn't like the flying. It felt quite clunky to me and as others have mentioned the gravity didn't feel right. Even though you might have done it physically accurate - none of that matters if it doesn't feel good.
* The sound effect when thrusting is a little too harsh
* Everything is very small on my screen - is there a full screen option>?
Ship controls were difficult, but that makes them a bit rewarding when I actually land on something, but I spent a lot of time on my first (very short) game hitting the edge of the map before running out of fuel.
I wished I had some indicator of what things might be worth ("is this expensive because I can sell it for a ton, or because I'm getting ripped off?") though I eventually just only bought things < 10 and that seemed to work fine.
@gama-croma , @urbanhelsing Thanks! :smile: You're not the only ones, lots of people have problems with the not-very-well-tuned physics...
@jimbly Wow... That's a lot of credz! When test-playing I usually stop when I've not even reached the 100 or so :sweat_smile: (I'm not sure if a chance for close planets are a bug or a feature... hehe.)
P.S If you would like to rate my game I would be so grateful.
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/there-shall-be-light
**TO EVERYONE:** *Those where the last two I was able to rate. I've got a lot of work to do outside LD! Thank you all so much for your feedback!* :grinning:
(Also, sorry for the sooo late response, I thank you so much for having played Planktos. Back then in LD 38, real life got in the way and I never managed to come back and vote and participate. Thank you for having enjoyed Planktos and taking the time to write us a comment :) )