FUEL by KCreanor

An intense, time based puzzle game where you need to collect fuel crates to get off these ridiculously shaped planets. Try and beat your own time if you run out of levels! :thumbsup:
Controls - Left click to move in mouse direction; the further you are from the mouse the faster you go!
LINKS
WINDOWS: https://kdizzle87.itch.io/fuel-a-ludum-dare-38-game
WEB PLAYER: https://kdizzle87.itch.io/fuel-web-player
SOURCE CODE: https://github.com/kdizzle87/LD38
Also streamed the entire development, available to watch at www.twitch.tv/kcreanor (first video settings were cropped though, still watchable. Kinda)
Thanks!!
CHANGE LOG: - Fixed bug where it didn't load correctly on first try - Added Web Player build
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/fuel |
Ratings
| Overall | 68th | 3.887⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 20th | 4.077⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 212th | 3.302⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 101th | 3.849⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 137th | 3.811⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 232th | 3.038⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 242th | 3.176⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 71🗳️ | 70🗨️ |
It has a really nice gameplay feel, and the graphics are minimalistic and pretty. The game is challenging but not difficult enough to leave you frustrated.
Also, nice interface with good feedback! (haha, on steam you would never get such a comment, but they don't know the pain making it :D)
10/10 would play again :)
edit: rated <3
Thanks everyone!
But the controls feel pretty responsive so I can't blame the game for my constant failures.
Overall a really fun game, I might even give it another shot and try to finish it next time!
I think it'd work great with gamepad support. Or, being able to use the analog stick to control direction/speed would be an awesome fit.
Overall, great work! It looks slick. :smile:
I think it'd work great with gamepad support. Or, being able to use the analog stick to control direction/speed would be an awesome fit.
Overall, great work! It looks slick. :smile:
You should cut the countdown or accelerate it, IMO !
- Easy to learn hard to master
- Very smooth controls
- Replayabillity - saving top score per level
- Great concept
- Sweet menu with level selection
Only things that got a tiny bit annoying was the countdowntimer on harder levels - should really decrease it to like 1 second or perhaps make it skippable.
Frontrunner game for me so far.
A nice challenge to do things as fast as you can while not crashing.
Graphics are not great, but do the job just fine. Same with the audio, but the gameplay is where this game really excels. Really really solid entry.
I really enjoyed this and I'm very impressed how many levels you managed to build in such a short time.
The controls are very sharp and precise. I sometimes found the "small world" deceptive in how big it was and often crashed for miss judging what speed my reaction time could handle.
Good fun and solid Ludum Dare entry, well done.
Highly rated by me.
Also as someone who never has enough time to get any music in at all I'm impressed you got multiple tracks made!
I really like the race-against-time maze gameplay, its quite unique (and gets quite intense :P). Took me a while (not too long) to realise that moving the mouse further away made you go faster, and the music kinda got annoying haha, but the UI and graphics were really smooth, and I like the simple controls. If you make future levels, maybe there could be powerups and stuff!
And this was for compo no less! Well done!
Btw, don't forget to go back and rate my game haha
I'm amazed you had time to make so many levels and I also liked how you introduced new elements one at a time.
If I had to make a criticism it would be that the music loop could be longer (just some simple variations of the loop stacked) but also this is a compo entry so well done on getting time to do music at all!)
I defnitely found myself going back trying to beat my times, which I don't usually do unless the game seems super fair and balanced and I feel like it's my own skill holding me back.
I like this!
- It seems there are really 2 types of levels, and the difficulty really ramps up when you get into the 2nd kind. It starts very easy when you're kind of wandering around to collect the barrels, and then when it gets into the more 'mazelike' speed-levels the difficulty picks up very much. It's also where the game is at its best, there is a great tension between speed and precision. Level 8 is an absolute masterpiece of that balance, well done
- The graphics are perfect, they're clean and simple. The background is not great. I hate the font but thats personal taste, it certainly suits the game's style.
- The controls are very good. I suspect your are targeting touch, where it would work well. You can game it a little by letting go of the mouse to come to an instant stop: I'd recommend a penatly for that (maybe letting go of the mouse causes the ship to drift), since it can be used to make things a bit easier than I think is intended.
- The final level completion screen says 'level 11' not 12.
Overall, wow. Very good game, keep making it. Awesome.
Very solid entry, I like it. Well done!
Wire loop game in space! ...Also reminds me of the UFO boss level of Super Mario Galaxy. :)
Thanks for playing my own game earlier!
You are playing with fire here. This game hurt me on a *very* deep level. Purely because I'm awful at it.
That being said, this was great. I'm astonished that this is a compo entry - you've done fantastic work! This could be a great mobile game, which should be pretty easy to port to with Unity.
I've only got one piece of criticism - I feel like the ship's origin should be placed near the back rather than the exact middle. When trying to fly away from a wall that you're parallel with, you immediately explode. That sucks. A lot. If you can fix that and add a few more levels, it could turn into a pretty nice game outside of the jam.
Good work!
Also, the graphics are really nice and clear and crisp, it's so good looking 3d. i feel like playing micro machines or any other small racing game but with very deadly walls.
Like it a lot even if i cant finish it...
The graphics and sound work well together, the levels design lets you get introduced to the games mechanics one step at a time, there is always some challenge due to the time limit.
Sometimes I wished I could have used the keyboard instead of the mouse, because I'm not used to be very precise with the mouse ... but that's just my lack of skill.
Solid work indeed for a compo entry. Everything feels like a game and theres nothing missing which would be obvious. Seems like you knew what you were doing.
The art is sleek and very nice looking, and the gameplay and controls feel pretty tight. And there is even a high score mechanism to encourage replay. I did have to adjust my mouse sensitivity, in order to get the fine control necessary to complete some of the more involved mazes though. Or maybe I just didn't master the distance equals speed mechanic well enough...
All in all, it is an impressive game, especially for a Compo entry!
>Fuel has been placed.
>Now you must run the gauntlet.
>Collision is death.
The hardest level for me was Level 9, but at least we are given a ton of time to finish that level. Level 11 was oddly easy. I love the level previews when you select levels. Spaceship and box graphics were very nice.
If there was one thing that I think should change, it's the death explosion sound effect. It's too funny! That it's funny is actually distracting when I retry a level (makes it harder to concentrate, especially Level 9).
Overall very awesome game!
*Edit: One last thing. I played the web version of the game, and the audio was too quiet. I had to turn up the volume very high.*
I hope new mechanics on the future.
Nice job!!
From what I see some people found the insta-death annoying, but with such tight controls and rather unforgiving time limit, this game is about precision, so insta-death seems fair, and the loop to restart is not long. At lest it didn't break immersion for me, so, again IMO ot was good decision.
Issue I noticed - it's possible to get 'level failed' and 'level complete' at the same time if you catch the last crate at the last second, but that's a matter of adding a simple check / bool, so just letting you know.
Suggestion to remove countdown and substitute it with firing off the timer when player starts moving is something I'd suggest as well - it would make the game loop more seamless, and in this case it should prove beneficial.
Great compo work, for me it feels really polished, and very well designed and coded.
Cheers!
The game just feels extremely polished.
adding in a score rating for time would be cool, typically run the map yourself whatever your best time is (as the creator) make that an A rating one rating less for each second off. This way I can tell if I'm doing well.
Also Bug report: mute doesn't work on the WEBGL version from the pause menu, seems to detect that I am hitting the retry button instead.
Well done!
The only thing I would change game design wise is the player hitbox (for collisions, obviously for pickups it's fine). I'm more into touhou style hitboxes where the colliding area is way smaller than the player sprite/model so it feels more fair. That way every single collision that happens seem more fair and surviving some super close call looking situations makes the player feel great.
All around solid entry. Good job!
Great job anyway !
* The first level is difficult because there are no reference points. When you are hunting for the last fuel you can't even tell if you are moving and that's infuriating.
* The camera is the biggest problem (and I know all about this because it's the biggest problem in my game - however yours is nowhere near as bad as mine). On level 4 I would just hit a corner not because I had the mouse in the wrong position but because the camera would rotate. I felt like I would die not because of my own failings but the camera's - and that's a big no-no in game design...or so I'm told :grinning:
* The music doesn't really fit the game and the loop is too short.
It's very easy to be negative about anything (especially in this day-and-age) but I want to end with the positives: what you've made in under 48 hours is remarkable and, with just a little more polish this is something you could release commercially.
Things I would change:
- Have a crosshair/circle that represents the centre of movement. It seemed like it was off centre to the ship, so you could incorporate this into the ship if it was aligned exactly to centre.
- Slow down the acceleration just a touch. I know this was part of the challenge, but it seemed overly twitchy!
- Reduce the hitbox size/make the hitbox more consistent. Sometimes the nose of the ship could be inside the wall, but if you spun round in the opposite direction, the rear of the ship would hit the wall.
That aside, great art and presentation. Solid entry!
The camera and planet rotation felt slightly dizzying at first, but I ended up getting used to it.
Congratulations! You deserve all the good ratings and feedback!
Great job!