A small world lost in a big universe by siryakko

You're a small planet in a big universe. Your soulmate has vanished and you've to travel around to search for her/him.
Helped by a big alien, you'll have to collect ressources to continue your journey and find blue stars to open intergalactic doors, and maybe get your lover back.
What i wanted to do this year was making a peaceful game, no weapon, no bomb, no violence, just a prototype that may tell you a story.
Made with construct 2, illustrator, otomata and my brain
Two version exist, one with the 1920*1080 resolution, and another 50% smaller.
You'll find a version for Windows, Mac and Linux on the Itch.io page
Itch.io
Sources

Ratings
| Overall | 309th | 3.226⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 397th | 2.8⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 384th | 2.8⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 133th | 3.767⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 42th | 4.233⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 173th | 3.207⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 270th | 2.517⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 279th | 3.069⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 35🗳️ | 47🗨️ |
Great job!
I took me sometimes to remember that i had to use E and F to assign the stars but it was a nice experience.
@Gato You may be right about being able to control both character without switching. I'll add the idea in my new Game design doc. Thanks for playing and giving feedbacks :)
Managing the resources felt too easy, but also I only played for a few minutes. I saw that you want to work more on this, you're very welcome to ping me when there's a new version! :)
(And btw, I love the considerate way you reply to your reviewers! <3)
It was in level 2 where I was more entertained because the first one has some lack of challenge. But yeah, you can polish it more, add some levels and have a funny game there.
Good entry!
Thanks
@blinry Thanks for your Feedback. To be honest, at first the alien was able to collect without being active, but it felt more like something the planet was carrying arround and not really useful. Its presence wasn't adding anything to the experience. I made it a bit too easy to helpe people understand the mechanics at first.
The new version is on its way (Game design doc right now) to make something longer and a bit more complex.
(If people take time to play my game and write a review, i'll always try to give an answer or at least a thanks)
@DiegoCTorguet Yeah Level one was like a small abrupt tutorial, to help you understand that your main goal it's to get those blue stars to open a door. Thanks for the feedback
@dray Yeah that's the main goal of my current work on the game, the controls, trying to make theme easy and natural. Thanks ;)
Whether it's the control scheme being a bit clunky in certain regards, resource managing being a bit tedious or the idea of mostly flying in a big vacuum of pitch-black darkness not really doing it for me, I didn't really enjoy it.
It supports the idea of "lost in space", but I personally lose the sense of exploration when there's really nothing to explore, see and experience. Having to "find a needle in a haystack" with the blue stars sparsely distributed inside a vast, empty space is just frustrating to me. I do think that having a more structured level design, or indicators to your objectives, would really improve the experience by a long shot.
I liked how the alien and the planet interacted with each other, when you're going fast the alien is almost detaching but still managing to keep up. The switching mechanic introduced some aforementioned clunkyness though, and _**not necessarily the switching itself:**_ It's how the alien did not collect anything when not active, forcing the player to stop in it's track, switch, maneuver the alien into position just to do a little jump, switch back and then continue... which makes it feel even less like exploration and more like busy work.
Changing the collecting thing could alleviate a lot, to be frank. I definitely respect the amount of work you've put into it in such a short time, all by yourself even! The flat art was nice, there's certainly potential here and I do hope you polish it and take it further.
I'm working on finding a more clear and simple use of those two characters, apart from the shared resources.
The big emptiness was a bit too empty. I should have try to find a bit of time to add some graphical hint, obstacles or such, and it's in the new GD doc. Like a new feature that helps you detecting the blue stars by consuming yellow stars as well.
I wanted to try a random generation for the level, that was my first, and yes it needs improvement you're right.
Thanks for that complete useful feedback :)
There's no doubting you chops for nice aesthetics. The music and graphics are both spectacular.
Not super thrilled with the game, honestly. Just kinda fly around and collect enough stars to hit the next level. The character switching mechanic that I loved at first quickly becomes a chore, especially the second, mostly empty level. Never actually had a problem with the hunger/fuel mechanic, either.
Love the story and setting and AV fluff, I just think they need a new game to call home.
The second level was soooo empty and I eventually got bored not knowing where to go. It might help to have a background that helps differentiate where you are, or possibly even a minimap.
The graphics were very cute, and I liked playing a nonviolent game. I'd like to see what you could do if you took this further.
@Davidthelazar I've lost a lot of time trying to know why my export wasn't working, and yeah i've some graphic assets to help creating more complex level. I've just decided to let my game as it was during the vote, even if it's giving me bad ratings. The game will remain nonviolent in it's more advanced form. Hope i'll be able to show a new level prototype soon. Thanks for playing the game and giving me your feedback.
Not much to add, I agree with basically anything positive said by commenters before me :)
@tompudding Yeah i've still a lot of work to do on making everything clear for the first time player. I'm a bit in a struggle right now on how will i keep the alien and making its presence important.
@Palemachine I was planning to do more content, but the export bug took me the last hours i had. The single player coop is something i really want to try to male as my real first game, i like that idea, and it seems peoples here like it too
Such a well polished game given that you did it for the compo!
Other little notes, I liked the font used and how information pre game was provided. I must admit I skimmed it, and thankfully the controls were intuitive enough that I got it after pushing a few buttons.
Nice little game! Well done and thanks for creating and sharing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reOMZ5szx64