{"author_link":"\/users\/noxbuds","author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","comments":[{"author_name":"wsKilljoy","author_uid":"1055525","time":"2018-04-23T12:00:43Z","epoch":1524484843,"modified":1524484843,"text":"Quite cool! If you flesh this out, I could see it as a successful title!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"PatrickRMC","author_uid":"1049429","time":"2018-04-23T12:09:06Z","epoch":1524485346,"modified":1524485346,"text":"Interesting gameplay! I like it!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"L14 Game Studio","author_uid":1082734,"time":"2018-04-23T12:19:41Z","epoch":1524485981,"modified":1524485981,"text":"Nice and clear design. Scoped too big. All the different logic gates... no levels to use them on. Should be good if finished off. Needs a way too exit mid game, shouldn't quit after final screen, all presume the player wants to replay.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"good.enough","author_uid":"1009540","time":"2018-04-23T12:52:07Z","epoch":1524487927,"modified":1524487927,"text":"Pretty neat, but there was a couple of \"wut?\" factors like can I not actually move forwards? Also, why can't I connect wires directly from the output to the input without any logic gates?\n\nSomething that really bugged me was that it was really difficult to get the guns firing precisely in the right direction. Perhaps larger colliders on the enemy ships, or some kind of subtle aim helper would improve this.\n\nAt first, I thought that only being able to connect one wire from the output was annoying, like with the railgun's overheating sensor. However, having that limitation actually lends to the feeling of an emergency fix, which is pretty cool.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-23T12:58:00Z","epoch":1524488280,"modified":1524488280,"text":"@L14 Game Studio Thanks, I agree - I had underestimated how much work it'd be getting the wiring system working and setting up circuits ;) Definitely planning on expanding it and adding more. I also agree about the UI and options to exit - I realised like 2\/3 hours before the end that I needed a UI so I assembled one as fast as possible :S\n\nAlso I have just built a web version and created a page on itch.io for it:\nhttps:\/\/noxbuds.itch.io\/red-shirt-engineer\n","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-23T13:02:09Z","epoch":1524488529,"modified":1524488539,"text":"@good-enough Thanks for the feedback - to be honest I thought it wouldn't be much of a puzzle if you just directly connected the inputs to the outputs ;)\nAlso I suspect what you're talking about with not moving forwards is that the background is misleading... it really needs some kind of scrolling. What's probably happening is the enemy is moving at the same time and direction, and since the ships move at the same speed it looks like you're not moving. I'll definitely look into making a scrolling background which seems appropriate :)","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"good.enough","author_uid":"1009540","time":"2018-04-23T13:35:07Z","epoch":1524490507,"modified":1524490507,"text":"@Noxbuds Right as to not being much of a puzzle, but I ended up making it like this:\nright key -> or gate -> right thruster, and the same for the left thruster; no different from connecting directly. I figured if both thrusters were firing, we'd move forward.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Tero Pulkkinen","author_uid":"1000473","time":"2018-04-23T14:20:13Z","epoch":1524493213,"modified":1524493213,"text":"I had trouble with the controls. i managed to shoot, but didnt figure out how to move my ship. ","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"andwhatnotetc","author_uid":1080836,"time":"2018-04-23T15:01:39Z","epoch":1524495699,"modified":1524495699,"text":"Fun concept, but I couldn't figure out how to turn, maybe broken.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-23T15:04:00Z","epoch":1524495840,"modified":1524495840,"text":"@andwhatnotetc You turn by only activating one of the thruster groups at a time ;)","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Mathiouza","author_uid":"1002200","time":"2018-04-23T15:04:55Z","epoch":1524495895,"modified":1524495895,"text":"Interesting but maybe with a progression of the different concept in the \"algorithms\" we have to make it can be funier.\nCool concept, keep coding :)","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Radical Dog","author_uid":"1078573","time":"2018-04-23T15:20:24Z","epoch":1524496824,"modified":1524496824,"text":"I agree with others that it was scoped too big, however this is a worthy prototype. The idea of a logic game under a time pressure is good, but the UI needs to do everything it can to make it easy, especially at the start - perhaps lay out logic gates to be used in the first few levels, and graduate to having the user add 1+ logic gates in designated spots later.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-23T15:21:12Z","epoch":1524496872,"modified":1524496872,"text":"@radical-dog Thanks for the suggestion, definitely needs some UI work :)","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"mrspeaker","author_uid":"1013726","time":"2018-04-23T16:08:13Z","epoch":1524499693,"modified":1524499707,"text":"\"Once viewing the engineering panel, everything is fairly self-explanatory.\" lol, classic gamedev quote ;)\n\nIt took me a while to figure out what was going on (and I can read electrical diagrams... I just didn't understand what the goal was) but when I understood the point it was good fun - the pop up dialogs could get a bit annoying when trying to wire things, but other than that I think this was great: really worth fleshing out!","likes":1,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-23T16:17:56Z","epoch":1524500276,"modified":1524500276,"text":"@mrspeaker LOL -  that quote is relatively speaking I guess ;) Thanks for the feedback","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"GastricSparrow","author_uid":"1048758","time":"2018-04-23T16:35:40Z","epoch":1524501340,"modified":1524501340,"text":"As a proof of concept this is awesome. But then again, I'm studying electrical engineering. Anyway I hope you do more in the future with this! Cool idea. Also if you don't mind would you rate my game? Thanks for creating this!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Damienp","author_uid":"1089178","time":"2018-04-23T21:06:33Z","epoch":1524517593,"modified":1524517593,"text":"As already noted, the controls for the space view are hard to get at first. I had the forward thrusters on, thought it wasn't doing anything, and escaped the fight. Afterwards I was just slipping against the fixed stars in the pointless infinity of space I guess, because the other spacecraft was nowhere to be seen. I wish I'd had a pointer to the enemy location, so I could continue the fight and not restart the game.\n\nApart from that, this was great! It had been a while since I'd used those symbols.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"coatline","author_uid":"1078924","time":"2018-04-23T22:27:08Z","epoch":1524522428,"modified":1524522428,"text":"Amazing! This is my favorite game so far! You have to figure it all out first though. If you complete this game, this can be a thing!!","likes":1,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Ben Pearson","author_uid":"1000735","time":"2018-04-24T00:24:09Z","epoch":1524529449,"modified":1524529449,"text":"I liked it, but it certainly requires a bit of a nerd to play it. There's a lot of potential here, but a lot of quality of life things should go in to it before that day. You might get a feel for some of them by watching the video I recorded of me playing your game.\n\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/10y6Mij3ee8?t=24m31s","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-24T09:29:47Z","epoch":1524562187,"modified":1524562187,"text":"@ben-pearson Thanks! Definitely agree that there needs to be a tutorial system, and a way to tell where your enemy is if they're off-screen.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"mikedirl","author_uid":"1009413","time":"2018-04-25T13:03:37Z","epoch":1524661417,"modified":1524661417,"text":"Interesting and very clever use of the theme, took me a while to figure out how to play though. This must have taken a massive amount of work to do in 48 hours, almost a mini logic gate designer. The concept has a alot of potential for expansion. Enjoyable game.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Hare Software","author_uid":"1079680","time":"2018-04-25T13:43:36Z","epoch":1524663816,"modified":1524663816,"text":"GUI was a little tricky at first, but had a blast playing it. Hope you guys create more levels which, liked what I have played so far!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Kurt Roembke","author_uid":"1004085","time":"2018-04-25T13:49:12Z","epoch":1524664152,"modified":1524664152,"text":"It was a little bit confusing to figure out how to connect the wires at first, but once I got going it was fun and stressful!  :P nice!\n","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Pecolyte","author_uid":"1002797","time":"2018-04-25T15:09:20Z","epoch":1524668960,"modified":1524668960,"text":"Liked it when you can connect different controls to actions, even double them. Nicely done!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"fazz","author_uid":"1035611","time":"2018-04-25T22:08:05Z","epoch":1524694085,"modified":1524694085,"text":"I love logic gate games, this is great combination of gameplay elements, really enjoyed it.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"tsjost","author_uid":"1012087","time":"2018-04-26T17:29:05Z","epoch":1524763745,"modified":1524763745,"text":"Very nice idea, logic gates are always fun, but the clunky UX was frustrating. At first I thought something was broken with keyboard input as arrow keys and W was working, but A and D weren't (even though it said something about thrusters right before). In the logic editor it took a while to see the blue dots, and I'm not sure why one can't hook up e.g. right input to left thrusters immediately without a gate. When I had gotten the thrusters working I returned to the ship view to find the shooting had stopped and I couldn't find any emenies or something -- after waiting around for a while I restarted the game. This time I got through the logic quicker and the enemty was still there, and I could shoot it down with the very slow weapons. I'm still not sure whether the main thrusters actually work, since pressing W lights the back up, but you're not actually moving anywhere (another ship was on-screen, and it stayed in the same spot regardless if I was \"moving\" or not).\n\nThen came the logic design for the weapons system; I'm guessing you have to AND the user input with either the inverse or the non-inverse of the overheat signal, depending on if it's active high or low, which you find out by trying and then redesigning if you did it wrong? Honestly I couldn't get past this part as there was too much information to handle with the current UI; when a node tooltip closed I immediately forgot what it was about -- a label next to the nodes would be great so you can see what everything is. The mouse is constantly moving back and forth between the nodes, the main design board and the toolbar to do things and switch between nodes, which gets a bit tiring.\n\nWith smoother UX this would make a great game!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Noxbuds","author_uid":"1048913","time":"2018-04-26T18:37:59Z","epoch":1524767879,"modified":1524767879,"text":"@tsjost Thanks for the feedback! I definitely plan to expand the game a bit and improve the UI a lot more :)","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"Arqcenick","author_uid":"1052122","time":"2018-04-26T20:17:31Z","epoch":1524773851,"modified":1524773851,"text":"I liked your idea a lot. It's interesting to repair ship using the logic gates, I hoped there were more challenges teaching about different type of gates.\nI would play it if gets expanded in the future. Well done!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"CiaranW","author_uid":"1059776","time":"2018-04-26T23:25:24Z","epoch":1524785124,"modified":1524785124,"text":"Ambitious game! I enjoyed it though (and finished it), and I like the potential too. I think it would be good to improve the graphics a little bit, because it was quite difficult to figure out which way you were moving (although i guess would be in real-life space). Secondly, I felt I was under pressure to do the logic, which is a good mechanic, but I couldn't tell how much pressure, so it would be good to add a health bar in that screen. And final point, I wish the puzzles went on for longer, I love the potential of how the time constraints might cause me to compromise on my logic design and then have to cope with it when controlling my ship, maybe by gradually introducing more complex systems with time. Anyway, all of this comes from me enjoying your game and considering the possibilities so please take don't take it as bashing! Nice concept and nice work!","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"mrwillowb","author_uid":"1003052","time":"2018-04-28T01:16:54Z","epoch":1524878214,"modified":1524878214,"text":"It reminded me of volfield but much harder. ","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"acotis","author_uid":"1000279","time":"2018-04-30T14:42:39Z","epoch":1525099359,"modified":1525099359,"text":"Very good combination, you made these incompatible themes work well together.  Although, I think the game might have turned out better had you applied your focus differently -- there are lots of logic gates, but only two simple levels, for example, and while the tooltips are a nice convenience, it might have been better to throw in some static labels and work on getting forward-thrusting to work instead :P  However, I will say you did a great job getting the mood right.  I felt real anxiety trying to fix the circuits before my ship got blown up.  I suggest adding music to further amplify the mood.","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"MacDoom","author_uid":"1078881","time":"2018-05-04T04:44:10Z","epoch":1525409050,"modified":1525409050,"text":"Super cool game!\nIt definitely needs that the player knows something about logic gates. For further versions a sensible tutorial will be a must to become reachable for all gamers.\nA couple of more levels would have been amazing. Also the fact that the puzzle don't have to be 100% completed, just to make work the necessary needs to the ocation granted that feeling of \"hackery\" so satisfyng. Destroying your enemy with a fast repaired ship is really rewarding.\nCongratulations! ","likes":0,"format":"md"},{"author_name":"NvrSkipGameDay","author_uid":"1000822","time":"2018-05-08T03:21:49Z","epoch":1525749709,"modified":1525749709,"text":"Gotta say this is a really cool idea and I could see it being fleshed into a polished game. Being the engineer in the background that gets the ship going is pretty satisfying, though I had a hard time figuring out the logic gates at first. Took some figuring, but yeah, great submission!","likes":0,"format":"md"}],"format":"md","images":["ld41\/74306-490a0064ee0b8a8cf0775b320584ceab.png"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/noxbuds.itch.io\/red-shirt-engineer","text":"HTML5 (web)"},{"url":"https:\/\/noxbuds.itch.io\/red-shirt-engineer","text":"Windows"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"37427","g_author":"1048913","g_event":"LD41","g_eventkey":"72","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"221006","g_title":"Red Shirt Engineer","g_status":"USEAR3","g_place":"434","g_commentcount":"33","g_site2_node_id":"74306","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":{"n_key":"74306","n_urlkey":"221006","n_parent":"73256","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/41\/red-shirt-engineer","n_slug":"red-shirt-engineer","n_type":"item","n_subtype":"game","n_subsubtype":"compo","n_author":"48913","n_created":"1522160110","n_modified":"1524502781","n_version":"254825","n_status":"COMMIT"},"node":{"id":74306,"parent":73256,"superparent":9,"author":48913,"type":"item","subtype":"game","subsubtype":"compo","published":"2018-04-23T01:02:43Z","created":"2018-03-27T14:15:10Z","modified":"2018-04-23T16:59:41Z","version":254825,"slug":"red-shirt-engineer","name":"Red Shirt Engineer","body":"![web title art.png](\/\/\/raw\/11f\/b\/z\/10c46.png)\n![LD41 recording.gif](\/\/\/raw\/11f\/b\/z\/10dec.gif)\n\n\nShortly after a scientific expedition arrived at an interesting spatial anomaly, hostile ships start warping in. Without any communication whatsoever, they open fire, and target your ship's systems, and many crew members are injured. You, the enigmatic engineer wearing a red shirt, must repair the damage done to each system, and pilot the ship to safety.\n\n.\n\nHOW TO PLAY:\n\nUnfortunately I didn't get any time to write a tutorial really, just some tooltips. So here's one.\n\nW = Move forward\n\nA = Turn left\n\nD = Turn right\n\nLeft Arrow = Fire left railgun\n\nUp Arrow = Fire forward railgun\n\nRight Arrow = Fire right railgun\n\n.\n\nThe button on the top-left of your screen will take you to see the panel that's been damaged.\nOnce viewing the engineering panel, everything is fairly self-explanatory. At the top, you have a selection of logic gates you can place, a tool to connect them, and a button to return to the original ship view.\n\nEach logic gate has 2 input terminals(except the NOT gate, that has 1), and an output terminal. The blue circles are inputs, the red circle is the output, and the cross above the output is to delete the logic gate. The same colour scheme applies to the panels' inputs and outputs (left and right terminals respectively).\n\nOnce you click a terminal, you will start dragging a wire. You can right-click to drop it. Each input can only be connected to one output, and each output can only be connected to one input (though the panel terminals on the left can be connected to multiple terminals). Note: I have seen some bugs with this, if you connect an input to multiple outputs or vice versa it probably won't work... you might have to restart the game even ;)\n\nRemember - some circuits are connected to machines that generate a lot of heat. If these are allowed to get too hot, your circuit could get damaged!\n\n.\n\nDEV NOTES:\n\nQuite happy with how this turned out. I would have liked to have added another system and some music, but at least I got some sound effects so that's great. Not entirely sure about the background when flying in ship view, it should probably be a scrolling background of sorts, but oh well.\n\nIn terms of bugs, it's playable. I've double checked that it's possible, but there might be a bug or two still. If you find one please tell me :)\n\nIf you're curious, I made a kind of manual for the circuits. They won't tell you the solution(s), but they go into more detail about what each input\/output does and the implications of certain sets of inputs\/outputs.\n\nHave fun!","meta":{"author":[48913],"link-01":"https:\/\/noxbuds.itch.io\/red-shirt-engineer","link-01-name":"","link-02":"https:\/\/noxbuds.itch.io\/red-shirt-engineer","link-02-tag":"42337","link-02-name":"","cover":"\/\/\/content\/11f\/b\/z\/10c22.png","link-01-tag":"42336","link-03":"https:\/\/github.com\/Noxbuds\/LD41"},"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/41\/red-shirt-engineer","parents":[1,5,9,73256],"love":0,"notes":33,"notes-timestamp":"2018-05-08T03:21:49Z","grade":{"grade-01":40,"grade-02":40,"grade-03":40,"grade-04":40,"grade-05":40,"grade-06":37,"grade-07":36,"grade-08":37},"magic":{"cool":111.13502318119,"feedback":32,"given":46.625,"grade":38.75,"grade-01-average":3.237,"grade-01-result":434,"grade-02-average":2.961,"grade-02-result":523,"grade-03-average":3.658,"grade-03-result":188,"grade-04-average":3.671,"grade-04-result":308,"grade-05-average":2.816,"grade-05-result":517,"grade-06-average":2.4,"grade-06-result":466,"grade-07-average":2.441,"grade-07-result":414,"grade-08-average":2.943,"grade-08-result":398,"smart":26.314741866256}},"text":"![web title art.png](\/\/\/raw\/11f\/b\/z\/10c46.png)\n![LD41 recording.gif](\/\/\/raw\/11f\/b\/z\/10dec.gif)\n\n\nShortly after a scientific expedition arrived at an interesting spatial anomaly, hostile ships start warping in. Without any communication whatsoever, they open fire, and target your ship's systems, and many crew members are injured. You, the enigmatic engineer wearing a red shirt, must repair the damage done to each system, and pilot the ship to safety.\n\n.\n\nHOW TO PLAY:\n\nUnfortunately I didn't get any time to write a tutorial really, just some tooltips. So here's one.\n\nW = Move forward\n\nA = Turn left\n\nD = Turn right\n\nLeft Arrow = Fire left railgun\n\nUp Arrow = Fire forward railgun\n\nRight Arrow = Fire right railgun\n\n.\n\nThe button on the top-left of your screen will take you to see the panel that's been damaged.\nOnce viewing the engineering panel, everything is fairly self-explanatory. At the top, you have a selection of logic gates you can place, a tool to connect them, and a button to return to the original ship view.\n\nEach logic gate has 2 input terminals(except the NOT gate, that has 1), and an output terminal. The blue circles are inputs, the red circle is the output, and the cross above the output is to delete the logic gate. The same colour scheme applies to the panels' inputs and outputs (left and right terminals respectively).\n\nOnce you click a terminal, you will start dragging a wire. You can right-click to drop it. Each input can only be connected to one output, and each output can only be connected to one input (though the panel terminals on the left can be connected to multiple terminals). Note: I have seen some bugs with this, if you connect an input to multiple outputs or vice versa it probably won't work... you might have to restart the game even ;)\n\nRemember - some circuits are connected to machines that generate a lot of heat. If these are allowed to get too hot, your circuit could get damaged!\n\n.\n\nDEV NOTES:\n\nQuite happy with how this turned out. I would have liked to have added another system and some music, but at least I got some sound effects so that's great. Not entirely sure about the background when flying in ship view, it should probably be a scrolling background of sorts, but oh well.\n\nIn terms of bugs, it's playable. I've double checked that it's possible, but there might be a bug or two still. If you find one please tell me :)\n\nIf you're curious, I made a kind of manual for the circuits. They won't tell you the solution(s), but they go into more detail about what each input\/output does and the implications of certain sets of inputs\/outputs.\n\nHave fun!","title":"Red Shirt Engineer"}