APOLLO v-1.0 by grey

made by grey for LD 40 (JAM)

APOLLO v-1.0

Hi there! This is my entry for the Ludum Dare 40 game jam. You control a small rocket and have to collect the red dots. Each dot adds weight to your rocket, making it harder to control. Every 15 points you get an upgrade.

Title screen

In-game screenshots

CONTROLS:
W - Accelerate
A - Yaw left
D - Yaw right
R - (Re)start
K - Kill Player
C - Show controls
B - Toggle bloom I - Toggle CRT
M - Toggle music
? - Toggle cheats

What's your highscore?

Work used:

Music - Fall Falling by Kevin MacLeod
https://freepd.com/Electronic/Fall%20Falling

CRT Shader - Based on the tutorial by Alan Zucconi
https://www.alanzucconi.com/2015/07/08/screen-shaders-and-postprocessing-effects-in-unity3d/

Font - Pixeled by OmegaPC777
https://www.dafont.com/de/pixeled.font

If I (unintentionally) used your work against your will, please contact me.

EDIT: Since there are some great ideas in the comments, I will continue developing this game once rating has finished.
Features to add:
- Speed indicator
- Crash indicator
- Improved upgrade mechanic
- De-spaghettify code (You should see the current mess)
- Replace current music and font with own work

HTML5 (web)	https://greyld.itch.io/apollo-v01
Other (platform)	https://greyld.itch.io/apollo-v01
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/apollo-v-1-0

Ratings

Overall	374^th	3.63⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Fun	279^th	3.63⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	716^th	3.019⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Theme	399^th	3.63⭐	29🧑‍⚖️
Humor	877^th	2.229⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Mood	498^th	3.385⭐	28🧑‍⚖️
Given		30🗳️	25🗨️

Feedback

SeanW

04. Dec 2017 · 17:26 UTC

Fun game! Reminds me of that Lunar Lander game. Interesting take on the theme! I found it a little hard to control at first but eventually I got a little better at it. My high score was 25 I think!

RainbowJam

05. Dec 2017 · 06:55 UTC

Mannn this is hard haha
Nice visuals, would have liked to see some particles though, I think that would fit so well with this
Fantastic sound, suits the game well
Pretty challenging, couldn't get past 25 before giving up
Overall I enjoyed this one :smile:

justinooncx

05. Dec 2017 · 07:08 UTC

The game might look simple, but it's pretty damn polished for what it is! The music is pretty great, and the sound effects are cool, although the hissing of the rocket engines can get a tad annoying at times. Rather challenging game, too... Can't tell when I'm moving TOO fast! All in all, great work!

TechnoNugget

05. Dec 2017 · 07:23 UTC

Perfect take on the theme, simple and concise graphics, and the music was great!
The gameplay was pretty fun too, I played quite a few times and got a high score of 50

AndrewBallinger

05. Dec 2017 · 07:27 UTC

Classic, unforgiving. Solidly executed!

joekickass

05. Dec 2017 · 07:28 UTC

Liked the retro visuals, fun physics although at times it feels like I can hit the walls pretty hard and not die. my high score was 35. Fun game!

devmax

05. Dec 2017 · 07:30 UTC

Pretty fun game! Maybe make it a bit easier to control, could really help it through I think. Nice idea with adding weight, I think it could be nicer if there was some sort of visual indication there.

Lamossus

05. Dec 2017 · 07:31 UTC

There's a bug: if you press "w" immideatly after start you lose. Also it's kinda hard to tell when you are going too fast. But overall pretty nice little game

Maxime Catel

05. Dec 2017 · 08:09 UTC

Hey that's a good concept ! However I get stuck between asteroids. That was a nice experience ! :p

🎤 grey

05. Dec 2017 · 15:11 UTC

A lot of people are saying that the music is great. Thank you, however I am not the artist. I found this song [here](ttps://freepd.com/Electronic/Fall%20Falling), made by an artist called Kevin MacLeod. The font used was not made by me either, but by [OmegaPC777](https://www.dafont.com/de/pixeled.font)

SwiftChack

05. Dec 2017 · 16:09 UTC

I love it! I just got it on mac and it worked great! Tons of fun! Very challenging! I couldn't stop! I could only get like four red cubes... :joy:

Carpin

05. Dec 2017 · 17:03 UTC

Loved playing this game and I'm really impressed by the movement of the ship! Congrats!

PD: Highscore 60.

🎤 grey

05. Dec 2017 · 17:08 UTC

@carpin My highscore is 140. Did you collect 60 dots or score 60 points?

Ongomato

05. Dec 2017 · 17:12 UTC

Solid game!
Gets quite challenging after a while.

Moski

05. Dec 2017 · 18:14 UTC

After a few tries, my best was capped at 40. I'm so bad at this :I

Regardless, I found the game to be that kind of entertaining-because-it's-challenging. The controls are a bit floaty (yet they somewhat feel good given the design), and the game feels very rewarding. It does keep getting harder and harder, so it fits the theme perfectly.

The aesthetics are superb. Very retro, very vivid.

If there's one thing that I don't get is that the instructions say that there's an upgrade every 15 points. I got to 40 and never noticed anything of the sort. Did it mean after 15 dots? In which case, given how I suck at this, odds are that I'll never see them.

Anyhow, fantastic work. In behalf of our team, I wish you a snazzy LD. Keep up the good work! :whale:

🎤 grey

05. Dec 2017 · 19:57 UTC

@moski Thank you for your feedback! :smile: What I meant by 15 points is the score shown at the bottom (5 points per red dot). Every 15 points you get a slight boost in thrust and torque, making it a bit easier. I probably should have made the upgrade sound a bit louder... :confused:

CoderK

05. Dec 2017 · 20:07 UTC

Great game! However, the controls felt a bit sensitive. Other than that, well done! Very retro feel, and I enjoyed it!

fractalsunrise

05. Dec 2017 · 20:08 UTC

It was fun! The floaty controls made it a lot more slow and calculating than I expected, but it was fitting for space. I was really bad at it with my left hand, so I moved my right hand over to WAD and it was much easier for me after that. I actually found that the beginning where the ship was lightest was pretty hard, then after getting a few points it was at a sweet spot, then it got more difficult from there. The most fun part for me was hitting the thrust at just the right time to make the rocket almost hover; the times when I timed it right it felt very satisfying.

It would be neat if there was a way to show the ship's current speed, so you could know if you were going too fast to hit something before you hit it. I was never quite sure if I was going to lose, but the neat glitch effect that happens when you lose was fun so I didn't mind much. My high score was 65. Thanks for making the game!

🎤 grey

05. Dec 2017 · 20:17 UTC

@coderk Thank you for your feedback! I noticed that too, an I will definitely try to improve that after voting has finished. Great that you enjoy it! ^^

@fractalsunrise I love hovering like that as well. Try flying low, do you notice something? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

profan

06. Dec 2017 · 00:11 UTC

Wow, quite difficult as you get heavier and heavier; but I loved the overall feeling of the flying and the sound-effect for the thruster, if theres any small complaint I have it is that the sound-effect of the thruster is quite loud, could tone down the volume just a tiny bit, but all-in-all quite addictive!

Great work! :D

pinneh

10. Dec 2017 · 20:30 UTC

Fun! I would have liked to be able to use my mouse to direct the ships direction but maybe that would have been too easy.

Liam Higgo

11. Dec 2017 · 10:11 UTC

Found it a bit difficult to control at first, but got a bit more used to it soon enough. Sound effects and music added to the experience. Overall it was a simple, fun game.

Baby Dino Herd

18. Dec 2017 · 05:43 UTC

Presentation was simple, but very effective. Gameplay was fun but perhaps rewarded caution a little too much. Would have liked to get a little more feedback as to when you 'crash' or not. Very nicely done!

wh05herlock

25. Dec 2017 · 09:44 UTC

This is a really neat game :). I think the trick is to only tap the controls.