Stellar Blackout by azsteak

[raw]
made by azsteak for LD 39 (JAM)

Hello you

As it's our first game jam, our game might seem a bit simple but we're pretty proud of it :smile:

So, this is Stellar Blackout!

screen.jpg

In Stellar Blackout, you manage a space station as an advanced AI. You must be careful about your energy because you'll probably be running out of it!

Please, be patient, the loading can take up to 30sec ^^'

- Controls -

The game is entirely playable with the mouse.

Thanks for giving us your time !

Ratings

Overall 585th 3.105⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 650th 2.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 325th 3.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 71th 4.105⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 605th 3⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 205th 3.5⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Humor 478th 2.214⭐ 16🧑‍⚖️
Mood 156th 3.722⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 3🗨️

Feedback

Jeremy Ryan
31. Jul 2017 · 12:54 UTC
Interesting game, good use of the theme. Graphics are simple but fit the overall feel. I've never been good at this kind of resource-management game, but this is a very good use of one. Well done for 72 hrs!
btwj
31. Jul 2017 · 12:56 UTC
I liked the art style of the entire game. I think one simple improvement to the entire game would be to make the sliders larger, so it's easier to quickly adjust the levels. Also, perfects more visually show the effects of certain events. I like the music and audio, which generally added an eerie atmosphere to the entire game. Great job!
pauljs
31. Jul 2017 · 13:14 UTC
Really nice interpretation of the theme ! Love the idea but i think the game miss feedback where the important informations are and a tutorial, it's a bit hard to understand everything. I would love to play to a more complete version ! Nice art style and music too !
🎤 azsteak
31. Jul 2017 · 13:28 UTC
@btwj Yeah we tried to make them wider, but we had some responsivness problems ^^'
We had some trouble trying to make all infos fit in the screens
🎤 azsteak
31. Jul 2017 · 13:33 UTC
@pauljs We tried different techniques to make more obvious feedbacks. Maybe we'll add some sounds to notify the player. But we'll don't have much free time from now
simonhutchinson
31. Jul 2017 · 15:52 UTC
Wow neat! Once I got rolling this was really nice: sophisticated, but straightforward. When I first loaded up the whole GUI was a bit intimidating, but it made sense pretty quickly.

I love the music. What is it? Some 804% time-stretched thing?
🎤 azsteak
04. Aug 2017 · 15:21 UTC
@simonhutchinson Thanks a lot ! And yeah, the music is just a really streched music :D
We didn't made it btw. I got it on freesound.org
Speaking of it, maybe we should have added sources for the sound, even if it's free to use
claramakesamess
04. Aug 2017 · 17:15 UTC
I really like this game! I played it a few times. I'm a little confused about the number of citizens though. I think repairing modules also increases the number of citizens? I have 100 citizens most of the time. So even when the cargo ships come and drop ppl off I max out at 100. Having some trouble surviving into the next day even with my modules turned off. Maybe I'm missing something. Made it to 23.45 hrs.
🎤 azsteak
04. Aug 2017 · 23:50 UTC
@claramakesamess Thanks for the review !
The game need some balancing, and citizen count is maxed at 100. If below 100, the number of citizen increase (by things of life, you know :D)
Konstantin Boyko
06. Aug 2017 · 02:01 UTC
Note: the game seems somewhat broken in Edge, but fine in Chrome

It's nice to see this type of game, and it's on the nose with the theme. It took me a little bit to understand all the mechanics (and I still think I'm misunderstanding some) but it got fun once I did.
mrtwister
21. Aug 2017 · 10:02 UTC
Really fun game! I suck at resource management games but I enjoyed this entry.

I loved the little details like the monitoring systems going offline, and the screen getting dim as you reduce the CPU power. The UI was easy to read and quite stylish. Helped a lot with the mood.

The max 100 citizen thing was confusing while playing. If I hadn't read your comment just now, I would have thought you had a bug there. An in-game explanation would be nice.

I also see in the comments that the music wasn't made by your team. If that's the case I guess you should opt-out from the audio category.

I can't believe this is your first jam though! It's an impressively well-done entry, quite apt for the theme, really content-rich, engaging, and very fun to play. Congratulations to the whole team!

P.S: Also note that Jam games are not required to include the source code, but it's nice that you included it.

P.P.S: For your next LD game, try rating more games from other LD-ers. I see that you haven't rated many games, and playing other entries is pretty much the most straight-forward and LD-friendly way of bringing attention to your own game. Consider that for future iterations.
easy82
21. Aug 2017 · 10:26 UTC
I like the atmosphere of the game, the sound effects and the ambient music are nice, and the UI graphics is quite fitting. I would like to have more visual and audio feedback of my actions -- to see the connection between my actions and the reactions. I like it, keep it up :)
matita
21. Aug 2017 · 10:46 UTC
Love the atmosphere of this game!

Love the graphics, the different panels that shut down by lowering cpu consumption, the audio!

Some times it happens that the solar panels do not work anymore, without any warning or prompt to repair them.
The logs say that if I noticed a malfunctioning module I should warn the administrator but I don't know how to do it :(

I wish I could manage to stay alive for more than 1 day, but I had fun trying it! :D
🎤 azsteak
21. Aug 2017 · 11:49 UTC
@matita if solar panels don't work maybe it's because it's night time ! We should have put more obvious clues to indicate when it's night time.

although, the administrator thing is just one of the random messages for the ambiance, sorry :D
🎤 azsteak
21. Aug 2017 · 11:55 UTC
YEAH We got more than 20 votes!! Thanks everyone !
justinooncx
21. Aug 2017 · 16:02 UTC
This took a while to wrap my head around, as it wasn't clear what does what immediately. Solar winds... lower my solar panels? What do I do when something short circuits? Still, the mood was definitely top notch, despite the simple graphics.
🎤 azsteak
21. Aug 2017 · 16:38 UTC
@justinooncx We had trouble finding succint explanation for the solar winds effect. In fact, it make you loose the same amount of energy that you are currently using/producing. We tried to recreate the effect of short circuit, the more electricty flow you have in your circuits, the more damage you'll get. So we make a sum of the absolute values of energy production AND consumption, and subtract your stored energy by this value.

Is it clear enough :sweat_smile: ?