Astrum Dare by Astralore

[raw]
made by Astralore for LD 42 (JAM)

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Today should have been just another typical day onboard the newly-built Space Station Zentri. Unfortunately, due to a long string of costly mistakes, the station finds itself in a crisis. An asteroid storm is closing in... and everyone is still on board.

Luckily, the personnel of the space station are being evacuated as quickly as possible. As one of the few skilled pilots on staff, you've been chosen to get them to safety. But you'd better make every second count...

Astrum Dare is an interactive visual novel game made over one weekend for Ludum Dare 42. The decisions you make are critical and will decide both your fate and the fates of those around you. It features approximately ~10k words, over 8 different endings, and a challenging puzzle segment that might just be the difference between life and death.

The theme is "Running Out of Space", and is used multiple times throughout the story.

For the majority of the team, this is our first submission to Ludum Dare.

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Ratings

Overall 507th 3.462⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Fun 722th 3.108⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 844th 2.932⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 675th 3.395⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 158th 4.15⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 113th 3.829⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 33🗨️

Feedback

Raccoon_JS
14. Aug 2018 · 21:05 UTC
Interesting visual novel. Will finish reading it soon.
CaylebLucas
16. Aug 2018 · 07:11 UTC
5 out of 5 for the graphics! :)
BrainSlugs83
16. Aug 2018 · 07:39 UTC
Hmmmm... would have been neat to see some different arcs* -- like to have a choice about the gun, etc. -- neat bit of polish to be able to look around; though I would have liked to see it used in some puzzle where you can notice something and pick it up, etc... -- Overall pretty cool though. -- (*:like that potato game awhile back, with all the different endings!.... this one: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=44153 )
RED_IRON
17. Aug 2018 · 04:37 UTC
Interesting story
moonlightbomber
17. Aug 2018 · 12:52 UTC
It's interesting to see a visual novel where one is not just running out of space, but also of time. There's this sense of emergency that I can sense from the mood alone.
C0nst4ntin
18. Aug 2018 · 22:21 UTC
Interesting interpretation of the Game! I enjoyed it a lot!
Divinenephron
18. Aug 2018 · 22:37 UTC
The graphics are all extremely well produced - the characters, the backgrounds, everything. The SFX, BGM and writing also really quickly created a pressured atmosphere. I think an improvement I'd suggest for next time is in the writing of the female NPCs - their interaction with each other is a catfight, which has been done so often it's become a cliché. Giving them some other sort of interaction would make them more interesting characters.
Carlos Giraldo
18. Aug 2018 · 23:11 UTC
Loved the illustrations and what was accomplished over the weekend.
johnnwfs
19. Aug 2018 · 00:30 UTC
Wonderful graphics! Very nice looking game!
volt450
19. Aug 2018 · 01:12 UTC
Neat game, I couldn't figure out how to solve the puzzle unfortunately :(
🎤 Astralore
19. Aug 2018 · 01:18 UTC
Thank you very much all, your comments and all the nice things said are very appreciated and encouraging! :blush:

@volt450 If you mean the first puzzle, did you try validating it anyway? Either that, or if you work on it for 3 minutes it should advance you anyway. The game is made so that the plot will continue even if you can't solve any of the puzzles, and they also get easier over the course of the story. :slight_smile:
volt450
19. Aug 2018 · 01:22 UTC
@astralore All three puzzles, I got the bad ending. I had fun anyway :)
RedRoseWings
19. Aug 2018 · 01:24 UTC
Very awesome!!! I loved the art and the sound. Very intriguing story as well!
🎤 Astralore
19. Aug 2018 · 01:28 UTC
Oh no @volt450 ! :sob: Well I'm very glad you had fun anyway :smile: Thank you for playing!

@redrosewings thank you very much :blush:
n00b
19. Aug 2018 · 03:08 UTC
First off, I have to say I love the graphics in this game. I did find that the beginning kind of dragged on for a little longer than it needed to but it didn't effect my overall enjoyment of the game.
yojammerjammer
19. Aug 2018 · 03:11 UTC
Great job! Loved the animations and the puzzle.
piscythe
19. Aug 2018 · 05:14 UTC
Very engaging. Y'all did an excellent job of cultivating the feeling of intellectual panic that comes with having to solve a technical problem with the clock ticking down. I did find a way to shenanigans part of a puzzle piece onto the red part of the bar, which caused a fatal error when I hit validate. Later, I tried to deliberately fail all three puzzles to see the worst ending, but clicking validate on the third puzzle without even touching the pieces somehow counted as passing it. The art style is excellent, especially since the characters actually changed expressions. Good work!
Zicboy
19. Aug 2018 · 06:22 UTC
Awesome game. I was pleasantly suprised with the overall mood of the game. Hope you develop a post jam version for this!
jcwelgemoed
19. Aug 2018 · 10:30 UTC
Very well done. Loved playing this
Welliton
19. Aug 2018 · 16:51 UTC
Saved Zeni only.
How i love to deep into a game without knowing anything about it. I didnt know that was a visual novel and blam, cool story and cool SFX/Music syncs.
The sencond time i was doing the puzzle, When I turned off the last bracket, it deleted every key (color), so i wasnt able to do it anymore. Thanks god there was a 3th chance. :) Awesome graphics, and the mouse view is an interesting point on using on these narrative games. Excelent job!
Ogma
20. Aug 2018 · 00:15 UTC
Interesting take on the theme.

At first, I have to stay, stunning visuals, the art style is really atypical in a really good way, the chara design is nice, Zeni reminded me of Diablo from X-Men Evolution, maybe the haircut.^^ You even animated them when they talk.

The music is great and fits the game, the sound effects are correct.

I played multiple time (Windows 10) and didn't encounter any bug, everything went smoothly.

I don't know if it's "native" from the engine you used, but asking the name of the player is a nice "detail" and implementing a save system is a good idea.

As I said, I finished the game multiple time, I think I got 4 or 5 of the 8 endings. Even if for most of them we were only two survivors as I didn't do really well with the first / second puzzle.
About the puzzle, first time I see a puzzle like this one, it's a well thought one, good job on that too.
It was funny that whoever I took with me made everyone else confused.^^ Characters were always "in character" from start to end so good job on the writing part, loved Misha's reaction when you didn't chose Fera. It was a tough choice between those 4 but it shows a nice writing if I care enough about them after only some minutes on the game to replay and try to save the other and / or regret my choice.

Awesome job, guys! :)
rEaX
20. Aug 2018 · 02:33 UTC
What an ambitious project to take on in a jam! Amazing graphics and lots of content, well done! And thank god for the save feature!!!
atom0520
20. Aug 2018 · 03:37 UTC
The graphics, animations, dialogues, audios are all awesome! I like the design that player can move the view a little bit when in dialogues. The protocal puzzles are interesting and also fit the theme. I have tried the protocal puzzles for several times, as I really want to rescue more characters at length. However each time I tried I could only solve the last puzzle, and I wonder if there exist solutions for the first two puzzles.

On the whole it's a very impressive game. Good job!
zeu31
21. Aug 2018 · 22:24 UTC
Very interesting use of the theme. Great work!
CBdeVilla
25. Aug 2018 · 07:58 UTC
I like the way the theme shows up on both a gameplay and a narrative level. Also, unless I'm mistaken, it looks like a pair of the clues in the first puzzle makes it physically impossible to solve? If it is, I'm going to assume it's intentional, so you can't just take the ship that lets everyone escape to safety.