LudumData

StarAway by frogcheese

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

title<em>screen</em>3.png

The galaxy is in danger! Fingal Shark of the StarAway team is on his way to stop the evil Doctor Llama - er, that is if he can get off the ground first.

Make your way to the end of the level in this 3D auto runner. Your height from the ground is governed by your remaining energy - and it's constantly being drained! Hit boost pads for extra speed and energy. Speeding up or slowing down will consume more energy than your default speed. You can use this to make an intentional drops onto nearby boost pads that you would otherwise pass over.

The relation to the theme should be fairly obvious. The name itself is an truly horrible pun about the galaxy being so close yet so far away.

obstacle2.png

How To Play

  • Move left and right with A and D or with arrow keys.
  • Speed up with W/Z/Arrow up, slow down with S/X/Arrow down. You will drop faster when doing this. You can also use the left and right mouse buttons.
  • Make it to the end!
  • The game will get faster and consume your energy quicker as you progress.

Attributions:

Notes

  • Post-compo build with music and some other minor goodies is also on the way.

Updates

  • v1.0.1 - Added WebGL build and icons for the desktop builds. Removed unused input keys and renamed existing ones to make rebinding easier for players.
  • v1.0.2 - Added W/S and arrow up/arrow down as alternatives for regulating speed. Also, learned basic arithmetic. 3 days != 78 hours.
HTML5 (web) https://frogcheese.itch.io/staraway
macOS https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zmcru3citgjyw9/StarAway_macOS.zip?dl=1
Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/c577q48hlx6r3ks/StarAway_Win.zip?dl=1
Linux https://www.dropbox.com/s/2w6za0k3kondigf/StarAway_Linux.zip?dl=1
Source code https://github.com/p-dahlback/ld-39
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/staraway

Ratings

Overall 497th 3.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 503th 3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 718th 2.5⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 316th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 373th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 481th 2.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 77th 3.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 399th 3.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

🎤 frogcheese
01. Aug 2017 · 01:46 UTC
Didn't mean to stay up this late, but it's up! I finished the music at like 5 minutes past the deadline, so I'll put that in the post-compo version. Overall, I'm still pretty happy with what I accomplished. WebGL build will be coming within the next couple of days!
Pixel Game Wizard
01. Aug 2017 · 04:42 UTC
First of all, I think this is a very interesting and innovative idea. :-) I love the graphic style (I love the original Star Fox better than any other Star Fox games I've played, so kudos to you!), and I also really like the humor, your protagonist is fun! Overall the game made me smile. Good job!

The gameplay itself was interesting to adjust to. I wouldn't say it came naturally, but eventually I did get a rough hang of it. I never felt I had complete control of the ship (which I guess is consistent with the premise). While it's interesting as a proof-of-concept, I don't know how I would feel about that over the course of more levels.

I have a few questions about the control, actually:
1. I was a bit confused as to whether I was supposed to hold X/Z to change speed, or whether it was a single tap of the key to permanently change the speed?
2. (Really just out of curiosity) Is there a reason you used X/Z instead of W/S for speed? As far as I could tell, W and S didn't do anything. Did I miss something?

Overall I think the game was fun, I'm interested to know if you'll take it farther. Thank you for sharing it! :-)
🎤 frogcheese
01. Aug 2017 · 19:05 UTC
@pixel-game-wizard Thanks for your kind words! I've never played the original Star Fox myself - Star Fox 64 is my only game in the series (excluding that dinosaur game...) When I came up with the idea of a space ship 3D runner I figured it'd be a good inspiration for the look of the game, as well as an opportunity for fitting in some funny banter by the character.

As for your questions:

1. You're supposed to hold it. The exhaust sound and particles should communicate which speed you're going at, but right now there's a bit of a communication error there given that the exhausts go nuts for a while after you hit a booster.
2. Using W/S was simply a bit uncomfortable for me. I like having separate "accelerator" and "brake" keys for these types of games.

I'll polish this a bit more, but probably won't develop further. If so I'd rather do my own full on-rails shooter instead. Thanks again for the feedback!
rijnswand
01. Aug 2017 · 22:43 UTC
Reminds me of Race the Sun. Great way to apply the theme. The graphics seemed nice. I also found it awkward to press Z/X while having my fingers on A and D.
🎤 frogcheese
02. Aug 2017 · 15:03 UTC
@rijnswand Thanks for the feedback! Even though I put WASD in the description, I actually only used the arrow keys myself so I totally missed that this was an issue - really, thanks for pointing it out. I've added W/S and Arrow up/Arrow down in the latest version, so you don't have to be an expert contortionist to play. This also makes it possible to play one-handed for those who need it.
jahndis
05. Aug 2017 · 05:40 UTC
This game is hilarious! A simple concept executed very well. Love the style. Great job!
bombjack
08. Aug 2017 · 08:41 UTC
great job! this game is very well made! I really like this retro art style :grin:
jotson
10. Aug 2017 · 14:39 UTC
The talking shark is pretty funny. His speech sounds made me laugh. The graphics are nice but it's kind of an odd mixture of pixel art and 3D almost vector style art. I think the game would look better if you picked one style or the other.
GanbareGamesKyle
13. Aug 2017 · 00:52 UTC
Shame that such an interesting concept was handled in such a flawed way. The gameplay just feels off. I think it's because there's no real choice in the actions you take, you either hit the ramps or you don't without any chance of correcting yourself. That and the repetition killed it for me. Of course, maybe I'm way off base in my analysis since my game technically had the same gameplay problems/quirks I just said that didn't like in your game. But probably I was right all along and both our games suck.

Also it'd have been nice if the cubes you dodge used textures that were in a similar style to shark man.
ProdigalSon
14. Aug 2017 · 23:51 UTC
I think you captured the essence of Star Fox with a modern twist fine. I had trouble controlling the ship as the Up/Down functionality did not work at all. I did noticed that the engines seem to drop/increase in speed but often I found my self going over the ramps or sinking into the sea even though I had power left. I was really looking forward to being able to control the ships descend/ascend as smooth as the left and right works. :)
Brickkid512
21. Aug 2017 · 16:54 UTC
Its great! One thing I had a problem with was that there was a lack of a scoring system that would of made it even better...
benjamin
21. Aug 2017 · 19:43 UTC
Fun dialogs and the character arts are great. The gameplay itself is a bit dull maybe because of weird control an collisions ( for exemple you can collide with boost pad even if you are higher )
neowhoru
21. Aug 2017 · 20:29 UTC
Felt like a Star Fox Game but a rally great work.
Love it.
yuigoto
21. Aug 2017 · 22:04 UTC
Oh, boy, you captured that StarFox feeling from SNES with a nice touch of humor here! It also has a mechanic that reminded me a bit of Race the Sun, which is really nice and gives it some tension! Dialogues are really nice and I liked how you referenced things from Star Fox here! :)

Controls worked really nice here! I think that the energy drained quite fast here, and some more control over the ship's altitude would be nice too.

Overal, really nice entry here! :D
wh05herlock
22. Aug 2017 · 04:49 UTC
This was really fun, and I especially like the graphics.

Here are a few improvements I would make:

- It would be nice if the camera was higher up looking down more, that why the towers couldn't get in the way of your view etc.
- It would also be nice if when you moved left the camera moved left with you, so that you could see where you are going better.
- It would also be cool to have a difficulty scale factor, where increasing the difficulty just made everything go happen faster, so you would need faster reflexes etc.

Otherwise a pretty cool game :).

EDIT: By the way I really like the explode animation :).
daneestar
22. Aug 2017 · 09:11 UTC
Nice game! After the first try I got the hang of it. In the 3rd attempt I was able to beat the game.

The game could have been a bit more challenging especially with the obstacles. The controls worked well for me so I could use some more obstacles to avoid :)

I liked the sample used for the voice over.

There should be a scoring or percentace system to get a better feeling when you arrive at the goal.
zenmumbler
22. Aug 2017 · 10:05 UTC
The innovation theme is often a bit meaningless but for this entry it is very relevant. Very nicely executed game with a good feel and mechanics. Well done.
yopox
22. Aug 2017 · 11:25 UTC
Nice entry :smiley: I liked the death animation a lot haha
Piotrek
22. Aug 2017 · 11:48 UTC
Gameplay was fun and I really like the dialogue box and death animation. For post compo version you should spend more time on obstales models and maybe add some camera effects like pixelation or posterization for better look.
hgcummings
22. Aug 2017 · 11:52 UTC
Nice game. Great use of the power mechanic. It was tricky to hit the pads by speeding up or slowing down at the right time, but rewarding once I got the knack for it.

If expanding on this, I would make the later levels faster-paced, to ramp up the difficulty and make it more exhilarating.

The game reminds me of SkyRoads by Blue Moon, which had similar graphics and power mechanics. See http://www.bluemoon.ee/history/skyroads/index.html
Dragojt
22. Aug 2017 · 11:54 UTC
Nice visually original runner. I enjoyed a lot the graphics!

I found the intro a bit long, but good job anyway!
Yetman
22. Aug 2017 · 12:28 UTC
The first game I ever gave a 5/5 in humor. The retro vibe is so great, I like the mix between low poly and pixel art. The gameplay is fun too but I think you should add a score or distance traveled to make progress feel more rewarding. Good Job.