Crater Creator by navot
Controls:
A/D - Turn
Shift - Boost
Space - Skip to end of text
M - Toggle Mute
Press Evaluate Planet button on bottom right if you think your planet is to the Presidents expectations
You can resume and evaluate again if you think you can do a better job
Info about evaluation (You can skip this if you want):
Mass of asteroids ranges from 4 to 16 (based on size)
Atmosphere ranges from 0.2 to 1 (independent from size, based on particle amount, kind of hard to tell)
Water ranges from 0.2 to 1 (independent from size, based on the water to dirt ratio on asteroid)
Evaluation is a bit harsh... My personal best is 87% if you feel like beating that
Tips (useful):
The biggest feedback I've gotten so far, is that the game is very hard to control. So here are some tips and a gif to make it easier...
Don't boost all the time! Take it slow
Don't boost directly at asteroids (if your trajectories aren't identical) since you will probably miss, rather try to set up a hit in advance..
Don't chase asteroids, try setting up a head on collision early, even when the asteroid is still off screen
Get your trajectory and the asteroids trajectory to intersect
The trajectory colour gives you information about the timing at the intersection. If your trajectory markers and the asteroids trajectory markers colour match at intersection, you are probably going to collide (You might want to be there a bit earlier to change your direction)
Hitting an asteroid demonstration:
Play
Source
Ratings
| Overall | 57th | 3.94⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 76th | 3.74⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 40th | 3.94⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 53th | 4.06⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 206th | 3.52⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 128th | 3.156⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 301th | 3.022⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 56🗳️ | 71🗨️ |
I loved the way the trajectories smoothly changed.
The evaluation is a bit strict though, I only missed 1 point of water and it rated my planet 41% T_T
The art style and mood were great. The planet growing up in size was really cool, I'm still in the middle of trying to see if I can fill the whole screen with it.
The control is... kinda frustrating, but I guess it's still a whole lot easier than controlling a real rocket.
Overall it was a great game, I loved it!
I know the evaluation is a bit rough... That was the last thing I added and I didn't really balance it properly.
Btw, I don't see any particular reason filling the screen shouldn't be possible... You just have to wait long enough (At some point some of the asteroids will spawn crashing into the planet)
I love how the coloured trajectories give an hint on the collision.
It is hard but not impossible, and this is a great push to let the player keep playing your game!
Just a couple of notes, but I can see other people already told you:
1. the validation is a bit strict, I couldn't go beyond 5% so far
2. shift for boost is quite uncomfortable, maybe I would prefer the classic W. Also on Windows if you press 5 times Shift consecutively it makes you enable permanent press for accesibility.
Great work!
Overall a great game!
Thanks for the feedback
The game itself wasn't exactly my cup of tea, it's not very active, but its not exaclty
a puzzle either. I guess the most fitting genre would be some sort of simulation, but you see, I was never into most of that stuff (save RCT).
As I said everything is implemented very well, super impressive, the trajectory colour was a really good idea that I haven't seen before.
the gravity bending the trajectory is also well implemented, as is the planet growing, I feel like you got a lot of cool systems,
but the core game lacks purpose, the way to get the best score seems to be, to wait around for asteroids of the right size,
which isn't very rewarding to me.
Again this sounds overly negative, which wasn't my intention, I suuuck at game design, thankfully you can't see my previous games, but they'd be honored to be called playable,
I just think you have a lot of skill at making systems and should devote more time to the designing part, maybe shift the focus more to toy than game if what you fancy is building simulations, I love toys :grin:
The movement system is just fine, and the colored trajectory indicator is a very nice touch. Sure enough some additional challenge would have been welcome. These kind of titles always remind me of a few old school titles, such as Solar Jetman, where you fly in caves, gravity pulling you down, where each collision is potentially leathal. Fun times!
Anyways, quality!
:globe_with_meridians::boom::comet::comet::rocket::boom::comet:
Nice simulation, the trajectory prediction is super useful! The controls take some time to get used to, but for those, who played Asteroids by Atari, it's not a problem.
Congratulations on making such simple yet complex game!
btw. Trying to get on the stable orbit is fun!
I love it !!!
Overall is super fun. I loved the way the planet grew at the place where the asteroid hit it... I had a fun time ignoring the objective and trying to make tall mountains...
The screen shake and sounds played when a meteor crashes into your planet really helped it feel satisfying.
While designed as a hard game, perhaps a slight increase in the size of the ship would have helped ease the player into the game.
The game has a very interesting playing mechanic, which felt like you could learn more about the movement the longer you played. We'd love to play a full game using this mechanic!
It wasn't clear to us that you could have "too much" of the resources – we just thought of the displayed numbers as minimum values.
I definitely did not get to the deft touch you exhibit in your gif, but after a bunch of experimenting and tinkering I did get to the point where I could have a decent shot at intercepting. I had to learn the lessons of not chasing, and not hitting too hard... turning backwards on my own trajectory and jetting into a standstill in their path was my main strategy.
I understood the colored trails pretty quickly, it was a clever idea to use the color to convey time. But the quick tutorial was welcome. I also liked the quick humorous intro before the game which made it feel more like a complete offering.
The sound fit the mood, and although I felt kind of awkward the whole time I have no complaints about the controls. I think it's just tricky, which is as designed.
Great job!
I thought I had all the atmosphere, water, and mass that I needed, but still got 0%. Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun!
Also, I feel the need to point out how much I loved the "4 years later" joke. That's all! Fantastic job and thanks!
- Tutorial (exceptionally good tutorial flow)
- Consistent art style and palette, planet growth visualisation
- No fuel limits (the most orbital-rocket games have this cliche)
- Ability to skip texts
- Texts :smile:
- Main gameplay mechanic
Moments I doubt:
- Planet requirements in the left bottom corner in absolute values (not ranges, not color scales).
- There is no "game end" - player should end it by himself while he can't reduce the amount of water/atmo/weight.
- Asteroids in the tutorial could fly out of the screen resulting a deadlock.
- There is no global gameplay progress between missions (coud you please share the ideas if you have some?) May be something like two planets to maintain at the same time, managing all available asteroids between them. Or any kind of new mechanics?
Of course these are minor things for LD game. It was fun to play and I even have a video: https://youtu.be/5KUUBBzRNWM so, thank you!
@mortus I originally thought about implementing something like the Klaw from KSP, but the tether idea never occurred to me, that would probably have made the game easier for people who haven't played KSP / Orbiter.
@icxon Thanks for the playthrough video, it's really useful to see how other people play the game. A progress bar for the requirements is a really good idea. I really dislike how I made the whole evaluation system, that and not overshooting the target would have mad it a lot better. I originally wanted the player to put a moon in a stable orbit. That might have been some fun, because you would have to try to stop asteroids hitting it too much so it wouldn't crash into the planet, but I sadly didn't get around to it...
But hell, you've made a very solid game in compo. Nothing seems unfair, it's just 'Git gud or go home'. Remember lunar lander on old PC's and Amiga-alikes? Something like this :)
Controls and mechanics are well programmed, feedback is clear. I don't really have any improvement suggestions - what's in is good, difficulty is rather high, but the machanics never seem to work actively against the player.
Very well done. Cheers!