Mars Escape by lukethecoder64
Creative Title, I know ;)
You're an astronaut on a Mars mission. While exploring the red planet in your aircraft, you lose control and crash into a canyon.
You can't hear sound through the thin atmosphere on mars.
Controls are provided In-Game.
Ratings
| Overall | 489th | 3⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 500th | 2.789⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 405th | 2.947⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 140th | 3.842⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 169th | 3.684⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 142th | 3.421⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 20🗳️ | 9🗨️ |
Other than being a bit confused, I like it and I think you should keep working on it, it's a good concept and kind of fun :)
It would help if we had some sort of music or more audio feedback when playing this game (Even though you mentioned that you can’t hear sound through the thin atmosphere on mars)
Good Job!
Game runs smoothly, and I really appreciate that you scattered the tutorial messages throughout the game when they were actually necessary (such as telling me how to turn on the flashlight once I got into the cave). There are so many games that just show a wall of text at the beginning, explaining what all the buttons do, and then I forget it when I actually need them.
You have a weird lighting problem. I don't know exactly what it is, but you should look into it. For example, have a look: https://prnt.sc/g9dqfo This triangle is just another part of the ground, but it looks like a hole. Similar issues occur when you're in a corridor in the tunnel and you don't know if the wall ahead is a dead end or just a turn. Again, I don't know exactly how that happens, but it feels weird. Maybe just adding textures would help, or maybe there are some UV mapping issues?
#### What I liked
* **The game is not that hard** in the beginning (compared to a lot of other LD entries, including my own :smiley:) and gives player some ability to explore.
* More or less **nice graphics** (the lava effect is neat).
* **Terrain at the beginning** (before caves) and partially at the canyon doesn't look boring.
#### What could be better
* **Some parts of the map** could have more batteries to make exploration a bit more feasible (so you don't run out of power just because you've chosen the wrong direction).
* **Caves and end-game terrain could be more realistic** (especially end-game mountains) or, atleast, more detailed. Caves are looking very similar to each other so it's easy to get lost there. I could suggest make all caves go only deeper, so player will be able to get out just going upwards. And more unique details also could improve that.
* The game severely lacks **the checkpoint system**, so the player don't have to start over from the beginning if he ran out of power just in two meters from escape pod.
#### What doesn't make sense in my opinion
* If **sprinting** does not consume any kind of "resource" (stamina, battery, etc), but allows me to go faster (so consume less power per meter) - why should I release Shift key at all? Therefore, you can just make player go faster in the first place and remove run mechanic completely. Or, if you add some "stamina" or make running drain battery, you should also add some mechanics, where using sprint will be crucial (e.g. some enemies you have to run from or something like that), otherwise it will be used constantly again (if you choose "stamina" mechanic, player will just use it every time stamina bar is full, because average speed will still be better, than if player will just walk), or it will not be used at all as it will be wasteful (like a flashlight)
* **Flashlight**. It doesn't make sense as you don't need it in caves at all (although, maybe I was facing some kind of a bug or graphical issue). Yes, it is more convinient with flashlight turned on, but it consumes the battery, so as long as it's not black screen in caves, player will not use it.
#### Overall
Overall good and fun game, that could have some more love to make it better. The idea of the game is clear and the game is more or less addictive. Will be nice to see this game more polished as post-LD version.