Dr. M Little's Planet Mass Overdrive by slimabob

made by slimabob for LD 38 (COMPO)

Dr. M Little's Planet Mass Overdrive

SCREENSHOTS:

DISASTER HAS STRUCK!

DR. M LITTLE CREATED AN IMMENSELY POWERFUL THRUSTER CAPABLE OF MOVING ENTIRE PLANETARY BODIES, WITH THE GOAL OF ATTACHING IT TO THE MOON AND SENDING IT DEEP INTO SPACE.

WHETHER FATE, OR A RARE MISCALCULATION- DR. M LITTLE ACCIDENTALLY SET OFF THE THRUSTER, LAUNCHING HIS PLANET DEEP INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM!

WITH NOTHING BUT HIS WITS AND TRUSTY ASSISTANT, DR. M LITTLE MUST FIND A WAY TO MOVE THE PLANET TO A HABITABLE LOCATION.

AT THE SAME TIME, DR M. LITTLE REALIZES THIS MAY HAVE PRESENTED HIM WITH AN ENTICING OPPORTUNITY HE WILL NEVER GET AGAIN...

SUMMARY:

Dr. M Little's Planet Mass Overdrive is a game inspired by the Katamari series. You start as a very small planet, and attempt to get larger, while also maneuvering your way back into a habitable temperature range.

This is my second Ludum Dare entry, and was completed over the course of roughly 14 hours (thank goodness for weekends).

Any and all feedback is welcome, and I'd love to see what sort of shapes you all make with the planets! :)

CONTROLS:

Move the mouse in the direction that you want to apply thrust. Click and hold to set the power. Release to launch the planet.

TIPS:

Using the thruster and colliding into objects kill off a chunk of your population- make sure to keep that in mind!
Don't worry about getting into the correct temperature range until you've accumulated enough mass.
There are three asteroid belts in the system that are a great source of size!
Don't approach the 'Goldilocks Zone' too quickly! If you overshoot it you'll have to try and get into position again.

DOWNLOADS:

PC DOWNLOAD

MAC DOWNLOAD

SOURCE: https://github.com/slimabob/LD38

(Can you find the secret ending?)

Original URL

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/dr-m-littles-planet-mass-overdrive

Ratings

Overall	127^th	3.694⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Fun	70^th	3.778⭐	38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	250^th	3.2⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Theme	173^th	3.657⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	191^th	3.571⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Audio	125^th	3.412⭐	36🧑‍⚖️
Humor	16^th	4.143⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Mood	119^th	3.576⭐	35🧑‍⚖️
Given		17🗳️	56🗨️

Feedback

camilo

01. May 2017 · 03:50 UTC

![planeets.png](///raw/254/z/2e85.png)

OMG, what happened haha.

I had a lot of fun with your game!
In terms of game mechanics it's similar to a couple of entries I already played but much better, because you don't absorb the planets but you take them with you, that adds a lot more humor to the game!

I loved the dialogues and the fact that the assistant is a cat.
It would be awesome to play more levels or know how the story ended.

Congratulations and thanks for your game!

Ilseroth

01. May 2017 · 03:58 UTC

Looked fine, simple concept but well executed. Thanks for the game <3

wildmusketeer

01. May 2017 · 04:00 UTC

I enjoyed the dialogue and flavor to the game! The camera shake was pretty well done too. If I were to nitpick, the control felt a little janky to me. Good entry!

Scriptorum

01. May 2017 · 04:05 UTC

This gave me a chuckle. It's satisfying to drag additional astronomical crap around. :drooling_face: I would have liked acceleration to ramp up as the planet got bigger, but that's a nitpick. Nice job!

🎤 slimabob

01. May 2017 · 04:10 UTC

Thank you to everyone that's played and rated so far!

@camilo

Haha, there's the secret ending!
Glad you liked it- the characters and dialogue was a last minute addition but I'm so happy I was able to get it in there! I very much look forward to expanding on the story next Ludum Dare ;)

@ilseroth

No, thank **you** for playing it <3

@wildmusketeer

I appreciate that a lot! The controls were definitely the toughest part of the game to get down, and I think if I were to do it again I would lower the drag a bit so you slide more, and have the power bar charge up quicker.

@scriptorum

I hadn't even thought of that- what a great idea. That would have solved some of the control issues mentioned above! Thanks for playing :)

Aurelien

01. May 2017 · 04:10 UTC

Really cool game, I like the humor. More challenge would have been good, because for now it finishes too soon.
But very impressive considering the amount of time that you had!

🎤 slimabob

01. May 2017 · 04:12 UTC

@aurelien

Yeah, I was a bit afraid to make it too challenging. I wanted people to be able to finish it and get the secret ending without having to spend too much time retrying! My own personal build is quite a bit tougher. ;P

Equinox

01. May 2017 · 04:29 UTC

Great work! Very amusing dialog, and good use of sound effects :) I did feel like the physics could have scaled with he planet mass (seemed like I couldn't fling myself very far). Good execution otherwise; I enjoyed playing!

Nilanjan

01. May 2017 · 04:44 UTC

Had great fun with the game. Great work!!!

eddynardo

01. May 2017 · 05:22 UTC

Nice game.
Pros
Consistent graphics music and sound effects
Ability to play using only the mouse
Cute story and characters
Extra gameplay after you win.
Nicely polished

Cons
Power meter too slow
Thruster didn't scale well with mass of planet
A bit too easy

Overall this was pretty good and with a bit more content I wouldn't even know that this was for a game jam.
Good job!

jushiip

01. May 2017 · 05:36 UTC

That was fun. Very Katamari-like! Me likes! I wanted to attach myself to the sun. :(

Nice entry!

jhandsy

01. May 2017 · 05:38 UTC

I would have liked the thrusts to have more pop! Even if you just made the max power thrust like twice a powerful.

🎤 slimabob

01. May 2017 · 05:47 UTC

@equinox
Great call, certainly something I should have addressed! I am glad you had fun!

@nilanjan
Thanks!!

@eddynardo
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm very humbled, and glad you enjoyed your experience, even with the few issues you had 💖

@jushiip
I have a surprise for you: try continuing after you beat the game, and then getting a little bit bigger ;)

@jhandsy
Yeah, if I were to do this again, that's definitely something I would change! It was something way far down on my bucket list and just never made it into the final release :(

KnightOwl

01. May 2017 · 06:11 UTC

Lots of fun, but the hardcore geek in me would have like to have seen some signs of collision equations at work...

Overall, good.

jackyjjc

01. May 2017 · 07:37 UTC

The game seems very fun and I wanted to play it but it crashes everytime after I played for a little bit :(

```
Unity Player [version: Unity 5.5.1f1_88d00a7498cd]

LD38.exe caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module LD38.exe at 0023:011a8150.

Error occurred at 2017-05-01_173216.
D:\Downloads\PlanetaryMassOverdrive\PlanetaryMassOverdrive\LD38.exe, run by Jacky.
20% memory in use.
0 MB physical memory [0 MB free].
0 MB paging file [0 MB free].
0 MB user address space [3496 MB free].
Read from location 6b00000f caused an access violation.
```

🎤 slimabob

01. May 2017 · 07:56 UTC

Very interesting @jackyjjc - would you mind posting your specs so I can figure out what the issue is?

jackyjjc

01. May 2017 · 07:59 UTC

OS: Windows 10 64bit

CPU: Intel G3258

RAM: 16GB

Graphics Card: Geforce gtx 1070 8GB

I just updated my graphics driver yesterday to 381.89

jackyjjc

01. May 2017 · 08:09 UTC

is your windows build x86 or x64? it could be something like that given the user space shown in the error log is only 3496 MB?

BadRAM

01. May 2017 · 08:11 UTC

extremely well polished, good work. I love the dialogue, and the secret ending is wonderful. I would have made the thruster charge a little faster, or maybe give the earth a little less drag. fantastic job.

AntaresValdemar

01. May 2017 · 08:49 UTC

Very cool game, the controls worked well apart from it being a little frustrating having to click and hold repeatedly just to move a few inches lol. But the concept was executed very well, I didn't really get it until after the first time I died, but when I did die there was at least a very clear explanation as to why I died, and I beat the game on the second try. I love the dialogue it was really funny. Great work :)

KevTukk

01. May 2017 · 09:23 UTC

Cool Game. I really enjoyed the dialogues. You feel really powerful when you finally take entire planets with you. The 2d-Katamari-idea was executed very well. I think the planet could be a bit more "floaty", but that is pretty much the only thing I would criticise. But it's still a fun game. :)

stefvanschie

01. May 2017 · 09:43 UTC

I never thought taking over the entire solar system was this much fun. The game is very solid and a lot of fun to play. And I managed to keep ~3.4 billion people alive which is a plus. Oh and I got rid of the sun cause nobody need that thing.

Most fun I had in a while, great game.

digitaldude555

01. May 2017 · 09:48 UTC

This game is awesome, well made. Enjoyed playing it and listening to the music, don't really have complainants on the gameplay. The goal of the game is to make the largest planet ever when the theme is small world, so that's only thing I can find wrong with it, it seems almost opposite of the given theme. I think the design of the planets looks really nice and the design of the characters too.

Loktor

01. May 2017 · 09:49 UTC

Really great results for the invested amount of time :) Really like that the game explains itself without the need for an explicit tutorial :) One thing that confused me a bit at first was that at the edge of the world my planet started to rotate (initially i didn't grasp that i am at the edge of the map now, maybe that could have been shown on the minimap where i didn't really get where i am currently^^). Great job within that timeframe :slight_smile:

Fanu

01. May 2017 · 09:50 UTC

I liked it very much, the "Katamari" feel is there and well executed and I appreciated the overall graphics and sounds! The only thing that could be improved a bit would be the thrusting controls as aiming is fine as it is.

Good job!

icxon

01. May 2017 · 10:05 UTC

Wasn't able to win the first time, probably I should have stay near the green zone of my temperature.
Physics is nice, even some planets have an orbit. Space Odyssey music probably would fit better or something like Flight of the Valkyries (try to play it on the backgroung, it is just epic with this game).

It was fun overal. Thank you!

https://youtu.be/jsyZh33JuXk - my playthrough, if you interested.

janiq

01. May 2017 · 10:35 UTC

Good idea. Maybe you can make it more challenging because winning is easy. I liked the detail you put into it like exploding into black hole after the game is finished. I also managed to push the sun away from screen, which maybe should not be possible with such a little planet :-) Anyway the graphics, music, gameplay and level of detail makes this one a really enjoyable experience. I still would make it more challenging hovewer I understand there is not enough time for everything during the competition and you already made it so polished. Good work.

peringo

01. May 2017 · 10:42 UTC

The whole presentation and idea ( including that nice secret ending ) are adorable and great, but the gameplay was lacking any real challenge or things to look out for and the sounds weren't too good on the ears. Nevertheless, successfully creating the Katamari mechanic in 48 hours is super cool and pretty impressive to me.

Sebastian Lague

01. May 2017 · 11:23 UTC

I found the dialogue very amusing, so good work on that! The graphics were pretty nice, and the gameplay was decent, though extremely easy. Nicely done!

kr4ft3r

01. May 2017 · 12:20 UTC

Nice Slimabob, this game has making of a true LD game - funny dialogues, insane objective, cute artwork. My highest ratings go to humor and graphics.

HuvaaKoodia

01. May 2017 · 12:43 UTC

That was funny! The "true" ending was quite something :hole:

Some sort of challenge would have been nice. Sure the population count kept dropping, but it is trivial to get to 1000 in that time. Not that I have any ideas, so....

A well made entry.

LiquidBrain

01. May 2017 · 14:02 UTC

The saying usually goes like "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.".. Well. I just need a planet big enough.. AND I CAN MOVE THE SUN!!

I loved playing this little game. You could have made it so simple; no menu, no dialogue, no music. But you went all the way and crafted a really enjoyable experience. I have no critique for this one. Great job and thanks for the feedback you gave for [Infecteria](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/infecteria)!

// Rasmus (one half of [LiquidBrain](https://ldjam.com/users/liquidbrain/))

simonhutchinson

01. May 2017 · 20:00 UTC

HA!

Sorry it took me a bit to get to your game, but this is TOTALLY a far more sophisticated version of the same idea I had. Really nice work. This is fantastic--far more along the Katamari vibe than I managed to accomplish.

Keep up the good work!

Quoclon

02. May 2017 · 03:23 UTC

What a relaxing and engaging experience. The game felt polished, but a little short (better than the other way around). I really liked the audio; both the background music and the text-sounds were highlights. For whatever reason I kept noticing the words start to appear on a line, and then jump down to the next. It was a bit distracting, but it also made me wonder if the text placement is dynamic based on screen size or something. I also liked the story, and how the characters kept popping in throughout the game.

The game felt very peaceful, and I would love to play longer and with more levels. I was surprised that crashing into the Sun was the objective. I liked the outro, and like the particle effects of the black hole. Additionally, since I'm new to Unity, I was amazing at how you could almost have a cutscene with the characters/music at the end. Would love to know how that was done.

Only wish that since it was in Unity that you would have published to WebGL (yours is the only game I have bothered downloading so far. I actually saw your post on Twitter!)

Overall great 5 star

Also, wanted to chime in that I appreciated you taking the time to review my game Sling Ship:

**https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/sling-ship-search-for-a-small-world**

Cheers!

Wheerd

02. May 2017 · 05:41 UTC

A very impressive game for the compo. The graphics are nice, the music is chill and fits the space theme. It took me a while to figure out you could charge the thruster and fly further. I think I would have preferred continuous flying controls. But the sticky planet is really cool and collecting all the planets is fun. After I created the biggest planet and played on, I was able to push the sun offscreen, not sure if that is intended. Very polished game, good job!

Steerschips

02. May 2017 · 08:16 UTC

Hahaha I had a blast playing this!

Becomes such a laugh the bigger you get. Tried to take on the sun! Very smooth gameplay. I liked the attention to detail with the narrative from the scientist in the beginning. One tiny thing was I struggled to find myself on the mini map when I was tiny but after a couple minutes i found myself.

At the end I just wanted to take over more universe, so job well done!

If I'm brutally honest the whole game felt super-polished for a 48hr effort. Massive kudos. 10/10.

batmanasb

02. May 2017 · 21:47 UTC

Well... I got big enough to take in the big blue planet, and my game crashed a second later!

Wheffle

03. May 2017 · 02:09 UTC

That was an awesome little game! Very satisfying to build up the planet. And I loved the little easter egg at the end when you attach the whole solar system. The characters were fun too. My main suggestion would be to drop the click-to-power-up style of thruster, it might feel better to play with just click-to-go style flying. Overall I really enjoyed it!

philomory

03. May 2017 · 06:47 UTC

A fantastic entry! I had a lot of fun, and both endings were pretty sweet. Though, you should adjust it so that, if you choose to keep playing after the normal ending, it still lets you trigger the secret ending. Though, what happens now (you just push the Sun off the map) is pretty amusing too.

For my second play through, I decided to try to crash directly into the sun without having grown above size 5; for some reason, as soon as I touched the sun, my population stopped dying and I could do whatever I wanted without ever dipping below ~4 billion. Probably a bug, but I actually kind of like it if it' an easter egg.

Anyway all that aside, this feels like a Jam entry from a multi-person team, not a solo Compo entry. The fact that you got this made in 48 hours is super cool. I'll echo the requests from @camilo, I'd love to see additional levels for this.

EDIT: Actually I think what happened in my first play through was that I knocked some of the asteroids or moons on a trajectory out of bounds, so when I was done with the 'normal' path, collected everything left on the map and flew into the Sun, I still wasn't big enough. Might want to add a bounding box to keep things from flying off into space. Or not, maybe it's cool that that happens.