Spam Space To Exist by Wheffle

Introduction
You are nothing. Well, for now. If you spam the spacebar in Spam Space To Exist you can exist, then you can get bigger by absorbing stuff! If you absorb enough stuff, you might be able to absorb the biggest stuff, like, say... a planet! The people living here are no fun and they don't much like that idea, so you'll have to absorb them too with all their silly technology.
Game Objective
Your objective in Spam Space To Exist is to exist as much as possible, which means getting really big. By touching floating debris you absorb it and it sticks to you, becoming you. When you get big enough, your final goal is to absorb the local planet. However, it is heavily defended.
When useful technology sticks to you, it starts working for you. Weapons are especially useful for fending off enemies, but these puny beings are also very susceptible to a good clobbering by your mighty girth. The bigger you are, the more damage you inflict when you bash enemies. Destroyed enemy ships will drop their useful bits, good for absorbing.
Controls
(Available in-game) - Spacebar - Spam this to become something from nothing at the start (or if you get blown up) - WSAD or Arrow Keys - Move around - QE or Page Up/Down - Rotate
Screenshots


The Team
- Ketura - Design, Programming
- Wheffle - Programming, AI, Music, Sound Effects
- FieryVictoryStar - Programming
We formed an ad-hoc team the day of the start of the jam. Spread across multiple time zones and none of us having been able to take much time off on Monday to wrap up, we managed to bust out something that passes for a game. Success!
Tools
- Unity - Game Engine
- Bosca Ceoil - Music
- BFXR + Audacity - Sound Effects
| Youtube | https://wheffle.itch.io/spam-space-to-exist |
| Youtube | https://github.com/ketura/LudumDare_045 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/spam-space-to-exist |
Ratings
| Overall | 665th | 3.357⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 409th | 3.452⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 313th | 3.536⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 172th | 3.881⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 911th | 2.821⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 611th | 2.744⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 695th | 2.421⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 807th | 3.024⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 38🗳️ | 48🗨️ |
This is a REALLY great iteration on the absorption mechanic. The lasers and shields alone show the potential of this concept but I think there's even more to explore with new ship parts. Very exciting idea and loved playing it!
That said, it's quite fun despite that. However, it seems once you absorb a few ships you're effectively unstoppable, and the game grows tiring as you end up spending all your time hunting for things to absorb.
Super fun concept, absolutely worth fiddling around with post-compo.
One issue - you can't zoom out very far and the zoom centre is low down, not the centre of the screen. This means that once you've reached a certain size you have no chance to see what is coming before you hit it when you move down. An indicator pointing towards the planet might be helpful too, as sometimes you don't really know where you are and have to just head in a random direction. Anyway, great job!
Thank you for this fun experience!
@bongard22 Good seeing you around too, one of my favorite things about LD is getting to start recognizing some regulars :)