Orbit Jumper by Bentekiller

[raw]
made by Bentekiller for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

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A small little game where you jump from one orbit to the next. Your mission is to destroy the mother ship by crashing into it. But beware if you miss a orbit, the cold empty space and floating asteroids are deadly for a small star like you.

Controls: You use "Space" to release, "R" to restart.

A tip: You might see that you can spin clockwise and counterclockwise dependent on where you enter orbit from. When releasing yourself from a orbit, you travel in you current facing direction. Perhaps orbiting in another direction might help when wanting to chase the next way forward.

Ratings

Overall 470th 3.111⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 509th 2.769⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 490th 2.87⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Theme 408th 3.37⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 396th 3.188⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 262th 3.229⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

TheseusInABottle
05. Oct 2020 · 03:05 UTC
Really cool game. Took a little getting used to for me to be comfortable launching off my current orbit. This game looks really nice as well. Your music choice was great as was your sound effects.
Gevernus
05. Oct 2020 · 10:26 UTC
Very strange controls, very hard to aim
Luc-creationallabs
05. Oct 2020 · 16:02 UTC
Haha I think we had the same idea :), cool game, well done!
kruemelkeksfan
05. Oct 2020 · 17:22 UTC
I'm bad at this game, I barely make it to the red stars. An easier difficulty with slower movement and/or an path indicator would be very nice. Sometimes the distance is too long to see the target from the starting point, IDK if this is intended (e.g. when passing between the 2 asteroids before getting into the part with the first red stars).

The music fits well and really adds to the atmosphere.
Alfadas
05. Oct 2020 · 17:31 UTC
Cool game. Controlls are fine, but it is realy tricky to aim. Not knowing where the ship or at first even the map border is located makes it unnecessary hard to play. Visuals and musik are nice and the gameplay itself is realy good in it´s simplicity. Would realy like to play more levels^^.
Silvae
05. Oct 2020 · 18:17 UTC
Great entry! It took a bit to figure out how the launch angles worked but was satisfying to progress once I did. I loved that your incoming velocity affected which way you orbited. Sound was nice as well.
Squareworx Studio
05. Oct 2020 · 20:26 UTC
Really Fun game! after a while it becomes easier to predict where you will move off to, however I would've loved to have an indicator to know how far I was from the mother ship. sometimes I would luck out and get very very far. This can become a great mobile game if expanded upon.
Yword
07. Oct 2020 · 14:04 UTC
Really cool and interesting gameplay! But I think it is quite difficult to jump in the correct direction, or maybe will it be better if the jump direction is based on its orbit angle? ^_^
Meatball
08. Oct 2020 · 02:15 UTC
Takes a bit to get a handle on the controls, but lots of fun and smart design - good work!
candlesan
08. Oct 2020 · 02:30 UTC
Cool mechanics. I like the art. Good music too.

I wish I had a better sense of where it was I was trying to get to. Could really see a variety of puzzles being fun to experience.
TheWinrawr
08. Oct 2020 · 02:34 UTC
I like the idea, but the game itself is really hard! There are some spots where you have to guess where to aim since the next star is too far away. I would add in a feature where hovering your mouse to the edges of the screen moves the screen so you can see further away. I'd also make it so that when you die, you respawn at the last star you orbited so that it's not as frustrating.
🎤 Bentekiller
08. Oct 2020 · 14:27 UTC
Thx for the great feedback, yeah I see the game is quite hard, a checkpoint system would have been good for an easy mode(maybe with a giant orbit you can hardly miss) and getting an option to move the camera a bit is a good idea, though I would want players to move around a bit to see where they should go next, though the default view isn't to big.
A few more smaller orbit's to save you would also help and make you feel lucky, at this point it's to rare.
And a indicator that points and tell you how far away you are from the goal would be encouraging.
Really appreciate the feedback, the difficulty wasn't to obvious to me and a lot of the lvl design happened last minute, glad people still enjoy it :)
Justin Klinchuch
12. Oct 2020 · 11:58 UTC
The controls require a lot of precise timing, which made the game a bit difficult for me. Maybe slowing the ball down or showing a small preview of the direction the player will fly off in would help.
sanojian
12. Oct 2020 · 13:17 UTC
Cool idea but it is a little bit too unforgiving. I made it a long way after about 50 tries then died and went all the way to the beginning. Breaking it up into levels or using checkpoints would have made it a lot more fun.
Katherine Stark
12. Oct 2020 · 13:26 UTC
I really struggled to get very far in this game and after a while it became frustrating. I think this could be significantly improved by having save points, and possibly including the option to have a guide line for where you will head when you switch orbits. It's also tricky to work out where you're going - an ability to zoom or move the camera would be nice.
Thales Guimaraes
12. Oct 2020 · 21:35 UTC
Great idea! Congrats!
Capt.Theo
12. Oct 2020 · 21:48 UTC
Nice idea, I agree that game is pretty hard, or it's just my aim isn't that good as in old days. Beautiful music, sounds, and decent visual style. Good luck.
ashashza
13. Oct 2020 · 09:28 UTC
Elegant idea. It's really simple and yet devilishly challenging.

Like others, I wish there was a bit more range to my vision. There were times when I had to take a leap of faith and when that ends in a smash it felt unfair. I wondered if it could start zooming out if I spun around a star for some time ... that would make me wait enough time to see where I want to go but not too much where I'm too far away to make a good decision on when to jump.

I also liked the style in this, minimal visuals and audio that didn't get jarring or take away from the experience. I think the particles, while subtle, really added a lot.
rvenson
13. Oct 2020 · 22:26 UTC
A bit hard for me :sweat_smile:. First, I expected that the jump pull me straight to the direction that I face, but then I figured out that the route follows the direction that you spin. This is really awesome, but the distance between the stars made the jump really difficult to me. Sometimes we can see the next star to have a reference point. The jump time is a little short, since there is no air control. I really like hard games, so I tried many times and had fun! As already mentioned, a checkpoint system can be a nice addition to the game. Congratulations on this very fun entry!
monninen
14. Oct 2020 · 16:46 UTC
Beautiful music and great idea. At first controls were kinda hard to understand but I got used to them. Good work
davidcmcdonald
16. Oct 2020 · 18:56 UTC
My ownly gripe with this game is that it somehow felt too easy and too hard. I think if the physics were adjusted and the speed was slower, this game could be amazing.... you know, for like a real game, not a jam game. The fact that you have pulled this off in a game jam is bad ass. Well done!

I really enjoyed the simple graphic style and concept of the game. This is a good example (imo) of starting with a simple mechanic and stretching it as far as you can. I didnt 100% the game but I imagine you felt on the right path.
Trexxak
23. Oct 2020 · 02:12 UTC
I think the viewport could be a bit closer to the player character, thus making it easier to aim, but other than that, just a solid entry!
imod
26. Oct 2020 · 18:45 UTC
Very cool game idea. I like it.