Terraform Express by Josh Roby

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

You are a train. You have robot friends. You are stuck on a planet that somebody totally destroyed. You and your robot friends are going to fix it up so people can live here again. If you don't derail yourself first.

Ratings

Overall 475th 3.091⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 555th 2.587⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 106th 3.783⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 158th 3.935⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 226th 3.6⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 396th 2.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 511th 2.643⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 16🗨️

Feedback

rex64
05. Oct 2020 · 00:09 UTC
A smart game about managing resources. Also loved the graphics, very elegant.
Wouter Deferme
05. Oct 2020 · 08:42 UTC
After I eventually understood the mechanics of the game, it was enjoyable to play. Really liked the innovative mechanic.

Some kind of tutorial would have helped me to get into the flow earlier, I think.
jk5000
05. Oct 2020 · 09:40 UTC
I tried to play the game, but I could not make anything happen.
CodeRaurus
05. Oct 2020 · 11:02 UTC
Interesting resource management game. It took me a while to understand how the things work, but after the click it started to be enjoyable. Not sure if everyone has the patience to figure things out.

Some issues with UI: the text was too small in the windowed mode, so getting instructions was even harder. And if turned to full screen, UI components would go out of view.
Demetri
05. Oct 2020 · 16:16 UTC
Seconding what others have said a tutorial would be really helpful but nonetheless pretty unique and cool.
Szkocka
05. Oct 2020 · 16:19 UTC
Interesting game but I would love to get some hints system/explanation in the post.
Silvae
05. Oct 2020 · 16:22 UTC
Agreed with others about the tutorial - it took me a bit to understand how to play. Very pretty looking game. Nice entry!
p-brighenti
05. Oct 2020 · 16:23 UTC
Like the idea but found it a bit confusing to play and couldn't make much of it, unfortunately.
GettingRekt
05. Oct 2020 · 16:23 UTC
I didn't understand what I was doing. And when I finally changed my keyboard to English in order to have a "?" key to press to activate the help... well the help screen was already opened :) Anyways, it seemed like a really unique game and the graphics are clean. Good job
Q-Bert Reynolds
05. Oct 2020 · 16:27 UTC
The learning curve on this was pretty steep. Once I understood how to play, it wasn't so difficult. My only issue was the pacing. Waiting for the train to come back around the the resource I wanted was painful at times. Graphics were simple, but the palette pleasant and the overall style was cohesive.
Gironimo4
05. Oct 2020 · 16:30 UTC
Enjoyable, love RTS and management games, and this one I just sat and played for 20 minutes straight trying to grow the acreage. I'm still struggling with anything other than blowing stuff up and making more railroads though. I will persist.
superkoekje
05. Oct 2020 · 16:30 UTC
cool very interesting idea, it took me a while to understand the game so maybe you should add some clearer instructions. but once you understand very cool
superkoekje
05. Oct 2020 · 16:32 UTC
@jk5000 you had to place your materials together to make stuff. I didn't understand it in the beginning either.
BOOtak
05. Oct 2020 · 16:34 UTC
Yeah, I was able to terraform some area and extend rails a bit! It took a while though as I kept hitting the wrong buttons for for pickup\release hooks. As train turns upside down, first cart is lower then the second, and left & right sides are switched, so I can't always think fast enough, which button does what. Second camera mode probably helps, I just prefer fixed camera
Pincushion
05. Oct 2020 · 17:18 UTC
Great idea and execution. It looks good too. The controls feel really smooth, but I kept mixing up the buttons.
Hadryel
05. Oct 2020 · 18:01 UTC
I didn't understand much at first, but I find it a very interesting concept. Even went afk for a while to do something and things were fine still lol. Well done!
Ghuyajil
06. Oct 2020 · 10:43 UTC
I actually didn't have trouble understanding what to do (rtfm haha) - nice mechanics, very original - I love it when simple mechanics turn out to be so emergent :smile:
Pacing was the main issue, maybe changing the train speed faster would be a nice improvement. Or upping the rate of new materials (or adding more as the track grows).
adjo
08. Oct 2020 · 18:49 UTC
Once I'd got the controls down, ended up being a pretty interesting game to play!