LudumData

Starship to Lethe by nk_x_x

[raw]
made by nk_x_x for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

A rhythmic shield-'em-up tinged with cosmic dread: At the end of days, one unarmed escape pod is all that remains of humanity's grand expedition to the stars. With little energy left in the tank, you'll need quick reflexes (or the patience to try over) diverting shield power where it's needed just in time to weather attacks from the ineffable beyond - and make it through to undiscover'd country.

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I hope you like my strange little game - caught somewhere in the unexpected hinterland between cosmic horror, bullet hell, and accidental retro demake of Beat Saber. It's a little more down-tempo than those refs might let on, though.

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Wanted to make something that could be a decently meaty challenge as a player - the kind of game you pick up, learn, master and move on, but on a micro-scale. Dipped my toes into really basic procedural music for the first time, hopefully creating an emotional arc that'll make it a little more rewarding for y'all to keep trying and make it through to the game's finish line!

CHANGELIST - Fixed a bug where PS4 controllers used the wrong control mappings

KNOWN BUGS - Enemy shots fired before you move the shield for the first time may not be blocked - Keyboard input feels a little laggy (controller recommended, if possible)

Youtube https://nk.itch.io/starship-to-lethe
Youtube https://nk.itch.io/starship-to-lethe
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/starship-to-lethe

Ratings

Overall 124th 3.897⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 241th 3.655⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 156th 3.828⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 200th 4.017⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 38th 4.379⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 55th 3.966⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 31th 4.179⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

Freya C
20. Apr 2020 · 17:13 UTC
Gorgeous visuals, the colourscheme and design are really nice. Some nice touches like the screen shake really sell it. I suspect it's a lot more satisfying to play with a gamepad - playing with wasd/arrows felt quite clunky unfortunately, and I couldn't get as far as I'd like... I think a better keyboard setup would be assign keys to set sectors of your shield, instead of holding them to move - so w is up, q is up-left, a is left, etc.
🎤 nk_x_x
20. Apr 2020 · 21:20 UTC
@freya-c thanks! Yes, I didn't really playtest without a pad and it shows.

I'm planning to upload a non-compo build with some changes, including checkpoints (maybe along with a reduction in health from 3 to 2), and WASD + Mouse controls instead of WASD + Arrows. I hope that addresses things without changing it up from the gamepad experience as much.
Jupiter_Hadley
20. Apr 2020 · 21:29 UTC
Really nice game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/eHokHalkfT0
palsina
21. Apr 2020 · 19:15 UTC
A tense and addicting game, like a rhythm game but with space horror instead of music. At least with the controller it plays fantastic.
OveRMolo
22. Apr 2020 · 16:51 UTC
Nice job! It's amazing that a game like this could be done for the compo section. Congrats!
🎤 nk_x_x
22. Apr 2020 · 17:50 UTC
@overmolo haha thanks! I got super lucky to stumble upon a level design format that let me spin up content really really fast honestly. even then, about half the time I spent on the game was adding content and playtesting over and over.
Izzy_Isi
22. Apr 2020 · 22:38 UTC
really cool and challenging
boyTurnedRobot
22. Apr 2020 · 22:40 UTC
I really enjoyed the game, though it's tricky with a keyboard. That sound design was awesome, a really old school metroid vibe with a modern update if that makes sense. Simple to understand and fun to play. Nice work!
NoobException
22. Apr 2020 · 22:45 UTC
This. Is. Amazing.

I mean - it's just a simple game, but really well polished.

I had a hard time because I do not have any controller, but I managed to pass few waves, but the game itself truly impressed me.
Infinite
22. Apr 2020 · 22:48 UTC
OMG ! We had almost the same idea ! Even though the graphics and mood are very different its almost the same game!
I really like your story and graphics associated with original music & rythm game.
Really amesome work made in only 48h alone ! Gratz!
Tyler Bay
22. Apr 2020 · 23:11 UTC
This game was super intense and I love it. The audio and visuals really drive home the bleakness of the mission, and the persistence of the aliens is really demoralizing. I was just a little confused about the changing letters in front of the ship as far as UI goes, but it added a sense of mystery to the game. Really, really well done!
🎤 nk_x_x
22. Apr 2020 · 23:18 UTC
@tyler-bay thanks so much! the letters I actually just put in as debug progress text to help with debugging levels on day 2 but I left them and dressed them up with greek letters 'cos I thought they looked cool tbqh, no secret mystery I'm afraid
Abdul Zakkar
22. Apr 2020 · 23:54 UTC
Wow! For real the best game I've played this jam. I'm very impressed with everything: the atmosphre, music, controls, all of it. Thankfully I have a controller, which made this feel so pleasant to play. The challenge scaled beautifully.
Adnonymous5
23. Apr 2020 · 03:38 UTC
I usually delete the exe's after I'm done playing and rating the game, but... I'm definitely hanging on to this one. Just amazing work. Such a simple, but novel (or have I just not played enough games?) mechanic. Visually beautiful, and the music lining up with the projectiles is so neat. It's really fun, and you've done a great a job gradually getting the player introduced and then dialing up the difficulty. Also great job varying up the gameplay a little bit with things like having to block with both shields. Kudos.
crosis
23. Apr 2020 · 07:20 UTC
Love the bleak vibe of the game. Minimal, muted graphics, techy UI and stunning sound effects!
The gameplay is tricky without being frustrating and is super satisfying.
Maumau
23. Apr 2020 · 22:42 UTC
Really amazing concept and ambiance. With keyboard it can be a bit hard to identify which of the sticks you're controlling, would be nice having a different color for each of the sticks, like; blue for left stick, orange for right.
🎤 nk_x_x
23. Apr 2020 · 22:55 UTC
@maumau thanks! I think that's a great shout - I will add that to my list of things to try out when the compo is over.
🎤 nk_x_x
23. Apr 2020 · 23:55 UTC
I don't know if it's of interest to anyone, but as someone who doesn't actually own any art tools, I thought it'd be fun to write up a postmort of the visuals.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/starship-to-lethe/its-coder-art-oclock-a-visual-postmort-of-my-jam-game
enderr42
24. Apr 2020 · 00:28 UTC
Yeah, the controls took some time getting used to. Otherwise - i admire your ability to make something this beautiful (in both graphics and mood\experience) in such a short time with the scope that you set for yourself.
The style really hit the right spot for me and i just spent an ungodly amount of time enjoying the experience. Hat's off to you.
Zesix
24. Apr 2020 · 01:36 UTC
Took a bit to get a feel for the game and controls, but to be fair every game I've played this jam had that (with one or two exceptions). Overall, a great simple gem of design. Innovation points for making a rhythm game!
despdair
24. Apr 2020 · 01:55 UTC
Sometimes bullets goes through shields I guess. Even though there was a shield in line, they gone on and killed me and I could not move shields at that round with keyboard. Also I made very similar game to this in terms of core mechanic, feel free to check it out https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/precious-animals
🎤 nk_x_x
24. Apr 2020 · 11:33 UTC
@despdair thanks for the feedback! Yeah, keyboard controls definitely suck. I've got a version of the game that uses the mouse instead, which I'm going to finish and upload as a second download at some point, if you want to try it out post-jam.

I'd really appreciate it if you had more details on the bullet going through shield bug, but no worries. The only reliable bug I know how to reproduce (and fix) is that bullets seem to go through if you don't touch the controls at the start of the game.
despdair
24. Apr 2020 · 11:47 UTC
@nk-x-x hey that was my issue too. Like after first run, upon the restart I could not move them via keyboard somehow and bullets kept passing shield when they are stationary. I don't how you can reproduce though, I did almost nothing. And how you achieved mouse as a input, there is two shields is it like left click for moving one of them, right click for moving other one? I will definitely want to give it a try at mouse too.
Amazura
24. Apr 2020 · 11:52 UTC
real struggle for the control :laughing: cool little game with aesthetic graphic. sound really take part on building the mood for the game. overall good job on making this :thumbsup:
JojoPalambas
24. Apr 2020 · 16:16 UTC
Congratulations, best game I've seen here so far, I will keep it and play it again!
🎤 nk_x_x
24. Apr 2020 · 16:55 UTC
@despdair my plan atm with mouse control is to keep WASD for one shield and mouse for the other. The game only expects you to pull off non-45 degree angles with one paddle at a time. I've beaten the game that way myself already and definitely thought it was a bit easier.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, everyone!
Monish Vyas
29. Apr 2020 · 06:33 UTC
Art is gorgeous and gameplay is awesome. Thank god humanity is not dependent on me as I could not save them for more than a few seconds :)
Shakedimus
29. Apr 2020 · 14:23 UTC
Nice visuals! And the mood of the game felt really spacey. I think the gameplay might be fun but for some reason there was a lot of lag in moving the shields around with the keyboard so I couldn't fully experience it. I don't know if this is problem at my end.
🎤 nk_x_x
30. Apr 2020 · 12:42 UTC
@shakedimus some amount of travel-time on the movement is intentional for game balance purposes, but it is indeed much worse than it's meant to be on keyboard. That may just be the default Unity input smoothing, which I should be able to disable, if you'd like to try it again once I've had chance to do that.