Limites Spatii by LDJam user 288502

[raw]
made by LDJam user 288502 for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

limites<em>spatii</em>title.png

Limites Spatii = Space Limits in Latin[1].

Outer space is filled with unruly mathematical limits.

limites<em>spatii</em>gameplay6.gif

You have to match the type of each limit equation:

  • Finite: tends to some specific finite value

ref_fin.png

(you can check the graph of 1/x to understand these formulas easier)

  • Infinite: tends to +∞ or -∞

ref_inf.png

(0- means the limit comes from the negative (left) side; if the formula had 0+, this limit would be +∞)

  • Undefined: has no definite value

ref_undef.png

(since this limit can be either -∞ or +∞ depending on the side, it has no defined value)


OBS: The diagonally moving blocks were added (shortly) after the Jam deadline.

The improved versions have "postjam" in the filename.

The original versions have "ld54" in the filename.


Controls:

  • Move: Arrow keys/WASD/HJKL/Joypad left dir.
  • Change color: Enter/Space/Joypad Button

Engine: Godot

Sound Effects: Bfxr

Graphics: LuaLaTeX and Inkscape

Gameplay GIF: ScreenToGif


[1] Or limits of space, since the genitive case is usually translated with the preposition "of": - limites = nominative plural of limes - spatii = genitive singular of spatium

(of course we have footnotes)


Ratings

Given 10🗳️ 6🗨️

Feedback

Jean Verissimo
03. Oct 2023 · 13:13 UTC
I really liked your interpretation of the JAM theme. The colors also helped a lot for players who don't have that kind of math knowledge. Good job!
LDJam user 251170
03. Oct 2023 · 13:21 UTC
![Limited Spatii.PNG](///raw/225/d3/z/5f3a4.png)

Very simplistic arcade-like game, thanks for your submission!

Controls were very responsive. Besides that it was mostly very basic though! I would've loved to see a little check around the sound effect so it doesn't stack when you pick up to scores at once. I was also somewhat expecting every formula I picked up to change the player block a little, forcing me to pick up another equation next, but in the end I was mostly just colour coding to score points haha. Can definitely see the game mechanic going places if fleshed out some more!
🎤 LDJam user 288502
20. Oct 2023 · 13:07 UTC
@jean-verissimo Thank you! When I had this idea I started laughing at how dumb it is (outer space "limited" with literal limit formulas), but since I couldn't think of anything else I decided to go with it =P

I also thought about somehow making it 3D, so the limits would actually be in 3D space, maybe plotting some formula with 2 variables, but I couldn't think of any game mechanics using it, and it would be way beyond my current skills anyway...
🎤 LDJam user 288502
20. Oct 2023 · 14:03 UTC
@kepsert Thank you for playing!

> Controls were very responsive. Besides that it was mostly very basic though!

I totally agree, as it is it's basically an application of a beginners tutorial.

(The first parts of this one in particular: youtu.be/nAh_Kx5Zh5Q )

I'm more at home using Clickteam Fusion, but I've been wanting to try Godot for some time, it's my first game using it. I liked it a lot, but I guess I underestimated how long it would take to figure out Godot's little surprises.

I had to spend way too much time trying to understand how its system of Nodes and Scenes and Signals work in practice (it's very good btw), so I had no time to actually tweak the gameplay.

I also thought that Godot was able to use SVGs natively, but it turns out that it uses an importer to convert it to raster only once at import time. My scaled images looked terrible, so I had to re-export them from Inkscape, taking me yet more time.


> I would’ve loved to see a little check around the sound effect so it doesn’t stack when you pick up to scores at once.

I was even planning on making some music with Bosca Ceoil, but in the end I almost had no sound at all =P

The game over sound effect worked, but the enemy destruction one didn't play for some reason.

I then realized that since I had implemented that sound node as a subnode of each enemy, that sound player was being deleted with the enemy, so there was no time for the sound effect to play.

I changed the code to darken the enemy while the sound was playing, and to erase it when the sound effect finished...

Maybe I could have used some global variable as a lock and set the volume to zero if there's already something playing.

(mutex mute?)


> I was also somewhat expecting every formula I picked up to change the player block a little, forcing me to pick up another equation next, but in the end I was mostly just colour coding to score points haha.

hmm, interesting.

Do you mean each formula would change you to a different color? The (intentional?) problem is that you wouldn't be able to chain collect formulas of the same color, but maybe that would add another dimension to the gameplay.

Or maybe you mean each color would have a different effect? Like blue makes you larger but faster, yellow smaller but slower, green brings you one step closer to medium.

At first my idea was to make you shoot at the blocks, and the bullet's color would depend on your mode when you shot it, but I simplified it to be able to finish on time...


> Can definitely see the game mechanic going places if fleshed out some more!


Thanks! It's inspired by Hellfire for the Sega Genesis, where you have a button to change your color, and each color mode shoots at different directions.
LDJam user 260720
20. Oct 2023 · 18:26 UTC
Funny take on the theme! Nice job!
cheesepencil
20. Oct 2023 · 18:43 UTC
lol thank science it's color coded, my mastery of advanced math is not so good if i were to identify them any other way!!
smiley405
20. Oct 2023 · 22:00 UTC
nice entry. love vim motions.
Tesseract
21. Oct 2023 · 00:35 UTC
A nice game, I like what you did with the theme, although I'd like to see a version without the colors and answers where you actually need to think about the limits. I imagine it would be difficult to have a collection of problems which were simple enough there's a chance to get them in the time they're on screen but also sufficiently varied (although "simple enough" varies substantially by player).