Out There by GuitarBro

made by GuitarBro for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

[Signal interference detected. Something is out there...]

You're on rover duty. The Martian craters are rich in metallic ore, as well as a newly discovered crystalline metal that seems to exhibit an unusual resonance: Signalium. The rover's signal can be disrupted by the Signalium resonance, but there are reports of another source of interference... from somewhere else within the crater.

Collect ore samples with the rover and deposit them at a base to produce processed metal. Fabricate signal relays and establish new bases to extend the rover's range (but remember, the signal can't travel through rock!)

(Yes, the game does have an end.)

(Oh also if you completely run out of signal, you have to restart. That's game over. Sorry.)

Controls

WASD: drive and turn
E: interact (mine and deposit)
F: start placing/confirm placement
Q: cancel placement
Left/right arrow keys (while placing): pick which object to construct
R: reset the rover (if you get stuck)
M (or Tab): toggle map view
Controllers are mostly supported too, but YMMV

Changelog

1.0.0

Initial release

1.0.1

WebGL added!
Fixed several post processing shaders being incorrectly excluded from standalone builds
Fixed audio playing at max volume briefly on startup
Fixed a few ore rocks missing the script that allowed them to be mined like the other rocks
Fixed signal line of sight check succeeding when it should have been blocked in some cases

1.0.2

Fixed heightmap data being incorrect which caused issues with placing structures
Performance improvements for WebGL

1.0.3

Fixed ending sequence occasionally failing to play

WebGL	https://guitarbro.itch.io/out-there
Link	https://guitarbro.itch.io/out-there
Link	https://guitarbro.itch.io/out-there
Link	https://guitarbro.itch.io/out-there
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/out-there-1

Ratings

Overall	430^th	3.565⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Fun	456^th	3.326⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	509^th	3.261⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Theme	356^th	3.87⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	301^th	3.978⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Audio	279^th	3.63⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Mood	380^th	3.696⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Given		13🗳️	28🗨️

Feedback

Apr 22nd · 00:06 UTC

I love the effect when you go out of singal range. Had some trouble building with 'F' and collecting some ores. Love the movement too.

Apr 22nd · 00:12 UTC

@oasiss Thanks! I literally just realized I uploaded the wrong build for the 1.0.1 bugfixes, the real one I just uploaded (like a minute ago) addresses the ore issue. Building is definitely still a bit jank though lol.

Apr 22nd · 00:28 UTC

Didn't run super well in the browser. I had some trouble getting actions to work. But really cool idea. I like the effect of losing signal.
Well done mate!

Apr 22nd · 00:30 UTC

@aj-atkinson ah dang, sorry to hear that. We're investigating the remaining bugs as I type this. Feel free to check back later, we'll hopefully have the worst of them resolved within an hour or so.

Apr 22nd · 01:54 UTC

@oasiss @aj-atkinson Just uploaded a 1.0.2 build that should fix the placement of objects on the heightmap and has some WebGL performance fixes, if you're interested in checking it out again.

Apr 22nd · 15:50 UTC

I love the setting, look and the effects! It worked in the browser perfectly. The mechanics were a little clumsy though and the camera movement too erratic.

Apr 22nd · 22:24 UTC

@fadex thanks! Good to hear the WebGL build runs a bit better now. We did want to add some sort of gimbal to the camera but ran out of time and had to cut it. :sweat_smile:

Apr 25th · 00:08 UTC

Well-executed, encountered no issues playing in browser. Straightforward progression with the use of the stakes giving the player extended range

Apr 25th · 00:29 UTC

Wow, this was very cool! I did get a bit tired of the gameplay loop about halfway through my playthrough, as it was a bit tedious to constantly be driving back, and I wasn't sure how conservative I had to be with metal, so I probably didn't place bases as often as I might have been able to. I also really would have liked to have some indicator of how far the signal poles stretch, as I made some pretty big placement mistakes early on that felt brutal given the small amount of metal I had by that point.

That aside: the aesthetic in this game is wonderful. The hard-mounted camera works super well to give a real feel of driving a fly-by-wire rover, and I absolutely love the way you nailed the feeling that you're watching a screen in-game. The little things in the periphery of the main view that remind you you're looking at a monitor with a video feed, the pan over to the map, etc. work really well. The static effects are extremely high quality too - I loved that the music fades out and is replaced by static.

Wonderful atmosphere, and a fun ending. Thanks for the game, and nice work!

Apr 25th · 00:41 UTC

@norseone thanks! Glad it worked well!

@justinmullin That's a good suggestion about the indicator. Originally we wanted you to be able to move the relays so they wouldn't be quite so punishing but uh, ran out of time on that one. :upside_down: Thanks for the kind words about the aesthetic though, and thanks for playing!

Apr 25th · 02:28 UTC

i imagine this is the experience of controlling the mars rover at nasa

Apr 25th · 02:37 UTC

@camden-obertop this is a totally 100% accurate simulation :laughing:

Apr 25th · 14:59 UTC

Amazing work! The screenshots promised a mars rover exploration game and the game delivered it as expected. At first, I tried the browser version and thought the input delay was a cool detail until I realized this is just WebGL issues, whoops.

I felt more interested in driving around and finding cool places on the map rather than reaching the target, though, I got there in the end and enjoyed it. The radar map looked really cool but felt a bit pointless (except for being a compass) because of how zoomed-in it was.

I forgot about switching building types seconds after the tutorial and realized only at the end, though, I liked the loop of going forwards to search and going back to find optimized paths. Also, I think it would've been nice to have an indicator that the antennas will connect.

Cool rover adventure game!

Apr 25th · 19:00 UTC

@marks huh, didn't realize some people would have input delay on webgl, but I suppose there would be some if this was really on Mars lol. Glad you were able to still experience it as intended though. Thanks for playing!

Apr 25th · 19:40 UTC

I like how you picked a mechanic and polished it through! The way you can only place antennas in direct sight to each other, the way the terrain impacts your signal strength and everything. I really like this short adventure :smiley:

I have one nit-pick though: I lost signal a lot because I tried to maximize my antenna placement and I would have liked the indicator of 'can the antenna connect if placed here' actually show the value for where the antenna will be placed and not the position of the car :sweat_smile:

Apr 25th · 20:56 UTC

@bumble thanks, and yeah, that would definitely make placement a bit easier. Glad you enjoyed it regardless!

Apr 27th · 04:38 UTC

Really cool game! Loved the aesthetic and shaders, the monitors were cool. Nice topographical map. I made it to the end! Makes me want to know what else is out there... could be cool to see more mars rover activities if you ever worked on it more : D collect samples with the 6DOF arm + drill, use your xray/surface radar, etc... throw in some spooky ancient civilization stuff or something... hah

It did take me a slightly embarrasingly long amount of time to figure out what was actually ore at the very start lol. And I agree with other folks, a little indication of if your next repeater node would connect would be awesome. Really great work!

Apr 27th · 06:11 UTC

@picross Thanks, glad you liked it and managed to make it to the end! :smiley: Was hoping the glow effect would make the ore obvious, but uh... I guess not lol. Thanks for playing though!

Apr 28th · 03:16 UTC

Love the vibe, and driving around. The graphics are great too.

Apr 28th · 03:22 UTC

@eloc Appreciate it! Thanks for playing!

Apr 28th · 03:31 UTC

the camera being so shaky was a great immersion but just made movement really hard to focus with.

Apr 28th · 03:49 UTC

@ljol3 Hope it wasn't too distracting. I mentioned it in a previous comment but we originally wanted to add some kind of gimbal to the camera but ran out of time to add it. Oh well. :upside_down:

Thanks for playing regardless!

HagamosVideojuegos

Apr 30th · 22:13 UTC

I really liked the camera effect. As I kept playing, I got used to it, but at the beginning it gave me this physics-like feeling, as if the camera was hanging from a flexible antenna on the rover, which I thought was pretty cool.

I do think it would have been nice to have an option to reset the rover if you lose the signal, instead of having to restart the whole game. I lost the signal suddenly when I was only about 200 meters away, and having to start over was a bit frustrating. That said, I understand that time constraints during a game jam can make it hard to implement everything.

Overall, everything else works well. I think it approaches the theme in an interesting way and it was an enjoyable experience.

Congratulations! :blue_car:

May 01st · 04:45 UTC

@hagamosvideojuegos yeah, restarting is a bit punishing, glad you were able to enjoy the rest of it though! Thanks for playing!

May 05th · 00:51 UTC

Very fun. Great graphics and cool interpretation of the theme.

May 05th · 23:04 UTC

@ty1rl Thanks for playing! Glad you liked the graphics/theme too. :smiley:

May 07th · 05:54 UTC

The screen distortion camera affect was amazing, and driving around and exploring was really fun! Getting back to base was a bit annoying once I got farther out, but overall I really enjoyed this!

May 07th · 06:18 UTC

@artur-hawkwing Thanks! I'm guessing you missed that you could place new bases (using left/right to change what object to build) instead of always going back to the first one though. :sweat_smile: Glad you enjoyed it regardless!

May 07th · 07:29 UTC

Very nice idea. Camera vibrates a bit too harshly sometimes, but in general good mechanics and cool vibe.

May 07th · 22:46 UTC

@venomousmouse sorry about the camera motion, but thanks for playing!