Celestial Bodies by rynti
A solar wind has wiped out earths capabilities to communicate with it's remotest outpost in the solar system: Saturn's branch of your favorite gym franchise.
Your bros are stuck there with nobody to admire their gains! Luckily you have an idea how to help them regain access to their social media accounts.
All you need to establish a system-wide telecommunications network is some volunteers and the strong arms of the buffest of them all!
Put enough bodybuilders in orbits to enclose each planet.
Controls
- A / D or Left / Right: Steer in flight
- Space: Launch / Enter orbit
- E: Open shop
- Q: Options
| Link | https://play.rynti.com/demos/2026/ld59/index.html |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/celestial-bodies |
Ratings
| Overall | 54th | 4.15⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 10th | 4.275⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 44th | 4.141⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 96th | 4.295⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 411th | 3.782⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 236th | 3.722⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 12th | 4.513⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 258th | 3.921⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 64🗨️ |

A very special game :O
Fantastic game -- excellent work!
@naidove glad to hear you enjoyed it! Unfortunate that you got stuck just before the end - there is a way to finish the game, by completing all the orbits (for example Saturn needs 5 bodybuilders around it so they can all build connections with each other)
@digital-bacon Also very happy that you liked the game =) Actually we added some parallax to the starfield, but it probably is a bit too subtle so it went unnoticed :sweat_smile:
I thought the line drawing on the minimap was very well done, a near visual representation of the network. I also really liked the mechanic of delayed/dropped inputs based on the network signal. Both ideas were implemented very well, and I thought were pretty clever. Nice work!

This made me think that the goal was to get three on every planet but I guess some of them required more... 🤔

Looked pretty good. There is this classic "mistake" with pixel art where you scale the sprites and end up with different pixel sizes. Makes it look less cohesive as an art piece as a whole. The same goes for rotating the sprites but that isn't that easily solved though as it'll require a lot more than just keeping the sprites the correct ratio (ie. drawing them in the wanted size).
This color choice on the shop wasn't very great for readability.

The audio side was good too. The music was nothing ground breaking but carried through the whole experience without getting annoying. The sound design was up there too, didn't notice any actions standing out by being soundless.
Then the actual gameplay. It was pretty nice. Kinda classic incremental game structure. But it was kinda on the easy side. You just launch and wait for a bit until you reach the next planet. Dodging was never a real issue. Once I missed the actual planet orbiting and then there was loads of things to dodge and losing the control made it kinda difficult. But no point doing it like that since you need to fill up all the planets anyway.
The shop didn't really count for that much either. If the amount of junk I faced on that one missed throw was normal, then maybe the less equipment upgrade will make it a lot easier but the rest felt kinda inconsequential. You can get pretty much all the "necessary" ones that the latter half of the game becomes just repetition and waiting game.
So out of interest I tried another run without buying any upgrades. Starting off, of course it's very easy still. Three launches on the first planet without even having to move. Three dudes to the second planet too, this time I had to actually touch the keyboard just a bit to reach it. Probably could still reach it completely idle too with just some luck and eating those two allowed hits. But then the third gets a bit trickier. Dodging isn't really the touch part but the loss of control is annoying. And having to wait the first braindead easy planets to reach that part to try again made me give up after a few tries. So seems like the less junk is easily the upgrade that makes the game super easy and the rest are pretty much just time saves.
Anyways, good job! Fun game and pretty well executed. With some tweaks to make the actual gameplay more interesting and the upgrade system more worth it, it'd be great! 👍
**edit:** Oh yeah one more thing I forgot to mention. Kudos on getting the colliders right! So often on jams people use the exact sprite shape for hitboxes which feels super unfair when you lose by just grazing another object and don't even really see it. Feels so much better to actually know for sure it was your fault when you get hit. And here it's very much the correct choice. Doesn't feel too lenient or strict, just right.
Very fun, light-hearted and nicely polished. I know some have commented on the difficulty, but I think for this type of game, it's just pure levity and I don't mind in the slightest.
Great concept, good use of theme. Great sounds and a nice fun loop. Thank you!
I read comments, but just to say I also missed the ending as I didn't realise I needed to add so many tough guys to each planet - just thought I had to make it there!
The game really gives off weird flash game vibes, in a good way. The progression is nice, setting up ~~satellite~~ bro connection feels surprisingly realistic, which makes it really satisfying to reach further out into space.

There's no limit LOL, this is great!
Here is a representation of current frames.
On one hand, game feels like classic old launcher games, letting you make incremental progress with each launch. The idea of having to build a signal connection is a really nice addition on top of that, but what really elevates it for me is the delayed control mechanic. I've been thinking about a game idea implementing something vaguely similar, so to see it executed in such a fun way feels really cool! And it really does work well, thanks to controls being smooth and responsive with zero delay.
The game looks and sounds pretty good! Artstyle is pretty solid pixelart, enforcing the ridiculousness of the premise, and the soundtrack feels really fitting for a space launch game, showing you how serious these dudes are.
I've played through it twice and managed to reconnect the solar system for all the bros. Well done on the game! :D
