LudumData

Ringularity - Black Hole Orbital Combat Simulation by philliptrudeau

[raw]
made by philliptrudeau for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

cover.png

Story

Your hypercomputer is ready to perform a supertask and solve all of physics - and you've finally found the black hole you need it to orbit. Now, it's your job to clear out the evil enemies currently preventing you from winning science.

Controls

WASD to move. This game is an orbital combat simulator - you have to rendezvous with enemies using orbital mechanics. Make sure not to fall into the black hole or you're done for! Don't drift too far away from the system either, or you'll be lost starving in space.

Mouse to aim, Click to shoot. Your bullets follow gravitational trajectories around the black hole, and they can cross the event horion. You may notice they slow down as they approach, because the game simulates gravitational time dilation.

SCROLL WHEEL TO ZOOM - Orbital combat is a large-scale business, so don't expect to survive with any sense of tunnel vision.

Press R to restart. You might need this :)

Escape to pause, Alt-Enter for fullscreen. It stretches because I didn't have time, sorry.

Bugfix Patch v1.1: - Fixed bug where camera zoom did not reset - Fixed bug where enemies spawned in the same place every time - Fixed bug where slingshot maneuvers sent you out of the system - Fixed bug where mouse cursor was not being drawn - Fixed bug where the screen aspect ratio was wonky if you went maximized/fullscreen - Fixed bug where the game did not start maximized

PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR ANTIVIRUS - WINDOWS DOES NOT LIKE WHEN EXECUTABLES ARE NOT BLOATED ENOUGH

Windows 10 x64 https://philliptrudeau.com/Ringularity.exe
Source Code (Github) https://github.com/pmttavara/LD48
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/ringularity-black-hole-orbital-combat-simulation

Ratings

Overall 643th 3.175⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 674th 2.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 269th 3.55⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 794th 2.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 860th 2.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 576th 2.033⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 755th 2.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

nicholassoen
26. Apr 2021 · 15:29 UTC
Cool concept!
arnold-990
26. Apr 2021 · 15:51 UTC
very very good game i like it
Hidjy
27. Apr 2021 · 14:03 UTC
Very nice and clean!

Not sure about this but, it could be nice to have some length of predicted trajectory for the ship.
Lenophie
29. Apr 2021 · 02:04 UTC
Nice concept! The realization I was orbiting when I unzoomed felt nice, the bad endings are a good touch as well
Sentmoraap
01. May 2021 · 15:06 UTC
I did not understand that my moves had inertia and were on a larger scale until I zoomed out. After that pew pew pew the red triangles. I live that it's a small C++ program instead of using an overkill game engine.

Your inputs uses the virtual keys instead of scancodes. When you do that, the inputs are bound to the actual letter instead of the physical position. On non-QWERTY layouts they are move around. For example the moves should be ZQSD on an AZERTY keyboard, and WASD feeld like you are moving with ZQSD on a QWERTY keyboard. You could have used scancodes instead (so read msg.lParam), those do not move but are assigned to whatever letter is here.
🎤 philliptrudeau
03. May 2021 · 03:01 UTC
@sentmoraap Thanks a bunch for the feedback! I might push a bugfix patch to address the scancode point - ironically enough I forgot that I had solved this problem on my current main project, Sir Happenlance (https://happenlance.com). I'm happy that you appreciate the work I put into writing a bespoke codebase rather than using an engine! :pray:
smilewood
04. May 2021 · 02:57 UTC
A very clever take on the theme. This game is quite fun and challenging. I like the use of the orbits to throw off my instincts for the trajectory of my shots. I do think that the game could have benefited from some form of predictive pathing for either the player ship or the shots, it was difficult to tell from the slow movement when I had slowed my orbit enough that I would end up trapped forever instead of doing a cool slingshot around the center. I don’t think that that detracted from the game however, it was very engaging. Well done!
James Macgill
04. May 2021 · 03:14 UTC
Oooh, custom binary, so rare.

A little confusing at first... but that's actually worth it for the realization of the orbit mechanics when you zoom out and see why your bullets move the way they do. Some extra visual indicators of a few things would go a long way.. I was unsure initially if my WASD inputs were on global orientation or local to the ship (little thrust markers would help). Orbit lines might be nice, but might also take away the challenge.
morrilet
04. May 2021 · 04:25 UTC
This was really interesting. I love the idea of combat on a more realistic scale. Accounting for gravity was really fun when it came to the projectiles, but I felt that the movement was more of a danger than it was worth. I kept either falling into the black hole or leaving the system. Being able to see my orbit would have been really cool, I think, and would have helped give me some more confidence in moving the ship. Overall I'd say this was a neat concept that could have benefitted from some more direct feedback for the player. Nice work!

PS: Falling into the black hole looked astonishing. Brought a big smile to my face. Very cool.
Brandon Orden
04. May 2021 · 04:33 UTC
Pretty cool idea, there's definitely a nice framework here. Took a bit to realize I was in control of the spaceship- I was able to figure it out and move around eventually, but I think my difficulty had to do with the slow speed of the game. The slow speed really did make each movement feel really weighty though. Felt satisfying to fire a salvo of shots at an enemy ship and see their flight path move with gravity. Very cohesive idea!
Lorwon
04. May 2021 · 10:17 UTC
Wow that's really nice ! I guess that you made it with c++ ? I also made my game coding it in c++ but I used OpenGL for the display. That remembers me a lot asteroids good job overall !

Ps : It would be nice to have more feedback when we are moving ;)
don-tnowe
04. May 2021 · 12:43 UTC
The core concept has great potential! Lacks feeling of control, though - it's so slow, and the firing direction feels off on the Y axis

That said, zooming out gave me quite an impression! That feeling of distance...
ItsIsaac
04. May 2021 · 12:51 UTC
Interesting concept! Could need abit of polish! it was quite hard to tell if your moving when zoomed in a times :P but a good lil game! Some thrust indicators + sounds would really improve it!
GoogleFrog
04. May 2021 · 12:51 UTC
Very cool. I noticed everything speed up when I near the black hole. How much physics is here? I don't think I've ever seen black hole time dilation.

Some sort of velocity display on the UI would be nice for feedback.
🎤 philliptrudeau
04. May 2021 · 15:38 UTC
@googlefrog Yes, black holes slow down time when you get close! And since time is slow for you, it looks like time is fast for everyone else. This happens for all gravitational bodies, including Earth :smile:

I agree that velocity indication is useful, thanks a bunch for the feedback!
LitmusZest
04. May 2021 · 17:24 UTC
I really like the orbital mechanic. Very challenging to maneuver with the speed/scale of things, as well as no immediate feedback on the force you are imparting with your inputs, but I liked it. Fun to see how close I could skirt the black hole to try to catch up to the enemies without getting sucked in! Much respect for not using an engine.
DancesWE
05. May 2021 · 01:45 UTC
Very cerebral game - enjoyed playing. I'll have to look at the code to see how you did the time dilation - did you go to first principle equations? Others mentioned it, but some vector velocity relative to the black hole would help visualize. I never killed all the enemies, but I sure tried. Nice submission.
Gno Evenimente
05. May 2021 · 05:16 UTC
Really cool, unique take on the theme, and a very challenging and addicting game. The orbiting mechanic is difficult to figure out at first, because the background is pitch black. But once you zoom out and see what's going on, it makes sense, and the gameplay becomes fun. Never quite got the hang of the movement, I feel the gravitational pull fights with the player inputs too much, and it's hard to tell how responsive the movement is. But really impressive entry, I can see this becoming a bigger game, with multiple unique solar systems and enemies. (is it still technically a "solar system" if the star is now a black hole?)
s1lv3r Dr4g0n Games
05. May 2021 · 20:51 UTC
A bit hard to see where you are going and where you just were being zoomed out so far, but a fun idea.
Neat having it be pure c++, I should learn how to do that.
s1lv3r Dr4g0n Games
05. May 2021 · 21:05 UTC
Also I'm your 20th rating, congrats!