LudumData

Past the Final Frontier by towergame

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

​You have been selected for the prestigious (and dangerous (and complicated)) job of running a space program for a dystopian dictatorship. Your main goal? Ensure a steady flow of resources for the upcoming war. Left with the baffling task of attempting the utterly insane and creating a Dyson Swarm around the Sun, you have to build your space program from the ground up.

Features:

  • Undertake various projects in the Solar System: Colonise Mars, Exploit Saturn's Mineral Rings, Finally Settle The Debate Over Whether Pluto is a Planet.

    • Min-max your rocket, focus on the parts that matter while also ensuring that the mission goes smoothly while also sticking to a strict budget.

    • Research new tiers of components.

    • Try not to get shot by the Comissarate after botching like 10 missions in a row

    • Enjoy the aesthetic of a vaguely 80s CRT terminal :)

EDIT (26.04.2021 8AM EEST): I am unsure where exactly on my submission should I write the changelog for the bug fix, but: - I fixed me rushing the build out at 4am and setting the wrong resolution for it - I fixed Unity killing the scanline shader which I had to temporarily disable since it just refused to render anything in the build with it on

The Epic Sauce https://github.com/towergame/past-the-final-frontier.git
Link https://towergame.itch.io/past-the-final-frontier
Link https://towergame.itch.io/past-the-final-frontier
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/past-the-final-frontier

Ratings

Overall 478th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 608th 3.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 327th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 543th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 376th 3.55⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 293th 3.421⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 225th 3.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 8🗨️

Feedback

AnthonyHarmitage
26. Apr 2021 · 14:07 UTC
Effect of CRT terminal is completely bonkers)
AdamWatters
26. Apr 2021 · 18:54 UTC
Good game. It can be a bit ahrd to see things at times thoough.
JaTDev
26. Apr 2021 · 18:54 UTC
I like the idea of researching upgrades to your rockets while still being able to choose cheaper parts to send off. While the visuals match the 80s look you were going for, the CRT effect made some text really hard to read for me, especially near the edges of the screen. I liked the audio, the music really fits the space exploration theme.
samguy
26. Apr 2021 · 19:05 UTC
Had fun playing, got stuck after a certain point. I think there's a bug preventing me from actually using anything above tier 5, it just cycles back to tier 1 on the launch screen.
ruthiepee
26. Apr 2021 · 19:07 UTC
Really interesting concept for a game. And yes, I love the CRT effect too! I've reached a point in the gameplay where things are starting to get quite repetitive between Saturn->Neptune and I'm failing most missions even though it says my chances are "Excellent," so I'll take the time to write a review. I really like these kinds of games, almost like upgrades with a gambling component. I also really like the theme of a vintage government space program. It's not completely clear to me how each component affects my chances of succeeding in the mission but I'm having fun experimenting with different setups. Nice music too. So thank you, I'm enjoying it.
🎤 towergame
26. Apr 2021 · 19:17 UTC
@samguy That's intentional, there are no components past tier 5. I just forgot to make the upgrade screen check to prevent the player from upgrading past tier 5.
Quetzakol
27. Apr 2021 · 10:43 UTC
Interesting game :) I liked the CRT effect although the mission details were a bit hard to read because of that. I already had trouble understanding what I had to do so it didn't help. But overall I really enjoyed the mood of the game. The music fits perfectly.
DzejPi
30. Apr 2021 · 21:49 UTC
First of all, I can't tell you how glad I am for the fact that the game remembers my progress! I went back to it several times already. I love the aesthetics, how well it actually fits together and I simply enjoy playing it. The whole game is very well executed for such a small amount of time. However:

* It seems that when I am building a rocket, the Cockpit Tier I is giving me the best results every single time. It often changes my readiness from "bad"/Adequate to Excellent. Is this intentional?
* CRT effect is awesome, but it sometimes makes it hard to read the text on the sides.
* It took me three tries to figure out that those "<-----" "----->" arrows are for switching the objectives. I just assumed they were for switching planets, so I never used them. And I wondered why am I not progressing. But maybe I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. :)

Over all, I really love what you have here and I definitely see myself playing it few times again!
WiredOverload
01. May 2021 · 07:05 UTC
Fun game, I enjoy Kerbal space, so Kerbal space with only the planning and a bit of flavor is fun. I did run into performance issues with the web build on fullscreen, but it is the web build. The readiness also didn't seem to mean much after Adequate as I crashed 7 times in a row with an excellent rating even when shuffling the components around. I also never really understood what the cockpit increases did other than increase the weight as they also didn't seem to help mission success. It also seemed easier to complete the dyson swarm then it was to go to Uranus or Pluto, so I did miss out on some content there as the game ends after completion. Overall great game!
🎤 towergame
01. May 2021 · 20:14 UTC
@dzejpi Admittedly, the Cockpit is a bit of a remnant of a mechanic I didn't have time to implement. There was supposed to be a menu documenting the mission progress with some flavour where you sit and watch the rocket actually go there, but I realised that it'd be a bit too finnicky to implement and I was already bogged down with other things, so I left it as a "if I have the time" thing. The Cockpit was intended to decrease travel time, which, actually, is still tracked and used to influence the mission success RNG quite a bit. I didn't quite have time to properly think through the balance of the RNG, so it might just be that the time decrease isn't worth the additional weight the cockpit adds :P
Rolle
02. May 2021 · 11:08 UTC
I loved the CRT-effects, and the 80s feel overall! Really liked to do research and to get further and further. The music also fit the theme nicely. I can see this getting built out really well as a really large exploration-game.

Well thought out and well done! :rocket:
Sibi
02. May 2021 · 11:47 UTC
Awesome retro visuals! Unfortunately I couldn't make it past Jupiter. Had everything upgraded to Tier 5 (and even one to the elusive tier 6) but it still told me that I didn't have the means to go to any new planet.
Would have loved to conquer the rest of our solar system even though it started to get a bit repetitive and I think we now might have a lot of garbage on the moon :D
Aggrathon
06. May 2021 · 18:25 UTC
The text was quite hard to read, but otherwise the concept of the game was pretty clear. The feedback could be improved a bit, e.g., why can't I launch (not enough budget) and why did the rocket explode even though the readiness was excellent.
Shimonster
06. May 2021 · 18:36 UTC
The effects were really cool and the music was cool. I was very sad when I couldn't select parts above level 6 though.
R2D48
06. May 2021 · 20:55 UTC
It worked even if I didn't manage to reach Uranus. Can't read the precious text for technical ballistic information on the left of mission screen. Full screen mode would have been appreciated. Congratulation for the mood
Leginar
07. May 2021 · 00:36 UTC
I like the oppressive cold war atmosphere. The progression of missions seems well thought out and figuring out when to gamble on the next big project was interesting. The game became a lot easier once I realized there was little downside to farming the safe missions. After a few successful projects I was even able to farm missions that hurt public perception without a noticeable penalty to my rating. It might have made things more interesting if there were more risks involved with easy farming.
PiJaMar
07. May 2021 · 02:24 UTC
I love the grind, the aesthetic, the music. Definitely looking to play a more complete version of this game.
After probing Uranus multiple times I think either something broke or it wasn't entirely clear to me how to progress, as I never managed to land a successful mission in Neptune even with everything upgraded all the way. Overall I absolutely loved it, amazing work!