Everything's Unstable by Yskuma

[raw]
made by Yskuma for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

It’s your first day of your new job at the state nuclear power station! Keep up with the increasing power demands while stopping the place from falling apart around you. Featuring a reactor simulation written by genuine physicists. - Move with WASD, hold space to interact with things. - Fix parts to keep the reactor going. - Raise and lower control rods to slow down and speed up the reaction. - Pump more coolant in when you’re running low.

Written in Java using LibGDX. Mostly ECS (Ashley) apart from a few naughty global objects.

  • @Kerrindor: Code, art and sound
  • @Sim137: Code, art and equations
  • @Yskuma: Code, code and code

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Ratings

Overall 1129th 3.222⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 789th 3.389⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1067th 3⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 236th 4.083⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Audio 870th 2.889⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 479th 3.361⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1106th 3.056⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

chainsawmcd
04. Oct 2021 · 23:14 UTC
I have failed our glorious leader. :(

Fun!
monkybusines
04. Oct 2021 · 23:19 UTC
Pretty fun management game!
The Yak
04. Oct 2021 · 23:21 UTC
I like the voice lines
Maxathon
04. Oct 2021 · 23:21 UTC
Great idea, and solid balance! Was a bit confused about raising and lowering control rods!
Tobold H
05. Oct 2021 · 10:43 UTC
I felt like a was playing Homer Simpson! The setting and audio made a comfy atmosphere, althoughI was also a bit confused by the lowering and raising of control rods.
Hadik
05. Oct 2021 · 14:26 UTC
Almost nailed that theme, but it still very thing what I imagine as this theme.. Inovative and good gameplay for me. Not good graphics, maybe next time. Really ?! That game is really fun, good job. Overall I think this game is good, and I think, next time you will create as good game as this is, or maybe better, so good job.

One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will appreciate very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
🎤 Yskuma
06. Oct 2021 · 09:24 UTC
Thanks for the comments folks.

Yeah, we probably shouldn't have assumed people would know how the control rods work. You lower them into the reactor to slow the reaction down and raise them out to speed the reaction up. The reactor is actually running a semi accurate simulation that takes into account all sorts of variables including the heat capacity of the reactor and coolant... this is what happens when you let a physicist design game systems.

In hindsight we probably should have made the pump for adding coolant back into the reactor more obvious too. It's pretty key to making it to the end of the game.
ffernn
06. Oct 2021 · 09:33 UTC
That was stressful! Great game though, aside for some bugs with the movement and maybe the player could've moved a bit faster. A clear goal maybe as well? All in all though really fun. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Arttu Halonen
06. Oct 2021 · 11:42 UTC
A humorous little venture into the world of nuclear power production! The visuals and assets were great, although the pump sounds get a bit uncomfortably loud when you go near them. Overall nice job, keep it up!
DeltaMain
08. Oct 2021 · 11:55 UTC
Interesting concept. Liked the simplicity of the game, so I do not have to do many things, just hold spacebar and run between consoles and machines. But there is a major problem(or even a bug?) that while i walk i get stuck and thrown in a previous direction. Problems started to occur until i read first lines, so i failed first attempt. I think if you polish this project it will become good.
Sikowny
10. Oct 2021 · 02:41 UTC
I couldn't figure out what raising or lowering the rods did for my power output, or anything at all really.

I liked the concept but it seems without playing numerous times, you won't experience all the fun little dialog or events that happen. The ones I were able to see were quite humorous though, so nice job on the writing :)

Fun concept, but I wish the implementation and instructions were a little clearer.
OddSocks
13. Oct 2021 · 11:25 UTC
Awesome LD entry :raised_hands: Really enjoyed playing this one. Kudos!
Sharks
15. Oct 2021 · 00:41 UTC
This one was fun, it was never too hectic and often felt like I was a little cheated. Let me explain!
First off the coolant bar doesn't have enough contrast for me to able to tell from a glance what it's at and the font for the percentage is rather small.

A mini-map would have been nice to know where the failures are occurring, it would also have been nice if things like the coolant pump were not spread across the map and behind walls where I have to take a super roundabout way to get there making it feel unfair.

Other than that the sound was pretty good the art was appealing there was a slight flickering of the tiles when I moved but I quite enjoyed it.
piw
16. Oct 2021 · 23:14 UTC
I tried to play it in a browser, but when I press space, the page with the game scrolls down and the top part of the game canvas goes outside the viewport