Reliable Reactors Co. by EthanZech

[raw]
made by EthanZech for Ludum Dare 49 (COMPO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oq30nm7l5k

In Reliable Reactors Co., you play as a reactor regulator working for the great company of Reliable Reactors Co. However, the reactors don't seem to be as reliable as the name claims...

IMG3.png

Compete against the clock as you use your mouse to move levers and push buttons to keep the reactor from going critical! Each day has new challenges, and you'll have to think fast to react to them.

IMG4.png

This is my first ever game jam, let alone compo, so making this was certainly a challenge. I'm pretty proud of it though, and it helped me learn a lot about scope. I hope you enjoy!

To Play

Download and extract the Zip file. Run "Reliable Reactors Co.exe"

Ratings

Overall 382th 3.241⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 456th 2.81⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 280th 3.328⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 115th 4.017⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 378th 3.19⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 296th 3.034⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 88th 3.5⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 272th 3.214⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

BougieBirdie
03. Oct 2021 · 23:09 UTC
Neat game! It's my first jam too, and I was thrilled to see somebody else made a game with Unity. I think yours is definitely more put together than mine though lol
The first level seemed a touch long for my liking, that's my only criticism
z0rly
03. Oct 2021 · 23:16 UTC
I thought the gameplay was a bit too minimal for the first part, maybe we could have introduced more mechanics there from the get go. Nice job though!
theviraldragon
04. Oct 2021 · 05:05 UTC
More gameplay variation would've been nice. All in all good game.
candlesan
04. Oct 2021 · 07:03 UTC
I like the concept - captures the theme well. If I could make a suggestion, the level taking 5 minutes with moving the temperature up and down was a little long - I feel like the core gameplay of that could be done for maybe 1-2 minutes at most. I like the solar shield idea, kept me on my toes.
Nafe
04. Oct 2021 · 11:09 UTC
Had a lot of fun, great first entry.

Similar feedback to above, it's slightly slow to ramp up. You'll find that when there are thousands of games to rate that people just want to jump straight into the action. The trick is finding the sweet spot between adding new mechanics quickly and not overdoing the learning curve.

I'm sure you learned heaps and I look forward to seeing what you can do next time! Keep it up. :)
🎤 EthanZech
04. Oct 2021 · 15:11 UTC
@bougiebirdie @z0rly @candlesan @nafe
Yeah I see your criticisms now. Especially playing other LD games I think I overestimated how long was expected for these games and arbitrarily raised playtime which made it a bit tedious. Next time I'll focus on making my game more concise. Nice to hear it didn't break on anyone at least.

I'm just happy I at least decided against making the first level 8 minutes like the others haha.
huntthewumpus
04. Oct 2021 · 18:57 UTC
Pretty cool for a first time submission!
I was very excited (as it was mandatory. ;)

Repeating other points from here: The time you have to wait for anything to happen is a bit high.
shp
04. Oct 2021 · 19:48 UTC
Good job finishing! Looks and plays nice enough
Cratthew
04. Oct 2021 · 19:54 UTC
Good art, nailed the theme, interesting concept! I did feel the gameplay got a liiittle tedious though, especially in the beginning. Five minutes of passively raising and lowering a bar gets a little boring.
unpronounceable
04. Oct 2021 · 20:13 UTC
Enjoyed it. Agree with the people above about the speed. One thing I really liked the inclusion of was being able to use the keyboard to be able to solve the math problems.
potkirland
05. Oct 2021 · 00:40 UTC
fun game but i too have to agree with comments above levels are too slow. liked it thou keep up the good work!
Trexxak
05. Oct 2021 · 19:20 UTC
First off: Welcome to Ludum Dare! :3

Pretty good for a first game jam! I do have to say though, 5 minutes is a lot of time. I'd like to suggest lowering it to about a minute. Other than that though - good work!
🎤 EthanZech
05. Oct 2021 · 23:21 UTC
@trexxak Yeah seems to be a pretty common consensus. Maybe once the competition is over I'll update the game and lower the times down.
zazz0000
06. Oct 2021 · 01:19 UTC
Simple but effective. Also I can't help but appreciate "minds that think alike" (our team ended up with a power plant manager type thing as well)
TheGamerASD
06. Oct 2021 · 04:14 UTC
Good game, I like the gameplay :)
marbles
06. Oct 2021 · 07:34 UTC
Interesting concept but it felt too slow. Good job on your first jam! And it's compo, wow!
Anthony Servedio
06. Oct 2021 · 11:52 UTC
Good game. Hopefully, you had a positive experience with your first jam. There were parts where the game felt a little long but overall I liked it!
Mathiouza
06. Oct 2021 · 16:45 UTC
Good game. Reminds me of Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes or the game where you have multiple buttons and the guy tells you not to touch anything. It feels like you wanted to create the same kind of vibes here.

This entry is really solid. You made a complete tutorial, there is several features. It's really great! The only negative point, as other already mentioned is that it is too slow. 5 minutes is really really long, especially in the first level where there is not much to do.

Plus there is a bug in your time counter. It goes from XX:11 to XX:010 x) Minor issue, but maybe you didn't see it.

Solid first jam! You can be really proud of you! :clap: :clap:
🎤 EthanZech
06. Oct 2021 · 16:51 UTC
@mathiouza Yeah I know about that timer bug, it's like my never ending curse when trying to make timers in unity haha. Has something to do with the order stuff happens each frame I think.

Thanks for the feedback!
o_sim
08. Oct 2021 · 21:14 UTC
Good one! I was suprised at the level of polish. Other than what others said I felt doing the math was quite pointless as it didn't have much impact, so I stopped doing it after while.
LDJam user 0
13. Oct 2021 · 22:22 UTC
No web no play.
gustavo.christino
20. Oct 2021 · 22:13 UTC
I finally managed to finish the gameplays and uploaded the game session for this game. I hope you like it and that my comments can be understood as those most interested in enabling improvements to the project.

Thank you for requesting this gameplay!

https://youtu.be/GRv3bI0ubD4