The Unstable Comet by Juanlu
The Unstable Comet or The Game Where You Destroy Rocks And Recover The Dust For Science is a game where you are following a comet in your science ship and you have to shoot the incoming rocks to destroy them and recover the dust they generate to transmit the science data about them. Once you get enough data points, they're automatically sent and you get a little health bonus in exchange.
Instructions
- Move your ship with the ARROW KEYS or WASD.
- Shoot the rocks with SPACE BAR (only once per second).
- Recover the remains of the destroyed rock for DATA points.
- Enjoy the game!
- (Optional) Beat the developer's highscore of 8335 points!

| Link | https://bettlowe.itch.io/the-unstable-comet |
| Link | https://bettlowe.itch.io/the-unstable-comet |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/the-unstable-comet |
Ratings
| Overall | 1098th | 3.241⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 987th | 3.207⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1413th | 2.534⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1459th | 2.379⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 35🗨️ |
You should totally expand on this further, it's a solid foundation!
@bulix Yes, the game is quite shallow so it gets old quite easily. Art and music was by a third party but I'm glad you liked what I chose. Thank you for you comment!
@nerisma Thank you for commenting. I also enjoyed the data collecting.
@pitisek Congratulations on beating me! For a lack of time I couldn't implement the comet actually disintegrating on screen, and that's what gives the "unstable" theme. And I was also thinking about some upgrading but, again, lack of time unfortunately.
@biku Nice score you got there! I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
@bentekiller The game actually gets harder as you get more score, as the rocks start coming faster and faster (if you get around 8000 points and then reset you'll notice the difference). Anyway, I was out of time to balance it properly so it could be a little too easy if you're good with the controls. I agree that the "dust" was hard to see sometimes, but again I didn't have enough time to fix it properly. Thank you for your comment!
@nick-rafalski I'm glad you liked it! I know the balancing isn't good, but I didn't want it to become a "keyboard-masher" kind of game, so I added the cooldown. The music is from a third party but I'm happy you like my choosing!
@christianb I agree that the game lacks content so it can get boring quite easily. Music and SFX was third-party but I'm glad you enjoyed what I chose for it! I don't think I will expand much on this game but maybe I'll implement a few quirks to it in the following days as training for future development. Thank you for commenting!
@ardorugus Space is always great! I'm glad you liked the music even though it isn't mine (I chose it). I'm not sure how much time you can hold the "find a cozy space and hold space" strategy, but it will probably get you a nice score anyway, as the game isn't much balanced against it.
And for all of you that didn't leave a message but still played, thank you for expending your time in playing my game!
@tulkas Thank you so much! Even though the graphics are from a third party, I tried to keep them simple enough so you can easily know what's happening. I agree with you in that it needs more variation, but I ran out of time to implement any of that.
@xcvzxc I'm glad you liked it! I'll try to implement your suggestion to see if it works better. Even if it doesn't for this game, it will be great to know how to do it for future ones. Thank you for your comment!
Good entry!
@gasgiant I see your point. Mostly the game is a bit unbalanced so destroying the rocks and surviving is easier than I expected. Maybe that would have been a good source of tension. Thank you for your comment!
@wolfmeryx I'm glad you liked it! Music and audio are from a third party, but I had the same feeling when choosing the music: I was looking for something more fast, for more "action", but somehow that piece was perfect. Thanks for commenting!