The Unstable Comet by Juanlu

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

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!

Screenshot of the game

Ratings

Overall 1098th 3.241⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 987th 3.207⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1413th 2.534⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1459th 2.379⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

RedXet
04. Oct 2021 · 22:24 UTC
Cool game :), it's maybe a bit long to collect the data, It could be nice to increase the speed of the player, and the turn speed, it could be more fun :D, btw I didn't reach the dev score :(
Bulix
05. Oct 2021 · 09:52 UTC
The art and the music was nice and fit together nicely. Fun game but though you quickly get the gist of it all.
Nerisma
05. Oct 2021 · 11:22 UTC
Cool game ! Loved collecting data, it's fits pretty well together, good job !
Pitisek
05. Oct 2021 · 12:03 UTC
I enjoyed beating you score. Unfortunately I don't see the theme here :( Would be great to have option to upgrade the ship and have different type of obstacles to beat.
Biku
05. Oct 2021 · 13:48 UTC
8900 points scored :P. Nice game!
IHaveAnInkling
05. Oct 2021 · 14:09 UTC
A fun game, a cool balance between shooting an flying, I would have like turn speed to be higher The art was good and the sound effects added a lot to the gameplay. I didn't beat the high score though!
redmountainman1
05. Oct 2021 · 14:38 UTC
Fun, really chill music and feeling. Art and sound were great. I wish I could shoot faster.
Bentekiller
05. Oct 2021 · 14:45 UTC
A fun game at first, but it doesn't get harder you just endure. As previously said the turning could be a little bit faster and still be a good mechanic. The dust was hard to make out on the black background and the with the white stars that also move and looks very alike. Liked the sound and the mood of the game!
Nick Rafalski
06. Oct 2021 · 00:38 UTC
I really dig the kinda anti-shoot-em-up vibe here. Your ship is slow, your weapon is slow, the asteroids are slow. But the controls are tight and the action isn't exactly frantic, so it balances it out. It's a much more mellow shooter. The music fits it really well too. Nice!
ChristianB
06. Oct 2021 · 11:35 UTC
Loved the sound design on this one. The audio and sfx went together really well, made for a really chill vibe. It was a bit too repetitive to make me want to keep playing, though.

You should totally expand on this further, it's a solid foundation!
ardorugus
06. Oct 2021 · 12:52 UTC
So, technically you just have to find a cozy space and hold "space". Some moonwalking music sounds nice). Love space anyway!
🎤 Juanlu
06. Oct 2021 · 14:34 UTC
@redxet I agree that the movement of the ship could be better. Thanks for playing it!

@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!
Praccen
06. Oct 2021 · 17:47 UTC
Fun little game, well done! I would have wanted it to be harder from the get go, or atleast pick up pace a little bit quicker. Some variation would be fun aswell, by maybe doing some kind of power up or a boss battle every once in a while.
Tulkas
06. Oct 2021 · 17:57 UTC
Superb game! Well done for game mechanics and space atmosphere dude. Graphics are enough and not so compliceted which is good for this concept. I personally think if there were some different comet types(bouncy, big etc.), that would have been much nicer and challenging.
XCVZXC
06. Oct 2021 · 18:21 UTC
Nice idea and quite good execution. Found no bugs. However the controls are a bit inconvenient. Maybe aiming with mouse like in top-down shooter games would work better.
🎤 Juanlu
06. Oct 2021 · 21:01 UTC
@praccen I agree with you. I ran out of time to balance the difficulty ramp-up and I had to discard completely adding power-ups or any major variation also due to lack of time. Thank you for your comment!

@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!
LDJam user 270875
07. Oct 2021 · 22:02 UTC
Really like the aesthetic of the ship. Lots of nice little touches in this, like the parallax stars and the rocket flames.
gasgiant
09. Oct 2021 · 18:42 UTC
I think the game would benefit from some source of tension. The rocks don't fight back, it doesn't seem to be hard to avoid them, you are not protecting some structure from destruction by them. As a result the game feels completely dull.
WolfMeryX
11. Oct 2021 · 03:40 UTC
Cute game! Pretty easy to play, but the music kinda got me hooked in it for a while, although It's not what I was expecting, yet it somehow fitted well :). Controls were cool, and the audio effects were nice as well.
Good entry!
🎤 Juanlu
11. Oct 2021 · 19:54 UTC
@malcolm Thank you! While the graphics are from a third party, the rocket flames and the stars are all mine. I'm glad you liked it!

@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!
LDJam user 238142
14. Oct 2021 · 13:02 UTC
I recognise those Kenney assets ;) I would have liked there to be a bit of progression and variation, some different sized hazards, maybe vary the speed of the player, throw in some "gates" you have toi fly through. But for a solo effort, this was really quite good, congrats!
🎤 Juanlu
15. Oct 2021 · 13:44 UTC
@pat-cleaver Kenney.NL assets are great! It's a great way of getting some good quality graphics for little games like thisone. I agree with you that the game is a bit dull and lacks content but, unfortunately, I didn't have enough time for adding anything else. Thank you so much for your comment!
victoriaogino
19. Oct 2021 · 23:34 UTC
Fun little game! It did get a little repetitive after a while, but it is addicting and easy to get into. I know you wish you could've added more to it if you had the time. The sound design was great and the sprite art was nice too. My only suggestion would be to make the UI a bit bigger. It's really hard to read or even notice when it's so small and tucked away. Really fun game though overall! :D