Nucleus by mrBell270
Nucleus - core of an atom.
Radioactive nucleus emits high energy particles.
Radioactive nucleus is highly unstable and needs proper supervision.
Keep your nucleus under control. How long will you hold on?!
Software: - Unity - LMMS - Krita + Aseprite
| Link | https://bitbucket.org/bell270/ld49/src/main/ |
| Link | https://mrbell270.itch.io/nucleus |
| Link | https://mrbell270.itch.io/nucleus |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/nucleus |
Ratings
| Overall | 91th | 3.875⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 106th | 3.775⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 119th | 3.775⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 62th | 4.188⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 33th | 4.225⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 11th | 4.2⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 48th | 3.949⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 48🗳️ | 59🗨️ |
My only gripe is sometimes RNG feels like it can put you in unwinnable scenarios, not sure how to really fix that though.
I got to about 200 seconds, was there a high score board I missed somewhere? Not sure what my exact time was.
Unfortunatelly, RNG is not very smart in my design.
But some unwinnable scenarios were created on purpose, so player would not relax :)
Highscore is local only, sorry. You can see your highscore on "death" screen.
If you could tell me what was confusing, I would be truely grateful!
I can't gush enough about the vibe - the lovely color shifts, the particle effects indicating the next emission, the orbiting visuals, the outside-electron indications, the subtle and melodic sound ques - all of it show the highly honed skills of an experienced game designer.
Amazing work, truly fantastic.
Who would have thought my two favorite games so far would be nucleus based!
(https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/nuclide)
UPD. Checked out Nuclide, really nice puzzle:)
Controls were my main concern. When porting to android I will try to implement thumb-spinning, the closest you can get to real spinner.
Everyone has already said it, from the ambient music, the sound cues (that had multiple pitches for each object! Great touch), the particle effects, the transition between all the menus, the risk/reward of using your full shield but potentially trapping electrons inside, and on and on. All the more impressive as a Compo. Really great work, man!
I really loved the sound design on this game! The aesthetic is really neat too. I liked the gameplay, my only complaint would be that it would be great to have a last possibility to save the core to be hit by an electron.
Other than that, it's a very cool game! Great work!
I felt good when I moved the paddle on the top of the hexagon, but when I moved the paddle on the bottom of the hexagon, I found that pressing D made the paddle move to the left, which was a little counterintuitive. Maybe it's better to use mouse controls when facing round maps?
My goal on this LD was "simple, but mastered", so no rush on levels and no overscoping.
I will leave some advices on your game, if you don't mind:)
Exellent job!
I like that the electrons' trajectories are bent by the EM force :>
P.S. You are from Russia, aren't you?
(-) random emitting & electron bombarding can screw you over sometimes
(+) detailed description of the game in the game
(+) Gameplay is actually easy to undestand
(o) I would have liked a "stay in the game mechanic", e.g. to restabilitize the nucleus
(o) ...and a little bit harder
(+) fitting soundeffects & useful sounddesign
(+) fitting soundtrack, almost cosy
(+) sound is mutable, +1 on quality
overall: I've played it 5 times in a row
My one criticism would be the main menu/instructions screen; it's a lot of information at once, and the thin text makes everything feel a little hard to read and bland. It might be worth splitting the instructions over a few screens, presented in sequence, ideally with their own diagrams to make it a little clearer?
But otherwise it's good fun, glad I found it!
However, I don't think the gameplay is very fun. After deflecting a few balls and pressing spacebar a few times, the gameplay becomes very repetitive. It's understandable that since this is a compo, not many game mechanics could be added. But if this game were to be expanded upon, more game mechanics would be nice.
Overall, a beautiful and well done game.