The Space-Ton Device by Sinci1

[raw]
made by Sinci1 for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

WARNING READ FIRST I wanted to add a mini-tutorial to the game but unfortunately I ran out of time, so if you play it without reading you might get lost, so without further ado here be the description:

TRANSMISSION INCOMING Hello commander! You will be put in charge of The Space-Ton Device™, the new revolutionary technology that will secure our solar missions! You will operate The Space-Ton Device™ is via the two T.O.N's on the side, you switch between them using the {LEFTARROW} and the {RIGHTARROW}, and once you've selected a T.O.N device, you can increase it's mass by {UPARROW} and {DOWNARROW}. Your job is to balance The Space-Ton Device™ from the incoming meteors by redistributing weight between the two T.O.N devices, but do be warned, The Space-Ton Device™ may be rather... Unstable. Good luck commander! TRANSMISSION ENDED

Copyright © 1977 by The Brix Arcade

Ratings

Overall 1391th 2.92⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1085th 3.1⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 977th 3.1⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 412th 3.88⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1220th 2.9⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 982th 2⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1129th 2.25⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1323th 2.688⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 8🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

Hadik
05. Oct 2021 · 13:01 UTC
Nicely fit into the theme. Very bad audio man, dont do that. Very hard game. Game is fun, but not as good as I hope so. I dont like game art, try next time invest more time, and it will be better.

One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
Alina Baybulatova
08. Oct 2021 · 06:27 UTC
Good game. It's very interesting to take turns with a friend and compare who was the best)
I liked the lp graphics! Good work!
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 17:36 UTC
@hadik Thanks for playing!
Yeah sadly for the audio, near the end of the time I realized I didn't have any audio, wanted to add something, so I picked a random 8bit sound effect to add
And as for the graphics I was going for a pixelated look but thanks for the feedback, I think if I began a bit earlier I could've polished it up a bit more, but sadly I didn't, rip.
But anyway thanks for the honest feedback, I really do appreciate it!

@alina-baybulatova Thanks for playing!
And thanks for the comment, I'm glad you liked it!
zimny11
21. Oct 2021 · 17:54 UTC
First of all. Congratulation of making the game in just one day. In my opinion art style is absolutely fine, game mechanics are simple, but they do not need to be complex. But... the game is too hard. I think that this could improve the game: asteroids weight less and the player do not need to worry about a single asteroid but many of them accumulating over time, then if you add some small blockades (bumps) at the end of the beam, that will allow asteroids to accumulate, and the player would have more time to balance things out. Anyway, good job!
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 18:14 UTC
@zinny11, Oh wow, yeah you're right, I think that would've been a better approach.
I did have a bit of difficulty balancing the difficulty [double pun not intended], experimented a bit with different weights and speeds and ultimately I did accept the fact that it was gonna be a difficult game.
But the blockades idea legit could've balanced the game out a lot more.
Either way thanks for playing!
mainVar
21. Oct 2021 · 18:32 UTC
Having web builds is very cool, also thanks for feedback my game. Also, the idea of the game is fully consistent with the theme of the gemjam. Also i think to next time will be very cool to add sond track to your game )
RonanRorry
21. Oct 2021 · 18:34 UTC
I feel this game's more a test of muscle memory than anything else; even then, it's surprisingly easy to lose here. But hey, I'm quite surprised that you made something in less than half a day! Good job!
Ava Skoog
21. Oct 2021 · 18:54 UTC
Cool mechanic that's fun to try and master but my slow brain just can't keep up with the pace of it, really difficult 😅 Would be great if it started slower, and/or there were difficulty options. Some music would have been cool. Glad I can control even the menus with the keyboard, since that's what the main game uses. I think it could be pretty cool with a bit more balancing (heh, punny) 😁
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 19:08 UTC
Thanks all for playing and for the feedback! I appreciate it!
Starlight Glimmer is best poney
21. Oct 2021 · 19:09 UTC
![screenshot.png](///raw/f90/1/z/48519.png)

This was funnier than I had expected. I think a control scheme like W/S/Up/Down (to control them simultaneously without switching) would have been more intuitive. It's very difficult.

> This is the Web Version which I unfortunately only managed to upload now, around an hour after the jam submission period ended.

Don't worry about that. You have to upload 1 build until the deadline, and then you can add more builds even a week later (as long as the game is unchanged).
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 19:18 UTC
@alaah Thanks for playing, I appreciate it a lot!
I did actually experiment with that sorta control scheme, but I found it a bit too confusing, as when I got overwhelmed I didn't know which one I was controlling, thought that might've just been me.
And thanks for the heads up regarding the builds!
Samuel Fine
21. Oct 2021 · 19:37 UTC
Interesting mechanic and control scheme. Playing with a controller where left/right bumper would switch between the weights might feel more natural. A little difficult to play with arrow keys, but there's a lot of potential here!
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 19:43 UTC
@samuel-fine I didn't think of that, now that you mention it this probably would feel a lot better on a controller
LDJam user 259103
21. Oct 2021 · 19:45 UTC
I found this game extremely difficult, but fun! It's a nice simple arcade game that's quite addictive. Nice work! :)
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 19:47 UTC
@python-b5 Thanks for playing and for the kind words!
Skleembof
21. Oct 2021 · 19:59 UTC
interesting concept but very difficult. I think you should start the game off more slowly to ease the player into the mechanics.
Peace Of Cake Games
21. Oct 2021 · 20:00 UTC
Nice and innovative! Changing the mass of the weights (within certain limits) to keep the platform balanced is a neat mechanic, I've never seen that in a game before. The menu credits text was hard to read, but I think it helped the theme of an arcade game be delivered quite nicely. The graphics really give it the arcade game feel!
pcmaster
21. Oct 2021 · 20:00 UTC
I really tried in the last minute... but you really have to start rating other games much earlier and not wait until the very end :\ A nice and very straightforward game tho, congratz!
🎤 Sinci1
21. Oct 2021 · 20:14 UTC
@skleembof Yeah, originally I was going to have a mini tutorial, but I couldn't find a way to implement on time unfortunately. Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback too!

@peace-of-cake-games thank you! There was a glitch with the pixel effect, where it applied to the text as well as the game, and I sadly couldn't find a way around it, that's why the text might be hard to read. Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

@pcmaster Yo thanks man, I know I know, I did scuff it a bit this year, both with the making of the game and with the rating :sweat_smile:, hopefully next year I'll plan out a bit better, but thanks for giving it a go, appreciate it!

Thank you all for playing the game and rating it, can't believe we got over 20 points.
Though the playing & rating is over I do hope to try out all of your games, no promises but hopefully.
Peace out and I hope to see you all next year!