Unstable Core by Fluorescent
It is a top-down 2d game where you try to escape a crumbling space station by charging an escape pod while keeping the station operational. The station's reactor core is unstable, and the more it gets out of control, the more chaotic it gets!
Fires erupt, generators get attacked and broken, the station core is heating up and is threatening to explode before you escape.
Created solo, the only assistance is my friend's music which was created during the event. Controls are in the main menu.
What is there to do: - Activate generators around the station and keep them active to charge your energy reserves. - Use your extinguisher to put down flames. Fire does hurt, and also your station heats up faster the more flames there are. - Load the station's turret to deflect monsters attacking your generators. Monsters switch off and break generators, leading to those generators draining energy instead of producing - or simply steal energy if they attack already broken generators. - Create Coolant and apply to the core to reduce the heat levels. - Once in a system cycle, your escape pod will attempt charging 1/5th of its battery, so make sure you have enough energy in reserves :)
Some thoughts + credits:
This is my obligatory "It's my 1st jam", happy to finish a game for once :) I started with the 3d modelling to create a level, wasted several hours and dropped it to reduce scope. I fear it can't properly function without the UI accompanying it to be fun, otherwise the info is just dumped on the screen - post-jam there is a lot of work to polish this idea if it turns out enjoyable!
I lack 2d skills which is why I opted-out of graphics category, art assets are non-existent or belong to https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/characters/armored-soldiers-and-monsters-2d-top-down-133669 which was free before. Then I chose to use https://reallysketch.com/ this free online tool and get a map. Font https://www.fontspace.com/brave-eightyone-font-f50123, non-commercial.
Edit: added Google Drive link as a primary source, and kept my original link as an alternative. No changes to the game.
| itch | https://afluorescent.itch.io/unstable-core-ld49 |
| zip version | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_s-dSehQfBWLvLox_3gf-K3W4ynRG26y/view?usp=sharing |
| zip version, alternative | https://yadi.sk/d/E3K8xCOrces9Gg |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/unstable-core-2 |
Ratings
| Overall | 1351th | 2.986⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1354th | 2.77⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1269th | 2.77⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 800th | 3.486⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 627th | 3.324⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1024th | 3.157⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 58🗨️ |
Congrats on your first game for the jam
I did run in to a small bug, on restart no timers move and I can't move. This is a shot in the dark but you may not be setting timeScale back to 1 when you reload the scene
great game!!
I wish there was more feedback both in terms of sound and visuals to let me know when I've done something, e.g. fires pinging or glowing or animating away once put out, or bars filling as I complete tasks.
Conceptually really cool, love the music as well, and I like that the game is basically feature complete, great work!
Indeed, the game is not polished in regards to visual feedback and clearer player goals since I didn't manage to add it by the deadline, so I understand it may be confusing :(
Great Job!
To have an attempt at charging the ship, you must remain at level 3 heat or above, but again, it's true that the UI doesn't make it clear.
The text explains you have to get that level to at least three, but even with this info, my intuition was to keep it the low. Then I realized things were happening with a danger level 3.
- Generators seems useless : they kept green during my whole game after I put all of them to green.
- Turrets seems useless :I charged ammo in it, to a total of 225, and it did not decreased.
- I did not see any monster.
Either I was very good at playing your game, either some announced features are missing.
As previous comments told : the blueprint design is nice. But you should have used two different colors for the unpassable walls and the passable doors. One part of the ship is especially strange : at the north east of the medic bay, there are two adjacent corridors, thus an unpassable wall with walkable area at each side.
Also, if you choosed blueprint graphic style, why not push the idea to the max ? Why the turret, the core, the escape pod, and etc are "real drawings" ? Maybe you should have tried to draw them as blueprints.
It may be hard to make a blueprint that would undoubtedly look as a core or as a turret, but hey! that was your initial graphic choice. Try to assume it.
Nice game overall , but it needs more GUI and visual feedback, instead of textual explanation about features that I did not see.
Visuals were placeholder due to lack of time, even the map was - but since people liked it, I will consider sticking to the theme of a blueprint. Also, there were supposed to be doors opening and closing automatically, this was almost the first idea of what needs to be added - which is why there are lines between the corridors, rooms etc. Had to cut it since it gave no gameplay elements and I didn't have time for non-essential stuff.
Monsters are currently "invisible", their logic is working and they attack the generators, but again, no feedback about it whatsoever :) It might as well be that the generators are shutting down randomly after a certain heat level, but there is a whole system underneath that no one can see yet haha
I agree with others about providing feedback. Whenever the player does an action, there should be both a sound and some visual change to make it clear that the player has successfully interacted. Since the generators take a moment to activate, there should be a progress bar or donut chart or something too - to make it clear that it's making progress. Also, maybe it should be made more blatant how the different game mechanics are interacting. It was hard to appreciate how keeping the turret loaded was helping me. And I would put some serious visual & sound effects on when the player is close to losing; that would make it feel more intense.
it is a bug with the cooling down not requiring coolant :( fixing it with the post-jam version I am currently working on