LocoMoon by icxon

[raw]
made by icxon for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

ld_splash.png

LOCOMOON, Inc. reminds you to - handle regular arrivals timely - build many rails - offload last car of the train at the matching station - use emotional support giraffes to cry into when the stress is unbearable

No, we cannot stop the trains or offload several cars at the time.
Also, please do not orchestrate gratuitous train wrecks or draw rude pictures using rails as Dave did. Half of the system comes to see your asteroid now, Dave.

— Management

CONTROLS:

  • LMB - place/switch rails
  • RMB - remove rails
  • 1,2,3 - change speed
  • Click [Ready] to deploy trains
  • Click on intersection arrows to switch directions

TOOLS:

screenshot

Ratings

Overall 230th 3.862⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 272th 3.741⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 267th 3.69⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 895th 3.31⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 662th 3.517⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Audio 491th 3.31⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 234th 3.537⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 443th 3.593⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

Thiefaine
03. Oct 2022 · 22:56 UTC
First of all, the corporate message made me laugh a lot ^^
Then the game is awsome, super neat, building rails is pleasing !
Only problem is using the right click on the web version pops-up the contextual window.
I love the fact you can live edit your rails to wrecks... I mean do a better job
GG.
aevek
04. Oct 2022 · 05:35 UTC
Loved the space giraffes, they stopped me from being too mad when I'd finally got a nice routing system worked out and a new blue depot just popped up on my return line. Very fun game, great work. (but why must you ruin all my perfect designs :'( )
Tero Pulkkinen
04. Oct 2022 · 05:51 UTC
Looks nice. Creating a railway is easy and I got a train following the path. Half of the tracks were useless since the train always went the quickest route, but otherwise its pretty ok. Just costs tons of money to build a rails where no train will go.
🎤 icxon
04. Oct 2022 · 06:48 UTC
@tero-pulkkinen, hey thanks for playing! You can switch intersection directions by just clicking on them. Sorry for the lack of tutorial in-game.

@aevek, and space giraffes love you too!. 🦒
RosyMaple
04. Oct 2022 · 07:23 UTC
Shockingly stressful, with fantastic art design, my high score was round 6 with out crashing and burning, so I'm not sure how many colors and how crazy it gets.


The sound while great did get annoying after a while of retrying, maybe an in game mute button would have helped.

It also ended up feeling like a lot of trial and error, since there isn't any info about what kind of trains can come each wave, would have liked some kind of indication.
LDJam user 300745
04. Oct 2022 · 07:50 UTC
@icxon Not sure what link I followed but now I have reached to the game page :) Nice game.
CodeRaurus
04. Oct 2022 · 11:22 UTC
A solid game. The core loop keeps you hooked.

Well done!
Wouter52
05. Oct 2022 · 11:09 UTC
Love your game! This was the first game we played after submitting. But we were too tired to give feedback and to think streight at that point.

Just played it again and I love it! It gets very chaotic very fast. I like that aspect. Graphics are very nice and the music is nice and calming.
lbrande
05. Oct 2022 · 18:23 UTC
Really cool sandbox puzzle/strategy game! I don't see any connection to the theme though.
Matoux42
06. Oct 2022 · 08:17 UTC
Really liked it, spent a lot of time on it and had to stop only because it was starting to be late :laughing:

The idea is awesome, and I like this kind of game where you have to build something and look how it is going. I think that the way you add theme on it was very clever too.
PeachTreeOath
06. Oct 2022 · 23:09 UTC
That's an interesting take on building rail systems. Usually in something like Factorio, you simply make the most efficient system and evolve it over time. THIS was much trickier though, as you needed to set up a complex system that can reroute things, be easy for the player to switch around and understand the path, and most importantly have enough room for multiple trains to run on.

Coming back to this page I see you have a screenshot with a layout much smarter than mine. Being able to just send a train on a looping journey for a while would've helped traffic a lot!

I thought this was quite fun. Of course it would've been easier to have a bit more room to play around with, but the space constraints made it much more challenging and fun up front. I could see how you could easily tweak difficulty simply by having the depots spawn closer to each other, as mine did in one of my runs.

Fun game with further potential in it!

Come on now :grimacing:

![aaaaaa.PNG](///raw/649/1/z/529c7.png)
Solah
07. Oct 2022 · 10:47 UTC
Great game! Very fun to try to have a good strategy and systematically realize it doesn't work and see trains explode!
Artyom Volkov
07. Oct 2022 · 17:54 UTC
Quite an interesting idea for a puzzle game. It has a really good potential to be a full game.
Brainloaf Studio
08. Oct 2022 · 00:27 UTC
Big fan of the concept here! I like how more colors and differing orders for the cars are introduced as the waves progress- I had quite the convulated setup when things got pretty complex. Plenty of cars exploded. Shoutout to the space giraffes in back. Very nice work!
Faust_Mi
08. Oct 2022 · 09:53 UTC
Great game! Very fun idea for a puzzle game! Good job!
43sam
08. Oct 2022 · 16:22 UTC
Very nice game! I like how the complexity ramps up gradually and that you have to interact with the system as the trains are going. One thing I'd like to see is maybe show the carriages that will be attached to the next train coming out which will let you plan a bit more in advance. Really enjoyable game though and congrats on making it!
Yword
09. Oct 2022 · 17:57 UTC
Cool, it's fun to play, with clever mechanic and nice atmosphere, and I liked the railway connection method, which is easy and intuitive! And beautiful cover art too!
MrBamboo
09. Oct 2022 · 22:28 UTC
I never do a train game and just by looking at your ... it's seem to be hard ! Love it, great game
cassowary
12. Oct 2022 · 05:25 UTC
Made it to wave 11 and scored 4380. I actually found this really really compelling but it's very hard, lol. The best tiny-brain strategy I eventually settled on was just to make one big loop through all the stations and block trains as they entered until I could let them in without causing a collision, and then I could let them out once they were empty. But obviously that isn't a perfect strategy either, lol.

Really like the graphics and music too -- the emotional support giraffes are hilarious and the music really captures a nice spacey vibe that contrasts with the hectic gameplay!

I might've also liked a preview of what trains were coming, but I get that that might conflict with what you were going for with the gameplay. Depends on what kind of vibe you're going for.
Miche
12. Oct 2022 · 05:42 UTC
Loved the concept!
Got a little mad at some of the waves but overall fun!
jonah
12. Oct 2022 · 07:14 UTC
emotional support giraffes !!!

Great job on implementing this interesting concept. Would love to see more stop-signs and maybe some triggers in a post-jam version! Also I wonder if having multiple entrances for trains would make the game more challenging or maybe time-limit on certain 'goods'. I pretty much cheesed the game by having one solution for pretty much all the waves 😅

Had an awesome time with this game!
LDJam user 245333
12. Oct 2022 · 10:09 UTC
That was pretty fun! It reminded me of Mini Metro. With ten seconds between each trains though, things quickly get unmanageable. Especially given that we can't know the composition of a train until it's fully on screen, meaning that there can be 5 seconds wasted just to see what's the last wagon, and where the train should go. But even so, it's very interesting to crate the most optimize system to limit incidents! The controls are great too, simple and intuitive, it clicks immediately and is very satisfying. Great job on the visuals and sound-design too. This was a nice game to play!
CaptAndrey
14. Oct 2022 · 13:46 UTC
➕ cool idea

➕ can stick for a long time

➕ convenient control

➕ good balance

➖what to do with two wagons was not immediately clear

➖weak connection with the topic
deepnight
21. Oct 2022 · 20:49 UTC
I'm not sure about the theme connection, but the game was quite fun to play! The way you swap directions was often a bit frustrating and led to lots of misclicks on my side.