Spaceship Parking Simulator by fuzzybut

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

In Spaceship Parking Simulator, you try to land on planets to get more points before the time runs out. (You were originally supposed to start with 10 seconds, fitting the theme, but this made the game way too difficult). The game could use more polish, as we had a few other things going on this weekend, but we decided it was fun enough to still put out before the deadline.

Instructions, in case you skipped them in-game :) TextTutorialSlide.png

Fuzzybut is two people, Ryan and Anna. Ryan did all of the gameplay, and Anna did all of the art and animations. Our friend Nick also playtested for us. This is our first time making a game together. Ryan entered the Ludum Dare competition a handful of times in 2013 and 2014, but has not made a game since 2015. Anna had never heard of Ludum Dare until last Thursday.

Song credits: A Journey Through The Universe by Lesion X | https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US Nebula Sound Effect and Point Collection Sound Effect are from Pixabay

Ratings

Overall 794th 3.302⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Fun 641th 3.319⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 721th 3.172⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1206th 2.172⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 896th 3.086⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Humor 777th 2.472⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Mood 906th 3.07⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Given 42🗳️ 99🗨️

Feedback

Motti
03. Oct 2022 · 22:00 UTC
It's the most difficult jam game I've played, I would love if it'd fit the "every 10 seconds" theme.
check out my jam game!
Gdanilo
03. Oct 2022 · 23:00 UTC
Its pretty difficult even with the handicap, but i like spaceships games! so its a game to master the gameplay and have fun in the spare time
PartySquadMember
04. Oct 2022 · 01:06 UTC
Has a great challenge to it. I was never able to successfully land on a planet. I did fly through a nebula but did not land on a planet. I am going to play this again when I have time to master the mechanics. That being said the mechanics are a lot of fun and a perfect challenge to this game. I just couldn't figure out what a planet was and crashed on every guess I had.
CrimOudin
04. Oct 2022 · 01:16 UTC
I got 65 pts. Took me a few tries to actually get decent at landing on a planet. A fun little challenge. Im sure 65 is relatively easy to beat if i gave it a few more plays.
Ikvelibrium
04. Oct 2022 · 09:17 UTC
Nice visuals but i think controls a bit heavy, but maybe its for challenge
BoClow
04. Oct 2022 · 09:22 UTC
Cool little space flying game! Nebulas were beautiful and useful. I managed to land on one planet, but I am usually not very good at these type of games.
I found myself wanting planets to have some sort of gravity so when I boost just little too much, I would not just fly away XD
JHax
04. Oct 2022 · 11:22 UTC
Enjoyed this a lot! Feels like a fun new take on the old Lunar Lander style of game.

Definitely very tricky, but does make it quite satisfying when you get things right!
Matoux42
04. Oct 2022 · 13:45 UTC
I hate this game as much as I love it. Anyway, I have to stop playing or I am going to be mad :sweat_smile:
Eugenik
04. Oct 2022 · 15:10 UTC
Good job :).
🎤 fuzzybut
04. Oct 2022 · 19:37 UTC
Thank you all for playing and reviewing our game!! My personal high score is 70 XD but Ryan managed 285! I agree that it's pretty tough and that the velocity reqs to land are unforgiving at times - but maybe that's the nature of piloting a spaceship. We did consider implementing gravity at some point and decided against it for the sake of simplicity/time.
BoxedMeatRevolution
05. Oct 2022 · 00:53 UTC
Got 185. Really fun once you get the hang of it, though it takes a long time to get it.
ynthamy
05. Oct 2022 · 01:03 UTC
Love the vibe of the music and just drifting through space. Nice art on the cosmic objects. Gravity would have been cool but definitely would have made it a different game, more chaotic. Some kind of danger indicator for speed might have helped ease me into it, but it only took a handful of attempts to start getting point, haha. I think the controls and the gameplay feel unique, so good job!
FrankieWhispers
05. Oct 2022 · 06:02 UTC
I really enjoyed the spaceship flight. Great music and even though it is hard, it was still a fun game to play.
ColeSlaughter
05. Oct 2022 · 06:31 UTC
Holy hell I am really bad at this. xD Don't think I ever managed to land on more than one planet.

This is a really neat take on the Lunar Lander type game, though! :) Being able to land on a planet when coming in from any direction definitely makes things interesting! I also thought the nebulas were a neat idea to add some variety to the game.
cremmy
05. Oct 2022 · 08:27 UTC
Headbutting a planet right after launching is not a good idea, yeah.
Stefan Laimer
05. Oct 2022 · 15:16 UTC
This is a really nice game. Pretty challenging at first, but after a while I got the hang of it and got pretty good. My highest score so far is 90 but I think I can get it higher.

![score.PNG](///raw/b24/22/z/5256c.png)
Lauptimist
05. Oct 2022 · 15:26 UTC
Really love the vibe, you got me screaming when I knew I was gonne hit a planet and lose haha. Thanks for your game its really fun and looks good! hope you enjoyed creating it aswell :)
Jared N
05. Oct 2022 · 20:31 UTC
Interesting and challenging game. I do like the mechanic of flying through nebulas and landing on different planets doing different things. The controls felt good but loosing felt a bit unforgiving. Nice job overall though!
JoeDev
05. Oct 2022 · 21:49 UTC
Highscore of 70! Really actually super fun landing mechanics, I love games where you can gently tweak your acceleration as it felt very 'space-like'. From one space game to another, really good job!
LDJam user 296917
06. Oct 2022 · 08:03 UTC
Got 20.
Chilleh
06. Oct 2022 · 10:23 UTC
I feel its very hard to stop when pick up just too much momentum that you will crash into planets instead of landing on them. I really enjoyed the controls of this game and can definitely see why you removed the every 10 seconds part :) I would love to see this mechanic worked on though! Maybe you could have an opposite facing thruster on the rocket to slow down that you can use every 10 seconds :) Overall great concept and game!
fabula_rasa
06. Oct 2022 · 17:02 UTC
This is haaard, but also fun! After a while, you get some handle on the controls, and you start doing better. At first, I tried landing on the planets nose-first. That was not a good idea in the least :laughing: Do you win if you manage to land on all available planets? Or is the world infinite, and you are always doomed to lose?

This could definitely be expanded upon with some ship upgrades, maybe some other places to land on or stuff to pick up in the galaxy! Like hitchhikers :wink: .

I like the general mood and the slight music. And I love the art on the nebulas - very nice! Overall, very nicely done.
JuanRod707
06. Oct 2022 · 20:26 UTC
Really liked this game!!! The music fits perfectly, would love to see some gravity fields added to this game, specially when you almost hit the side of a planet. Amazing job
Iamsodarncool
07. Oct 2022 · 05:35 UTC
I LOVE games that have proper zero-g physics, with no automatic deceleration of velocity or rotation. This game does it quite well, and it's a super fun challenge trying to maneuver the ship around. I like that you really have to commit to maneuvers, since it takes several seconds to rotate the ship 180 degrees. There's very little room for screwups which makes it extra satisfying when you *don't* screw up.

As others have mentioned I wish the valid landing conditions were more forgiving, or at least more clear. Even after playing the game for 10 minutes I don't have a good sense of how slow I need to be or how close to pointing straight up I need to be. I think the gameplay would be *significantly* improved with A) a speedometer that shows how fast you're going and has the "safe landing" speed range clearly marked, and B) some landing gear on the ship, so you can better gauge your landing angle (Also because landing directly on the engine bell is a little silly :P)

When I do fail, I wish it felt more dramatic. It's a spaceship crash! I would have liked some explosion visual & sound effects.

I wasn't a fan of the way the ship instantly snaps to planets on a landing. It made all my hard work bringing the ship down gently feel less valid. I think tweening into the position over a half-second or so would really improve the feel of gameplay.

OK this last point is the nittiest of nitpicks, but I wish the ship hitbox was more accurate to its visuals. As I got more comfortable with the controls, I started attempting various epic risky maneuvers where the nose of the ship passes very close to a planet. Unfortunately, this always resulted in a game over, because while I'm a good pilot and the ship didn't actually collide with anything, its hitbox did.

One last thing I want to mention -- the art is really lovely and charming! I'm very curious, were the red stars/galaxies in the background merely an artistic choice or do they imply that this game takes place in the far cosmic future, when the only stars left are red dwarfs and distant light sources in the sky are redshifted due to the ever-accelerating expansion of the universe?

Really nice little game, thanks for making it :)

P.S. I escaped the universe

![escape.png](///raw/ed4/8/z/52a2e.png)
🎤 fuzzybut
07. Oct 2022 · 14:50 UTC
@iamsodarncool thank you so much for the detailed feedback!! You made some really good points, most of which we considered implementing and ultimately couldn't in the time frame. I have unused animations such as a rocket explosion upon crashing too. I agree with adding speed feedback and revised hitboxes. I'll be adding these to our list of improvements! The only issue with landing gear is that we thought it might be hard to see on the screen, so we were considering either this or some more obvious visual cue of a safe landing speed. Thanks again for playing!
amarokczukay
07. Oct 2022 · 18:03 UTC
let's hope i never have to park a spaceship in real life… graphics are cute and game overall is nice. i liked the zero G controls!
JoeShanahan
08. Oct 2022 · 14:33 UTC
Managed to get a high score of 100 on my second attempt! My first try I crashed on my second landing...

I like the way that you kinda have to aim at a moon, then flip-and-burn to cancel out the velocity, it reminded me of when they do that in The Expanse, so in my head that's what was happening every time I flipped around :smile:
Flying Dog Fish
08. Oct 2022 · 21:20 UTC
Nice game. The controls need some getting used to, but after that, the game is not that hard anymore.
BenTheTwoOfUs
09. Oct 2022 · 10:43 UTC
@fuzzybut I was worried that the game I submitted to LD51 would be too difficult, but after playing your game, I realized that it was a useless worry. Some people got scored 100 points above, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get more than 80.

Anyway, your game was too difficult but fun enough.
DaryaArdo
09. Oct 2022 · 17:55 UTC
Game pretty challenging. It's not easy to balance speed but it's fun. I only managed to land on one planet and then I'm carried at full speed through space)
Sibi
10. Oct 2022 · 19:40 UTC
Took some time to get used to the controls but then it was actually quite fun. Unfortunate that you didn't manage to fit the theme anymore. Also I think the game could use some gravity or a backwards thruster. I quite often found myself hovering right in front of a planet with no way of landing and killed myself by trying to rotate.
defilerzero
11. Oct 2022 · 07:53 UTC
This is a very challenging game, and also a very good one. The music fits perfectly, and the overall feel of the gameplay lands perfectly (even if I sometimes crash horribly).
Krasimir Balchev
12. Oct 2022 · 13:02 UTC
Great game! It's hard for a jam game to make me want to play it again and again even when I lose almost immediately but this one did it! Only advice I'd give as others have mentioned is maybe to be just a slighly bit more forgiving with the landing conditions. The controls are hard but they feel mostly right, I'm sure tweaks can be made to improve them even further but they're also good as they are now. Well done :)
Suchista
21. Oct 2022 · 12:23 UTC
It's a solid entry, I really liked the look of the planets and nebulas.
CodeRaurus
21. Oct 2022 · 16:05 UTC
I like the atmosphere of the game with chill space tunes. Didn't play for long or get too many successful landings, but the actual landing felt quite challenging. I even thought I nailed few of the failed attempts. Perhaps some sort of speed indicator would've been a nice addition.

Good job!