Orbit Express by BmanStudio
(Above is the post-jam updated version of the game. The V1 (Jam version) download is below, as well as the changelogs in the comments)
Welcome To Orbit Express!
Physics based, roguelike game of deliveries in space.
Objective
Follow your Shipboard Navigation Apparatus (or: S.N.A.P) to your next destination planet, calibrate your speed and angle to enter orbit in the green zone, and deliver your packages safely, as close as possible to the target zone.
Deliver as many packages as you can, and don’t crash the ship or get it stranded with no fuel - it’s company property, you know. Also, break 3 packages and you’re fired. Good luck!
Don't get sucked into the red zone or the ship might rapidly disassemble.
About
Orbit Express was made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 53 jam, with the Delivery theme. All the artwork, music, sound effects and programming was created originally for the game during that time.
Controls
Keyboard / Gamepad
- Rotate Ship: A / D (alternatives are arrow keys) | Left Stick
- Fire Thrusters: Space | Right Trigger
- Jettison Package: K (alternative is X) | A Button
- Camera Zoom: [ / ] (alternatives are Q / E) | Right Stick
- Pause: ESC (alternative is P) / Menu
Tips to get started
- Fire the thrusters quick and repeatedly to make faster maneuvers and have better control over the ship
- Note that you should drop the package ONLY from within the drop zone, otherwise the package will crash or fly away
- If you get stuck in the Red Zone, you can't go out by just flying straight out ;)
Credits
Game concept by Ori Bennoon and Omri Lahav - Art - Omri Lahav, Ori Bennoon, MidJourney (AI) - Programming - Ori Bennoon @bmanstudio - Music, sound, writing - Omri Lahav @OmriLahav - Background Visuals: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/dynamic-space-background-lite-104606 (Free by DinV Studio)
Made with Unity // Music and sound created in Cubase Pro 12
Let's see if you can beat Ori's score (on WebGL with Gamepad):
The changelogs for updates are in the comments below
| Link | https://bmanstudio.itch.io/orbit-express-ld53 |
| Link | https://bmanstudio.itch.io/orbit-express-ld53 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/orbit-express |
Ratings
| Overall | 462th | 3.695⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 562th | 3.469⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 555th | 3.381⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 418th | 4.079⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 373th | 4.016⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 296th | 3.695⭐ | 66🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 991th | 2.255⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 828th | 3.267⭐ | 62🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 82🗳️ | 124🗨️ |
You kicked it !
Graphics are amazing, music too...
I found it hard but liked to try again pretty much :)
Well done on gravity and momentum physics !
fun gameplay once you get started!
The camera could have been a little further from the ship!
Very solid execution! Love the thruster visuals! One thing I wouldve liked to see is a more dynamic camera though. I wouldve used this as a reference if I had known about it.
I find the orbital mechanics are a bit weird and causes the game to be harder than what it should be, but well done on this!
Very polished though, great job in general!
You gave us many great ideas for improvements (many were already on our roadmap haha) and we'll do our best to keep improving and uploading updates in the upcoming days and weeks.
I’ve just uploaded V1.1 with a few bug fixes and small changes to the game, here’s the change list for V1.1:
- Fixed score and packages delivered bug after “Try Again”
- Made the game-over overlay more transparent ( @bezedh requested :D )
- Made the packages sound spatial (the volume depends on distance)
- A bit more audio mixing tweakings
- Fixed typo in credits (word Music)
- Fixed the mistake in the controls panel (the imaged showed the X button on the gamepad, instead of A)
- Disabled player controls after the game over
- Delivery planets are now being picked randomly, for a non-consistent game each time :)
Thanks again for your support and feedback! Please keep sharing your thoughts with us
@steven-c Please contact me via DM, I would love to try and help! it seems like it's working for other people
The art was fantastic though and I really think with some additional polish that I would really enjoy playing this. It's just too difficult for me as it is.
Awesome game!
"Unable to parse Build/V1.1.framework.js.br! This can happen if build compression was enabled but web server hosting the content was misconfigured to not serve the file with HTTP Response Header "Content-Encoding: br" present. Check browser Console and Devtools Network tab to debug."
FYI We had the same issue and solved it by disabling Project settings -> Player -> Publishing settings -> Compression format
We'll come back later and try again.
I do like the core of what's here, and some polish on the experience + zooming out the camera a bit would go along way!
The art is awesome btw!
Edit: It could be nice to have alternative inputs for the controls too, A and D is alright but X on top makes it a little awkward, being able to use the arrows instead of A and D would be great.
So I've spent the day trying to improve the things that most of you have commented about, here's the changelog for V1.2 which I'll upload in the next few minutes:
- Added pause menu (press P / ESC on PC and Menu on gamepad)
- Added options menu (music, sfx, mute, invert rotation)
- Made the player turn faster ( @drazil100 @cody-holt )
- Made the HUD a little smaller ( @cody-holt )
- Added zooming in and out controls ( @the-neon-shark @nox282 @bezedh @retrific )
- Added particles to the gravity fields (just for fun)
- Now the package drops from the back of the ship and increasing in size ( @rjdrag )
- Changed the buttons on Keyboard: Drop package with K instead of X (X will still work though) ( @fgkeiji @jordan-p20 @the-neon-shark @divi )
- Made the ship a little easier to control. Also, please see the tips I added to the description of the game above. ( @maskrosen @rjdrag @fgkeiji @the-neon-shark @artemy-zen @blank-3d @congeesetador @weirdbitgames @ramonvicious )
I would love to hear from you if it is any better now with those changes!
Thanks again :)
I have no idea what's wrong on itch.io, I tried to re-build and upload a few times, and it's super weird as it works just fine on LD.
Please let me know which one you tried 😇
**UPDATE** - Ok I found the issue and fixed it, it's working now on itch.io as well :) thanks!
- Fixed bug - pause menu on game over
- Now the arrow pointer will scale according to the distance from the target (to help indicate speed and distance)
- Fixed gravity force particles velocity direction
- Other small fixes and tweaks
Please share your feedback with us so we know what other fixes and features we should work on! :)
@bart-diepvries haha yea it takes a few minutes to learn the mechanics, try to **fire the thrusters repeatedly after you rotate to the direction you want to move in** to have better control of the ship
Also one question I couldn't find an answer to myself - do you need to just be within the drop zone, or do you need to also match the movement direction to planet rotation? I think a few times I dropped the package within the zone, but it went flying into space. I think it might have been due to rather high relative speed, but I thought I'd ask if that's it or something else. :)
I also think the difficulty could be a bit higher. After a while I just got bored and crashed into a planet to see what happens. Though this might be player-dependent, so maybe a difficulty selection at the start of the game?
I think you should be able to exit the red orbit, it just takes a bunch of fuel.
I would love to have the view a bit more zoomed out, it felt like I didn't really get a frame of reference for how fast I was going.
Despite those nitpicks, I thought the movement with the careful accelerating and zipping around planets was really cool! Great job!
The only thing I didn't like was being restricted by fuel. I don't like having a timer counting down on me. It's not fun and introduces unnecessary stress to an otherwise very chill game. (But maybe that's just me :laughing: )
If you really want to keep this mechanic, then I would suggest adding refuel stations to every planet, where I can refuel after every delivery. :laughing:
About your question, the success of the delivery is not dependent on your direction/velocity, but only on your position (which should be within the angled slice). However, I have as well encountered some cases where it felt like I'm in the drop zone, but the package didn't land.
But if I'm honest with myself haha, in all of those cases I flew too fast and "hoped" rather than made it "clean" - which worked 100% of the time for me. So I guess the conclusion I took from it is to not take chances with the drop zone, and just enter orbit slowly and with as much control as possible, and just wait for or follow the drop zone to make a nice, clean delivery, before continuing to the next planet :)
Regarding the difficulty, I'll tag you once we'll upload the upgrades update, probably in a few days, it should make it more interesting for your level ;)
Regarding the red zone, there is a way to leave it (if you can stable inside without crashing), you can find a tip for it in the description of the game above, and if you still struggle - let me know and i'll post another tip for it :)
About the zoom - we're planning to upload an update with upgrades you can purchase, and possibly one of them will be a greater zoom out, but I can't say much about that, yet ;) I'll tag you once we upload the new improved version. Thanks again!
Please let me know if I misunderstood you, I'd love to better understand what was your pain point here :) :)
Thanks again for playing and sharing your feddback!!
I didn't realize that there were different kinds, maybe that was part of my problem.
What I wanted to say in general: The game would also work great without the fuel system. Just flying around, looking at the planets and chill, would be fun enough (without pressure to collect fuel).
But like I said, that's just my preference. :)
I'm really impressed by the game, so just nitpicking here!
Edit: Worked a little better now with your help, got to 11 deliveries. But also flew twice into the red zone :laughing:
An additional note is that gravity fields are not working really well, and I once was stuck in a red area, burned out full tank of fuel without a possibility to move away.
Aside of that I think power ups (and fuel tanks) requires some explanation, because without it it's really hard to understand what you got (if you got anything).
Overall a nice attempt for a space mechanic, controls are fine (tho I would stick to classical WASD), ship is responsive and good.
P.S. I would recommend to opt-out Graphics category, if majority graphical assets generated by MJ, since it will be [according to rules](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/rules)
I shared a tip on how to get out of the red zone in the description, if you'd like to try again, but it's possible 😉
Would love if you can direct me to the part in the rules that you think we broke. As I see it, we haven't used 3rd party assets, as no one else created or own those assets. They're ours, and also the rights for them are ours (as paid MJ users). I think it's not fundamentally different than any other creative tool. Maybe I'm wrong here, and I'd love to be corrected as we have no intention in cheating or anything, but the only thing I saw regarding the use of AI is that it's forbidden for the Compo, but allowed for the Jam until they'll figure out how to regulate it.
Did I missed something? 🙂
But as you absolutely correctly mentioned it's not directly forbidden in rules except COMPO games, so from that perspective it's a matter of interpretation. I would say that AI generated content (art, audio, whatever) even tho might be own by you not created by you. Except you actually trained your private neuro-network on your own art (or whatever). But that's your decision after all.
I would only recommend to not enable game over screen when you are out of fuel. So many times I caught the fuel barrel after the game over screen.
My high score
Gameplay wise, it was fun to learn or to move around with the ship, and once you get the hang of it it becomes pretty satisfying to delivery packages. I wish there were more visual feedback about the speed of the ship, I found myself going way too fast unintentionally as I was approaching planets and struggling to correct my speed and trajectory.
I'm a bit concerned about the AI usage, which parts of the game are hand-made VS generated?
For the art, most of the sprites used are made with MJ and Photoshop, the background visuals are imported from a free package from the Unity asset store (link in credits in description) and the rest of the graphics (UI, menus, particles, gravity zones, etc.) are hand-made in Photoshop, Canva, and Unity (and obviously everything else in the game was made by @omrilahav and myself, each in his area). I hope that answers your question, and I would love to hear what you're concerned about 🙂
- Added variations to package visuals
- Added variations to planets' visuals
- Enhanced the planets' gravitational effect on the player
Please share your feedback with us so we know what other fixes and features we should work on! :)
@bmanstudio Thanks! I'm not sure how long it took me, I didn't really time my run. Maybe you can add a timer in-game? And I played with the keyboard.
> But if I’m honest with myself haha, in all of those cases I flew too fast and “hoped” rather than made it “clean” - which worked 100% of the time for me.
Yeah, it was probably the same for me. It seems there are no shortcuts in orbital delivery. :D
- Added obstacles to the game (comets and moons)
- Bug fixes
- Added particles to the drop zone
- Added VFX for low fuel level
Please share your feedback with us so we know what other fixes and features we should work on! :)
！nice work！
Delivered : 5
This game is way harder than I thought, it's super slippery, and collecting fuel actually make you waste fuel too since you have to thrust towards them. Also the satellites objects are stupid.
@stingby12 About the main menu, well it's hard to support such resolution, but I'll do my best to best support when it's not full screen. Thanks for sharing your feedback, I appreciate it. Can you please elaborate on why you think "the satellites objects are stupid"? Also, I don't think hard means bad, I prefer challenging games at any day :)
I ended up delivering all the packages in the green zones of the planets it was directing me too but it still gave me a score of 0 at the end. :slight_frown: Oh well...
That being said, gameplay felt like just the right balance of tough and forgiving. Took a second to get used to but after that, it wasn't too bad. Music was pretty vibey and the graphics were pretty nice and very clear to read (not something to take for granted with jam games lol). Felt a little short and bare, but the fact that the planets had more debris to up the challenge was a nice touch. Pretty solid overall!
I would love to understand better the 0 score situation tho... Are you sure you delivered the packaged in the **drop zone** inside the green circle? If you did, that's very weird, and I would love it if you can share a screenshot or some inforamtion on what you did so I can try and reproduce that on my machine :) Thanks again!
- Several bug fixes
- New and improved SFX (including the Doppler effect)
- 2 new nebula backgrounds
- Lighting-based scene
- Change score >> Orbs (for upcoming upgrades bay shop, stay tuned!)
- Pirate (new AI obstacle that steals orbs)
- Other visual and audio improvements
Please share your feedback with us so we know what other fixes and features we should work on! :)