Red Planet Rendezvous by csimpson

[raw]
made by csimpson for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

game_screenshot.png

Overview

Land a rover on Mars! Try to place the rover as close to the target as possible, but watch your fuel level and don't land too hard. The scientists hate it when their equipment breaks.

How to play

Controls

  • Up/down arrow keys: increase/decrease thrust
  • Left/right arrow keys: rotate the sky crane left/right
  • Space bar: progresses through states (retracted, lowered, detached)

Suggested Strategy

  1. Descend and maneuver toward the target (follow the green arrow)
  2. Lower the rover (press space)
  3. Set the rover on the target and detach (press space again)
  4. Maneuver and land the sky crane anywhere on the ground

Tools used:

  • Game Engine: Godot 4.0.1
  • Art: Inkscape
  • Sound Effects: Bfxr
  • Music: BeepBox
  • Coffee: Costco

This is my first game jam, and my first released game. I had a great time making this and I am looking forward to receiving feedback!

Ratings

Overall 715th 3.462⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 612th 3.404⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 553th 3.385⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 420th 4.077⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 830th 3.269⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 536th 3.271⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 897th 2.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 848th 3.24⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 36🗨️

Feedback

Sean Spiggle
01. May 2023 · 16:37 UTC
Very fun game, even though I wasn't able to land successfully after 5 attempts. I kept wanting to try again!
Calcopod
01. May 2023 · 16:50 UTC
I really liked it, a fun and original idea, from what I've seen!

All assets were nice, but the music and SFX really shined. If there were more levels I would play them all just to hear the main theme song.

The controls took a bit to adjust to, but weren't bad at all, and after a few runs I can safely say I am a master at piloting the rover!

Great entry and even more so for a first jam! I too had this as my first jam. Whatever the result, we both can only go up from here!
seurimas
01. May 2023 · 16:50 UTC
It took me a lot of tries, but I landed just a few meters from the target! Very challenging, but a nice little game nonetheless. Good work!
JM Studio
02. May 2023 · 08:13 UTC
Very challenging game that I can say that I could finish ! And actually 2 times because I felt my first success i landed the rover and the sky crane at the same time, so I had to rewin correctly

![finish.png](///raw/da9/32/z/5a7bb.png)

Congratulation for your first jam !
Sodoj
02. May 2023 · 09:22 UTC
This was a deceptively hard game! However, the controls were intuitive so it wasn't frustrating at all! I even managed to land the cargo multiple times with each one being different. Well done!
peterfiftyfour
02. May 2023 · 09:22 UTC
Very tricky but eventually succeeded! These lunar lander style games are always simple and fun nice job!
farfadet46
02. May 2023 · 09:44 UTC
A pleasing game, i'm not into this type of game (too much stress !)
thanks
Adam Gallina
02. May 2023 · 20:02 UTC
Really nice submission! Definitely challenging but left me wanting to retry over and over
Pincushion
02. May 2023 · 23:42 UTC
Nicely balanced. Good crontrols and direction. It took some practice, but it wasn't frustrating to try over and over. Well done.

![red-planet.PNG](///raw/c44/32/z/5ae1f.png)
Ismael Rodriguez
02. May 2023 · 23:56 UTC
Cool game. I probably broke a million drones.
🎤 csimpson
03. May 2023 · 12:39 UTC
@sean-spiggle thanks for the kind words! My goal was to have players be able to land after several attempts. Once you get the hang of it, it then turns into a game of landing as close to the target as possible. I knew going in that the game would be harder than I think as a developer, but I guess I still feel victim. I'm glad that at least it's not frustrating to try again.

@calcopod it makes me very happy to hear that you like the audio! I have never written music or sound effects before, so that was as much of a learning experience for me as the rest of the game. I was surprised to read that this was also your first jam. Your game is one of my favorites that I have played.

@seurimas I'm glad you like it!

@jm-studio Oops, it is not supposed to be possible to land with the rover retracted like that. The win condition requires both the rover and the sky crane to be in contact with the ground. Looks like I have some adjustments to make!

@sodoj It's definitely more challenging than I meant it to be, but maybe that's a good thing. I made some adjustments throughout the development process to make it less frustrating for me to debug again and again, so I guess that translates into a less frustrating experience for the player too.

@peterfiftyfour lunar lander was my inspiration! I initially had the same art style, but couldn't make it look good, so I finally went with the only type of illustration I have any experience with. Glad you enjoyed it!
🎤 csimpson
03. May 2023 · 13:13 UTC
@farfadet46 fair enough haha. I'm glad you found it pleasing

@adam-gallina I definitely underestimated the difficulty. Glad it's fun to try again though!

@pincushion Happy to hear! (You're not supposed to be able to land that way btw!)

@ismael-rodriguez I'm glad you like it! I think I bankrupted NASA with all of my crashes!
Wadlo
04. May 2023 · 01:49 UTC
Easy to learn, tricky to beat. Took me about 20 tries. Great game. Plus you used Godot, so 10/10 in my books. Great submission!
Sam Minh
05. May 2023 · 13:36 UTC
This is a well done game. I am personally not good at these but I do like them.
I think you can improve the controls by making the same slightly slower and have some momentum in your controls instead of instantly rotating at max speed.
Rocktavious
06. May 2023 · 15:19 UTC
This is one of those games thats perfect for a game jam. Simple controls but hard to master and wasn't frustrating to try and try and try again. Great Work! I almost got it landed but on my best try I ran out of fuel right at the end and landed too hard :(

I could see the engine gas feeling better / easier to use on a joystick vs the keyboard. Also it would be nice if the sky crane started with the gas on right way at least 1/4 or 1/2 of the full power.
philipprapp95
06. May 2023 · 20:18 UTC
Wow, thats a hard one, really have to admin it took me forever :D But very nice idea, I loved the graphics :)
T C
06. May 2023 · 22:40 UTC
Took me a handful of tries, but I got it detached and got a 0m distance. Had to play again and drop off target to make sure it was displaying correctly :laughing: Good work, especially for a first time game jam! Momentum based physics games are always tricky for players, this one was done quite well though. Good work!
Lex
07. May 2023 · 15:15 UTC
I struggled a bit with the controller, but I think that's part of the challenge. After a few tries I was able to land properly and missed the target by just 2m :)

Congratulations, good game!