LudumData

Interstellar Repossession Service by firellon

[raw]
made by firellon for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

capsule.png

INTERSTELLAR REPOSSESSION SERVICE

Taxation… by any means necessary.

Welcome, Officer. The Empire has assigned you to the Interstellar Repossession Service — the most respected and resented division in the galaxy. Your job? Chase down delinquent traders, reclaim unpaid goods, and tow confiscated cargo across asteroid belts crawling with pirates who’d rather shoot than settle their dues.

Your golden bureaucratic ship may shine with Imperial pride, but in space, everyone hates a tax collector.

🛰️ Gameplay

Fly your modular tax ship through dangerous asteroid fields.

Collect goods from traders — both willing and not-so-willing.

Evade asteroids and fend off pirates trying to reclaim “their” property.

Dock at Tax Stations to offload your cargo and cash in your collected dues.

Manage your chain: every module you collect adds power and peril — one wrong hit, and your entire bureaucratic snake falls.

🎮 Controls

Arrow Keys / WASD — Move

Space — Fire your turret

👨‍💻 Created by

@firellon — Game design, art direction, programming

ChatGPT (GPT-5) — Writing, design assistance, worldbuilding

Pixabay - music and sounds

Devlog

9.07 - uploaded initial buggy WebGL build

10.07 - fixed small issues, made the Windows and update WebGL build

Link https://nebulate.itch.io/interstellar-repossession-service
Link https://nebulate.itch.io/interstellar-repossession-service
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/interstellar-repossession-service

Ratings

Overall 643th 3.125⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 675th 2.804⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 548th 2.977⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 390th 3.682⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 599th 2.409⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 651th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Jcourt
Oct 07th · 08:11 UTC
This was fun! I haven't seen this kind of thing with modules trailing you before, and it's really interesting.

I did have a very, very hard time actually hitting the pirates - they kind of just built up until eventually I couldn't avoid them anymore.
florianCohen
Oct 07th · 14:44 UTC
Nice game good job !!
zexurge
Oct 07th · 14:47 UTC
I like the idea, has a lot of potential, really like just accumulating all the wealth and power over time
Kimicu
Oct 07th · 14:51 UTC
game crashed =(
Mk.han
Oct 07th · 14:51 UTC
I like the simplicity of the design and the physics of back trailers - a great find!
Tykki19
Oct 07th · 14:53 UTC
Neat idea. I was in beginning maybe too lazy to move as I felt I got better when moved more. I think the world and the mechanics could carry even bigger game. Crunchy!
Hymirth
Oct 07th · 14:53 UTC
I really liked the art, general design, music, mechanics. When my train got too long i mostly just tried to stack on top of myself and hope for the best which didn't seem like how it was meant to be played. But overally I found it really fun, good scope for a jam!
Mile_Smile
Oct 07th · 14:54 UTC
Hard pirates-_-
Cool game!
Rogaro
Oct 07th · 14:54 UTC
Interesting management experience. Addictive game
Aleksey Salion
Oct 07th · 15:24 UTC
I guess I'd better place a gun on the truck instead. It's reealy hard to aim (
But overall, an interesting one!
kuggenhoffen
Oct 09th · 20:32 UTC
Solid game, the aiming is quite difficult as said. Having to consider the whole train to avoid incoming asteroids brings a nice dimension to the game. Great work.
Emmatw
Oct 12th · 17:35 UTC
Pretty cool idea! The movement felt quite unique for this type of game and added some additional challenge which was fun, you really had to keep track of your stuff. I liked the compass/minimap at the top, that was a really nice addition!
daupoh
Oct 12th · 17:51 UTC
I like space games and I enjoy gameplay, the only issue - need a bit aim assist, because sometimes it's hard to hit small asteroid.
Good work!
LDJam user 384191
Oct 13th · 04:09 UTC
Having to manage a longer and longer train gives a game a very nice balance. As others have said, aiming is quite difficult. I think I would have preferred having the turret on the "head" instead of the second module. It also lead to situations where I'd lose my turret, without any way of getting it back or scoring any more points (maybe have a way to buy upgrades and/or repair with the money you earn ?). But that being said the game fits the theme pretty well, and the art direction feels very coherent.
Felix Kern
Oct 13th · 12:11 UTC
Really loved this! Little bit of snake vibe ;) Love the graphics, reminded me of Cowboy Beepop! Good job guys ;)
K48UTO
Oct 13th · 13:06 UTC
It's not a bad idea. But it's very hard to shoot and hit. I would make sure that all weapons have auto-guidance and auto-firing.
6Knowledge
Oct 13th · 17:43 UTC
The gameplay could've used more time in the oven as this feels like maybe the first version of a mechanic like this. Instructions weren't hard to brute force out of the simple gameplay but a square of text would've helped. Graphics fit the style and atmosphere but can't rate that (props for at telling, quite a few have tried not to).
Surfa
Oct 13th · 19:33 UTC
Good game overall, enjoyed the gameplay and the idea behind having a long trail of cannons.
I did have one issue but nothing major. I have a 21:9 ultrawide and so I could see slightly off the screen and see things spawn in and be de-spawned.

I agree with some other commentators that it was a little hard to hit some of the AI which could be a bit frustrating.
Shaggy
Oct 18th · 09:59 UTC
Great work! Had game!
sangheli
Oct 21st · 02:39 UTC
a very strong game concept and nice visual
deadjolly
Oct 22nd · 00:52 UTC
The modular ship snake gameplay is a fun idea on paper but the shooting made this game frustrating to play. The enemies would keep flying out of the out screen so I couldn't even hit them anymore. They had a free escape! The amount of obstacles to dodge also felt pretty difficult. The asteroids, ships, bullets etc. all added up to be quite a bit to manage. I did like that the ship modules had hit points instead of being instantly destroyed, but even with that, the game felt difficult.

Gameplay aside, the art assets and music definitely help sell the space trucker vibe.