Alien Parcels by NoNiMad
The web version seems to work only on itch.io: https://nonimad.itch.io/alien-parcels
Take the role of an alien :alien: holding a Post Office, filtering parcels and managing to fit them into transport rockets. The manual should cover how stamps should be used and what symbols are allowed to travel with which. Be careful... you can only make three mistakes before getting fired!
Explanations
You role is split between two steps: checking stamps and organizing rockets.
For the first step, you have to verify that there's the correct amount of stamps (not less, not more). For that, the rules are simple: one stamp unit allows 3kg OR a journey between two planets. If you want to send 8.5kg and the destination is two planets away (your position is the red circle on the star map), you'll need 3 stamps units for the weight and 2 stamps unit for the distance traveled. The green stamp is 1 unit, the blue one 2 units and the red one 3 units.
If the stamps are incorrect, use the red button with a cross to drop it, you'll hear and see if it was correct or not.
If the stamps are correct, use the green button with the checkmark. You then need to put the package in one of the available rockets - only 4 are available at the same time but there's an infinite resupply of rockets. Here the symbols on the parcels need to be taken into account. Indeed, the manual will tell you what associations cannot be made. Any mistake and the rocket will explode! For example, you cannot put packages with a star with anything else than other star packages. Once a rocket is filled with 3 packages, it will automatically launch.
Credits
Most assets, including sounds, are from Kenney but for the first time I made some of them myself! Not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of that :smile:
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/alien-parcels |
Ratings
| Overall | 773th | 3.405⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 735th | 3.275⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 527th | 3.425⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 277th | 4.2⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 992th | 2.25⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1032th | 2.9⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 15🗨️ |
I like the idea, and it was fun once I figured out how to play, but it felt too stiff. There is only one solution for each package, and it's very easy once you know the rules. I think the game is missing another element to make the gameplay more dynamic. Maybe you could give the player a stock of stamps and allow them to add or remove stamps to complete a package. Or if a package has the wrong number of stamps, the player could compensate by selecting an alternate route, and maybe there could be a scoring system based on delivery time or package condition.
The general idea is really cool and you could turn this into something like Papers Please with a bit more work if you wanted to.
Here is my attempt at explaining the game:
1. Click the little white arrow on the bottom half of the screen to receive a package
2. **All you can do with a package is accept or reject it by clicking the check-mark or X icons**
3. Each package has a destination, a weight, and a symbol. Your job is to determine whether the stamps on the box are enough to cover the delivery
## How to know when to accept or reject a package
Each stamp color is worth a number of units:
* Green: 1 unit
* Blue: 2 units
* Red: 3 units
Each unit can cover EITHER 3kg of weight, or 1 jump on the star map.
So when you receive a package, count how many total stamp UNITS it has (remember the value of each color) and then do some simple math to determine if you should reject or accept it. The package must have the minimum amount of stamp units to fit the weight and distance
## Example/Tutorial
Package weighs **12.5kg** and needs to travel **2 planets** away.
The package has **one red stamp** and **two blue stamps**.
1 red stamp = 3 units
1 blue stamp = 2 units
Total stamp units on this package = 7 units.
Since each unit is 3kg, you need 5 units to cover the weight (4 units only gets you to 12kg)
We have 2 units left. Since the package needs to make 2 jumps and each unit can cover 1 jump, then we can accept this package.
Note that if we had 3 units left, we would have to reject the package because we cannot have any left over units.
After you accept the package, you need to pick a space ship to place it in. This is where the symbol on the package comes in. The in game
manual has a list of combinations that are not allowed (the hieroglyphics on the left tell you what combinations to avoid). As long as you
don't make one of these forbidden combinations on one space ship, you'll be fine. Seems easy except the game doesn't show you the symbol of
the package on this screen, so make sure you memorize it before accepting the package!
@flenzil Glad you liked it and managed to get your head around it! It is definitely not as self-explanatory as I wanted. Yes, the random is not constrained by what you currently have in your rockets so it can "force" you to blow a rocket.
@swordfish I actually went for something Nintendo DS style with the two screens style but had no time to improve the top screen or put more valuable things in it. I'd love to say that figuring out how it works is part of the game but that would be lying :stuck_out_tongue: Happy that you found that fun in the end!
@mnemosynevl Yeah it turned out way more "educational" that I initially thought with skills in mental arithmetic being challenged :laughing:
Thank you all for the feedback!