Space Trucks by digital bacon
Your warehouse has limited space, so you need to load the constantly incoming crates into space trucks that will distribute their cargo to your customers. Of course, the trucks have limited space too, so you can't always fit everything. But, you'll be penalised if the truck goes out with empty spaces...
To make matters worse, as you ship more crates, demand for your services grows, and crates start arriving faster. And if your warehouse fills up, it's game over.
| Link | https://digital-bacon.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Link | https://digital-bacon.itch.io/ludum-dare-54 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/space-trucks |
Ratings
| Overall | 836th | 3.258⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 903th | 2.984⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 962th | 2.806⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 377th | 3.911⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 652th | 3.468⭐ | 64🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 221th | 3.762⭐ | 63🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 778th | 2.448⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 845th | 3.164⭐ | 63🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 85🗳️ | 125🗨️ |
With so much time between packages, it was basically impossible to lose, but it's an interesting game concept! I'd be a lot of fun if future versions featured truck beds of different shapes, and maybe packages whose shapes were more dynamic than just squares--L shapes orother tetronimos might make for some interesting packing puzzles
The ability to have two or three trucks in the loading dock would be cool as well.
Loved this game though. 5/5
@puppycat: Ironically enough, the soundtrack was the same that I used way back in my first jam, Ludum Dare 42 (with the theme *Running out of space*...).
@abdul-zakkar, @breadstick: I think the difficulty scales a bit too slowly. It starts out with a crate arriving every 10 seconds. After two trucks have been dispatched, it reduces the limit by 0.5 seconds. I usually start to struggle when the time between crates gets down to 2.5 seconds, but it does take a while to get there!
audio design is something to mention also, the feedback for selling your cargo is great and the effect it has on motivation to keep going should not be understated!
@doubley: yes, the timing of the crates needs fine tuning. I was thinking about multiple trucks, or being able to upgrade to a bigger truck and/or warehouse, but I was very careful about staying in scope and getting something finished.
@imontheweb: after a few games with no/minimal sound effects, and no music, I was determined to include it in this one.
@congeesetador: yes, the timing seems to be the main complaint with this game :rofl: it does get faster and more frantic the more trucks get dispatched, but the rate is waaaaay to slow (-0.5 seconds every two trucks).
@t-c: thanks for the bug report -- it's a side effect of how the input is coded, have to have a think about how to mitigate that. Different shaped packages were originally planned, but removed to reduce scope.
@bot-hopps: it's not clearly explained in the game, but you get $5 for each small crate, $25 for each large crate, and -$1 for each empty space on the truck when it dispatches. You get more money by using the larger crates, but they only reduce the used storage in the warehouse by one when you put them on the truck (as opposed to four small crates).
Really well executed. A little slow for my liking, but it's a minor complaint. Otherwise, well done!
Interested to see what kind of shapes of cargo and trucks you can design as it gets more complicated, rather than increasing reaction speed.
I would've like some kind of progression. What do we get S$ for? I'd like to buy bigger trucks (as you mention in a comment), more storage space, maybe even get different contracts so you end up transporting new types of cargo with different shapes (imagine having to keep "human cargo" waiting in storage until a cryogenic truck shows up hahah)
But anyways, I'm just asking for more because I like the execution of this game. Great job!
@pax-lefay: *limited space* in the warehouse, *limited space* in the truck, working for a *limited* liability company ... in *space*. I reckon I should get triple score for theme :rofl:
@hierarch, @prox, @zircon332, @shidygames: speeds definitely a problem. I kept it slow for testing purposes, but completely forgot to ratchet it up for the final build. (In my defence, I had been awake for nearly 24 hours by that point.) There's only square crates in the game at the moment; trying to get weird shapes would have been a lot of extra work, and scope-creep has caught me out before, so I stuck to the squares so I wouldn't have to worry about rotation.
@edearth: glad you like the music, definitely caught myself dancing to it in my chair while I was working on it. The $$$ at the moment are just for score, but there's definitely room for some kind of shop, and I like your idea about certain cargoes needing a particular truck.
@mrs-wheelsx: I hadn't thought about playing in one-handed, but I've just tried it and you're right. I figured using WASD and the arrow keys for movement, and using the central space bar to do everything else would make it easier for left- and right-handed people. (Then I had to spoil it by using the Tab key to send the truck off.) It also has Xbox controller controls, but I haven't tested those so who knows if they work...?
- however many times I was pressing Tab, I didn't feel it get any harder/more difficult - this made it feel repetitive after the first 20 or so fill-ups onto a truck (maybe I am just too impatient)
- maybe I needed something more to happen in the game / more types of blocks / something to tickle my brain more / some dirty twist :D I don't know;
- maybe the truck storage skeleton could have been different with every truck - or getting more twisted (think tetris)
- maybe the positioning of the parts you take could surprise you after each truck, etc.
Pretty *flow-y* start : ))) I would say. I would LOVE this developed with twists, please do :P
- Yes, this has been pointed out a couple of times before :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Working on a v1.1 which starts with a crate already on the shelf, and the delay between crates reduces by 1 second after every truck load, which helps get it frantic a lot quicker :smiling_imp:
- More blocks with different shapes is the next thing I want to get done...
- ... as well as different trucks with different size/shaped cargo areas.
But either way, it's nice simple game and fits the theme well.
Music, sounds and sprites are great :grin:
The execution could use some improvement. The game really gets fun when it gets faster and more hectic. It's nice that it's slow at the start, as the player has time to read instructions and get familiar with the flow of things. But afterward, the difficulty just grows waaay too slowly. When there is around 7.5 seconds between crates, it feels like there is no change between trucks (even though there is, just too little) and you have to wait for quite a long time to get to the good stuff. So, I think that difficulty progression should be faster at the start, and then slow down a bit. So you can play a while, being kept on your toes by crates coming in fast, but not too fast yet to become impossible. A sweet spot, so to speak :smile:
I like the cute red truck and the sfx are solid.

@crami, @bloodbane: :blush:
@fabula-rasa: I like your thoughts on the difficulty curve. It makes sense for the delay to be slow at first to let the player get used to the game, but then ramp up the difficulty quickly to make it more enjoyable/challenging. I'll have a play around with the timings, see if I can find the "sweet spot" you mentioned.
@gamedevtraum: I hadn't thought about having a preview of the next crate. It could be a help for the player on deciding how they're going to play, though since the crates turn up at random locations in the warehouse, it won't be a complete giveaway.
@wrong-timeline: yes, I didn't explain the costings very well. The small crates earn $5, the large crates $25, and an empty space loses you $1. So a completely empty truck will lose you -$10; with 1 crate, -$4 ($5 - $9); two small crates is the minimum load to make a profit ($10 - $8 = $2). I did think about putting in a "current value of load" UI item, but didn't get round to it.
@bongo227: it's a small thing, but it helps me when I'm playing other people's games, so I always try to put the controls in somewhere.
@acarc: I did try having it "remember" where the cursor last was, but ran into issues when the crate size changed,so I had it reset to the first position everytime. Might look into changing it to what you suggest.
@voidsay: yes, I think someone else pointed out the timing issue :grin: Glad you like the animation!
I think everything fits very nicely together; the pixel art, the sounds and the music. Really great atmosphere and feel!
Great job!
(From the credits screen I understood that the music and the sound FX were not original work, so I didn't give a score for the audio here, but if I misunderstood, I'll happily add a rating for that as well. :-) )
@mikropiru: No, as shown in the credits, I got the music from opengameart.org, and the sound FX from freesound.org. I've always taken the attitude that audio isn't just about the quality of the individual sound FX and music, but also on how the audio is used (does the music fit? do the sounds happen at the right times?). YMMV.
@nusan: Thinking about it, having more than one crate show up at a time could make things ... interesting. I would like to have had time to implement different shapes, but :shrug: Different trucks (sizes and/or shapes of the cargo area) also had to be left on the altar of avoiding scope creep. I did think about being able to take things off the truck, but I thought it would be better to just send the truck off if you made a mistake.
I love the presentation of this thing - music and art are great - and the concept is solid too.
Unfortunately there's really not enough hype for it to be a huge amount of fun yet - the timer is incredibly long between boxes and it wasn't really clear what the challenge was, even after playing for some time. It would be good to have a clear objective around what my 'space bucks' were for as well.
@lachlan-james: thanks for coming back and trying it again! Ideally, you could use the money to upgrade your truck and warehouse, but I've been caught out multiple times before in game jams trying to cram too much in, so I scaled back those plans.
@frank-gevaerts: Yes, at the rate the delay between crates decreases, the game doesn't start get challenging until the 20th truck! I've had multiple suggestions on how to improve that (speed up the rate of change, starting with a shorter delay, having multiple crates arrive at once).
Music is great too good job on that!