{"author_name":"GarrickWinter","cat":"MiniLD","comments":[],"epoch":1375064400,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"42208","p_author":"GarrickWinter","p_authorkey":"24682","p_urlkey":"77831","p_title":"Jumpstarter, Day 7 \u2013 Finished","p_cat":"MiniLD","p_event":"LD27","p_time":"1375064400","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"24682","us_name":"GarrickWinter","us_username":"garrickwinter","event_start":"1377216000","event_key":"18","event_name":"LD27"},"text":"

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So here it is, then – Day 7 of the 44th Mini Ludum Dare<\/a>.\u00a0 As this is a 7 Day RTS compo, that makes this the final day – and about time, too, since I really need a break.\u00a0 I am, therefore, done – here is my first LD submission.<\/p>\n

My game, Jumpstarter<\/i>, is nominally about taking the reigns of a rebellion against an Empire, using crowdfunding (tied to public approval rating) and trade route raiding as a main source of income.\u00a0 In point of fact, the theme is rather thin; most of my work was concentrating on coding a working RTS, and in that respect, I think it’s a moderate success.<\/p>\n

There are several issues remaining – not as many selection modes as I’d like; a bug that crashes the game if you exit to the main menu and try to start it again from there; homing missiles are a little wonky; and the balance of the enemy AI is iffy at best, swinging between hilariously incompetent and ruthlessly efficient.\u00a0 I played against the AI’s current design and won a few times, but I am generally terrible at RTS games (despite them being a favorite genre), so I upped the difficulty a little bit above my level before uploading it, and I can’t consistently beat it as it currently stands.\u00a0 Also, ship costs are mostly arbitrary, and are probably not properly balanced.<\/p>\n

The game uses fairly standard RTS controls.\u00a0 You drag-left-click to select all units within a box, or single-left-click to select one unit.\u00a0 Mouse wheel zooms in and out, WASD pans the camera around..\u00a0 Right-clicking issues orders, either to move, attack or invade.<\/p>\n

There are three ship types and three station types in the game; the main difference is that ships are mobile and stations are locked to their parent planet.\u00a0 The ships are (in the same order as the build menu)<\/p>\n