Maple

by zazery
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.41
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.35
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.09
Theme★★★★★★★★★★1.87
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.04
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.43
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.62
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.47
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★45%
This game is incomplete but the core control mechanic is implemented. The concept is you are jury rigging your own control mechanisms as you build your ship out of parts you find. Currently there are no parts to add to your ship but you can re-arrange them and use button blocks to tie thrusters together. There is only one planet and no goal yet. As a personal challenge see if you can reach the edge of the stars and make your way back to the planet if you remember where it is.

DO NOT MAKE INFINITE LOOPS WITH BUTTONS (really, don't)

All feedback is appreciated.

screenshot

Comments15

Kayelgee29 Aug 2012, 00:02
interesting, but pressing on buttons to control the ship is a little weird. I would like to map those button to my keyboard.
Sverik29 Aug 2012, 10:10
Great idea for controls! Can I steal it? Although, the more I think about it and try to elaborate, the more it starts to look like 0x10c. Which is not a bad thing, I guess.
Benjamin29 Aug 2012, 12:10
Well great engine. It's a shame you could not make it a game. Even random wandering between planets for collectings new ship blocks would have been enough. I like the button on the ship and the way you can map them in edit mode. The edit mode control are good and intuitive.
Maple
Maple30 Aug 2012, 17:35
Not a bad bad entry! This has a lot of potential. Reminds me a lot of a game called Captain Forever.
diki
diki31 Aug 2012, 18:15
Love the sounds & the atmosphere of a slow-moving space vehicle! Although the core mechanic is of course very Captain Forever, I wouldn't ditch it just for that; there are a lot of things that CF does not even remotely explore, and I'd say that 'shooting things' is only one among the many cool scenarios one can imagine in space. How about space station docking maneuver simulation, for instance? :)
Sgt Squirrelly31 Aug 2012, 22:48
Really liked the idea, not sure I see the connection to evolution (but as the idea is incomplete, that's to be expected). Seemed like it was going in the Captain Forever direction, which is never bad.
Switchbreak
Switchbreak31 Aug 2012, 23:32
Really cool concept and I like the art and the interface. Not much to do in there yet, though.
Wampus
Wampus31 Aug 2012, 23:35
Very good basic mechanic for a space exploration/warfare game of some sort. I'm sure many will now steal it after having played it. ;)

BTW after reading "DO NOT MAKE INFINITE LOOPS WITH BUTTONS (really, don't)" the effect was a bit like trying not to think of pink elephants. So, yes, I crashed my browser.
DevoreUK1 Sep 2012, 00:51
Shame you didn't get further I really like the idea. Are you going to carry on with development and see where it goes?
zazery
zazeryauthor1 Sep 2012, 02:32
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm glad to know people like the control mechanic and audio.

I was definitely inspired by Captain Forever for the ship building. I have been mulling over a ship building game for a couple years and once I came up with the button control system I knew I had to build it. One of the biggest influences for the game which might not be obvious from what I implemented is C&C Red Alert 1.

I'm definitely going to explore the idea further and see what comes out of it. It's pretty awesome people are asking if they can steal the idea since that means the idea is worth pursuing. As diki points out there is a lot of design space to explore.
hamster_mk_41 Sep 2012, 03:07
Normally when you give the user the ability to customize their con trolls they eventually try and make a phallic. In your game that seems to be the optimal configuration since you get more torque the further the thrusters are from the center of mass. Shame you didn't make more of a game out of this.
ggiraldez
ggiraldez1 Sep 2012, 03:13
This has great potential. I like the control binding and the whole circuits idea. I got a bit lost while editing though. At some point I didn't know how to exit edit mode. Sound is very very good.
DaveDobson
DaveDobson1 Sep 2012, 04:57
Wow, the ship design, parts, and circuits are really, really neat, as is the ship physics. I was very impressed with this. There's no real game to go along with this, but the engine and physics are just so cool...
echa1 Sep 2012, 05:39
Super idea!
greg20man14 Sep 2012, 20:47
lol didn't listen I made an infinte loop and now the computer is making a constant clicking noise.

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