As S.A.M, the rescue drone, board a wrecked vessel in order to save the survivors deep inside the ship. As S.A.M ventures into the ship he inevitably takes damage and loses modules, becoming a minimal version of himself.
A sort of open platform/puzzle game, overcome obstacles by using different S.A.M modules. Score and time is tracked, the game was also partly designed for speed runs.
Game features two complete levels, a tutorial level - docking bay, and the engine.
Programming: Bart van Strien, Joe Mycock Graphics: Dale James Audio: Dale James Level Design: Dale James
Comments21
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SuperlevelSebastian30 Apr 2013, 15:58
Sadly it just freezes, when I try to start it. :( (Win XP, 32bit)
I see what you were aiming for, but I think you've just got too many mechanics going on at once here. I think the time would've been better spent making one or two of them feel a bit nicer. Still fun though :)
This entry has a lot of potential; its intent seems to be to reverse the typical platformer trope of gathering new abilities as you advance. I could imagine a long level progression where you start with many abilities that make overcoming obstacles easy as you learn about what you can do and then future levels that encourage you to overcome the same challenges with more ingenuity as your repertoire diminishes. However, as @TriBeard mentioned, the game has too many mechanics to explore any of them well. I get the sense that you could have done much better with more time, but as it is, the premise isn't properly fulfilled because of the limited content you were able to produce. Given the scope of Ludum Dare, I would have liked to see fewer mechanics more honed to perfection.
Indeed, we had time issues since I (reluctantly) had to work my day job during LD, so we had a deficit of around 24 man hours. We all agree about the mechanics, the first level was originally intended to be a tutorial that introduced the abilities.
Thanks for the criticisms and praises thus far. I do have sketches for 2 more levels and a breakdown of how S.A.M gradually diminishes, and we're considering finishing the game proper.
Oh, the trick to 'floaty boxes' is to use others to stand on before firin' the lazor, though there are a few that are unbreakable 'dummies'.
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bartbes1 May 2013, 15:47
I, being the evil bastard I am, also placed one of the batteries in a (practically) unreachable place.
In any case, I do think you're right about there being too many mechanics, however, I don't think it was an option for any of us to "dumb it down" at any point during development, we just liked the idea too much, and it's sad we couldn't manage to finish it.
Great game, love the ambiance (I freaking love space^^). I didn't finish it because at some point the music froze in a 1 second loop and it finally drived me crazy but I really liked this game.
Enjoyed the game. Agreed with others, there were some nice, but underutilized features. I liked the hacking minigame, good, simple, effective mechanic.
Enjoyed the art. Only one small bug to report, I was firing my laser when I went through the first teleporter, and the sound got stuck playing. Fun game. :)
Comments21
Thanks for the criticisms and praises thus far. I do have sketches for 2 more levels and a breakdown of how S.A.M gradually diminishes, and we're considering finishing the game proper.
Oh, the trick to 'floaty boxes' is to use others to stand on before firin' the lazor, though there are a few that are unbreakable 'dummies'.
In any case, I do think you're right about there being too many mechanics, however, I don't think it was an option for any of us to "dumb it down" at any point during development, we just liked the idea too much, and it's sad we couldn't manage to finish it.