Although it looks simple, under the hood there's some pretty tricky code, and I'm really pleased shooting real holes in meshes! Check out the jaw-dropping DEV VIDEO!!!
Being an asteroid gemstone miner in Ursa Minor is really really hard work, what with zero G and only as much oxygen as you can carry!
Luckily, it has it perks; like the "vapouriser" cannon for getting at hard-to-reach gemstones embedded in the rock!
INSTRUCTIONS:::
Always make sure you can find your way back to the airlock where you started before you suffocate!
1. fly around using WASD and ARROW keys
2. fly into gemstones to collect them
3. use the vapouriser to liberate gemstones embedded in rock
4. diamonds = 1000 pts, rubies 500 and emeralds 200
5. keep an eye on how much oxygen you have left
6. you only get the one bottle of oxygen...
7. always track where the airlock was so you can get back in time!
...
17. PROFIT !!!
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My first solo entry, using my own javascript webGL framework barebones.js.
The vapouriser uses csg.js (which I've made some performance tuning to; 3-5x faster generally). See the dev video or use the javascript console to look at the 'debug' object to get an idea of how computationally intensive shooting the vapouriser is!
I'm not musical I'm afraid. So sound effects from BFXR, and its my own server so I'm trying to keep the bandwidth down a bit.
The controls took some getting used to, otherwise it was pretty entertaining. I was confused as to what I was doing, but that's my fault because I didn't read the instructions.
Need more optimization for web...but fun never the less
W
wombatica16 Dec 2013, 08:11
Like it!! Love the deforming terrain. Plays fine on my laptop. Everything could be tweaked and further improved but that's 48hrs and one guy.... Good sound effects, pity you didn't have time to learn to generate music.
Graphics are awesome! But the game experience wasn't so great... reversed up and down really confused me and when you put some tiny lag above that... The mood is well set, but the game could use some music. Good job!
I actually asked on the LD IRC minutes before I submitted, and most people there said they wanted me to *swap* the up/down... To what it is now! I can't win.
The lag is because Constructive Solid Geometry is a performance hog and this game needs a powerful CPU and GPU to keep up. Optimising it would be worthy of a thesis assignment ;)
Ursa miner gives a nice Descent feeling (good job on that), but it doesn't really feel like a finished game. Here are my main points (in case you want to develop this further - please do!):
1) Add an arrow to point to the airlock (like in Freespace). It's really hard to find it using the XYZ coordinates in the upper left corner alone. 2) Better feedback, e.g.screenshake when firing the vaporizer, particle effec when collecting gems, oxygen bar instead of a number, stuff like that. 3) Background - less black (dark greyish blue could work) and maybe add a few stars 4) Afterburner!
Technically, super impressive. The player was too hard to control, though, and the collision box for picking up gems was way too small. Also really, really hard to find the airlock again, even when you make an effort not the stray too far from it - maybe making the asteroids around it the same color or just leaving some empty space around it would be helpful? You did a great job of conveying the sense of fear, confusing, and paranoia one would have doing this job alone in space, though!
@Ashtom you start in one. Its always at 0,0,0. If you start the level and fly a little bit forward, you can then swing around and take a look at it. And keep remembering where it is at all times; if you fly away wildly and enjoy the immersion, you'll never find your way back!
And yeah its a polygon hog however simple it looks. Please watch the dev video :)
I liked that you can actually shoot holes into everything. But the forward velocity was way too sensitive. I pushed forward a couple thousand miles of space, got hopelessly lost, and then managed to get stuck in a hole that I just dug into something. That was fun :D
Very fascinating mechanic with the boring holes in things. Unfortunately it was too slow on my computer.
J
Jiggawatt21 Dec 2013, 00:44
Super laggy, unintuitive controls. The vaporizer *is* pretty cool though, I saw that development video when you posted it and was looking forward to trying it out.
Very technically accomplished and an interesting concept. I liked the feeling of flying through the unusual space and exploring around, though it didn't run particularly well on my ageing rig...
Not quite sure I got it, but this is pretty awesome. Honestly just flying through the procedural terrain was awesome, not really sure how the vaporiser or oxygen mechanics played a part. Aside from not running at 60 fps, this looks great.
First i thought something was wrong with the game or the browser, then i got how it worked. I liked it, but it was hard. very impressively made considering the short time.
Comments35
Good sound effects, pity you didn't have time to learn to generate music.
But the game experience wasn't so great... reversed up and down really confused me and when you put some tiny lag above that...
The mood is well set, but the game could use some music.
Good job!
I actually asked on the LD IRC minutes before I submitted, and most people there said they wanted me to *swap* the up/down... To what it is now! I can't win.
The lag is because Constructive Solid Geometry is a performance hog and this game needs a powerful CPU and GPU to keep up. Optimising it would be worthy of a thesis assignment ;)
Glad you liked it though.
1) Add an arrow to point to the airlock (like in Freespace). It's really hard to find it using the XYZ coordinates in the upper left corner alone.
2) Better feedback, e.g.screenshake when firing the vaporizer, particle effec when collecting gems, oxygen bar instead of a number, stuff like that.
3) Background - less black (dark greyish blue could work) and maybe add a few stars
4) Afterburner!
Some background music would add a lot to the atmosphere.
And some way of finding the airlock again. :-)
Revert Y axis would have been nice.
After playing for a while started to lag (firefox).
And yeah its a polygon hog however simple it looks. Please watch the dev video :)
Demo Effect: The Game, I guess.
PS: drnick has a shitty computer and is sorry for not being able to play this game
Very cool to mine into the rock!
very impressively made considering the short time.