Ludum Dare #31compo

Space Docking Sim 2014

by ym

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.42

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.08

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.92

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.92

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.33

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★57%

Use the rockets to align your ship with the space station docking port then gently bring your ship in and make a connection. There is a green marker on the gimbal, bring this to the top to align your ship's axis with the axis of the station (in Baby Difficulty, it is already perfectly aligned)

Use R to reset and T to change the difficulty, there are four settings:
>Baby (just thrust towards and you'll align perfectly)
>Standard (keep calm and you'll ace this too)
>2001 (match rotational axis then start spinning!)
>Interstellar (it's not impossible, it's necessary)

All these controls are with respect to the forwards view from your cockpit
W/S - Pitch Down/Up
A/D - Yaw Left/Right
Q/E - Roll Left/Right
I/K - Thrust Forwards/Backwards
J/L - Thrust Left/Right
Y/H - Thrust Up/Down
Left Shift (hold) - Use Main Engines
Space - Look Through Window
R - Reset Current Difficulty
T - Cycle Difficulty

(The standalone version likes to pop into fullscreen randomly, just press R and it should window again)

Comments25

Xenolupus8 Dec 2014, 04:07

It definitely does what it's supposed to, but it's very frustrating.

Muffinhat8 Dec 2014, 04:26

Technically not on ONE screen, but neat idea nonetheless!

Somfunambulist8 Dec 2014, 04:28

Exceedingly touchy, but I'm extremely impressed! Thanks for allowing me to spin out of control after I gave up.

Tasteslikefuture8 Dec 2014, 05:58

Pretty fun, and amazingly frustrating lol. Good job!

Ian Morrison8 Dec 2014, 06:03

Very frustrating and the camera out the top of the spaceship is really disorienting, but I fully expect that's by design. An interesting depiction of a docking procedure nonetheless!

uvwar8 Dec 2014, 06:10

oh man I can't couple with anything beyond the first baby mode (maybe I'm not aligned right? I don't know). Very cool though, makes me wish I had a flightstick or something! Maybe a dual joystick contoller like a 360 gamepad might be interesting to try.

YMauthor8 Dec 2014, 06:13

Thanks for playing guys. I'm sorry to say, none of you will be progressing to astronaut school this year, maybe next year?

Axial alignment is the key, if you're in the right position, but the ring is rotated a few degrees it wont lock.

Aevek8 Dec 2014, 06:16

A lot of fun. I would have like a little sound of your ships engines firing to give a little feedback. Also, it was really hard to judge which way I was drifting, which made "Interstellar" mode (even more) difficult. As a hardened KSP veteran I toughed it out, very satisfying. Also the orientation of the docking camera really confused me for some reason. I would also like to be more free to look around, since I got in a situation where I couldn't see the station because it was right between the two views so I kind of tapped spacebar to keep my eye on the station. Not ideal. But a lot of fun, a really good simulator. Really let me try out that insane maneuver from the movie, which I've been craving for a while now.

tppr20468 Dec 2014, 06:24

Great simulation!!

fierysquirrel8 Dec 2014, 07:10

I'm a bit frustrated haha but the simulation is awesome, also the look and feel of the game, well done!

DesignerNap8 Dec 2014, 10:39

really nice and twitchy controls, I appreciate that :) tough to master and could benefit from a graphic showing the controls. But I really enjoyed it! Good work!

mrexcessive8 Dec 2014, 17:07

Hi there. Really pretty hard game, second difficulty very tough I found. Not got the right stuff I guess... kudos to Bacon ;) Shame no sound, but I suppose that makes sense in space. Nice cockpit look and feel. Be nice to see an Oculus version of this... would suit it well if you could suss a control scheme or a way to align hands on kbd.

psychomonster8 Dec 2014, 21:35

Wahhhhh i'll never be successful :D Nice Gameplay. Nice Art... Love it ^^ Soooo frustrating good ;)

Jupitron9 Dec 2014, 02:04

Amazing but really complex experience, ill try to beat it.

igoramendola9 Dec 2014, 08:59

Definitely, I won't be progressing to astronaut school this year. At least, I managed to connect in Baby mode hehehe
It's a nice concept and well executed.

NuSan10 Dec 2014, 13:05

I love the concept but im realy bad at it. Maybe some HUD with alignment or a relative velocity display could make it easyer. I find realy weird that IJ and KL keys are not aligned with horizontal and vertical axis of the screen. Keep up the good work !

LTyrosine12 Dec 2014, 01:06

I liked it a lot. First, I'm a fan of space simulator games and this one hits it hard. Second I'm also a fan of games that wanders outside the safe box of "sure formula" gameplay that 90% of people use. So wonderful idea, good execution. Some sound would upgrade this entry to another level as well as some polish in user interface. Good job!

Novodantis12 Dec 2014, 13:27

Love the concept and the challenge of it, but I feel the difficulty is more in the control than the gameplay. The docking ring appeared to be on the upper side of the ship, but the view seemed to be rotated 90 degrees which made it a lot harder somewhat arbitrarily. Despite the frustrations, its a cool concept. Love the Interstellar difficulty.

nesis14 Dec 2014, 16:11

Just (finally) played your game, and loved the compo version of it. It shows some good iteration during the jam!

Crawler Studios14 Dec 2014, 20:36

Pretty cool, nice job!

YMauthor14 Dec 2014, 23:40

Thanks for all the continued comments guys :) I'm glad you're liking it.

DonovanWu18 Dec 2014, 06:13

I have tried to make a spacecraft docking simulation, too, but it was much simpler, and it was in 2D with simply scaling the sprite. Yours is much better than the one I made, and it looks more professional and realistic. Nice work!