In this game you play as a smuggler trying to get your goods across the galaxy to the Golden Planet. There are planets, asteroids, space stations, pirates, and peace keeping ships along the way. Keep your fuel and hull above 0 to ensure you make it. Mine asteroids and planets for metal and organics to repair and create fuel. Fight pirates as they attack or pick a fight a peace keeper in hopes of gaining extra fuel and metal.
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CONTROLS:
After the title screen ONLY 2 BUTTONS CONTROL* the game! Note you MUST LEARN HOW TO ROTATE the grid to get the the jump gate. The first level is simplified to to give you the opportunity to play around with it.
Press and release the Left Arrow: Move/Take action to the cell to the upper left of the ship.
Press and release the Right Arrow: Move/Take action to the cell to the upper right of this ship.
Hold down Left Arrow & Press and release Right Arrow key: Rotate grid 90 degrees left.
Hold down Right Arrow & Press and release the Left Arrow key: Rotate grid 90 degrees right.
* Alternatively should now be able to use the A/D keys on the keyboard. I added these after the compo finished up because people were having trouble getting the arrow keys to work.
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GAMEPLAY:
You are the main ship that you see in the center of the grid in level 1. Level 1 is always the same, the next 41 levels are randomly generated.
There are 4 numbers at the bottom of the screen, Hull, Fuel, Metals, and Organics. You must keep your Hull and Fuel above 0 to survive. Metals and organics may be converted to repair your hull and create fuel.
Every 1 move to an empty tile expends 1 fuel.
Other than yourself there are following elements in the game:
Jump Gate: This is used to transport yourself to the next level. Every level aside from the final level has a Jump Gate. This appears as a circle with a base.
Asteroids: Asteroids can be mined for metal fragments. Mining costs a random amount of fuel to perform. Asteroids appear as... well asteroid looking shapes. Asteroids may only be mined once, then they are destroyed.
Planets: Planets are like asteroids with 2 exceptions. SOME planets may also provide Organics that can be converted to fuel. Planets are permanent and may be mined indefinitely. They look like white circles.
Stations: You may use the metals and organics you have collected at stations. Metals are used to repair your hull. Organics are converted into fuel. Stations look like the station from Deep Space 9 (sort of).
Pirates: Pirates are aggressive ships, they will attack you if they can. You may fire back at them by advancing towards them. While they are actively hitting you your hull takes damage. Destroying a pirate will yield metal fragments and fuel. These look like ships?
Peace Keepers: These are non-aggressive ships. If you attack them they become hostile and will fire back at you. Destroying a Peace Keeper will yield metal fragments and sometimes considerable amounts of fuel. These look like squids.
The Golden Planet: Level 42 should have a Golden Planet (a planet that is gold) instead of a Jump Gate. Make it here and you have won the game.
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KNOWN ISSUES:
Some people have noted that they keys don't work. I'm not sure if this is just because the controls take some getting used to or if it is because of something with MonoGame/SharpDX. I added A/D keys after the compo ended to try and clear this up.
Pirates are not supposed to randomly jump directly to you. But I can't tell if this is a feature or not. Let me know what you think.
There is the potential of generating a level you cannot pass. If you spawn in a corner with 2 planets adjacent to you. This only happened 1 time to me and I didn't have time to ensure a path to the jump gate.
I didn't have time to scale up the difficulty, so the pirates and Peace Keepers are a bit too easy to kill. This can cause the game to be too easy after a bit :(. Another thing I want to change.
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Was created with MonoGame. Build targets Windows/DirectX
IF WINDOWS DOESNT LET YOU RUN IT * Right-Click on the EXE, select properties, and click 'UNBLOCK'.
I'd say pirates are a feature :) Only got to level 15 or so before I accidentally ran out of fuel. Still fun. Good job delivering a good roguelike with only 2 buttons.
Very addicting. Lots to this game and it's fun! I did play this on an older laptop and worked great, except I had to figure out how to rotate the grid... holding the arrows didn't work. Once I got over that, it was lot's of fun to play!
Thank you for the feedback, edited the description of the controls to note holding down a direction and pressing and releasing the other... hoping that will help.
I feel like the rotation would make more sense if it was reversed. Hold one key and press the opposite to go that way. But I can see it making sense either way. Great job working around the theme! Some levels felt a little sparse of stuff though. And more stuff is always good in games like this. Visuals are very nice, would love some calming music to go along with it.
I really liked the art it was clean and a nice style. Game was difficult and the AI was very cheap, but that's something that happens. It was fun, and defiantly lots of potential with this concept.
It's pretty fun ;) Controls were a bit hard to get used to but I eventually got hold of them. I like the graphics a lot. The game would go great with some FTL-like music. Still, this is an interesting game.
Pretty fun and challenging game. The only problem I had was the taskbar on my tiny little 1366x768 monitor cut off the bottom of screen. I hid the taskbar and everything was good. Overall, I thought it was good and enjoyed playing it.
Wow I'am really fond of it's simplicity, especially the clever controls xD Graphics look also very clean and simple and I like the nice parallax effect in the background. The only thing that bothered me, was the sound effect when activating a jump gate. Too high of a pitch for my taste =P Great entry ;)
Probably one of the best 2 button control schemes in a strategy title I've seen so far. It felt natural to turn left and right using the push hold/push mechanic. Great job!
It’s very rich and inventive, congrats. However the controls seem a bit forced and they make the game less enjoyable for the sake of sticking to the two-button theme… so in the end I’d say the theme kinda hurt what could have been a very good game. I can say that with all the more honesty that I think my own entry suffers from that problem! I’ll make another release later that has proper controls, maybe you should consider it, too!
Wow cool game. The graphics are neat ! The gameplay is nice although the controls are a bit hard at first (especially the one that rotates the map). I feel that you have something here that you could easily expand into a cool game.
Cool concept ! controls were a bit hard to handle at first but not for long. Very interesting and inspired mechanics, i loved these uncommon view angle and controls. A small ambiant sound in background could add something strong i think. I've only reached level 12 because game over is a bit hard :) Gamplay seems solid, and nice work with random generation and visual polish ! Good work !
[ETC from Creative Sectors] The controls were somewhat hard to use and not hard to run out of fuel. I like roguelikes and old ASCII and ANSI art games. I think the concept is good, but miss some good tunes that goes well with the game. I think planetary mining is an unpredictable source of goods. I was unable to past level 13, but I should practice more.
Comments27
+ Nice assets
+ Interesting control scheme
+ Cool concept, very strategic
Con:
- Controls are a bit hard, for me rotation would work better if reversed
Obs:
o Pretty hard game for >.< I'll try to beat it again later
Great work!
Great entry ;)
Gamplay seems solid, and nice work with random generation and visual polish !
Good work !
I enjoyed the minimalist type graphics, and I liked the turning mechanic, overall, nice work :)
[and see you next Ludum Dare haha]
The controls were somewhat hard to use and not hard to run out of fuel. I like roguelikes and old ASCII and ANSI art games. I think the concept is good, but miss some good tunes that goes well with the game. I think planetary mining is an unpredictable source of goods. I was unable to past level 13, but I should practice more.