Irradiated Steam is a game where you control a steam train to deliver cargo across a nuclear wasteland.
This version is an alpha of the much bigger idea I'd like to develop, which would have much better art and more objectives. Unfortunately, I got started late in the Jam and didn't have enough time to add these features.
Controls: W to go forwards, S to go backwards. Objective: Pick up the colors (cargo) at the stations by stopping over them. Deliver to the correct color. 25 points a piece. Stations can only hold up to 4 cargo in the in/out queues. Stations will distribute their cargo over time, freeing up space.
After I figured out how to drop cargo (you just sit there for anyone else confused), the game basically degrades into stopping at each station until the cargo hold for that station is empty, then proceeding to the next.
It's an interesting concept, but I think it needs some decision making by the player to actually make it interesting.
Solid job on what you've got however, the logic for the train must have been a bit of a bear.
I agree with skele_blade. The mechanic has a lot of potential, and even in the games current state I can spend a lot of time in it mentally zoned out, but for it to be a game in the truest sense of the word, it needs to have amount of thought required.
Interesting idea! Could definitely expand on this further. I agree with others above about the controls to pick up/drop cargo not being obvious. I feel like you could make a pretty exciting action game if you just picked cargo up as you passed and you had to figure out the routes between the different stations (maybe avoiding obstacles) and trying to avoid any stations getting too full.
There isn't much decision making in this game, but I still managed to have fun trying to have the longest possible train. The core mechanic works well, but I guess the game lacks an actual challenge
The game could use more visual feedback. I was confused I'd make the color of the stations even more clear.
At first I couldn't actually find the player, and until I had picked up my first cargo, I didn't know which side was the front, and which side was the back of the train.
There's nothing that tells you how to play. I had to return to this page to figure out the controls. And then you need to fumble your way forward until you eventually figure it out. Learning how to play by trial an error can sometimes be effective, but not in this game.
Second, there's no real strategy involved. Since the game automatically does all the hard work, all you need to do is pull up to the first station, automatically fill the train until the station is empty. Drive to the next station, the game automatically unloads that color, then automatically fills the train until the station is empty. You pull up to the next color, and the process repeats.
What would add a slight bit of effort on the part of the player would be to require the color you want to unload to be parked on the station tile, not the train. Delivering the wrong color docks you points.
The concept is doable; I can see this as being a genuine puzzle game with a bit of work. If you have multiple trains, and multiple stations all over a map, with cargo that expires if it's left on the train too long. You need to decide "Is it worth unloading all the green cargo on the other side of the map? By the time I get back here, the yellow cargo on board will have expired, and I will have lost money."
It's an interesting concept, but I think it needs some decision making by the player to actually make it interesting.
Solid job on what you've got however, the logic for the train must have been a bit of a bear.