LdDB
Ludum Dare #37compo

Escape Pod

by creativwhisper
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.84
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.58
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.62
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.68
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.53
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.49
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.11
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★82%
My First Ludum Dare and my First Compo.

It has been hard, the game is not pretty and it's not polished. But it's done and i'm very proud of the final result. I've learn loads of new things and that's great.

You're the pilot of a damaged escape pod trying to reach Earth. You cannot move properly and must use handles to impulse and rotate yourself around. Try to obtain the correct velocity to enter Earth's atmosphere without dying.

There is a lot of things that i would have liked to add, but lack of skills and time prevented them. Next submission will be better for sure.

Edit: Unity seems to have some problems with the Mac versions right now, if you are a Mac user maybe you can't play the game. I'm trying to fix these problem, sorry folks.
---------------------
POST-COMPO VERSION
CHANGELOG
- Solved display bugs, velocity cannot enter negative values now.
- Added more handles to help navigation.
- Added Pause Menu (access it pressing Esc) with a rules recap. Use it if you get dizzy.
- Added more visual feedback for the buttons.
- Added labels to the panel buttons.

Comments42

slimabob
slimabob12 Dec 2016, 11:21
Such a cool idea and interesting twist on the theme! I'm a sucker for space stuff so I especially enjoyed this game. Great work, and I'd like to see an updated version of this with improved graphics.
creativwhisperauthor12 Dec 2016, 11:42
Thanks for the feedback @slimabob! I'll keep working and improving my skills so i can make a better game in the future :-)
gene-z12 Dec 2016, 11:45
Good game, keep working on it, will be great
Artsicle12 Dec 2016, 12:33
Game wont download
creativwhisperauthor12 Dec 2016, 12:38
Hi Artsicle can you give me more information please? What version were you trying to download and what is the error that it gives to you?
Aun
Aun12 Dec 2016, 12:42
It is a bit hard to understand the commands. I read the instructions but remembering everything is hard. Maybe have some instruction on the buttons can help.
I was quite sick and the end because of all these rotations. I will not be a astronaut :)
At the end, a restart button could be great.
Artylo
Artylo12 Dec 2016, 12:49
A really interesting twist on the theme! My only complaint would be that most of the clicks feel like they don't register if at all. Some of the buttons made a sound after multiple clicks, but I couldn't say so for the grapple points. With a bit of polish, you'll have a fine game.
Moritz
Moritz12 Dec 2016, 12:49
Downloaded for Mac, sadly "App can't be opened".
creativwhisperauthor12 Dec 2016, 12:49
Thanks for the feedback Aun, i'll take note of your comments for the post-compo version. The motion sickness is a bit intended, i was trying to make the player think and plan ahead their moves instead of just clicking around at crazy. I wanted to create a "pause menu" so you can pause and read the instructions again but runned out of time.
ninja00283
ninja0028312 Dec 2016, 12:53
Fun idea, executed well.
The spinning arround thing can be confusing,
but you quickly get the hang of it.
At first i thought that having no button indicators for what the buttons do was wierd but it makes the game tense when you have no time left and are looking for the final few buttons.

Things that might be bugs:
The velocity can go in to the minus menning you would go backwards.
and some times the velocity would not go green.

But overall great game!
Mordokay12 Dec 2016, 12:54
A very nice game to play. A bit difficult to look around the spaceship and the yellow blocks move you in an umpredictable way but I guess that is what makes it fun! There were some times where I stopped moving and no yellow objects were to be found ... maybe add more yellow objects for movement?
Congratz :P
caranha
caranha12 Dec 2016, 13:21
Hey, can you upload a Linux binary as well? Thanks :-)
rburema
rburema12 Dec 2016, 13:49
Hm.. I wonder how this would play with VR glasses on?

Suggestion for a small tweak: Have some way to exit the GAME OVER screen, idealy to menu.
creativwhisperauthor12 Dec 2016, 14:29
Thank you all for all the feedback :-)

I'll try to upload a Linux binary as well this night as soon as i reach home.
Yamzho12 Dec 2016, 17:12
Even if I had some issues controlling where I was going at first, the game's interesting. Nice job !
Quaternius
Quaternius12 Dec 2016, 17:15
Really original idea! but sometimes moving was really hard
Irioder
Irioder12 Dec 2016, 17:54
Very cool and well executed, congratulations!!
xclementx
xclementx13 Dec 2016, 00:46
Web version didn't worked for me... So i took the OS/X version... and it's doesn't work too ! Too bad... :/
Lucas Knutson13 Dec 2016, 01:44
I also couldn't get the web version to work.
creativwhisperauthor13 Dec 2016, 09:46
Those with problems with the web versión, are you a Mac user? Which browser are you using?
Ygogo13 Dec 2016, 13:06
Well, the web one donsen't really plays. But the downloaded one really challenged me. Very unusual gamplay, I wish there were something like this for VR)
kamranwali13 Dec 2016, 13:25
Nice idea. Liked how you use the handles to move around. But I wasn't sure which buttons did what. Different textures to the buttons would have helped. But overall nice game. Keep it up!
tommakesgames13 Dec 2016, 14:53
Interesting idea, but more or less impossible to control. If you had done a kind of click and drag type of controls (rather than clicking) for the hand pulls, then that would have given enough control to make it playable.

However, I really think you should develop the idea - it's a good one.

Note - web link doesn't work for me. Windows 10 in Chrome.

Well done.
erikiene
erikiene13 Dec 2016, 15:41
itch.io doesn't seem to launch the game
LoadedGames
LoadedGames13 Dec 2016, 15:44
The web version doesn't seem to run for me, it goes to the page but nothing loads.
Lukbebalduke
Lukbebalduke13 Dec 2016, 15:52
Cool idea, but a bit hard to control. The yellow handles didn't helped that much, but the camera rotation and the buttons created a very cool felling of 'damaged escape pod' that need to get into the right directions very fast.

Some audio are really missing, but nothing that really disturbs.

Overall, nice idea and cool felling, Well made! :)
Uliana Galich13 Dec 2016, 17:22
Main idea of the game is very good...good luck to developers!
Chorlo
Chorlo13 Dec 2016, 19:21
I felt like in gravity movie. I liked the idea and is awesome to make that game in just 2 days.
hijomo13 Dec 2016, 22:03
This was a really cool take on the theme. I took a while to get a handle on the controls. great work for your first compo.
TurboCorp13 Dec 2016, 23:33
Really interesting idea. The rotation was disorienting just as (I assume) intended.

The controls were more confusing than they should, better feedback when you actually pressed something and a less hidden HUD would go a long way.

Good job!
nwestninja
nwestninja14 Dec 2016, 16:02
Fun idea! took me a while to figure the controls.
francismoy14 Dec 2016, 16:22
Very nice idea! It really kept me trying until I won (really hard). As other comments suggest, I think you should improve the feedback of the buttons, because it can be really confusing. Other than that, good work!
josemwarrior
josemwarrior14 Dec 2016, 18:30
I like so much the concept of the game, it's a very powerful narrative :)
blaster39114 Dec 2016, 22:17
Much like if I was actually strandard in space, I managed to end up uncontrollably spinning, before hitting random buttons and making everything worse than it started.

It's a fun game, and as great first entry into LD, what I'd like to see is maybe expanding upon the movement of the player camera, I found once I got myself into a spinning mess it was very hard to get out, and instead I found it easier to just start again all over
t4u15 Dec 2016, 00:57
Too many things to be remembered before playing. Look at instruction and put yourself in position of somebody who reads it for the first time - do they have any chance of remembering it? Rotation made me a little nauseous.

Good that you made it through your first LD. Next one will be better.
abezuska
abezuska19 Dec 2016, 17:45
The timer countdown and the ambient sounds really make me feel like I was trapped and helpless. Interesting idea.
Cody Hansen21 Dec 2016, 01:21
I made the mistake of playing this game with a track pad...
I mostly mashed buttons on the walls and messed a ton of things up! Excellent use of the theme.
An intelligent and fun game.
carlotes2473 Jan 2017, 01:57
Nice game, but I was quite frustrated to not be able to control myself that good! But very nice idea!! :D
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord