Ludum Dare #39compo

Cryozia

by flipsy

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.13

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.91

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.65

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.70

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.64

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.38

Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.83

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.38

The Game

A game about running out of power in the far reaches of space.

Donwnload

Windows/ Mac/ Flash / source @ https://flipsy.itch.io/cryozia

Story

On your yearly sabbatical to the Mahabo galaxy a rogue magnetic disturbance sends your habitat pod to a dangerous region of the ludum-verse. Here planets rich with crystals continuously pop in and out of existence. Many have sought there fortune here and never returned, your goal is more prosaic... to get home alive. You set out on your hover pod to collect enough crystals to teleport your habitat pod to another planet and with a little luck home...

Controls

Keyboard Arrows or A, S, W

Credits

Made by Tim Cox for Ludum Dare 39 in 36 hours (with plenty of sleep!)
@flipsy

Enjoy!

Updates

#1 Fix during compo. Level 3 was reloading on completion. Sorry two people that downloaded it.
#2 Fix during compo. Added missing image back to title screen that was removed during optimization. Added Windows build.
#3 During submission hour - Uploaded new source code file with extraneous u folder removed.

Experimental HTML 5 build with touch support (left and right of screen or both) and no audio @ www.flipsygames.com/cryozia

Tags: #8-bit, #arcade, #cult classic, #short, #space

Genres: action

Comments19

MattDahEpic1 Aug 2017, 01:22

A neat concept and it executes on the theme well. If you return to the spaceship prior to getting all the yellow spikes, the game just ends. I feel like if you run out of power and drift into a power cell you should be able to continue, rather than just restarting the level the moment you run out of power. Sound is minimal but well done, controls are solid.

Cornelia Xaos1 Aug 2017, 01:42

I would like to play, but, unfortunately, the in-browser flash version crashes on start. (I see a large, colorful logo for a split second before I get the "Flash Player has crashed." notice.) I'm running on Linux using Firefox 54. Downloading the SWF and playing locally via a Flash Player I have also causes the failure (but that's probably because it's using the same plugin to run flash as Firefox.)

Flipsyauthor1 Aug 2017, 01:48

Thanks for the Info @cornelia-xaos. Yes I suspect it's the Linux plugin.

mmason1 Aug 2017, 02:15

A fun game, if a bit hard to control. I played through twice and with a little planning and some hairline maneuvers I was able to win the second time. Some background music could add a lot to the ambiance.

Flipsyauthor1 Aug 2017, 02:31

@mmason. There are actually 4 levels. The second one looks like the first but is harder. Levels 3 and 4 introduce some new elements. I did try to do music for once, but it's not a skill of mine and I felt what I ended up with would detract from the game. Thanks for playing!

bobsleigh2 Aug 2017, 00:49

Fun concept! Having a sound effect when using your thrusters would be a great additions! I liked the other SFX, very retro feel. The controls are adequate, finicky but responsive (I liked the sharp U turn when you keep a button pressed). I discovered that you could wrap around the map only in the last stage, it would be a good information to put on the page. Good job overall!

DeadlyAlive2 Aug 2017, 01:21

Very weird movement, but innovating. I liked the game. Good job!

superpokeunicorn2 Aug 2017, 01:39

This game is pretty simple, but I like the idea behind it. It's all about trying to optimize movement and manage risk versus reward. That being said, I feel that the controls are a bit too sloppy. I found it quit difficult to steer the ship where I wanted it to go. The tank controls aren't necessarily a problem, but I think they need to be a bit more refined. That aside, the visuals are simple, but functional, and the colors help differentiate all of the objects. With a bit of fine tuning, this game could be improved a lot, but, for what it is, this is a fairly competent entry. Nice work!

Kosmo2 Aug 2017, 05:05

I like how 'arcadey' this feels. You did a really good job of making it similar to the old style arcade games. Also, I don't think I've seen a game where you control an astronaut outside his ship before -- and while the controls are a bit finicky I think it does a good job of making you want to do just the tiny bursts like you see in movies.

Good job!

elmismopancho5 Aug 2017, 02:57

Nice throwback to centipede or xevious, that was great. The game is very nice, it's complete and is fun. The controls are a bit hard to manage, but I believe that was the idea. Congrats

ryte2byte5 Aug 2017, 03:04

I like the idea and the execution, but, man, I just can get a feel for the controls. Six tries in and I still can't beat the first level, lol. Those crystals are just too small for me to hit with the controls.

azlen5 Aug 2017, 03:25

Had to play a few times to get beat the first level. My first attempt I managed to collect enough crystals but ran out of energy just before I got back to my ship :laughing:

Megalink5 Aug 2017, 03:26

Nice game! A bit too hard for my liking, but the movement was quite interesting and unique. Loved the arcade-feel to it as well. Nice job!

Nick Rafalski5 Aug 2017, 13:54

Definitely a great fit for the theme. The sfx, art, and concept all really work well to make this a retro feeling game.

I didn't like the controls at first, and still am not 100% sold on them, but I did get used to it and enjoy having to do little controlled bursts. It felt very strategic.

My main problem is that the controls are so unforgiving. If you are in a groove, doing the perfect little bursts, it's very rewarding, but if you accidentally hold the key down for too long, you burn tons of power and become almost unrecoverable. Might as well reload the browser at that point. It would be cool if there was a 'maximum speed' imposed so this wouldn't happen.

Also, and this is just a nitpick, if you happen to get stuck in the corner of 2 rocks, might as well reload the browser too. The ship will probably spin around and get stuck, requiring half your power just to get out.

Overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives. It was a very cute and enjoyable game.

Also, my condolences about your dog :(

vegard19925 Aug 2017, 21:20

This was alright

vulpineblazeyt5 Aug 2017, 22:33

I really liked the control settings that added a lot of challenge to collecting.

HuvaaKoodia8 Aug 2017, 07:23

Wow, this very challenging thus a lot of fun!

At first I didn't think there was any progression, but all of a sudden there were red crystals and walls. Then the edges were blocked too! *Those treacherous masters of the Ludum-verse!*

Mastering the movement controls was a blast. Trying my hardest to not use both thrusters at the same time, weaving around conserving energy.

The random level generation works pretty well. Sometimes the level was real tough, other times a cake walk. Not a big issue and there isn't much you can do about that anyways. RNG is RNG.

Excellent work!

RIP Jasper :dog:

tyranosaw8 Aug 2017, 09:34

This game is pretty good! At the start, i had no strategy. i flew as fast as i could to try and collect everything. That did not work. I figured it out in the end.

The game does need that 'learning curve', maybe have some sort of level system where each level gets progressively harder. But this will only solve the problem i had.

In general, maybe you should add some polish to it. Things such as some sort of jet particles for the shuttle or particles when you collect the crystals. These things don't change the gameplay of the game but instead makes it feel better.

Here is a video about this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg

All in all, this is a great little game! Great work and Congratulations! :smiley:

Dege8 Aug 2017, 11:49

Nice little game, it was really enjoyable. The graphic is simple but clear, but it could use some polish as suggested by @tyranosaw (by the way that is one of my favourite videos about game dev!).
The game mechanic is really funny, I particularly enjoyed the level progression (something a lot of LD partecipants whon't consider at all). Another thing that was particularly enjoyable was that the game have a definite ending and is definitively the right length for a compo game.
Overall really nice work (especially considering the compo limits!) congratulations!

Other games by @flipsy

★3.52

★3.32

★3.71