Critical Mass

by mads
co-authored: @kaare
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.64
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.37
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.71
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.13
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.58
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.36
The more you have, the worse it is.

A game for Ludum Dare 40 by Mads Bloch-Sorensen and Kaare Ask Skotte.

Goal: Try not to destroy the universe by becomming a too massive black hole.

The heavier you are the more you attract.

Controls: W, A, S and D

Tools:
Unity
Photoshop

screenshot

Comments14

Jeremy Wolf5 Dec 2017, 01:48
I think I played it backwards. Definitely hard to "come back" if you get too big. Would be nice if you could somehow "dump mass" rather than only collect it.
Madsauthor5 Dec 2017, 05:16
It would, but thats why it is worse the more you have :) We thought about it but did not find a proper way to implement it.
Masadow5 Dec 2017, 17:55
Nice game ! Two nice additions would be SHIFT to "run" or "boost" even if it might be weird for a black hole to do so and holding SPACE to accelerate the time because it's sometimes so slow it gets boring (especially at the beginning).

Besides that, I quite like the gameplay, it feels smooth. Graphics and sounds are great too !
Frenk5 Dec 2017, 18:18
Smooth gameplay, after i accidentally wiped out a couple of planets i started to collect a lot more to try to slingshot the smaller into orbit.....didn't work.
Great Game overall good job!
rohezal
rohezal11 Dec 2017, 16:08
I love space and gravity so this was a lot of fun for me. Even got some planets in a semi stable orbit around me. But after a few minutes it was for fun to devour all matter then avoid it. :P
zirconcode
zirconcode14 Dec 2017, 17:15
Genius gameplay idea! We got the the humans before the we destroyed LD 40, I thought it was quite humorous too. Good physics!
Kodiqi
Kodiqi15 Dec 2017, 23:38
I feel like the time it takes to reach the end is just too long, as the gameplay doesn't have enough variety to it to hold my interest that long. Maybe you could include population stats about the planets you're swallowing so the player feels a bit guilty, or have a more interesting way of communicating the size of the black hole as it grows (like you did with the timeline). For example, you could say it's now the size of 100 Earths, or that its gravitational pull is as wide as our solar system. Otherwise, the gameplay just needs more to do; power-ups or some way of reducing your mass would be easy ones.
The graphical representation of the timeline is fun and the graphics overall are good, though the font used doesn't fit with the space setting.
Ajayajayaj
Ajayajayaj17 Dec 2017, 15:25
Really cool idea, I really like what @kodiqi is saying, making the player feel guilty would be cool. The mood is really nice. Great job!
Madsauthor17 Dec 2017, 20:16
Thanks for the feedback @kodiqi
I agree that the game is a bit too long with the limited amount of variation, but only figured it out after submitting. Most of the things you mention were thing we thought about implementing, but we ran out of time.
jandourek
jandourek19 Dec 2017, 07:44
A clever take on the theme! Really hard after you collect too many planets. Very fun and the graphics are nice!
4Knights
4Knights25 Dec 2017, 18:35
Egyptian pyramids where my time stopped xD loved the black hole gravity effect and the big bang effect. well done. it gets a little bit hard tho.
Pavel Kouril25 Dec 2017, 19:28
The gameplay was really repetitve and boring; I think it would be better if the game was shorter, to be honest.

Other than that, nice idea indeed!
Paulo Brunassi
Paulo Brunassi25 Dec 2017, 21:51
I liked the game and graphics, but the objectives aren't very clear and I think the game should be a little bit faster to reach the objectives. Anyway, nice entry!
Igor KinGamer
Igor KinGamer25 Dec 2017, 23:49
Hey, you've got a nice idea here!

Feels somewhat like a bullet hell. The way the difficulty increases over time is nice, ie. it gets harder both because of the greater number of things coming in and as a punishment if you touch something. Also, I liked how you can get rid of the planets by a "close call". Maybe it would be nice if something happened when planets touched one another (explode, bounce, ...), giving more room to develop some strategy and avoid them.

I wish I could vote on humor. I found it funny when the screen got crowded with planets (and other things). Also when a planet orbited around the black hole for a second or two.

Great job!

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