Emissary is a game where you destroy planets to prevent marauding terraformers from claiming them as their own. You are responsible for the diminishing space, but there's a risk/reward factor: as the surface becomes more barren, survival becomes more difficult.
The game will save your score across planets until you fail, so try to make it as long as you can! Each planet will be a bit more difficult than the last, and your score is determined by how quickly you destroy them. The main menu has some helpful hints at the bottom.
I'm really looking forward to playing everyone else's games and to getting some feedback on Emissary. Thank you for checking it out.
EDIT: I fixed a minor but important bug that changed movement speed depending on framerate. Should be solid now. EDIT2: I guess I failed to fix that properly. Should uh... should be solid now.
Tools used: Unity, Sketchbook pro, SFXR, Garageband, FLStudio, Modo
Really loved the core loop personally! Took a little while to get the hang of it, but I think I'll be coming back to play this again later. Really good and really tough! Also looked and sounded great.
@handle Quite possibly! It definitely felt pretty intuitive, but does take some trial and error to get into the strategy. I wonder if making it a little faster to get back into a new game would help? eg. start landing on a new planet as soon as you die, rather than being shot back to the menu. Then you can trial and error much faster. Still insanely fun either way :)
Rather difficult game to play, it kept getting me that pressing and holding space didn't make me hover, i had to press it again. It was a little framey in the web build, but overall very fun to play and good sound design! Nice job.
@smilewood Okay, good to know about the web version. It runs fine on my machine, but I was hesitant to even put it up in case it ran poorly. The downloads should run much better of course. Also, I wanted you to be able to control your hover altitude, so that was my reasoning for the double press.
@handle That makes perfect sense for the spacebar holding, i just wasn't used to it in the beginning. I wouldn't worry too much about the web build, it wasn't very bad, as in it didn't make the game unplayable or even hard to play, it was just something that I noticed.
Sick visuals. The menacing music really underlines of being the bad guy. Nice interpretation of the theme - it has facettes. At first I didn't realize I had to press the bomb button and was just hunting terraformers for minutes!
Awesome artstyle and slick gameplay. It's a nice touch that you added a touch of procedural generation/randomisation of the worlds, helps with the repetitive nature of gameplay. Would be great if you could restart the level without having to wait. Wasn't sure how to use the bomb as well. Great work!
I think you just set the bar for every other game rating for me. good art good game play Only thing I could add would be to have some sort of "bomb" ready notification.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I just found an unfortunate bug where the movement is dependent on framerate... I'll add an updated version and label it accordingly. If the game was moving super quickly that's why.
I died a lot and very fast. The control was rather complex for me to follow. I understand that it adds complexity to the gameplay, but I couldn't follow it. So you have ASDW because I dont have a joystick, but then A or space is jump. Space is fine for me, but then you have X under ASDW, and then B above Space. I couldnt think of anyway of using my hands to control it properly. Having all the OR options adds a bit more confusion to it too. Probably just the design choice, but I could enjoy the game more if the control layout was a bit less complex. It would be great if you have several levels, and start increasing the complexity of the game, i.e. adding ability and control keys. My game play was basically rolling around and jumping when possible/have to. And for the part that I love: great art work, the graphic, the UI.. It is so pleasing to see and even tho I died quickly, it doesnt stop me from replaying the game haha. The main menu was sooo impressively elegant that I really didnt mind it having no music. Great job!!
This game really felt good, definitely a nice arcade game. With a gamepad, it was really easy and intuitive to pick up. I didn't know what I was doing first, but it was really fun once I got the hang of it! Good job!
This game is such an enjoyable audiovisual experience! Music, all the lights and especially the fact that you are constantly moving really put you in this flow state, when there is no more such abstraction as a controller, it's just you and the need to constantly be on the go. Pretty much the only downside I found (not even a downside, but more of a misunderstanding on my part) is that it seems to me like you don't really need a dash move in this game at all. But it's still there preventing the controls scheme from being even more minimal and elegant.
I loved this game. There are some slight browser shortcut issues (holding ctrl and pressing w at same time) that will end the experience of the game prematurely but those are unforeseen circumstances I guess. the graphics were nice. the audio was great. I was in extreme focus the entire time and it took a long time to get used to moving around and hovering but after a while it was perfectly fine. each level got harder which i appreciated a lot. Things I would have liked would be putting a face to the character i am using to destroy planets. I would love to hear a story about why I am destroying planets and stuff. Overall though I was really upset when I lost at higher levels so you definitely have grabbed that emotion from me and amplified it. GREAT JOB!
@nam-nguyen The first control for each action is for the controller, the second is for the keyboard. I should have made that more clear. There is music!
@detectivelosos Your score at the end of the level is based on how quickly you win, so that's why the dash is there.
@gmanadvanced Thanks for playing! Sorry about the control conflict between Emissary and Chrome... that's unfortunate.
Really cool programmer art going on here, and the music is quite good too, I dig it. The concept is nice and the theme is very pure and well executed. I wish there were more levels and objectives, as it got really hard to die once I got the hang of it. Nice work!
@handle at the main menu? Are you sure? I just double checked it, still no sound in the main menu. Im playing the web version though. Once you play the game, there is sound.
Bonus points for making a game involving a globe just like me :)
On a serious note, Aesthetics are clean and appealing, controls are responsive, sound is fitting.
I understand 2D circular physics. 3D spherical physics is a bit more challenging to implement for myself. Therefore, glad this is a compo too. Once, I have more time, i'll delve into your source code for nuggets of knowledge regarless of the quality of your documentation.
@nam-nguyen Oh sorry, I thought you meant no music in general. There is indeed no title screen music.
@mza I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, because the physics are entirely cheated lol. Also it is not documented at all. But if it's helpful that's awesome!
Great game, everything feels good and is aesthatically pleasing. One suggestion is that i would like the audio to keep playing once you die so i can really take in the soundtrack.
Damn you are good at making electronic music. This soundtrack just gorgeous and fits the gameplay perfectly. And the gameplay itself is really fun and engaging. Great entry.
It took me a bit to actually beat a world. I didn't realize obliterating the scenery recharged the bomb faster. Would be nice to see your score and past scores on the title screen. The audio could use some work, the jumping/hovering sound feels like it cuts off too fast on release. Had fun though and graphics are great! ;D superb entry!
There's so much to love about this contribution! You really did an amazing job on all fronts! There are some minor things though that stuck out to me; - If I end a planet with a bomb, the hexagons don't dissapear, it pauses before they do. - It would be nice to have a counter up while playing saying how many planets I've cleared (apart from the score that is) so I can easily nudge my friends and give them a small number to beat rather than score. - Game does only get harder by giving you less time to navigate. I would have liked more content on top of that. Maybe one planet has lava shooting out of it at spots? Maybe one planet has cows that block you...
Presentation and graphics were nice, great use of the theme. Took me a while to figure out how to charge up the bomb properly, it almost felt random. It was very intense having the ground fall from underneath you with the core of the planet burning in the background. Nicely done!
The Web Gl version of the game had quite long loading time, but after that I was actually pleasantly surprised by this game. Game is hugely innovative and fitting for the theme.
I would recommend people to download the game straight on. Playing in browser it's way too easy to accidentally activate "Sticky Keys" feature on windows or add browser bookmarks, save as, etc.. when you get going.
Graphics are functional. Not much to say about that. Sounds are kind of simple too. I left humor unrated as the game doesn't go for that.
Super cool. I like the look a lot, and the bomb just looks awesome. My only complaint was the character I'm playing didn't really feel like it was in the 3d space, and it was hard to know how far above the ground I was when jumping around. Overall pretty impressive!
After almost thirty games, this is still one of my favorites. The jumping is hard to judge because of the camera angle but other than that I had a lot of fun! Here's a video of my play: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/297350813
Even though a control is recommend the keyboard controls are very smooth and easy to use. Still had no clue what I was doing but enjoyed the movement alone.
The objective is definitely not clear enough. I figured it out at some point, and got 539 total score before I failed. With more developement, I could see this on a tablet. Gameplay generally feels solid but more feedback would be welcome, failure is very often just sudden and unexpected.
Very nice idea, colors and pretty polished game. Very well done. Really. To play I used WASD and SPACE only. What should other keys do? I tried X and B and didn't noticed anything new happening...
Comments54
Love the game let me know if it becomes a smartphone app because it would make a great one!
good art
good game play
Only thing I could add would be to have some sort of "bomb" ready notification.
Pretty much the only downside I found (not even a downside, but more of a misunderstanding on my part) is that it seems to me like you don't really need a dash move in this game at all. But it's still there preventing the controls scheme from being even more minimal and elegant.
@detectivelosos Your score at the end of the level is based on how quickly you win, so that's why the dash is there.
@gmanadvanced Thanks for playing! Sorry about the control conflict between Emissary and Chrome... that's unfortunate.
On a serious note, Aesthetics are clean and appealing, controls are responsive, sound is fitting.
I understand 2D circular physics. 3D spherical physics is a bit more challenging to implement for myself. Therefore, glad this is a compo too. Once, I have more time, i'll delve into your source code for nuggets of knowledge regarless of the quality of your documentation.
It's a pity that HTML5 build does not work on intel hd graphics... But it is not a game problem.
@mza I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, because the physics are entirely cheated lol. Also it is not documented at all. But if it's helpful that's awesome!
You really did an amazing job on all fronts!
There are some minor things though that stuck out to me;
- If I end a planet with a bomb, the hexagons don't dissapear, it pauses before they do.
- It would be nice to have a counter up while playing saying how many planets I've cleared (apart from the score that is) so I can easily nudge my friends and give them a small number to beat rather than score.
- Game does only get harder by giving you less time to navigate. I would have liked more content on top of that. Maybe one planet has lava shooting out of it at spots? Maybe one planet has cows that block you...
Highly enjoyed playing it!
I would recommend people to download the game straight on. Playing in browser it's way too easy to accidentally activate "Sticky Keys" feature on windows or add browser bookmarks, save as, etc.. when you get going.
Graphics are functional. Not much to say about that. Sounds are kind of simple too. I left humor unrated as the game doesn't go for that.