Space Taters
This is my 3rd published game for the Ludum Dare Game Jam and 2nd time that I've worked with a team.
Space Taters was made by Jan, Ina & Lin.
We've had a lot of fun participating. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and a lot of the things we had in mind had to be abandoned (the usual with LD, heh). The game is playable, but not very polished. It is possible to win the game.
Initially, we wanted to make a Dungeon Crawler, but it somehow ended up as an Adventure game.
The game comes as a Java JAR file. So, as long as you got Java setup on your system, it should run.
__Controls__
- WASD or Arrow Keys to Walk
- Spacebar to Interact (need to stand on top of things)
- Ctrl to Shoot the Space Shotgun (needs to be collected first)
- Shift (hold) to sprint
- Q and E to change active inventory item
- 1 through 6 to directly select active item
- X to drop active item
- Mouse click for Computer Terminals and Dialogs
It is possible to drop essential items; there is no way to get them back once dropped. Which means you can get stuck.
__Story__
You are part of the crew of a prison transport space ship. After you wake up from a nap all of the crew is gone. You start on an adventure to find out what happened.
The engines are stuck in overdrive and the ship is heading for the edge of the universe. Soon it will run out of Space if you don't act fast to save everyone.
One of your bad habits along your journey is to take (steal) all kinds of items. Which is much to the dismay of your fellow crew members. However, your inventory is rather limited and you're running out of space fast.
If all of that wasn't enough there are also cute space animals called 'Taters'. They tend to multiply rather quickly and fill entire rooms. Which is adding to the whole space problem.
__Caveats__
- there is no main menu
- there are no sounds
- the collision detection only works for walls, you can walk over everything else
- it is possible to die in various ways, if that happens you have to close the game and restart it
- there is no way to kill the Taters, they just keep multiplying while in view
- if the number of Taters reaches 400 then the game is lost; this acts as a time limit
- the Aliens (big eye & worm) don't cause any damage, but they can be killed, however the aiming is glitchy
Space Taters was made by Jan, Ina & Lin.
We've had a lot of fun participating. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and a lot of the things we had in mind had to be abandoned (the usual with LD, heh). The game is playable, but not very polished. It is possible to win the game.
Initially, we wanted to make a Dungeon Crawler, but it somehow ended up as an Adventure game.
The game comes as a Java JAR file. So, as long as you got Java setup on your system, it should run.
__Controls__
- WASD or Arrow Keys to Walk
- Spacebar to Interact (need to stand on top of things)
- Ctrl to Shoot the Space Shotgun (needs to be collected first)
- Shift (hold) to sprint
- Q and E to change active inventory item
- 1 through 6 to directly select active item
- X to drop active item
- Mouse click for Computer Terminals and Dialogs
It is possible to drop essential items; there is no way to get them back once dropped. Which means you can get stuck.
__Story__
You are part of the crew of a prison transport space ship. After you wake up from a nap all of the crew is gone. You start on an adventure to find out what happened.
The engines are stuck in overdrive and the ship is heading for the edge of the universe. Soon it will run out of Space if you don't act fast to save everyone.
One of your bad habits along your journey is to take (steal) all kinds of items. Which is much to the dismay of your fellow crew members. However, your inventory is rather limited and you're running out of space fast.
If all of that wasn't enough there are also cute space animals called 'Taters'. They tend to multiply rather quickly and fill entire rooms. Which is adding to the whole space problem.
__Caveats__
- there is no main menu
- there are no sounds
- the collision detection only works for walls, you can walk over everything else
- it is possible to die in various ways, if that happens you have to close the game and restart it
- there is no way to kill the Taters, they just keep multiplying while in view
- if the number of Taters reaches 400 then the game is lost; this acts as a time limit
- the Aliens (big eye & worm) don't cause any damage, but they can be killed, however the aiming is glitchy
Comments22
Lynn Young14 Aug 2018, 01:59
I was playing on Mac and the controls kept getting me stuck where I couldn't move at all. Graphically it looks pretty good, hopefully with a bit more time you can flesh this out and turn it into something great.
PopDaddyGames14 Aug 2018, 02:45
That's awesome that you used Java! :)
Nam Nguyen14 Aug 2018, 02:45
Whow I like the graphics. The control is quite complex and took me a while to get used to, otherwise it is a fun the game. Good work!
kruemelkeksfan14 Aug 2018, 03:04
Entertaining and funny game, really enjoyed the humor and reading the mails and memos.
Ganonwarrior14 Aug 2018, 03:57
Nice Graphics ! Haha . I enjoyed the game , The controls are a little complex, anyway, after a while playing I have adapted :v:
eott14 Aug 2018, 14:46
Very nice game, I love how much there is to do and find and randomly interact and spurious details and funny mails/memos and... In short, a lot of things for a game jam entry. Nice work!
The only slightly annoying thing is that there is no reason to ever not use the sprint button, so the normal, slow walking speed was redundant.
The only slightly annoying thing is that there is no reason to ever not use the sprint button, so the normal, slow walking speed was redundant.
AwiX15 Aug 2018, 05:42
A good game idea, the music should be improved. The graphics are good.
But our game is better)))
But our game is better)))
Echo Team16 Aug 2018, 03:07
Java, nice!
DarkGuardsman16 Aug 2018, 03:18
Looks good, great to see a java based game.
RedHermit16 Aug 2018, 03:22
I came for the title card/graphic (very cool!).. and stayed for the name.. Space Taters! Very cool you went with Java! It took a bit to get used to the controls, but the good humor made up for it during my learning curve.
comenoha16 Aug 2018, 18:21
Amazing work here, especially since it was programmed in Java. I couldn't even imagine haha..... Great submission!
Andrei917 Aug 2018, 22:49
Cool ! :thumbsup:
Hueson18 Aug 2018, 03:18
As you said, polish, but I don't think that really holds this back from being fun! On that topic I felt the camera not being centered was a bit annoying. Grahpics made me say whoa as soon as the it started up.
BelowParallel_Ian19 Aug 2018, 14:40
I couldn't figure out how to use the public message or torch or chainsaw. Other than that, great work! I really enjoyed this. Sure, there's not much to it, but you've got a great foundation there for something amazing in the future. Personally, I think you should keep going with this.
Question: what tools did you use to make this in Java? (like for the graphics or anything else)
Question: what tools did you use to make this in Java? (like for the graphics or anything else)
Paulo Augusto19 Aug 2018, 15:57
Nice concept and good gameplay
vfabien2119 Aug 2018, 18:25
Whoo, there are many objects and mecanisms which have been developped for a game Jam ! It's impressive, and looks promising. My grip however is that the atmoshpere and level design felt a bit shallower than what we could have expected compared to all the rest. The experience (mine at least) would have much better it had been more balanced.
naali19 Aug 2018, 18:26
It was fun, wasn't sure what to do with all the items, but that could help create interest in trying to figure things out. Kept running out of inventory space.
Jan19 Aug 2018, 23:38
Thank you everyone for all the kind words and great feedback!
@belowparallel-ian the game was written with Eclipse as IDE. Graphic files were drawn with MS Paint and GIMP. No pre-made game engine was used, I just started with a blank new project and went from there. I used some code snippets from my last Ludum Dare entry for the core game loop and graphics drawing logic. We skipped on the sounds part as we ran out of time, otherwise we probably would have used sfxr as well as recording our own sounds and editing them with Audacity.
@belowparallel-ian the game was written with Eclipse as IDE. Graphic files were drawn with MS Paint and GIMP. No pre-made game engine was used, I just started with a blank new project and went from there. I used some code snippets from my last Ludum Dare entry for the core game loop and graphics drawing logic. We skipped on the sounds part as we ran out of time, otherwise we probably would have used sfxr as well as recording our own sounds and editing them with Audacity.
Megalink20 Aug 2018, 10:06
Amazing work! Artwork is fantastic, I especially liked the character animations. Music and sound effects would work amazingly in a game like this, the mood and atmosphere would be great. Game concept is very innovative and executed quite well. Wall collisions were a bit strange and I thought the inventory system wasn't hugely useful, but was still well made. Overall I absolutely loved this game, you all did a terrific job! Keep it up.
Radical Dog23 Aug 2018, 15:14
Very nice art, good job.
Rahim_Pxr27 Aug 2018, 16:59
Nice game, Love how everything is balanced!
Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam!
Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a
Good luck, Don't forget to take a look at ours if you don't mind and see what it's like when we just focused on graphics in this game jam!
Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/spacelab-42a
Graphics and animations looks great, the goal and the story of the game are bit unclear ingame. There's quite a bit of content for a game made in a jam, which is impressive! It would certainly a great game with a bit more polishing.