Ludum Dare #43compo

Apollo

by sigton

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.54

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.46

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.21

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.21

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.57

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.77

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.73

About Apollo

Apollo is an retro-style arcade game, inspired by the challenges of space travel. Resources are precious and limited; so using them up is quite the sacrifice!

This is my first ever game jam entry, so I'm very pleased with my result! I'll definitely be coming back to compete in the next jam!

To run the game, download the executable from GitHub and extract from the ZIP archive. Run the file 'Apollo.exe' and all should hopefully work :smile:

Gameplay

In Apollo you pilot a rocket ship through a field of debris, meteors and alien ships. You need to dodge these obstacles, however moving the rocket sacrifices your limited fuel supply! The goal is to last as long as possible.

Meteors can crash into your ship, while alien ships will shoot lasers at you. Once you have taken damage, you will start to leak oxygen.

The ship is in space, so there it has inertia of course. There's no friction to slow it down automatically!

The game is over when the ship explodes, you suffocate to death or run out of fuel. Good luck!

Controls

Using A/D or LEFT/RIGHT arrows to control the ship. Sounds simple, right? :wink:

Screenshots

What I Used To Make It

Programmed with Python & Pygame

Art drawn in GIMP

Music composed in LMMS

SFXR and Audacity for SFX

Tools: Audacity, GIMP, LMMS, pygame, sfxr

Comments17

TheseusInABottle3 Dec 2018, 21:54

Reminds me of being a kid playing Galaga and just seeing how long I could go only dodging ships and not shooting anything. I really enjoyed this game your sound effects and music sound good and don't overpower each other which is really nice. I wish the commets where a bit slower it sometimes felt like they would come out of nowhere and slam into me. Also I know its space and intertia exist but I feel like pressing the move left/right buttons always sent me flying way faster than I wanted which is fine most of the time but when a alien ship is down at the bottom of the screen near the edge I would always end up slamming into it on accident.

Sigtonauthor3 Dec 2018, 22:10

@theseusinabottle I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

MRUniverse3 Dec 2018, 22:11

I really liked this! Galaga style flying game with actual physics. Obstacles should do way more damage, as it was I felt like a tank. The aggressive controls fit the theme nicely. Well done ;)

Sigtonauthor3 Dec 2018, 22:35

@mruniverse I guess it is quite unrealistic in that respect, but I suppose I didn't want to fun to be over too quickly :P

TasakaSama4 Dec 2018, 10:53

Well done, it was a good experience to play this :)

Radical Dog4 Dec 2018, 16:13

This came out awesome, well done! I love the console-like output, which makes total sense for the scenario - I might have to steal that idea for a later version of my game!

I only wish there was a more active sacrifice to do, e.g. shooting burns oxygen, but if you survive a level then you dock and it gets refilled.

Sigtonauthor4 Dec 2018, 16:34

@tasakasama Thank you!

@radical-dog I love your suggestions, maybe I could make a new version :P

isaque-picao-sanches4 Dec 2018, 17:42

combining ASCII interface with pixel art was a great idea

JohnnyGinard4 Dec 2018, 17:46

Very cool idea! Good job! :smile: :top:

Sigtonauthor4 Dec 2018, 18:39

@isaque-picao-sanches Interestingly, it was going to be a text-based game which was why I had a neat text engine, but changed my mind after most of day 1 and re-purposed it :)

@johnnyginard Thanks! :D

Danny Sun4 Dec 2018, 19:46

Well done!

tanis4 Dec 2018, 20:19

I love the ASCII panel on the left :)

Cricket4 Dec 2018, 20:58

Love the atmosphere, retro style and pleasant music.
Was a bit strange that fuel kept using if I just moved fast, even with no input from me.

Sigtonauthor4 Dec 2018, 21:01

@cricket I suppose that doesn't quite agree with the physics, yeah :P

Cricket4 Dec 2018, 21:09

Yeah, it might also be fun if the flying vibrator could shoot back :D

1257th or nothing4 Dec 2018, 22:18

I love the text layout on the left. It reminds me of when I was programming on Amstrad (phiew!) :))

Jimbly5 Dec 2018, 19:03

Pretty great! My score: 6193. I really like the look and feel and atmosphere.

I apparently misunderstood how fuel worked, thought I only used it to change velocity (and, some constant drain), so I thought I was sacrificing whether or not to expend fuel to slow down or just get hit by an asteroid... but apparently my "constant drain" was because I left velocity on! I think I would have gotten farther knowing that.

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