Project Kepler

by lucavazz

co-authored: @momo-hunter, @toxs1ck

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.87

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.25

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.45

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.28

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.43

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.11

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.41

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.05

_"A way too complicated space ship management game"_

The time is future.

And in the future - earth didn't manage to keep alive. So humanity set out to colonize other systems, launching an advanced space ship towards the exoplanet Kepler 1649c.

After five years of travel, the ship's captain decided to hand over control to you - the most advanced AI available on the ship. So you get tasked to manage all the ships systems, to order new research and upgrades and to fix the ever appearing problems of the ship. All with the goal to reach the target planet before your population turns sour or you get outpaced by another ship.

---

The game is about 70% feature-complete, but hopefully you can see what we're trying to get at with it.

---

*Update 1:* *A quick overview / "tutorial"*

- *Please note that the capacity of beds is not correctly displayed, but the population count is.*
- you start with 250 beds, afterwards the upgrades scale the capacity as follows:
- upgrade 1 = 700
- upgrade 2 = 1,500
- upgrade 3 = 3,500
- upgrade 4 = 5,600
- upgrade 5 = 8,800
- upgrade 6 = 14,400
- upgrade 7 = 25,000
- upgrade 8 = 37,000
- upgrade 9 = 49,999
- upgrade 10 = 100,000
- Also, the VR mode unfortunately didn't get that far. You can have a look around and immerse yourself but we didn't get to implement walking or interaction with VR controllers.

Comments29

simex21 Apr 2020, 12:12

“A way too complicated space ship management game” that about sums up my experience haha. but it would be nice if you added some tutorial text to the description, since you said that it's about 70% feature complete I have no idea if what I'm pressing actually does anything

Havok0621 Apr 2020, 12:12

I tried paying it and felt like I was really driving a ship with no experience. So many buttons and I have no idea what they're doing!

Zlabya21 Apr 2020, 12:14

what a game, how did you do this in 72h ! Good job.

WillyPa21 Apr 2020, 12:15

Idk what to do.... make some kind of tutorial and I will make sure to try it again

Bentebent21 Apr 2020, 12:19

Managing your own space ship, with blackjack and hookers! It was a bit unclear what to do but lots of fun to explore what would happen when clicking around everywhere on the consoles! I even managed to grow my population a fair bit (although I'm not entirely sure it was all my doing).

itsonrandom21 Apr 2020, 12:19

Similar feedback to the others, other than the audio feedback was hard to know what would affect what, a quicker feedback loop of things affecting the ship stats (happiness etc.) would have helped a bit I think. Very ambitious project to take on during a game jam!

Caberu21 Apr 2020, 12:20

I think that the concept of this game is great but I didn't understand how to play it! You should maybe add a little tutorial in the ludum page's description

PicusBGames21 Apr 2020, 12:21

Honestly I love the look, simple, elegant and detailed like you would expect a clean ship to look :) There should probably be a bit more explanation since there is a degree of complexity here. I'm not 100% sure but this felt like a sim/builder type game where I had resources, research, balanced services that consume resources (I assume) and things to build. I saw the direct impact of thrusters was what I expected but beyond that I wasn't too sure what would do what :) Great looking game though and likely the math working behind the scenes is well tuned too, just wish I knew more about how to approach it!

p5321 Apr 2020, 12:22

That definitely is a complicated management game haha. Like others have said it could definitely use a tutorial of some kind to help explain what at least some of the buttons do, but I can indeed see what you're going for and I think it's really cool! Some low-hanging fruit in particular would be to just add some sort of yes/no noise when pressing a button to let the player know whether it worked or not. Also looks like it would be a lot of fun in vr, although I can't test that to be sure.

Brenan21 Apr 2020, 12:22

I'm not sure I understood how to play, but it's nice being the commander of some sort of spaceship
Nice little mood and simple aesthetic, great job !

Brachistosauro21 Apr 2020, 12:23

Looks so cool, a lot of potential! If you had time to flesh out things a bit more it'd be amazing

ChrisEvry21 Apr 2020, 12:23

Really love the somber background music, as it swells and fades in and out! It seems like a lot of buttons but they are fairly well organised so not too tricky to figure out. Audio feedback would have been great for the buttons. Had a lot of fun managing the population with only a bar, casino and red light district XD

TheCze21 Apr 2020, 12:25

Well I had no idea what I was doing but I like the idea!

Tommeh21 Apr 2020, 12:33

It was indeed “A way too complicated space ship management game”. I had a fun time pushing all the buttons while confused and presumably dumping all my materials. I hope you'll finish this game because this can definitely go somewhere great.

GandalfDerWaise21 Apr 2020, 12:34

would really love to play this, but I think it's "way too complicated" as you say XD - maybe add a tutorial (as already suggested); would love to give it another try! looks amazing and interesting but honestly I really don't know what I'm doing

linluk21 Apr 2020, 12:34

This game really needs a tutorial. But it was fun anyways. Lots of funny ideas.

Fearawl21 Apr 2020, 12:34

I didn't understand anything, but it's very interesting!

Curtis Pelissier21 Apr 2020, 12:34

Well, I think it's too complicated for a jam game x) I was there, asking myself "ok, and what now?" while click on all buttons.

Apple Dash21 Apr 2020, 12:35

I mean, *I think* I get it, but still, tutorial is the first think I would add. However, if you want people to figure out what does a console with a bunch of buttons does -- give them a bit more feedback, make it more chaotic. As of now though -- you are supposed to manage the ship properly and not deliver a half burning wreck over the finish line, but don't have enough information to do so

Nurk21 Apr 2020, 12:36

Good concept, i can't test it in VR but I want to try. I think the begining of the game is too long and we need more feedback. Good job ! :D

Marcelo Zoletti21 Apr 2020, 12:36

As the other people said a tutorial is missing, i played the game and noticed that problems appeared on the spaceship and I couldn't fix them, also i could upgrade the spaceship without needing the materials, because I think you didn't had time to implement those features. The game has some bugs, but in overall is pretty fun.

TheOZoneBE21 Apr 2020, 12:46

Wow, impressive job for 72h. The text on the passenger system is pretty hard to read when they are turned on. Hard to figure out what everything does and if I am doing a good job. Did not get a game over screen so I suppose I did well. I did give up after a while as the research was taken too long and I could not find a way to increase its speed.

Bjoern21 Apr 2020, 12:48

it is maybe a litle slow. There should maybe be a tutorial but else its good

Shikto21 Apr 2020, 12:54

I think it's good for a JAM game, but not so much fun game.

Shugor21 Apr 2020, 13:03

Pretty nice looking game, and a cool idea. However, everything is so slow, with the notable exception of my walking speed which, if we could harness to power the ship, would get us there instantaneously. Also some direction would be appreciated as i have no idea what i'm supposed to be doing, or if what i do do has any meaningful effect, i did manage to make the distance to destination go down and i almost felt something. All kidding aside i like what you've done conceptually, but it could be communicated better, for 3 days work it's great and i'd be happy to see you develop it further.

PythooonUser21 Apr 2020, 14:39

Amazing that you support a VR build. I certainly will try it out!

wilsk22 Apr 2020, 09:24

Looks like a pretty mammoth job for only 72hrs. The game looks interesting, but I wasn't really sure what to do so I just had fun walking around pushing buttons. Thanks!

RAFFE22 Apr 2020, 16:35

A bit like some others have commented, didn't really get the point of the game, but I looked at the tutorial in the end, which helped. It was kinda slow for my taste, but it was still a lot of fun!

I love space themed literally anything and seeing the outer space and the ship moving through it was already making me feel really cool. Graphics were very VR style, clean and good looking! I just went around clicking different buttons, but it was epic, just wish I knew what to do ;D The audio was also really fitting and sounded good. I recommended the game for my friend that had a VR headset, and really cool to see that you have a VR build, thats super special!

You can try to clarify the game for me, but either way it was super nice to play apar from not knowing what to do. Huge props for the work done during the jam!

tompudding9 May 2020, 12:19

It's got a great aesthetic, with the grey consoles and appropriately bloopy music reminding me of some kind of 80s retro-futurism. As others have said though it's very confusing and requires waiting a long time for things to change, but it's a great start!

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