Orbits

by captainproton42

Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.12

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.98

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.69

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.05

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.28

Orbits

Gameplay

The central star of the system is turning into a red giant! Escape the system by reaching a high enough orbit to break free. The energy that fuels your ship is limited, however, so you will have to collect *energy pellets* on your way up. Powerful powerups like *gravitational anomalies* or *reversals* can also help you.

Controls

*Orbits* needs only two keys to be played, making it also mobile-friendly.

Keyboard

* UP or RIGHT: orbit up
* DOWN or LEFT: orbit down

Controller

* Right shoulder: orbit up
* Left shoulder: orbit down

Touchscreen

* Tap right screen half: orbit up
* Tap left screen half: orbit down

Powerups

Energy Pellets

Collecting energy pellets allows to to reach higher orbits. You also gain or lose them on changing orbits.

Gravitational Anomaly

Temporarily neutralizes gravity and allows changing orbits without gaining or spending energy pellets.

Reversal

Reverses your ship's direction.

Content

There are currently 6 levels playable.

Atrributions

I have to thank my flatmate, Finn, for taking care of making the sounds of the game in Bfxr. Also thanks to all my friends who helped me playtesting!

I used the Godot Engine for making the game.

Thanks for playing and rating!

You can also find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/captainproton42

Tags: #space

Tools: Bfxr, Godot

Comments29

Vadzim5 Oct 2020, 23:42

Vety good. Gameplay is very clear and addictive. Graphics is cute. I love it

Drowshad6 Oct 2020, 21:02

Nice and simple game! :)

louis-denizet6 Oct 2020, 21:06

Wow! The art is really beautiful and it is perfectly coded, it feels so polished amazing work! I wished there was more music ambiance but great work on there!

Nikolaj6 Oct 2020, 21:06

Wow , super simple and fun. Could be a bit more challenging, but maybe that was coming (have too many games to rate lol!)

J0ye6 Oct 2020, 21:07

Difficult game with a great concept. Makes for some nice riddles. The art was simple but effective. I lvoe th sun. Really looks hot.

Nailuj29 Gaming6 Oct 2020, 21:10

I literally could not stop playing. I would definitely download this if you put it on the Play Store.

aevek6 Oct 2020, 21:11

This is a super clean little game. Reminds me of frogger but circular. I really like the way you designed the energy so going down restores energy, but also the sun is expanding so you have less down to go. I see potential for later complex levels with a really cool combination of careful action planning and execution, these first 6 built really well on each other though, a really nice progression. Would definitely play more levels if you made them.

Delender11006 Oct 2020, 21:12

This game is great! I love how basic it is and how I'm able to use a controller!

ukra1746 Oct 2020, 21:12

Cool mechanics, nice graphics, good game;

Flying Dog Fish6 Oct 2020, 21:16

This is very fun to play.

CaptainProton42author6 Oct 2020, 21:16

@aevek Thanks a lot! I was surprised how well the mechanics interacted when I actually started making levels. Next jam I should definitely make more time for creating levels. I still have so many ideas in my head :D If I had had more time I would've really liked to add special "shop" orbits where you could buy powerups for energy pellets.

runrajrun6 Oct 2020, 21:17

Wow this game is really polished... UI and overall design is amazing!

CaptainProton42author6 Oct 2020, 21:18

@louis-denizet Thank you so much! I'm really glad that you think it feels polished :) I'm still wondering how my patchwork of a code is even holding together but I tried to focus on making clean animations this time.

CaptainProton42author6 Oct 2020, 21:20

@nailuj29-gaming Thank you :) I actually wanted to also make an .apk export but had last-minute problems with Godot's APK export template. It should still work on smartphones when playing in a browser though (though I noticed some sound lag)

CaptainProton42author6 Oct 2020, 21:21

@delender1100 Thank you! I was aiming for a minimalistic game so I could focus on polish instead!

Haustgeirr6 Oct 2020, 21:45

Great take on the orbits mechanic. I couldn't finish the last level as I found the view a bit limiting. Great aesthetic, make me think of Holedown. Really nice work.

6smith6 Oct 2020, 22:15

great game! nice and simple mechanics, well designed levels. graphics and sound effects are great.

JuanSabadoPeron6 Oct 2020, 23:16

Very good! It took me a while to understand because I didn't read the page before playing but that's on me lol. Obviously an in-game tutorial would have been better but it's a jam and clearly the time you didn't put into a tutorial was very well spent.

Thought Reactor8 Oct 2020, 14:11

Very fun game with approachable mechanics. Loved how the difficulty ramped up and how well the levels were designed. Overall, no complaints. Very well polished entry - good job!

MikoziQ8 Oct 2020, 21:55

Cute and fun game with nice increase of difficulty and clear mechanics. Solid and ejoyable entry. Job well done, would play on my iPad or Switch!

graebor9 Oct 2020, 17:07

Very cute visuals, love the consistency and level of polish throughout the art/ui. Your focus on polish definitely paid off :) Only thing that felt missing was a little bit of background music!

Linetaru9 Oct 2020, 20:47

A good game, graphics are beautiful and it's funny to play it !
The only thing the game need is music to be a very good game.

CaptainProton42author10 Oct 2020, 14:41

@haustgeirr Thank you! Good point about the view.

@6smith @thought-reactor @mikoziq Thanks a lot!

@juansabadoperon Thanks! I've been thinking about adding tutorial texts to the first level but ran out of time. I should definitely think of a way to introduce the powerups!

@graebor @linetaru Thanks you both. I always cheap out on sounds/music on my jam entries. Should probably change that in the future ;)

Aune12 Oct 2020, 08:48

Ho, it's an elegant gamedesign and art ! I loved playing it. The level 5 and 6 are really beautiful level design pieces.

It's perfect. I subscribe, don't hesitate to make a post for a V2. You can be sure that I will come and test it !

Well done ! :)

CaptainProton42author12 Oct 2020, 19:52

@aune Thanks a lot! I'm actually tempted to continue working on this. I'll see where it goes.

peterfonts17 Oct 2020, 09:52

Great game! With a robust idea and concept. Amazing graphics! Perhaps you can improve better the feedback, sometimes I'm confusing that what's happening... why I can't advance in the next orbit? I pick a powerup... I don't know what are the improvement (highlight that I was very stuck in level 3 xD). Please add music too! Can improve the game's mood a lot! Despite these silly things, it's an amazing and polish game! Well done! Continue making games please! :pray:

CaptainProton42author18 Oct 2020, 11:13

@peterfonts Thank you so much for the feedback! I actually planned to do a small tutorial but then fell short on time. I'm regretting not prioritizing this better. Level 3 throws players a bit in the cold water and I've seen a few struggle with it.

Audio is definitely a skill I need to improve on, especially music. I hope I'll have more time or help to accomplish something next time! Feedback like yours motivates me a lot, don't worry I will continue ;)

gorrgolem21 Oct 2020, 10:54

It was fun, clever mechanics, good execution. Well done :)

Pawciu26 Oct 2020, 21:15

Wow 10/10 great game!

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