Bucket: A Space Odyssey

The writing is very functional and the paths are interesting. They intertwine well with the longer-term consequences as well as immediate payoffs. I liked that. The combination of a more graphical and image based system with the text based on seemed to work well. I loved the little touch of mentioning the AU distance.

Bucket be cute.

I think you missed out on making the audio more impactful and engaging. The graphics could be more visually consistent in style too. Though the mood and theme were somewhat fitting, it definitely needs a lot more polish. It also desperately needs length. More stuff to do, more options. Just more. The story requires more. Without more stuff before the FTL drive is assembled, it feels too minor and not significant. I can sense what you're going for, it's just not working at the current length.

The encounters themselves are well designed. Whoever was the quest designer here has done a stellar job. Lots of moral choices, the voice notes back home to mom, the risk-reward calculations. They were all great.

@steve-dragon Thanks for playing and giving such a thoughtful review! We are curious to know how far into the game you got. Were you able to reach any of the endings (they say [The End])? If there are game-breaking bugs preventing you from accessing all of the content, we'd love to know.

nice game ! Its very chill and relaxing to play, good job

The artwokrs were nice but the gui, intended as indicators, were a bad note in an environment full of potential. Writings were too much for my taste but that is simply because this is not my cup of tea. By the way music and art were enough to keep me company during this trip :smile:

A little too much text but it was a relaxing experience!

Damn, now I regret my last decision! I wont spoil anything, just play the game!! Nice story!!

Non-standart game structure! Sounds are awesome

You put a hell of an effort to make this. Truly enjoyed the lore, wonder how many scenario branches and endings you wrote. As a sci-fi nerd, I liked the mention of serum and notable astronomical objects like Voyager.

The music also suits good, but the engine sound is a little loud.
The art looks pretty, especially black hole visualization.
The gameplay is simple, no bugs noticed. The only thing I can call a glitch is infinite titanium mining, probably it would be nice to add some fuel/food cost for the mining option.

Overall I feel like I read a good old sci-fi novel and I'm happy with it. Amazing entry, team.

Brooyep!

What an awesome game! The best I've playied so far. It oculd get some work done with the UI and the texts could be ssmaller and better spaced so it would not appear as a wall of text.
But still a great entry, love the art style, the sounds and the storytelling, all extremelly well done!

Wow! Truly outstanding. The writing especially was very well crafted, and I had a great time experiencing the story and growing tentacles on my face. I won't spoil anything for other readers, but I decided against going further. What a story!

The art as well is fantastic, as was the audio. The ambience it created was very serene and relaxing.

Great entry!

Wow, what a fantastic experience! I can see that everyone who worked on this put in a lot of effort and it sure paid off. The music was absolutely lovely (a little weird that there was no music in later parts though). The story was really wonderful and I felt quite engaged and invested in it. Glad none of the comments spoiled anything. I love the art too. I think this is my favorite LD game I've tried so far (and I've tried some pretty great ones).

I really enjoyed this one and as an artist for my own team, I really loved the art! Great job and keep up the good work. Im totally looking forward to seeing the next game you make for ludum dare, as well as seeing a full release of this game!

Good text quest.

fantastic job!! i wouldve liked to see something to break up the wall of text a bit, but it didnt take away from the writing, which was great. i think i got the bad ending lmao

This is really awesome, I just wish that I could scroll trough the text because some parts the text goes too fast. Really nice entry!!

it was fun, you really put a lot of writing into this. I only bothered with the font. I wish it was something better with all the reading but still good job!

Well that was a journey! A bit light on the gameplay and heavy on the reading, but the music was superb! And there were some nice dialogue choices. Reminded me of FTL.

What a lovely game!

Your graphics, sound and especially writing were great and I had a lot of fun experiencing the story. It's genuinely impressive how fleshed out and polished the whole thing was. Great work!

I honestly don't have much criticism aside from some minor points. Perhaps a few more sound effects to reinforce the impact of the story? Increasing the text speed a little? Making it so players can scroll back in the text to reread in case it went too fast for them? Changing the font a little so it fits the space theme better? It all honestly feels like picking at straws though, considering how fantastic this entry is. Great work!

The art style is amazing ! And the sound too, makes me feel like i'm on a space anime ! I agree with some comment, a scroll for the text can be cool :smile:

I really love the art style, sounds kicked me out, i had a lot of fun playing this story! Great job!

Wow, this was amazing! I love how many choices the narrative throws at you, I deifnitely want to do a second playthrough at some point and try out some other options. Personally, I ended up with a tentacle face, mined my way to infinite titanium riches, and sped into the black hole with Bucket at my side. What a great time - awesome work.

This game honestly made me tear up. Amazing, amazing writing. It was funny at appropriate times and at appropriate levels. The space facts were really interesting and added to the game's worldbuilding, even if that world is our own universe. And finally, that ending, man. So many questions. And I liked how you addressed that logic question, it was really smart.

In regards to gameplay, I found the resource management part of the game sadly a bit lacking, though it didn't detract at all from the experience. Art and music worked well with the game, and while not exceptional, they served their purpose.

All in all, a really solid entry. My throat still hurts from the feelings I felt from that ending.

INCIDENTALLY, I was listening to this song right before seeing your post about your game. Its themes are eerily similar to it, and its story is just as powerful.

This is a really cool interactive fiction. The art and the music are great and create a very good atmosphere. The writing is solid and it was fun to read. It reminded me a lot of the Oregon trail. The game has a lot in it and I couldn't play it in its entirety but I played for about an hour.

I had a lot of fun going deeper in space and exploring more and more planets, good job :)

Really cool, good story, great visuals and audio. The vastness of the voyage becomes more and more apparent with each step further from home, and the mood of lonelyness and distance gets almost overwhelming, especially when the longest bit of the voyage will probably be the last. Reminds me a bit of the mood in Nolans "Interstellar", for some reason. Well made, great entry! :thumbsup:

Very well done! The story works, and is nicely illustrated, with fitting music.

One annoying thing was the speed of text advancing, which was too slow for me. Having some way to control that (or just compete the paragraph when clicking or pressing space) would have improved the experience a lot for me.

@shell-pirate @frank-gevaerts

Thanks for the feedback! The current implementation should have clicking to complete a paragraph already, and the buttons on the bottom left of the text area allow you to change the speed at which the text appears. Please let us know if the buttons or click-to-complete aren't working for you! Or perhaps we should have just labeled them?

@carraka I had another look, and I think I did click on the ">>" during my playthrough. Am I right thst there are two speeds? If so, for me the faster speed is still a bit slow. And yes, clicking to complete a paragraph does seem to work, not sure why I had trouble with that yesterday.
I think in general I'm not fond of that "typing" effect for long texts, it's probably fine for a paragraph every now and then, but for an entire story for me it's just distracting and slightly stressful.

@frank-gevaerts You can click on it over and over again to make it as fast as you want. But you're right. I'm not a big fan of the way the text is displayed either and am still trying to find the right way to make it accessible to everyone.

Thanks for making this game. It was really enjoyable to play. Great use of the theme. I enjoyed weighing out the choices presented. Really nicely written.

Wow, really impressive, and way more dense and complex than I was expecting! Nice idea, cool twists, well laid story and setting. I think the music is a little too much for the game (perhaps too teen adventure blockbuster xD), but that's me. The sound effects could use a little more work. Also, I was expecting a little more of the ending (did both of going into the BH and coming back), perhaps an specific art for the ending. Anyway, still a great game, and very impressive for such short time!