LdDB
Ludum Dare #49jam

Gravigator

by grimmpaperman
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.10
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.62
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.55
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.52
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.38
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.95

Story

In the distant future your species has migrated to existing purely on a series of generation ships. You are responsible for navigating the gravity waves between star systems - an incredibly delicate procedure requiring constant monitoring. Losses in the millions are expected in each FTL jump. You're responsible for the lives of a billion of your species. How far can you take your species?

Goal

Your aim is to keep the small arc at the bottom of the screen inside the longer moving arc. When the arc expands you need to be inside of it or your ship will take damage. Each level gets progressively more difficult. There are four actual levels, but the game will continue and progressively become more challenging.

Controls

- "A" and "D" for balancing left and right on the gravity wave. Your ship will slip left and right depending on your current side.

Comments19

binary_coder5 Oct 2021, 01:51
Hey there, as a heads up, looks like all your github links are 404ing, might be a permissions issue.
cromo5 Oct 2021, 02:20
It's quite pretty and challenging - I wish I could have been looking at the main screen most of the time instead of focusing on the dial at the bottom almost the entire time. If the jump gauge was overlaid on the main graphics with some special kind of particles or something I think I would enjoy myself more. Nice to see a fellow LÖVE game!
Achilles Jiang5 Oct 2021, 02:23
challenging but really fun! fits the theme quite well.
AaronFournet5 Oct 2021, 02:28
I really liked the HUD display being another indicator for the player as well as the spaceship. I would suggest having a purple target for the spaceship to follow. I found myself looking at the HUD to play the game and I feel like I miss out on the pretty space art. Great game!
osh.studio
osh.studio5 Oct 2021, 02:39
Got it working. Definitely unstable, found it difficult to stay within the area of the circle.
binary_coder5 Oct 2021, 02:44
No prob! Just played, very fun! Also good use of animations and particles, everything felt very responsive!
stellarLuminant5 Oct 2021, 02:47
I managed to get the game to work on Windows.

The controls certainly felt "unstable" to me! It's an interesting concept, albeit I found my eyes mostly on the bottom of the screen trying to keep one needle inside a wider needle. It's a bit of a problem if you want to display important information on the top of the screen.

Some of the sci-fi references here are a bit over my head, but I did have fun!
grimmpapermanauthor5 Oct 2021, 22:09
@stellarluminant, @cromo Thanks for the feedback. I definitely realized much too late into development that I had created that UI problem for players. If I have time to update this at some point, I'd definitely find a better way to display that information.
commanderstitch
commanderstitch6 Oct 2021, 04:39
that 1000000000 souls on that ship really touched me. Such amazing numbers. I tried it many times. I wanted to know if i icould hit the pink thing, couldn't. I just kept winning it was like i was born to play this game and see those rockets. Real vibes man. But, all things came to an end when the success hit me. Then i tried to fail and boy did i die quickly. Nice work with the rockets the swirling stars and the custom meter. That seemed hard! xD
Piper Thompson6 Oct 2021, 14:00
Kudos! the first of the ludum dare games that actually kept me playing!!!!! Rewarding, fun, hard to master....
cromo6 Oct 2021, 14:42
@piper-thompson It's a really nice to use, high-control/lower level game framework that you code for in Lua. https://love2d.org/ I've been meaning to learn something else for a while, but I just keep coming back to LÖVE because it just _makes sense_ to me!
freeworld
freeworld10 Oct 2021, 07:50
Interesting idea with balancing inside the bar and I liked the simple and clear controls. The graphics on top looked nice, I like the ship and the jump to hyperspace effect! Unfortunately I felt like I couldn't look at it because I had to focus on the indicator on the bottom to not die.

A good fit for the theme!
const_arch
const_arch11 Oct 2021, 08:10
It's very simple core gameplay, but the wrapping around it is all a lot of fun. The animations and backstory add a lot to the game.
LDJam user 267116
LDJam user 26711620 Oct 2021, 08:28
nice game! love the theme, and you did a great job with the effects!

this comment left by the love2d gang :sunglasses:
Oliver Richmeier20 Oct 2021, 14:11
The graphics are mesmerizing and learning to control the ship is super fun. i also love the concept and the text between each of the levels
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