Balck Hole Salvage
I couldn't get the HTML5 version working on LD. There is a copy on Itch, see link below to play the game... Thanks!
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You’re the pilot of a salvage freighter with nerves of steel and fuel to burn. Instead of chasing rocks across the galaxy, you’ve parked at the most dangerous scrapyard in existence: just outside the event horizon of a black hole.
Here, every asteroid and mineral shard tumbles into reach—if you can grab them before they, and you, get pulled into oblivion.
Your ship’s automatic mining laser rips apart asteroids. Shattered chunks of iron and rarer elements swirl around you. Collect enough to fill your hold, then hyperjump to the Proxima Processing Station to cash in your haul and refuel.
Every run is a gamble:
Too slow and the horizon pulls you in.
Too fast and you burn precious fuel.
Too greedy and your heavy cargo drags you closer to destruction.
Spend your earnings on faster drives, tougher shields, more powerful lasers, and advanced extractors to survive longer and harvest rarer elements. But remember—the black hole doesn’t play favorites.
How long can you ride the edge before it swallows you whole?
Controls
Movement
WASD – Steer ship (screen directions)
Up / Down Arrows – Adjust warp speed (2.2 is balance point)
Systems
SPACEBAR – Hyperjump to processing station (sell cargo + refuel)
ESC – Open/close menu
How to Play
Balance warp speed:
Warp 2.2 = equilibrium.
Below 2.2 = pulled in.
Above 2.2 = escaping (but drains fuel fast).
Mine asteroids:
Laser locks onto the nearest asteroid in front.
Break them apart into collectible mineral chunks.
Collect resources:
Fly through debris clouds to gather iron and rarer minerals.
Survive:
Collisions and mass drag you toward the horizon.
Run out of fuel, and warp speed bleeds off.
Hit 0 clicks, and you’re gone.
Trade & upgrade:
Hyperjump to sell cargo.
Spend credits on new ships, engines, lasers, and extractors.
Each run gets you closer to mastering the abyss.
---------
You’re the pilot of a salvage freighter with nerves of steel and fuel to burn. Instead of chasing rocks across the galaxy, you’ve parked at the most dangerous scrapyard in existence: just outside the event horizon of a black hole.
Here, every asteroid and mineral shard tumbles into reach—if you can grab them before they, and you, get pulled into oblivion.
Your ship’s automatic mining laser rips apart asteroids. Shattered chunks of iron and rarer elements swirl around you. Collect enough to fill your hold, then hyperjump to the Proxima Processing Station to cash in your haul and refuel.
Every run is a gamble:
Too slow and the horizon pulls you in.
Too fast and you burn precious fuel.
Too greedy and your heavy cargo drags you closer to destruction.
Spend your earnings on faster drives, tougher shields, more powerful lasers, and advanced extractors to survive longer and harvest rarer elements. But remember—the black hole doesn’t play favorites.
How long can you ride the edge before it swallows you whole?
Controls
Movement
WASD – Steer ship (screen directions)
Up / Down Arrows – Adjust warp speed (2.2 is balance point)
Systems
SPACEBAR – Hyperjump to processing station (sell cargo + refuel)
ESC – Open/close menu
How to Play
Balance warp speed:
Warp 2.2 = equilibrium.
Below 2.2 = pulled in.
Above 2.2 = escaping (but drains fuel fast).
Mine asteroids:
Laser locks onto the nearest asteroid in front.
Break them apart into collectible mineral chunks.
Collect resources:
Fly through debris clouds to gather iron and rarer minerals.
Survive:
Collisions and mass drag you toward the horizon.
Run out of fuel, and warp speed bleeds off.
Hit 0 clicks, and you’re gone.
Trade & upgrade:
Hyperjump to sell cargo.
Spend credits on new ships, engines, lasers, and extractors.
Each run gets you closer to mastering the abyss.
Comments9
CrazyPinguin_7 Oct 2025, 22:57
Really Like the Setting. A Blackhole. Great implemented.
And the flying speed is good visualised with the relative movement to the elements.
But how can i get rarer elements?
I got the message to fly through the debris field to capture more elements, got the miner and extractor upgrads, stayed really close to the event horizon and reached outside your skybox.. but only got iron...
And the flying speed is good visualised with the relative movement to the elements.
But how can i get rarer elements?
I got the message to fly through the debris field to capture more elements, got the miner and extractor upgrads, stayed really close to the event horizon and reached outside your skybox.. but only got iron...
Bobap9 Oct 2025, 03:54
The spin on asteroid collection is fun here. It seems like the upgrades don't help out a whole lot and I'm not sure how to get the higher rarity minerals. I really like the space particle system you made and the UI is pretty slick. It would be fun to see a little blip on the Event Horizon UI to visualize how close we are to increase tension.
Phobos00110 Oct 2025, 03:04
This has potential to be a fun game! Right now it's too easy to optimize the balancing into a routine. There should be some curve-balls or extra mechanics that either require closer calibration of the ship, or make asteroid mining something more hands-on.
It's also difficult to know how far you need to move to avoid an asteroid. Maybe there can be a highlight showing if an asteroid is going to collide? Or maybe a radar that shows the asteroids radius compared to the radius of the player ship.
Finally, I think if you use upgrades that are mechanically different - instead of upgrades that just do things faster - you can introduce more depth to your gameplay, because the player has to strategize differently.
An example would be a choice of engines: One doesn't use as much fuel but requires the player to hold a button down to thrust at all, but there's a risk of accelerating too much or not enough. The other engine choice automatically balances your warp speed for your weight, but any hit from an asteroid has a 50/50 chance of instantly killing you. Do you trust your skills to avoid all asteroids and use the auto engine, or do you trade convenience for more time in space? Or do you decide to risk waiting until the next job to get a different selection of engines? It gives the player interesting systemic choices that will keep them engaged for much longer.
Great work all around! I hope you had a lot of fun making your game, and I'd be interested to see where you take it if you decide to keep working on it :smile:
It's also difficult to know how far you need to move to avoid an asteroid. Maybe there can be a highlight showing if an asteroid is going to collide? Or maybe a radar that shows the asteroids radius compared to the radius of the player ship.
Finally, I think if you use upgrades that are mechanically different - instead of upgrades that just do things faster - you can introduce more depth to your gameplay, because the player has to strategize differently.
An example would be a choice of engines: One doesn't use as much fuel but requires the player to hold a button down to thrust at all, but there's a risk of accelerating too much or not enough. The other engine choice automatically balances your warp speed for your weight, but any hit from an asteroid has a 50/50 chance of instantly killing you. Do you trust your skills to avoid all asteroids and use the auto engine, or do you trade convenience for more time in space? Or do you decide to risk waiting until the next job to get a different selection of engines? It gives the player interesting systemic choices that will keep them engaged for much longer.
Great work all around! I hope you had a lot of fun making your game, and I'd be interested to see where you take it if you decide to keep working on it :smile:
Nomelu11 Oct 2025, 00:07
I liked the theme, and flying around collecting asteroids was fun. After a few runs my ship stopped mining the asteroids infront of me and I had to give up :( The black hole also didn't really seem like much of a threat, maybe if the longer you run the mission the more valuable the resources got, it would incentivize playing dangerously and risking it more.
Archimagus11 Oct 2025, 05:11
Great idea for game. I think it maybe could use some balance it's hard to tell if the upgrades are actually doing much. I found myself mostly just crashing into asteroids hoping they break before I hit them, most of the time they don't. Speeding up to get some distance, then slowing down for the asteroids seems to help some. But it's hard to know if an asteroid is going to break or not.
After a while I ended up on a black screen with just the HUD but no particles or asteroids so I had to quit out.
I found in the menu the list of all of the rarer elements, but as far as I could tell I only ever got iron.
Cool idea, I think with a bit more time polish and balance it could be fun.
After a while I ended up on a black screen with just the HUD but no particles or asteroids so I had to quit out.
I found in the menu the list of all of the rarer elements, but as far as I could tell I only ever got iron.
Cool idea, I think with a bit more time polish and balance it could be fun.
Vasea12311 Oct 2025, 21:27
after some time i got a bug where space wasnt rendered, for some reason, game looks fine but idk whats the purpose of the black hole if you can restart it by going to shop, and by doind so you dont have any penalties
ditam14 Oct 2025, 16:44
I liked this one a lot. I was just about to buy the heavy hauler, when I ran into the same bug that others mention: just a black screen in space, eventually a white one instead. (No errors logged to the console either FWIW, only a warning about too many active WebGL contexts? A random guess, but maybe you're not cleaning up your webGL contexts when switching scenes, and eventually the "space" context is auto-cleaned up because it is the oldest one.)
I didn't feel much difference when switching between the laser Mk1 to Mk3, I think the game loop would be more satisfying if the upgrades had a more obvious effect. The laser targeting also felt a bit random, and it gave me the impression I didn't have much control over what asteroids are broken down - is it related to the size of the asteroid at all?
Shame about the game breaking bug, but nonetheless this is a very fun entry that could become a great one with some tweaking of gameplay params.
I didn't feel much difference when switching between the laser Mk1 to Mk3, I think the game loop would be more satisfying if the upgrades had a more obvious effect. The laser targeting also felt a bit random, and it gave me the impression I didn't have much control over what asteroids are broken down - is it related to the size of the asteroid at all?
Shame about the game breaking bug, but nonetheless this is a very fun entry that could become a great one with some tweaking of gameplay params.
Baturinsky20 Oct 2025, 16:39
A little too slow paced with too little to do. Game is pretty much playing itself. Is there some way to accelerate the collection? I could not figure one.
Also up and down key is not a good idea for itch game, as it scrolls the page.
Also up and down key is not a good idea for itch game, as it scrolls the page.
-J