Ludum Dare #58compo

Clear Skies

by nash

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.92

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.47

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.18

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.96

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.04

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.04

👉 PLAY THE GAME IN YOUR BROWSER (ALSO WORKS ON MOBILE)

Far from the nearest city, the sky is finally forecast to be clear tonight. It’s time to dust off the telescope your dad gave you. With the book Your Guide to Clear Skies in hand, you sit beside the telescope, take a deep breath, and look through its lens.

Clear Skies is about stargazing — about learning to hop from one familiar star to another to form patterns and constellations. Collecting them all on a clear night is no easy feat, but it’s well worth the effort.

Features
- An (8-bit) accurate representation of a portion of the night sky
- Learn about stars and constellations you can go and spot in real life!

Controls
- Arrow keys to move
- X to select
- Z/C to open the book / deselect

How to play
1. It is a clear night! Go outside and stargaze!
2. Browse the book to learn more about constellations.
3. Move the telescope, and connect stars to form those constellations!

Screenshots (GIFs)

Changelog
- *06/10/2025* - Fixed the Charioteer book image

Tags: #8-bit, #cozy, #no ai, #pico-8, #pixel art, #retro, #simple, #space

Genres: puzzle, simulation

Tools: Aseprite, PICO-8

Comments30

John Gabriel5 Oct 2025, 23:52

Great to see a PICO-8 game here! I have a real soft spot for it. The highlight of this one is definitely the music - it does _such_ a good job of putting you in that zen mood for looking out over the stars. Seeing the odd shooting star (if that's what they are?) was a really nice touch, too. In the interests of time, I stopped after finding Triangulum, but from what I've seen of it, this feels like a really solid entry.

Frogman6 Oct 2025, 06:54

Managed to find the other 10 constellations, but I think the king might be bugged? I'm pretty sure this is the right group of stars & shape

Anyway, this was great! I was definitely a bit overwhelmed at the beginning, but once things clicked I could finish constellations just by finding a single notable star & looking at the general shape once, which felt awesome. Finishing the Dragon especially was a highlight. It also really nailed the feeling of searching for stars alone with nothing but a book of vague hints & sketches. Searching for the final few stars & constellations in the end did get a bit tedious, as the map is pretty big and hard to navigate in, but otherwise really good entry!

Nashauthor6 Oct 2025, 07:10

@frogman The knight is traditionally drawn in way that it has an extra link between those top two stars in your screenshot. But I realized that the book image omits that link, so that is clearly a bug! I thought about not making that link required but then decided to leave it in as "extra challenge" as the knight is one of the harder constellations to find anyway.

Finishing Draco is really impressive. I was uncertain how many players would be able to do that.

Overall, how you describe your process of finding constellations is called "star hopping" in real life! Happy that you were able to find the joy in it. Thanks for playing!

nekowei6 Oct 2025, 08:06

The astronomy theme is right up my alley, and collecting constellations fits the "collector" theme perfectly. The art and music create a really immersive atmosphere. I also loved how the controls mimic the smooth, damped movement of a real telescope. Well done! 🌟

ImmortalFox6 Oct 2025, 09:21

A great game with cozy design. Thanks for your entry :)

Memel066 Oct 2025, 10:29

Awesome PICO-8 entry! The main challenge with this platform is always the extremely low resolution, which makes it hard to create a clear and readable game without it feeling messy, but you nailed it. You found the perfect way to organize the UI and game elements so everything looks clean and intuitive. Great job on all the other aspects as well. Thanks for your work!

plastus6 Oct 2025, 11:52

Really interesting concept!

I liked the mechanics a lot. Only the controls where a bit difficult to adjust to. I always wanted to look up the constellation while I connected the start but I had to abort the current connection in order to do that :(

I also wished for the cursor to automatically continue the connection string after connecting two stars. It was always a bit frustrating that I had to click two times to continue my chain.

All in all a great entry!

Nashauthor6 Oct 2025, 11:59

@plastus; Ah, there is some solid UX feedback right there. I will definitely improve those two points if I do a post-jam version of this! Pico's minimalistic control scheme is always a challenge, but I think your points are solvable. Thanks for playing and for the quality feedback!

xlambein6 Oct 2025, 12:05

Just played through the whole thing, it wasn't as hard as I'd feared :D Definitely one of my fave entries so far. It's an original idea well executed. The graphics are simple but effective, and the controls are easy to pick up.

I did face a couple of bugs: twice I had some earlier connections deleted while I was busy building a constellation. And also a few times I tried to delete a connection but the button wouldn't show up, while other times the button would appear way too close to a star and I would end up deleting an existing connection I wanted to keep.

The music is nice, but it's a bit much and repetitive after a few minutes. Overall it doesn't quite fit the rest of the game IMO. I would expect something less busy and more chill for a game about stargazing.

Alex Mulkerrin6 Oct 2025, 13:56

Really original idea for a game. The music suited the experience and I liked the in-game book on constellations. Impressive to pull this off with the limitations of pico-8.

manabreak6 Oct 2025, 13:56

Super cool take on the theme! I didn't have time to gather all constellations, but got at least Ursa Minor. :) Very well done, didn't see any bugs and there were cool little things in there like shooting stars that made this feel very polished.

VikFX6 Oct 2025, 14:09

An original game with a serious-game aspect, so I love it! I had to search a bit for the keyboard binding since it’s not very intuitive, especially with a French keyboard. The graphics are fun, and so the audio too. I didn’t immediately understand the mechanics, but it was still fun. I also made a game featuring a telescope, in a different style. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts on it!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/star-fleet-telescop

pres23006 Oct 2025, 15:04

This was really enjoyable and relaxing to play! It took me a minute to figure out what sort of scale the constellations should be (I started going WAY to big), but after that I was doing pretty well and happily searching for more. The book is a really nice aspect with notable stars in certain constellations. Nice work!

Avhatar6 Oct 2025, 16:10

I’m not a big fan of puzzles, but this one really got me hooked. Maybe it could’ve used a few more challenging tasks or some trickier constellations with stars that don’t belong to any pattern. But that’s just nitpicking. I played through the game with genuine enjoyment. The sound design fits perfectly, the visual style is cohesive, and the gameplay stays consistent from start to finish. Professionally made.

Threeli6 Oct 2025, 17:37

Wonderful all around. It's just extremely clever, and a perfect use of PICO-8. I don't have much to say that others haven't already said here and frankly I'd just like to see more. Extremely impressive entry, and one of my favorites!

designernap6 Oct 2025, 18:29

Gaaaah, this is one lovely entry. Top marks all around for theme, graphics and mood. Really wonderful little game. Well done.

LDJam user 2801896 Oct 2025, 19:38

I've taken an interest into space lately and this was a nice game to amplify that interest :). Thank you for making this. The meteorites are a nice touch.

Great job.

arkicade6 Oct 2025, 20:20

A lovely game! I'm quite impressed you managed to make a cozy atmosphere in PICO-8. The music really helps achieve this effect. I like how the notebook gives you some of the star names but not all of them in the constellation as it means you have to make some deductions. Also, I was glad the map wasn't as large as it would feel overwhelming (when I saw the pink borders on the sides of the map I felt relief). Not too difficult but it creates a relaxing and very pleasant playing experience :)

ckane1446 Oct 2025, 20:49

So good! Great idea that was well scoped. I loved the feel that you get from a pico 8 game and the gameplay was smooth. Super impressive

SolidHinken6 Oct 2025, 21:06

love how compact yet entertaining this thing is! Getting some kind of Paper's please vibes - looking up starts in that guide book trying to connect the right ones! Also, great polish (especially controll buttons that react to controls in the menu!)

SolidHinken6 Oct 2025, 21:06

BlackCat5087 Oct 2025, 06:25

really interesting idea! The graphics where nice too, I think the movement felt a little too slippery but other than that it was good

wo_ri_gou_le7 Oct 2025, 13:51

The only pico8-ish shortcoming is the odd control, otherwise it is no less than a reletively big engine game, such highly complete game just feels motivative enough to play, and I collected then all, there's even tinie shooting stars so cute

JPGFG7 Oct 2025, 13:56

This is a pretty damn cool entry, really liked the asteroids randomly flying across the scene. It was a really nice ambient touch. Cool entry!

firellon7 Oct 2025, 20:16

Wow. Apparently, being a drunk astronomer is a pretty appealing fantasy. Spent on this way longer than I'd thought originally.

Good job! :star:

Baluj8 Oct 2025, 11:44

Good job, it's a very good game. I've spent more time on it than I'm willing to admit.

Artificer8 Oct 2025, 20:00

I love Pico-8 games and this one is such a brilliant concept that works well with the engine. Big fan of how the sky is so accurate and it's a clever take on the collector theme. Really nice job! +Pico Respect

Samuli11 Oct 2025, 14:42

Really chill entry. Captured the feel of stargazing very well.

Roroto Sic12 Oct 2025, 21:12

very polished game !! very good space mood ! supe chill !

LDJam user 24319314 Oct 2025, 11:56

Cool star collection game or rather constellation collection game! I wish the constellation sketch were more accurate but I get it, at least the shape isn't too far off.

Other games by @nash

★3.80

★4.12

★3.92