Manual Launch Control

by jka

co-authored: @itslu

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.91

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.95

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.12

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.83

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.97

Thank you for investing in JL's Automated Launch Control (C) (ACL (C)). Reliably automating your space payload launches since 2083. Our quality assurance professionals are at your disposal 24/7 so your payloads go ON TIME and ON-LINE. We pride ourselves in 99.99% up time!

Disclaimer: If in the case of catastrophe our ACL (C) systems are not functioning for an extended period of time, you always have the choice to launch the payload of your choice manually. We are not liable for any resulting misfires, unintended orbital insertions, spontaneous countdown improvisations. Manual launch procedures may void your warranty, your insurance coverage, and, in rare cases, your immediate surroundings.

Controls

- W - Forward
- S - Backward
- A - Turn Left
- D - Turn Right
- Tab - Switch View
- Scroll Wheel or +/- keys - Zoom in/out

@JKA on itch https://insane-scatterbrain.itch.io/

@ItsLu on itch https://itslu.itch.io/

Tools Used:

Development: Godot

Version control: Fossil SCM

Art: Blender, Aseprite, After Effects and Photoshop.

Additional Credits

Dystopian Textures & Moonless B track from Cinematic Atmos Vol 2 by Monument Studios https://www.monumentstudios.net/

Dan Zadorozny for the Airstrike font https://www.iconian.com/

VileR for the Flexi IBM VGA True (437) font https://int10h.org/

Home Video font https://www.dafont.com/home-video.font

freesound_community for old computer sound https://pixabay.com/users/freesound_community-46691455/

Kodack for Arcade Bleep Sound https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-arcade-bleep-sound-6071/

light_switch_click.mp3 by Dave_Girtsman https://freesound.org/s/88659/

Genres: puzzle

Tools: Aseprite, Blender, Godot

Comments34

tenthousandfireants21 Apr 2026, 04:49

ANOTHER amazing gem buried in the games! I loved having to really think about where my ships positoined on which orbit to transition to the next orbit and the different ways to do this. 100% would spend money on this game on Steam or something. great work!

Vadoha521 Apr 2026, 11:55

It's a good game with interesting mechanics.

Vorkuta21 Apr 2026, 11:59

Really like the art style and the representation of the bootup sequence, felt very accurate and true to the style of the rest of the game. The instructions on the piece of paper were a fun way to share these within the game environment.

kayrum21 Apr 2026, 12:03

I love that lthe loss of controll forces you to think about the gravity.

Jamope_21 Apr 2026, 12:04

I found it a really hard game! I didn't really understand the goal and how to use the buttons.

LDJam user 42607421 Apr 2026, 12:07

Really liked the controls and how you manage inertia, feels great
the core idea is super cool, and that retro monitor at the start is awesome.
Did hit a bug though, the controls note got stuck at some point and I couldn’t tab back to the monitor

ItsLu21 Apr 2026, 14:49

Oops! We know of a few bugs that are still in there, but that's not one we've ever encountered! Much thanks for playing and all the kind words. :)

jkaauthor21 Apr 2026, 19:54

@tenthousandfireants I was a bit worried it would be too hard, so I was glad to see someone made it all the way through. :grin:

@jamope I could say that that was left intentionally vague to add a bit of a puzzle element to the game and that wouldn't be a lie exactly, but it was also a choice made due to the time restrictions. :grin:

@saloid Haven't run into that one myself, but I'm sure there's a couple of more of those in there. :bug: My personal favorite is the one where an orbit ring attaches itself to you and you run off together. But that's not a bug, that's just romance options. :two_hearts:

@vadoha5 @vorkuta @kayrum Thanks for playing and the feedback everyone :pray:

23edsa21 Apr 2026, 21:04

I am struggling to get past planet 2, but the mood is on point!

Ternarycat22 Apr 2026, 07:28

I like this minimalism! Thanks for space adventure! I enjoied to discover search for planets, but i would like to choose where i want to spawn. Well done!

N.O.X22 Apr 2026, 10:31

That's a lot of work for just two people! I really like the overall calm atmosphere, it suits the space well. Congrats :)

krawa22 Apr 2026, 12:23

Very cool game I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the ship onto the last planet. Everything is great; if you added some deep, immersive space music, I probably wouldn’t be able to stop playing for another 4 hours

Jawdan23 Apr 2026, 15:57

As soon as I realised what the 4 lights meant everything clicked -- amazing game, great interpretation of the theme, nice job!

chrissx223 Apr 2026, 19:56

Really fantastic entry. Love the old boot sequence :id:

wisstopher24 Apr 2026, 07:37

Great entry here. I felt so bad sending those probes out in space when I was terrible at it :D. The mechanic kept me engaged and keep going to reach that next planet. Lovely stuff

VenomousMouse24 Apr 2026, 09:05

Very nice idea and mechanic. Only i would move the controls sticker to the side of the monitor, but that`s a nuance. Great game!

JuanRod70724 Apr 2026, 16:45

Superb entry here! Great implementation of the theme and orbital dynamics. Also, the auto-orbit feature.... brilliant

nexusasx1025 Apr 2026, 14:48

Nice game! I like the idea and implementation. Tried to land on last planet for 15 minutes and still couldn't do it XD

jkaauthor25 Apr 2026, 16:07

@wisstopher Don't worry about it, the probes are probably unmanned. I hope. :fingers_crossed:

@nexusasx10 To be honest, neither can I. :grin:

commanderstitch25 Apr 2026, 20:55

The mechanics are neat. The feel is real. I wasn't able to figure out the buttons/switches without reading the comments section, but now that i can activate signals on other planets it made getting the outer rings possible. (you can only go so far with that initial boost) a lot of waiting in this game. Wish it had one of those fast forward buttons.

ItsLu25 Apr 2026, 21:18

@commanderstitch Honestly kind of my bad. I had set up the planets in such a way for a different system. We changed how it worked on the last day of the jam, and while it was the better choice, it left me with very little time to rebalance the game for the way it works now. And yeah, fast forward did cross my mind (especially with the previous system), but I would've preferred to fix it by having more opportunities for transfers. Alas, no time. :grin:

But legitimately thanks for playing and the feedback; not just you, but everybody who gave this game some time :smile:

feffers26 Apr 2026, 16:38

That was really neat, I love the idea and mood. The controls were a *little* on the tough side, I wish I had slightly more responsiveness, but it's a thin line to keep the mood.

jkaauthor26 Apr 2026, 20:19

@feffers I agree the controls need some more tweaking, ran out of time unfortunately. :sweat_smile: Thanks for playing :smile:

Orwellian26 Apr 2026, 22:38

I enjoyed playing it, PF is a pesky planet...

LDJam user 38836427 Apr 2026, 16:09

Love how you guys interpreted the theme 10/10. Game gives a nice mood and atmosphere but the controls where a bit to janky / hard on for me and after a long time sadly gave up cause i couldn't reach the last two planets

RedPhoenix241227 Apr 2026, 16:23

This is a really cool game! So far, it's one of my favorites from this jam. The controls are challenging but a ton of fun!

ljol328 Apr 2026, 03:22

This was the best implementation of the "signal" theme. Great visuals and fun gameplay.

ruruie28 Apr 2026, 20:07

The orbits of the outer planets were unnaturally fast, which threw off my 600 hours of KSP but the comms requirement was bang on.

There seemed to be an unnatural burst of delta-v which really threw me off when trying to leave orbits (but not from the inertialess start position). I'm not sure if that's intended.

jkaauthor29 Apr 2026, 20:23

@ruruie Yeah, the boost is intended. Initially we had the idea that players would use the gravity of planets to build momentum and do a bit of slingshot, so you could launch yourself a bit towards your next target. That turned out to be too hard to pull off, so we came up with the auto-orbit and boost mechanic.

anete ainjärv30 Apr 2026, 23:34

Took me a little bit to get the hang of the gravity mechanics but as soon as I realized what the point of the buttons was, everything made sense!! I love that it's not overcomplicated/cluttered and the simplicity of it is precisely why its a perfect jam game. Good job you guys :)

Allax2 May 2026, 21:23

I liked the game, but I still couldn't figure out how to get to planet ROM; other planets were always blocking my flight.

jkaauthor7 May 2026, 14:19

@allax Haven't ran into that issue myself, could be a bug of some kind maybe?

Though having planets in your way shouldn't necessarily be an issue. You can get in their orbit and then launch yourself from there to move onto the other planets.

Allax7 May 2026, 15:16

@jka
I also wanted to do exactly this, but nevertheless, when the ship goes beyond the orbit of the sun, control over it is lost

jkaauthor10 May 2026, 08:56

@allax Ah, yes! I don't want to spoil too much here, because that's meant to be a bit of a puzzle element, but there's some buttons/lights that should help you solve that problem. :slight_smile:

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