Full Steam Ahead!

by xedur

A pompous steamboat captain demands ever more speed, and you are the unseen stoker shovelling coal to make the boat go faster and faster. Slow down and the captain gets angrier until he fires you.

Your score is your top speed in knots.

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How to play

- Press `Space` or `Enter` to shovel coal and make the boat go faster!
- Hold `Up arrow` or `W` to go up, release to fall.
- Keep shovelling, or the captain fires you.
- Don't crash!

Credits

Made by Eetu Rantanen (XeduR) for Ludum Dare 60 (COMPO) with Solar2D.

The in-game text uses the Press Start 2P font by CodeMan38, licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1.

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Notes on AI usage

Claude Opus 5.5 was used in this project for the following tasks:

- Write and review the repo's README and other documentation.
- Clean up and extend documentation (comments) in code.
- Perform two code reviews.
- Fix math functions in classes/drawing.lua, and classes/boat.lua.

All other code, as well as all art, music, sfx, etc. were created by me, with the exception of Press Start 2P font (see above). Everything was designed and all of the dialogue was written by me.

All assets and source code are available on GitHub.

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Comments20

XeduRauthor18 Oct 2026, 17:41

I can't believe that, for once, I was ready well before the deadline and I even had some time to polish the gameplay a bit and compose some music. Well, the music isn't that great, but anyway. I did it! 😅

jacobwinters18 Oct 2026, 22:23

Other raters: go play one round of the game FIRST, read the comments LATER, this is one that's better when you go into it blind.

jacobwinters18 Oct 2026, 23:21

The moment when it revealed what the game really was, was great. Now my hand is tired from mashing the spacebar. I never did figure out if there was some strategy to letting the fire die down for a moment so you could take an obstacle more slowly.

High score 631.0 billion.

Enad9618 Oct 2026, 23:27

Love this one, surprisingly hard to keep mashing space while also flappy birdying.

NTMalichi19 Oct 2026, 01:57

@jacobwinters HOLY 631 billion is insane, I just got 5.1 billion and was pretty satisfied from it XD

@xedur I loved it, I saw some blog posts you posted about it and congrats on not spoiling what the game is actually about. I also love the attention to details that you leave Earth's orbit at around 21K knots which is around the escape velocity from earth

XeduRauthor19 Oct 2026, 02:38

After a well-earned good night's sleep, I played the game some more as well. Here's my record. 😄

One friend of mine managed to score 531.0 quadrillion knots.

XeduRauthor19 Oct 2026, 02:41

For those who want to break into ludicrous speeds, my tip is to play near the center. There's *slightly* less asteroids and planets around the center, and you've got more space to steer up or down when needed.

brimstone19 Oct 2026, 08:03

200 billion knots! I am a sucker for games that make you go fast, and this game hit the spot! Really enjoyed it, and the art was really good. The captain's dialogue being red when you slow down is a nice subtle way of telling the player to speed up without being "in your face".

Gevernus19 Oct 2026, 08:50

Really charming! The captain's lines made me smile, the pixel art is clean and the shovel-and-steer loop is easy to get into. It's a lovely little clicker, I kept wanting to shovel just a bit more. The moment the game reveals what it really is was a great surprise. Solid, polished compo entry, well done!

IndigoWolf19 Oct 2026, 16:51

Loved the intro into the real game, best I could do was 80b, I always was terrible at this type of game :'(

TasakaSama19 Oct 2026, 17:16

The idea is really clever and fun; however, I find it hard to see the obstacles because there are too many visual effects. Congratulations to you all!

Samet Aylak19 Oct 2026, 18:35

it's really fun. it's been a long time to have fun with great visuals!!

Flightless19 Oct 2026, 19:41

My fingers are tired! 😄

Great fun, and very well made graphics and feel.

T4RAN19 Oct 2026, 20:36

That was very unexpected—a truly old technology, indeed. Awesome.

William Corrin20 Oct 2026, 00:20

My score isn't the best, but its honest work 😤

Its really well done overall, great job! Everything is super complete and cohesive.

I would echo what TasakaSama said, my best run had nothing to do with me skillfully avoiding anything and was mostly luck because I couldn't really see most of the smaller obstacles (asteriodss?) as they blended in to the background, effects, the text on the screen was taking up a big portion of it, etc.

That being said, the humor in some of the dialogue is just fantastic... "hah I always knew it was flat!" lol

vorondesan20 Oct 2026, 14:17

Some obstacles are hard too see, otherwise i`ts cool, or dare i say coal!

koala58520 Oct 2026, 19:36

I love it!

sanechekz20 Oct 2026, 19:59

That was unexpected! The art is amazing, and the gameplay is super fast-paced and fun. Really cool and polished game. Awesome work!

Eugenik20 Oct 2026, 22:59

The constant pressure coming from the captain really elevated the tension beyond just a simple speed challenge. It's fun how that mounting impatience adds a great layer of stress to the entire experience. You really captured the frantic, demanding energy of stoking a machine at ridiculous speeds!

Helagos21 Oct 2026, 16:41

Wow, it's exactly what I would like to be able to make for a compo entry.
The game loop is so simple with a really good polished style.
I loved it, great job !

Other games by @xedur

jam

The Hunt for Red April

★3.91

★3.76

★3.68