I have been working on this for almost two months now. It started as a little toy for a game jam and since then grew a bit in style and size. I am not sure of the genre of it. I initially thought it to be an in-reverse incremental space game.
My goal for the current state of the game was to implement as many systems and game logic as I could to make the game engaging and challenging, while also easy to pick up. There is some polish here and there and I feel confident enough to share it now.
If you have the time, please, give the web version a try and tell me what you don’t like about it or what you think (also I’m looking for data on performance. in case you encounter serious lag and frame drops, let me know)
The next steps are:
Add goal. I will add two steps to reach a potential goal. First you will have to unlock some multi-step technology by shooting a satellite to a few select locations (gently obstructed), and secondly, you will have to construct an absolutely over-powered item.
Add more polish. Some sounds i really want are missing - i love making sounds.
Add small random events. I want various meteorites to spawn from time to time and some other things to juice things up.
Replace the placeholder space bodies (brown rocks) with proper planets.
Internationalization. I have pushed back dealing with tr() for a bit now and will have to find a chunk of motivation to do that.
Dynamic Music System. I really, really want to try out the interactive audio player nodes
Controller input. Got some ideas here, but for the moment i’m focusing on desktop and touch.
And lastly: of course I’ll try to answer any questions you have
Thank you all!
-Visually pleasing. The colours, especially.
-The mechanics work well- hoping for more depth in this as time goes on.
-It’s quite funny actually, I enjoyed the dialogue and it fits the mood and pace of the game.
-You’ve already mentioned things that I would have mentioned to work on; so I haven’t got much else to add.
While I keep on trying a few things out, there is one thought I wanted to share and gather opinions on: style and trends.
For the most part I try to keep my visuals clean and subtle. The major effect I apply is a heavy bloom effect. Last week I also introduced a blur shader to some UI elements carrying text - for contrast and also to have an application to learn Godot’s shader code. Another one I am experimenting with is a shader for generating an interesting and dynamic space background texture.
I’m a little bit sad, that it does not work in web exports though.
In general I try to stay away from currently trending visual effects. For one, because I can not build them myself and don’t want to copy-paste something I have no idea about. But also, because I am quickly bored by the ever repeating effects. One of those is the (probably almost over) hype of CRT/Scan Lines, heavy vignettes, distortion and chromatic aboration: vintage stuff. I see it everywhere.
The problem is: I like it sometimes. So I used it now. In my current game I pause everything when narration comes up - and for more stuff coming later in development. Until now, the screen just had a giant “PAUSE” label. I tried simple darkening, little blurring… and then added a CRT shader.
I think its a cool effect and i do see it overused in alot of games but maybe a suble vinette or scanline or abberation would be nice, I think the screen looks a little clutterd (in the screenshot you sent) mostly on the left side
You’re right! I had narration and tech info use the same notification and wanted to change that for quite a bit now. This way, it is either “Tech Info” or “Subtitles”, never both like in the screenshot
Hello! I’ve updated the game again and would love for you to try it:
New to this version:
Upgrades! The technology modules can now be upgraded with points you collect by scanning stars.
Stars are now generated randomly.
Visuals, Visuals, Visuals.
Endgame added - can you find The Blobb?
Random Events now spawn asteroids that crash into anything in their way.
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On a side note: I am a bit confused by the web export. Some things don’t work as intended. By now I have added some OS checks to deactivate some shaders on web and mobile, but my pre-caching of some particle effects does not seem to work, resulting in stutters. Hate them. Next version I will probably deliver as a downloadable app.
Pushing out updates! I have added a proper goal system now!
They unlock as you go, more or less dynamically, based on your play style.
As always, I would love to hear your opinions! A round usually takes between 3 and 10 minutes, depending on how serious you take it.
Also, as with every update, bug fixes and balancing:
You can now upgrade the Waste Storage to give you more buffer in the beginning.
The Reactor upgrades are more powerful now, too. If you want to move quick and expand in a very stressful manner, you can do so by investing into power generation early.
Exploded Waste in space now moves a bit slower. I have seen playtesters shooting packages deliberately to form giant toxic clusters. This will make this even more intriguing.
Increasing prices after upgrading the Reactor and Storage have been removed. Power ups should give more power to the player not punish them.
Next up: Controller Support. This is a hard one, to be honest. But I want it.
I have been picking up pace with this more in the last weeks! It slowly grows and I am yet to gather more input on in.
You can play the current build on itch.io in your browser. But I also could upload a downloadable?
I have implemented a new goal system in conjunction with the space exploration layer. For the moment they both offer upgrades for the modules you have unlocked already. But with exploring space you can unlock new modules and even add time to your ticker, to decrease some stress.
Hello dear forum people! The past weeks I have been chiseling the tutorial and UI improvements, as well as one little shift in my game design approach: I thought that I was making a Resource Management game. But i think, it turns more and more into an Exploration game with resource management as an obstacle element. Since seeing it this way, I was able to work a lot on balancing the game.
