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Star System Defense's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #637 | 2.500 | 3.750 |
| Gameplay | #819 | 1.500 | 2.250 |
| Overall | #819 | 1.722 | 2.583 |
| Presentation | #895 | 1.167 | 1.750 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
ok, a trick for anyone who would want to play this: launch the .jar instead of the .exe, solved the issues for me.
anyway, back to the review: the core concept is interesting but it need more in depth, like more variety in things to buy or visual feedback (for example, took me a moment to understand that orbits were “sockets” for others upgrades because it had no visuals to indicate orbit availability)
Thanks very much for the feedback, especially on the .jar tip!
There's definitely more I wanted to do with this little game on providing feedback and cues. My focus was on just getting something that functioned, with working buttons, and having a framework that I could extend. I don't know if I'll ever update this game, but I'm glad for the advice as I try to make others :)
Hello! I was able to get the game to run, but only after installing the specific version you suggested (17.0.10+7). I devlop in java and have been using newer versions like 18 but it seems that the game relies on some libraries that have either moved or changed in some way between 17 and 18, Java 17 is LTS so I wouldn't say you did anything wrong.
I'm not a super experienced Java dev, but my advice would be to keep keep multiple versions of the JDK installed so you can try to build and run on them throughout development. Best case, the changes needed to make it compatible across multiple versions are trivial, worst case you have an objective list of supported and unsupported versions that will help people troubleshoot.
As for the game, It took a moment to start to understand, but I eventually got the game loop. Seems like it could be a pretty solid strategy game, there are a few things I couldn't quite figure out though. I know that selecting specific objects will generate a specific resource, but I couldn't quite tell what was causing the passive income of other resources?
I think the amount of instruction you gave is fine though, it was enough to start playing and letting players discover the strategy and nuance for themselves is fun. I think starting the player with a small pool of every resource would have helped a lot though, it would give the freedom to discover which orbits and enemies are associated with each resource without the risk of immediately dying.
Overall I think it's a pretty decent framework and an interesting concept. I could easily see it developing into a larger strategy game or even a more roguelike experience.
Thanks for such an in-depth comment! Now that I have a bit of time to look into it, I definitely need to prioritize the deployment issues :)
I also appreciate the advice on resource allocation. This game turned out to be just a little more challenging than I wanted it to be. You generated three resources passively (Health, Hydrogen, and Helium), and one or two different kinds of resources based on the object you were "siphoning" from. Enemies caused damage to one or two resources just for existing, and also required even more resources to "attack" them.
Balancing in a small starting pool would have helped, for sure. And just making the numbers a bit more lenient. The UI itself could have been easier to just understand, as well, even while keeping the theme of it being a bit of a "rule discovery" game.
Thanks again!
For a bit of troubleshooting, please ensure you have at least Java 17 installed. Although it is embedded, if you already have an older version of Java in your classpath, it probably will cause a conflict.
I recommend installing JDK/JRE version 17.0.10+7 or higher from Openlogic's downloads.