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A jam submission

TurbostellarView game page

Hard Sci-Fi Space Sim/RPG
Submitted by stomygame (@StomyGame) — 21 hours, 55 minutes before the deadline
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Turbostellar's itch.io page

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Comments

(+1)

You've got the bones of something really cool here- I love the UI and textures, really captures a specific era of games. The little inventory icons for items are excellent. Also, I was shocked when I tried out the debug jetpack and you appear to have modeled an entire planet, hah. Seems like you're off to a good start, I'm excited to see what comes next.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

I love the UI and textures, really captures a specific era of games

The UI is relatively plain for now but the behavior and layout should remain (except the shopping UI, that needs serious work)

The little inventory icons for items are excellent

They're all automatically generated every time a new item is added (or updated) in assets, I'm really happy with how effective it is.

Also, I was shocked when I tried out the debug jetpack and you appear to have modeled an entire planet, hah.

Haha, it's all procedurally made with noise and some extra rules. I intend for people to mostly use fast-travel anyway but I want the planets to actually be there. If you aim it right you can jetpack all the way to the moon! Just remember to slow down (newtonian mechanics) or you'll bounce off it and fly off into outer space.

Seems like you're off to a good start, I'm excited to see what comes next.

I have big plans for this game, I intend to have it be my eternal side project that gets influenced by other projects along the way. Speaking of which, Ctesiphon will be this year's priority so Turbostellar will be on the back-burner for a while.

Submitted(+1)

This game looks pretty cool. Obviously it's very early in development. I am not sure what to say other than I used most of my bullets shooting at the moon.

Developer

Thanks for playing, I just saw your stream from before. Laughed my ass off when the robot started shooting you! There's a map in the inventory screen that you can use to fast travel to other planets, but every destination has the same stuff present and there's no easter eggs or anything to find. You can also hold down [C] to activate a debug jetpack which is enough to actually get you onto the moon.

I'm submitting a different game to DD49, a blast from the past from the really early demo days that I want to finally finish this year. But I'll be back to Turbostellar sometime next year to spice up the terrain gen and add things like persistence and actual gameplay loops. I'll also try to post more in the threads now that I'm not stuck under constant range-bans anymore.

Submitted(+1)

Sounds sweet. Best of luck, dude.

(+1)

Turning while holding forward & strafe leads to some jerky, jagged motion. Orbital maps are cool. Different gravity on each planet is cool. I was disappointed that shooting the spacers did nothing. Blood splatter hit effect on the robots is strange. Needs an option to restart or something if you die.

Seems cool. “Morrowind in space”. Yeah. Would love to see where you take this.

Developer

> Turning while holding forward & strafe leads to some jerky, jagged motion.

Do you mean in the player's movement or just with whatever you're holding? I'm aware of the latter, there's currently no smoothing applied to the inertia effect on your movement. An easy fix in that case but it'll have to wait until I'm done with work today.

>    I was disappointed that shooting the spacers did nothing.

They're practically placeholders for now. In the future there will be a central system for NPCs handling their AI and animation.

>    Blood splatter hit effect on the robots is strange.

I really want a distinct method of feedback, I was going more for the purple oil you see in UT2004 on robot hits but it looks too red for now.

>    Needs an option to restart or something if you die.

In due time, I want some more persistence to the world first.

>    Seems cool. “Morrowind in space”. Yeah. Would love to see where you take this.

Thanks for checking it out! I have big plans but it will take a long time to get there, this is all foundational for now.

Submitted(+1)
  • Won't let me tab out, so I'm writing this blind.
  • Needs an options menu.
  • Minimum jump height should be higher.
  • When walking over the crate, you get stuck running in one direction until you press that key again.
  • I don't know what kind of tone you're going for, but calling the temperature meter "cool" comes off as overly quirky to me.
  • The ejection port on the pistol is too far forward.
  • Not a fan of the shop UI. I'd make it something like this: your inventory in the top left, your offered items in the bottom left, shop inventory in the top right, items you're buying in the bottom right, item info in the bottom center, and transaction summary in the center.
  • Separate the inventory and map.
  • Opening the inventory shouldn't pause the game.
  • Taking all items in a container needs a keyboard shortcut.
  • Needs more air control.
  • Gravity should affect your movement speed and step length.
  • It doesn't make sense for there to be blood puffs when shooting people. For there to be blood, the bullets would have to penetrate their space suits. 


Text errors:

  • "I give up, the pioneer's life isn't for me." - Comma splice.
Developer (2 edits)
  • Won't let me tab out

That's actually a bug, I've set the game to have TOPMOST set when in fullscreen, in the vain hope that magically triggers some sort of fullscreen optimizations on Windows. EDIT: Should now be fixed in v0.1.2

  • Needs an options menu
  • Not a fan of the shop UI

The UI in general is a mess of just getting stuff on-screen without paying attention to design so I appreciate the suggestions for when I actually do a proper pass over it later.

  • Minimum jump height should be higher.

I was in two minds about this, but I'm probably going to switch to an E.Y.E-style system where just pressing jump gives you a standard jump height accounting for gravity, while Crouch+Jump launches you up at max-power.

  • When walking over the crate, you get stuck running in one direction until you press that key again.

If this is what I'm thinking of it's actually just a problem with how I'm handling key-up events on Windows in general. It's not specific to the crate, you'll see it just wandering around. EDIT: should now be fixed in v0.1.2.

  • I don't know what kind of tone you're going for, but calling the temperature meter "cool" comes off as overly quirky to me.

You'll have to bear with me on this one. That's your Social Mana, for bluffing, intimidation, bribery, and so on. Obviously it's not implemented yet and won't be for some time. Temperature will be a separate widget because you won't always be on airless exoplanets.

  • The ejection port on the pistol is too far forward.

Of all the flaws with the (inspired by but not legally the same as) VP70 I didn't think that would come up. In all seriousness though it will look better with hands holding it, the backside protrudes a lot to absorb the simple blowback.

  • Separate the inventory and map.

You can already open them independently with I and M, Tab just opens the most recent. This will be configurable once I add an interface for changing the keybinds.

  • Opening the inventory shouldn't pause the game.

I agree actually. It'll be so in the future.

  • Taking all items in a container needs a keyboard shortcut.

It does, I'll put that on the todo list. I also want to give it a different sound.

  • Needs more air control.

In time, this will be affected by the presence of atmosphere, as well as Athletics and Microgravity skills.

  • Gravity should affect your movement speed and step length.

I agree. It's now on the list.

  • It doesn't make sense for there to be blood puffs when shooting people. For there to be blood, the bullets would have to penetrate their space suits.

I want a distinct effect to show that you actually hit. Something that isn't a UI element like that stupid fucking X from Call of Duty. That said, _blood_ should indeed only be shown on a lethal hit so I'll rethink these when I'm working on effects again.

  • Comma splice.

Force of habit, you're not the first point this out. Now I'm going to be extra self-conscious about it for days.


Okay, it's 1:30 2:00 AM and I really should go to bed 'cause I have work in the morning. Thanks for playing the game and giving feedback!