Play game
A Trip to the Moon 2: Beyond the Moon's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community Choice | #16 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
A Trip to the Moon 2 is the eponymous sequel to the world of the 1902 silent movie - the French now travel everywhere by giant cannon and it's your job to aim it. The game presents itself as a puzzle artillery game alternating with a simpler feeling moon lander esque minigame, and you can happily while away a good amount of your time solving the puzzles and enjoying the subtle story.
Liked
- Enjoyed the puzzle element of the game - Interplanetary trick shots
- The Difficulty curve seemed just right
- Nice Theme use across the board, in premise, art, story & sounds
Needs Work
- Control issues for both Cannon and Lander
- Camera often felt like the enemy.
- Slow Retry loop & Forced to wait for prediction on harder levels
I think this game is a really nice weaving together of the theme and a functioning game idea - our understanding of space and getting to it has come a long way since the early 1900s, but I'd like to imagine this is how things would be if it hadn't. Making a puzzle game out of range finding seems like a natural conclusion, I'm not sure if there's a game out there that works the same way but there really ought to be. The game as presented does feel a bit clunky, though: with many levels you'll resort to very fine tuning by typing numbers in with the keyboard. Something like being able to 'lock in' a level of precision (eg a decimal place) and then continue to fine aim with the mouse would feel better, I think.
I spent the larger portion of my time with the artillery side of things. The lander game did feel slightly divergent from it, but I think it was a good addition as it helped keep the game feeling fresh. It has a similar problem of feeling imprecise though. There's two ways to interpret the controls as they are - your mouse cursor vs the current lander position or as the mouse cursor vs the point where you clicked. One of which will leave you very confused! Perhaps drawing the control vectors on the screen in some way would help? I think maybe making the way you're controlling it more visible would help. I only had trouble with the final bonus lander stage, as repeatedly I'd get through the gap and the lander would seem to ignore my control and tip over, don't know if I was doing something wrong or it was a bug, but, that uncertainty seems unideal.
I'd definitely play more of this game, if more puzzles were added, or there were challenges within the levels etc. There are a scattershot of minor blemishes that don't really detract from the experience. I'd like to have more control over the camera. I'd also like it if it took a consistent amount of time to draw the whole length of the prediction, so that when the line starts getting very long you don't have to wait longer and longer in the harder levels. Likewise, no 'abort mission' button when you know it's gone wrong. I wasn't sure how genuine the gravity simulations were but they seemed to mostly work, perhaps glancing by eg a moon was a little too grippy. The difficulty of the puzzles was well chosen for the gong show & first time players, and I liked that the bonus levels were there for the dedicated players. All in all, I think you did really well with this! This was tuned just right for a Jam, offering a complete experience without any aspect feeling out of balance - I think your growing experience shows.
Elevator pitch
A sequel to the 1902 silent film "A Trip to the Moon" where French people use cannons to travel everywhere and to other planets. Artillery game play and lunar-lander-like levels.
Describe how your game adheres to the theme
I think that a sequel to 116 year old silent movie is pretty unnecessary. I feel that Georges Méliès said everything that needed to be said about firing your self out of a cannon towards the moon.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
This game is goddamn solid, nice job! I only really have a few minor suggestions.
The time it takes for the projected path to be drawn out is a bit slow, definitely wants to be faster or even instant.
The level art for the lander segments needs work. It's not clear what objects are in the foreground or background.
The lander controls are a little strange, but idk I got used to them over the session.
Launching needs work; your lander just kind of teleports from the platform halfway into space rather than having an explosive launch or anything. The effect is a wierd disconnect between the lander and the launcher which doesn't feel great.
This was really good, I thought! Mechanically, it's actually a game. Interesting ideas for mechanics. Orbital mechanics! Your tutorial was superb. I know how hard those are to get right on a jam timeline. Yours communicated everything it had to. The music in the game was so soothing and awesome.
I'll mirror a few of Giggs' comments in that I wish it was easier to retry. If I fail, slam me back at my zoom level and focus area with the old trajectory line already drawn on and the power and angle still locked in. That would make the finer adjustments a little easier. I also really wish the dotted line trajectory drew a LOT faster. Like, instantaneous would be great. It would be tough to enter in values and.. then.. wait.. to.. see.. how.. close.. it.. ah, no too far to the left, let me try again.
Writing was great in general. The ending was hilarious. The fail state text about the dead frenchmen was hilarious.
Really nicely done.
A bit on the easy side, but I had a lot of fun. Slingshotting my little capsule around the moon just felt good. While the arrows helped guide your shot, they felt strangely slow, and a bit too precise.
Might be fun to try this concept with moving planets.
The end of the final level was wonderful.
Pros:
Cons:
Here & There:
The controls for the lander are bizarre. I don't know how this scheme was settled on or determined to begin with, even though it works pretty well it's still really very weird. The fuel rate seems to be balanced well though I could not get past the wall-in-space level despite spending around 20 minutes on that level alone and so I can't speak to the last 2 lander levels. A bit more polish and I wouldn't have any gripes, but I'm writing these to specifically find gripes and alert people to them so, take that as you will. God I love those toms. Well done!
A very fun and addictive game with a neat art style. Apart from the second-to-last level, most of the levels felt pretty easy. The guide arrows might be a bit too much help on most of the levels.
Also, nailed the landing: https://imgur.com/a/NG3mPzS