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Cosmic Road Trader's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #11 | 2.772 | 3.143 |
| Presentation | #16 | 1.890 | 2.143 |
| Overall | #17 | 1.764 | 2.000 |
| Gameplay | #17 | 1.638 | 1.857 |
| Overall | #17 | 2.016 | 2.286 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I have made vogon poetry.
Released a tiny patch, details on game page.
Interesting idea but certainly not a game for me, try and make your art all of the same type, at the moment it looks like a mish mash of different artwork, also if you are using images that are not created in Fusion try and go around the edges a little neater as that really makes a difference.
Music would really help this in my opinion also I found the game needed more hand holding, as not everyone is used to that type of game.
I certainly agree. Graphics are a rush job, and most of it is still just stock images. I was barely able to make to UI look somewhat like I intend it to be when I'm completely done with it. It still had stock windows buttons and a cropped Minecraft inventory a day before the deadline, I did my best wih my limited time and understanding of graphic design.
I will certainly create a patch where the UI is cleaned up, and a few convenience features will be added, though I probably won't go through the trouble of creating new assets, unless the game gets a sudden surge in popularity. Mostly because I weren't able to solve my biggest problem with the game, which is that I haven't managed to create enough incentive to make the player really feel an urge to explore.
Music isn't a bad idea, I just didn't bother with it since I couldn't find any public domain music I was happy with. That said I'm open to suggestion, what kind of music could you imagine the game having? I'm looking for a general style so it's okay if you post something that isn't public domain.
I have been having a think about what you could do to urge the player to explore, maybe add a little bit of information about each planet, for example so a planet was made up mostly of magma so you would buy rocks/coal from them at a super cheap price due to the planet being saturated with it, then go across to a cold planet to sell the goods that they themselves can't produce. You could have lots of planet with different specialisations and stats for other things.
Music wise again this could either be set to each style of planet to keep up the atmosphere or you could go down the Sim City route and have lift style lounge music in the background. Just a few thoughts.
I think the Sim City suggestion about the music put me on the right track, thanks.
In regards to the exploration problem, it's just that I want the game to have a few surprises up its sleve so the player would seriously start to wonder about the possibilities/scope of the game. Trading isn't really something that gets most people excited, and there's the fact that there practically exists an infinite amount of planets due to the psuedorandom generation the game uses, everything just starts to feel samey, regardless of how far you travel.
I was planning to recycle the engine and to use it with a theming that allows me to add unique content that fits the game more easily, and encourages exporation in a way that makes sense in context of the game world.
Sounds good to me! Maybe create a LORE for the game in a similar vain to No Man's Sky with different races and a history to uncover.
Very interesting concept and style choice. Loved the map system!
I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Although it needs a lot of polishing, I liked the idea, and the way the mechanics worked. I can see how much effort went into making this game, and appreciated that. It might not be perfect, but it's good for what it is.
I'd love to have some input on what areas you think needs polish the most, I know I obviously need to work on the graphics as barely any time was spent on them.
This is my first shot at creating an inventory management UI/system, the code is a mess as I worked out things as I went along, and then tried to patch up messy code after the fact. There's still a lot of bugs so I'll probably just recode the store part and submit a patch after the rating period is over, now that I know how I want it to function.
Here are the bigger things I noticed, that if you could rework a little, would make the experience more fun. For me at least.
Biggest thing I found, is the amount of enemies during the spaceship game. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it felt like it's always the same, for both long and short distances. When I travelled to a planet right next to me, it ended up being an auto-game-over, since there were just way too many things do dodge. When I tried it again, this time only travelling very far away, the game took longer, but barely had any enemies in it.
The shops and item prices. I just didn't know what's a good price and what's a bad one. Every time, I just ended up being broke, since I either bought and sold everything, or tried to memorize the prices and failed anyways. I would love to see just one more number in the shop: an average price. This way you always know if the deal is good or bad. Maybe I'm just a big noob, but I didn't see into the code, and didn't know what to buy, what do sell, and where to do it.
Otherwise, for me it had a really nice gameplay. I enjoyed the robot talking sh*t when I did something stupid, dodging the crystals and ghosts, and I really felt my computer working through the chunks of code. There might exist some small additions, like adding fuel so you can't just endlessly make money, tax gates, or some other things I thought of while playing, but since it's a jam game, I really liked how it turned out, and you shouldn't be too disappointed, since as you said in the introduction file, there's no violence or fnaf, and with that, neither the potential for an ordinary player to enjoy the game and make it a hit.
We learn from everything we do, and I'm sure you learned tons while making this, but don't forget one thing: enjoy yourself. You did a good job.
Mravec
Ah makes sense, I should have made it clear that you can actually turn back if you get cold feet during the spaceship sections, I have actually taken care that so it's actually quite hard to set yourself into an unwinnable state, the game even has a feature that will give you "pity money" if you save while having less than a certain amount of cash and an empty inventory.
Though having a short "Galaxy Guide" to get players started might not be a bad idea, it also gives me a good opportunity to dump some lore on the players.
If a item is for sale, it means it's at least below it's base price (I think dark matter is the sole exception to this due to it having such a slim potential profit margin), so if you take note of the price and only sell for profit you should be making money rather easily.
I agree, I should look into balancing the monster amount, my intention has been to try to strike a balance on the amount, so players need to consider the added risk of traveling short roads to save time.
I considered adding fuel, but decided against it as it could be a great source of frustration if you're not familiar with the game mechanics beforehand.
"I know I'm only supposed to use Clickteam fusion for platformers and FnaF clones"
Just because it's what people usually use it for doesn't mean you have to use it for those things. Nice to see somebody trying something different. I'd play a nice, quirky game like this this over a FnaF clone any day.
It's just me being cheeky, don't look too hard into it. I was also tired and irritated when I wrote it, hence the nonsense and grammar mistakes. :P
Haha, fair enough. If it wasn't clear, BTW, I enjoyed the game. :)
I played this game for around half an hour. I didn't get really far but jumped across several planets, made some trades, etc. I understand the general gist of it, but if there's more than that it wasn't explained enough. What I did play however was fun and it seems to be an interesting experimental game with potential.
The game will recognize if you have a save where you have one million $ or more, there really isn't that much more to it, other than the hidden factors that decide how populated by monsters the roads are (and of course the prices and inventory of the shops). The random tips you get on bootup pretty much convey everything you need to know to have a fair shake at accumulating wealth in the game.