This is really cool and very impressive bit of tech if you're drawing it how I think you are :) I think the controls made it way too hard to enjoy this as a game, but none-the-less, what a beautiful piece of art<3
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System Flight Explorer's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #135 | 3.615 | 4.667 |
| Interpretation of the Secondary Theme | #280 | 2.969 | 3.833 |
| Gameplay | #300 | 2.195 | 2.833 |
| Overall | #314 | 2.427 | 3.133 |
| Gameboy Soul | #337 | 2.195 | 2.833 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #359 | 1.162 | 1.500 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game match the theme?
You are flying around a solar system in 3D, with Gameboy resolution + colour + controls
Comments
This is a really cool project! The environment is incredible and the flight mechanics feel good. My only issues with the flight were:
1. It's a bit difficult to stop the ship, as it seems to like drifting around a bit when the throttle is set to zero.
2. When the Close! warning appears when hitting a planet's collision box, the ship seems to become "sticky" and requires a decent amount of thrust in a straight upward direction to go anywhere.
I don't mean to level these criticisms as a way to downplay the quality of the work you've done, as making a 3D flight simulator in the GameBoy style is already very impressive under the time constraints of this GameJam! That being said, I feel these things would make the experience a bit smoother if addressed.
Another thing is the lack of audio. With the game being so atmospheric and sandbox-y, I feel the lack of any ambience/music or audio feedback had a negative impact on the experience.
I'm very impressed with this project overall, and you should feel proud about having something like this playable and reasonably polished in such a short time! Excellent work.
Submitted
Liminal Spacethanks a bunch for the feedback. I see that controls are definitely an issue! I should have made the brakes stronger. The way the close! system works is definitely a little hacky. I basically just slow the ships’s acceleration unless it faces outward from the planet, to make collisions more forgiving. I should have spend longer on that making it feel nicer for the player. I wish I made time for audio, I was actually litening to a lot of ambient music when making it and it goes so well. Thanks for checking it out!
Absolutely beautiful game, the planets and environments are gorgeous and the ability to change the color palette is a lovely touch. The game gives me flashbacks to playing X Wing vs. Tie Fighter back in the day. Doing something this convincingly 3D while still feeling like a gameboy game is a major achievement.
I would suggest making it easier to stop the player from rotating / spinning in place, possibly more closely tying their rotation to their speed. Multiple times I would overshoot something, want to turn around, and get myself spinning wildly out of control which would take over a minute of headache-inducing spinning, even as my forward speed was zero. Especially when it feels like the vibe you're going for is chill exploration and storytelling, the controls should make it much easier to slow down and take a breath.
Submitted
Spacefarer PinballThanks for the useful feedback and the kind words! You’re right that I want the game to be more relaxed. I definitely should have made the controls more forgiving to complement that. The game you mentioned looks interesting, I really missed out on older space sims, I’ve only played newer titles in the genre.
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