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A jam submission

Chain ReactionView game page

Don't let the reactor spiral out of control!
Submitted by MichaelBer — 34 minutes, 50 seconds before the deadline
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Chain Reaction's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#3683.9043.904
Presentation#21522.9812.981
Overall#22952.8082.808
Fun#29312.4622.462

Ranked from 52 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
Chain reaction is all about not letting a nuclear reaction spiral out of control.

Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all art during the game jam

Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

No

We used pre-existing audio

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 28 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

Really cool concept, but I also had some hard time getting used to the controls. Once it's out of the list, it's really good to play. Well done!

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Cool game, concept is really unique, at first i thought it's chain reaction from android but glad it's different

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

I had to get used to the controls first before worrying about anything about what the UI meant and I found that avoiding moving the mouse left to right was the easiest way to move. But after getting the hang of it, it was really fun to move around and that's what kept me playing to figure out the meter management. It was all quite overwhelming at first but really fun!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing! I know the controls are really rough, so thank you for taking the time to work through them!

Submitted(+1)

Really cool concept, great execution of the being out of your control idea. Neat that it was REALLY about changing the environment that all the actors were in and it didn't ultra matter that you were specifically just controlling one of them as it did it's thing.

I found it pretty hard to control but that was ultimately part of the challenge of the game and I love a game with a unique control scheme that's hard to learn. Cool!

Developer

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

The controls seems really unintuitive. I would probably either swap the Yaw and Roll controls or put Pitch on the keyboard. The idea is clever, but the controls let it down for me.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

The idea is great, but the game is a little rough around the edges. I exploded twice without entirely understanding why. I liked how the reactor became more and more crowded the more power you generated.

Developer

Thanks for giving it a shot!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Okay, first of it starts with an overwhelming guide. I think it should really be changed to explaining it in-game one way or another. That way it would be a lot easier to take.

Next up, gameplay: The gameplay has so much potential, but the controls are just bad. I understand it might be meant to feel less in control, but making the Mouse X the roll instead of the yaw is just annoying. Although, the main concept is really good, managing the power to stay in the sweet spot, it really does feel like I'm operating a Nuclear Power Plant, and am trying to be in control, whilst that is impossible.
But then the heat gauge messes me up. It's already hard enough to manage - especially with such strange controls -, but the rising temperature is nearly impossible to deal with. I thought at first that one ice-thingy would cool down the gauge by half, or so; but no, it cools it down by a barely noticeable amount.

Also, when the game over screen shows up, the mouse cursor doesn't, which makes it a huge pain it the butt to restart.

Overall, this game has a lot of potential, and would love to play it after the jam, when these get fixed/changed. However these really make the game not that fun to play.

Developer

Thank you so much for all of your feedback! I think most of the problems people are having definitely stem from the poor flight controls. I'll be honest, it never occurred to me to control roll with the keys and yaw with mouseX. I'll certainly be doing some experimenting with that.
Once I sort all that out I'll do another pass over gameplay and balance. I had plans to implement three difficulties for the game but I ran out of time. There are a couple of bugs (as you can see) that I'd like to clean up too.

Thank you so much for playing my game!

Submitted

I meant that almost every FPS and TPS uses mouse X to control Yaw. And so most of the people are used to that instead.

Also, I would recommend to include a GTA V styled control scheme as well, which uses only buttons. (Left - Roll left; Right - Roll right; Up - Pitch up; Down - Pitch down; A - Yaw left; D - Yaw Right. Or something similar.)

Submitted(+1)

Hey, just weighing in to say I had this same issue, but I found that the heat gauge only goes down if the specific neutron you are controlling goes through it. I had made the assumption that any neutron in the simulation that went through the coolant cloud would decrease the temperature, so maybe you made the same assumption as me.

Submitted

Oh, thank you for letting me know! Now this makes a lot more sense!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Original idea, but very hard to play. Even after insisting and getting used (a little bit) to the controls, I still was far from being able to take care of the energy, watching temperature, etc... as I needed to be fully focused on the navigation.

Making the movement a bit slower and more simple (perhaps without the roll, fully controlled with the mouse, less rods in the room, etc...) could help handling the rest.

Developer

Thank you so much for sticking with it and giving my game a shot! I really appreciate the feedback!

I think when I go back I will be re-thinking the control scheme, as well as giving the player some different control options. I'd also like to implement a tutorial level that helps acclimate the player to controlling the neutrons.

Submitted(+1)

It looks good but I find the control a bit too difficult.

Developer

Thanks for your feedback!

Submitted(+1)

The controls were a little difficult to use, but everything else was good.

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

I had some difficulty on the controllers, but I thing that was the idea of the Jam.. Haha

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

I really like the idea. The controls are a bit too difficult for me to handle while keeping in check everything else. Also had the problems of falling out of the map (through the corners I think) and that the mouse wouldn't work in the menu. 

Developer

Thanks for giving it a shot! I'll have to test the corners for holes, not exactly what you want in a reactor xD

Submitted
Deleted 3 years ago
Developer

Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+2)

As a radiation chemist, I will say that for this game jam I really wanted to do something nuclear themed for this game jam as thermal runaway and meltdown is the ultimate "Out of Control", but I couldn't think of a good way to implement it. I'm glad you found a way to do it!

I like the idea of literally being a neutron (Even if they normally only go in straight lines) and overall it's an interesting idea for a game trying to maintain the power balance. Unfortunately the inverted controls make this one near impossible to play (I turned my mouse around and held it backwards and even then it was very hard) which is a massive shame. I also can't seem to click options on the pause menu or the game over screen?

When restrictions relax I'd really like to see the controls uninverted to be able to focus on the rest of the game.

Developer

So glad you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun doing the research to get this put together. I have two versions of the U 235 atoms that yield either 2 or 3 neutrons when collided with. Originally I kept the fission fragments behind but this was obviously a huge performance leech.
Thanks for the feedback! This is the first game jam I've participated in where I've been eager to continue support of my project after submission. I've left room for new/improved features (control inversion will be supported in the next update, I literally have the flag implemented in this version but never got around to hooking it up haha) as well as different difficulty settings and a more polished camera transition.

Submitted(+2)

I like the visuals, but the controls were really hard to use.

Submitted(+2)

Controls were really difficult to use. But its a cool idea!

Submitted(+1)

Interesting idea. Controls are kinda weird and honestly its a little hard to enjoy but it is unique. 

Developer

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Quite the anxiety-inducing situation you put the player in!

Love the atmosphere, really creative idea!

Submitted(+1)

Really interesting concept, really difficult and complicated game, that and the controls are frustrating (but that's kinda matches the jam's theme). Wish the control was a bit easier.

Developer

Thanks for giving it a shot regardless! It was definitely something I acclimated to after a little bit of time testing it. Though I would have liked to iron it out if I had the time.

Submitted(+1)

Cool theme! Really wracked my brain trying to stay orientated. Good work!

Developer

Thanks for giving it a shot!

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 28 · Previous page · First page