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Smaller System's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #8 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Audio | #12 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #16 | 3.525 | 3.525 |
| Graphics | #16 | 3.700 | 3.700 |
| Theme | #22 | 3.700 | 3.700 |
| Controls | #23 | 3.300 | 3.300 |
| Originality | #36 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
Godot 3.2.2
Source
Little sloppy, DM me on Discord if you'd like it
Game Description
3D space shooter based in a small solar system featuring destructible planets. Destroy all the targets on each planet!
Discord Username
Minic#0480
Participation Level (GWJ)
First time participant.
Jam Time!
Yes indeed :)
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Comments
Whoa.This is awesome!! Super satisfying to play. Gameplay is good. Controls are good. everything is pretty much top notch. Sound effects are the best. It gives you a feeling of an actual space ships or something.
I wish it had the option to change background music or something. coz it was bit too hyper for me. but it's still really goood.
Very happy to hear you found it satisfying to play. Appreciate all the kind words!
About the music, it can be muted on the title screen. Just click the music note icon in the bottom left... I probably should of made that a bit more obvious, oops!
Thank you for the feedback, I will make it a priority for interactive UI elements to be more obvious in the future.
That was a lot of fun, I gotta say! I wasn't sure what to expect at first, then I wrecked all teh planets lol. One suggestion I would make is having strafe controls. Maybe [A] and [D] for strafe left and right respectively, and having [Q] and [E] to control the roll. Regardless, awesome game!
So glad you enjoyed it! Bit of a tangent here, but I'm personally trying to learn more about game design and the human element. Why do we play games? What do players find value in? What makes them fun? etc. It seems simple on the surface but, it is a vastly deep subject. I'm so happy to hear you found it fun. That was my intention, I think I'm starting to get it.
About the controls, yeah I sort of prefer 6DoF space flight myself, but what you suggest with just strafing could be a decent middle ground. Will have to see how it translates to controller as well, if I ever do another space game.
Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback!
Fun is different for everyone too. So that just complicates the process more. You as a dev try to objectively create fun, but as a player we subjectively find it fun or not. Keep up the search, I think you definitely have your heart in the right place. Thanks for the reply Minic!
Really fun, it was also super satisfying to destroy the planets. The only problem iIran into is that it seems like the controls are really loose, I would move my mouse a little and the space ship would spin alot. Either way great space game !
Thank you! I'm glad you found it fun! I specifically tried to make it feel great to blow stuff up, happy you found it satisfying.
About the controls, I'm curious since I'm new to Godot. Do you have a high DPI mouse? Was your frame rate a little low? Does my default sensitivity just suck? XD
Would like to determine the issue if possible. Regardless though, thank you again.
This was quite fun! Finicky controls, but I've not played many space type games, so I could be wrong. I think having some sort of glide to the sides or up and down would've been nice to see. Nice sound effects!
Ah yes, what you're referring to is 6DoF (6 degrees of freedom), similar to Elite Dangerous for instance.
I actually thought about it while developing the controls. However I figured that may be too advanced for some players, and decided to go with the more simplified 3DoF system, like No Man's Sky.
Regarding the sound effects, I only pulled a couple from freesound. Most of it was made with a triple oscillator, or just simple Audacity generators + effects.
I'm glad you found it fun, and appreciate seeing a 6DoF related control comment. For some people that style just feels right, for others it can take a long time to get accustomed to. Regardless, thank you for the feedback!
Ah, yeah, I was actually thinking of ED typing that haha. Had no idea it had a name.
I really like this! The controls are a little fiddly but not far off being right. I could easily see this expanded into a full game.
Really glad you enjoyed it! About the controls, I don't think it's possible to get perfect for any given player without adding sensitivity sliders as well. Should a similar situation arise in the future it's very likely I will include them. Let people decide what feels right for them. Never a bad thing.
Regarding expanding it into a full game. I really appreciate the comment... However it's not a game I would like to make. It was made purely for the jam. Both to become more experienced with Godot, and also learn from the valuable feedback I am receiving.
Should yourself or anyone else like to expand upon it, let me know, it's all yours! XD
Honestly I wouldn't mind taking a peek at how you implemented the flight controls. My last attempt at a flight sim was all kinds of wonky.
Great work, it's a nice shooter game, I really like the graphics and though the controls may be difficult to get used to at first but it's nice, it feels like I'm actually piloting an actual spaceship, lol. Nice entry for a first game jam.
I agree the controls may take some getting used to. In hindsight going for a genre many aren't familiar with might not of been the best approach... The genre is somewhat familiar to me. However that doesn't mean everyone else is too! It was just the inital concept I had, and that early on I wasn't thinking along those lines. Gives me more to consider upfront for the next jam.
I'm glad you were able to adapt to it though, and I appreciate the kind words. Thank you!
This was fun! Very nice spaceship navigation. I couldn't figure out the controls on keyboard so I plugged in my controller and it was a really nice experience! Thanks for sharing!!
Really appreciate it! Glad you found playing with a controller to be ideal. I knew some may find it difficult to play with keyboard and mouse. However, I figured most of us probably have a controller laying around, and it took very little time to implement. Happy to hear it's use came to fruition. Thank you.
Nice game, the main menu is really great, everything looks in the right place, also I love the wave effect on the title, well done.
At first it was difficult to figure out the right keys to control the ship, maybe add the controls in the description and later in the game menu? just an idea, but overall experience is good
The wave effect on the title screen mesh is just a vertex shader. As well as the effect for the sun too. Both are very simple, but can be used to great effect.
I agree with the control situation. For a genre many people may not be familiar with it would be wise to include the controls in game somewhere. I assumed including them on the games itch.io page would be sufficient. However I didn't realize the game could be download from the entry page too, bypassing the itch.io page... oops. Now I know.
Really glad to hear you enjoyed it otherwise, thank you!
Shooting planets and turrets was surprisingly fun lol. I enjoyed it very much.
The controls took some time to get used to tho. I wish there was some sort of instructions tab or tutorial tab at the main menu. Because in my first 30 seconds I was just shooting the planets in front of me, then realized I could actually move.
And the music you chose was nice. Just 3 seconds into startup and I was vibing with the song already.
Overall, great job!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I tried to make blowing stuff up feel very rewarding.
I considered including a quick info-graphic of the games controls, but... time. Instead I decided to list them on the games itch page. I should of made that a bit more clear.
Glad you enjoyed the music as well, the choice was quite rushed from a limited selection. Then further cut down and looped. That said I liked the track myself, so I figured perhaps someone else would too.
Thank you for playing and the kind words!
Nice game! I finally beat after a couple splosions learning to finesse the controls, but after that it went pretty well and I enjoyed clearing the tiny planets. I had a fun time flying around since even though I know Space is big, it's fun flying from planet to planet "arcade-style". great entry, especially since you are new to Godot.
Thank you! I agree the controls take some getting used to if you aren't very familiar with the genre, but for most people it tends to click after a couple deaths. Really glad to hear you beat it, and enjoyed it too! I tried to keep it pretty short because I knew everyone has other games to rate as well :)
Indeed I am new to Godot, but I have a lot of experience with other engines. Plus I've been developing in Python for a very long time. GDScript was basically second nature to me, I just had to learn the Godot API and how things should be structured.
Very smooth controls. The visuals are great too. It's a challenging game, or I'm just not very good at playing it. But hey challenging is not a bad thing. I'm impressed.
Thank you for the feedback on the difficulty. Getting balance tuned in games is one of the hardest aspects I find. Go too hard and its Dark Souls, too easy and there is no challenge what-so-ever. Combined with players skill sets varying so greatly. It's hard to get right.
I intended for it to be a challenge, but not too frustrating or unfair. I find that if you take a bit of strategy into the approach it helps immensely. Approach from the safest angle, use other planets for cover, retreat and wait for shield to recharge, etc...
All that said perhaps next time I will err on the side of being a bit easier. When I first implemented the AI being able to calculate a shot intercept vector. My initial reaction was "wow, they're pretty relentless"... That should of given me a clue into their difficulty. In the future I will listen more carefully to that instinct.
Very impressive! The controls feel right and the look and feel is very cohesive.
Thank you for the kind words! I've only used Godot for 2 weeks, and never made a 3D space game like this before. Initially the idea seemed a bit ambitious for the jam, but I got the core mechanics down in only a few days and decided to press on.
Much of the time spent was learning "the Godot way" of doing things. I very much enjoyed it though. It's a great engine, small yet powerful. I plan to continue using it in the future. Hopefully someday I'll be able to offer improvements to it. Once I have a stronger grasp of its capabilities, and more importantly what it's lacking.
The controllers and the tunnel vision got me a little dizzy, but that's on me for not being much into space shooters haha. Very nice game, it's just missing a way to refill your missiles. I liked the fact that you have a rechargeable shield before the ship hull can be hit.
Little dizzy wow. That wasn't my intention, sorry! Interesting though, something lesser thought of to consider during development.
By mistake I initially had the laser rigid bodies collide with the ship, which caused you to spin violently out of control. I thought it was pretty funny. However it made the ship extremely hard to control and clearly wasn't intended.
About the missles... Yeah, that was a bit of an oversight. No one mentioned it during play testing so I assumed it wouldn't be an issue. My mistake.
Appreciate the feedback, especially regarding the dizzy aspect. I personally play lots of VR games and rarely if ever get dizzy, even in extreme situations. I hadn't really considered it in a desktop game. Valuable perspective, thank you!
Even though the controls are super smooth, I'm so bad at piloting the ship lol. I couldn't get more than two planets cleared and sometimes got lost in space, idk if more distinguishing landmarks could have helped or not because I have horrible spatial awareness. Is there a way to gain more missiles if someone like me can't aim and shoots the whole load of them? Overall, I feel like this is a solid spaceship shooter. I don't really have much else to critique here.
There currently isn't a way to acquire more missles. I thought about having the buildings drop them, and having the dropped missles tween to your ship, but I had a few people play test it and no one mentioned running out of missles. Bit of an oversight I suppose... oops xD
The spatial awareness is an issue I ran into personally. It can be difficult to reorient yourself. I thought about adding a 3D map in the cockpit. However I didn't account for that in my original time budget. I maybe could of pulled it off, but instead spent the extra unallocated time polishing up some things. Next time I'll consider game play over polish, should a similar situation present itself.
Thank you for your feedback. It's extremely valuable in learning to develop quality games!
Depending on the time constraints, if not a lot of other people have the same issues as I did with the missile count and the orientation, then maybe it would be better to spend the time on polish, which will make the game better for a lot of people, rather than adding/fixing something that only someone like me would find beneficial. Idk. It's up to you.
Fair point, however for me this is all a learning experience. I personally value any and all criticism. Even more-so if it has merit. I believe yours does.
I don't just want to learn to develop games, that's the easy part. I want to learn to develop GREAT games. Other gamers insight is extremely important for that to occur.
In hindsight, I feel the additional features would of helped more than the polish did in this case. Ultimately though, a great game needs both :)