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Godot Version
4.3
Wildcards Used
N/A
Game Description
Space Whale creates planets and cultivates civilizations
How does your game tie into the theme?
Planets undergo metamorphosis through various stages of development
Source(s)
https://github.com/plexsoup/GWJ77-Metamorphosis
Discord Username(s)
plexsoup
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
22
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Comments
Looks like I forgot to include any instructions for the mouse-controls. The Space Whale's acceleration is determined by the distance the mouse cursor is away from the whale. The whale will try to face the mouse cursor, but it's intentionally slippery. (Hard to turn in space.)
Some people are saying the camera is too zoomed in. It zooms out more, based on the speed you're moving, but the default zoom may be too close, making it hard to look around.
Original idea, and cool mechanics with the orbital gravity. It took me a while to get it, but once I did, it was nice to play! Chill sounds too, overall great experience.
very cool idea! so this means floating around and shooting some dirt/seeds/water around is the actual origin of the universe? Who knew!
I agree that the whale movement isn't too easy to control, but the way the game works, this is a non-issue.
Nice!
Thanks for playing!
I liked the vibes and the aesthetics! I also liked the idea, but the controls and goals were a bit confusing. It felt like the gravity screwed up my movements a lot of the time, and I kinda didn't understand why am I going one direction and not another.
I also didn't quite figure how to create civilizations? It would be cool to have some guide or recipes, even if outside of the game, in the game description.
Nice submission overall!
Thanks for playing!
I struggled with how much guidance to provide. Initially I had a bunch more levels with each step spelled out explicitly, but I felt like it was too much hand-holding, like a series of fetch quests which turned into a chore, inducing players to just do the thing as quickly as possible to get to the next level. So I took them out and made it more "do whatever you want."
Perhaps a happy compromise would have been to provide occasional hints or achievements.
Fend off an alien, protect a city from asteroids, etc.
Also, a lot of intended content was cut due to time constraints, fear of introducing new mechanics at the last minute, and developer sanity.
Yep, totally understandable concerns :) Fear of breaking everything the last minute in attempts to improve the game is very real in jams :)
SPACE WHALE
This is pretty awesome
Didn't expect to be playing as god
Darn aliens need to stop messing with my humans
I had a whale of a time.
I created so many first whale'd (world) problems...
Seriously though, fantastic concept, really enjoyed making my little planets, and the movement while floaty gave me a good giggle trying to control him.
Music is nice and chill too. Well done!
Well, this is an original concept that I did not expect haha. The controls were a bit hard to get used to initially and that subtracted from some of the fun. The entire idea of having planets, aliens, and a space whale was insane. It was a nice ambient/sandbox game
This was a pretty neat game! I love being a space whale. When I have kids I will tell them that this is how the universe was created. Also the space whale animations are dope.
Glad your kids will be receiving the best possible education. Don't let anyone tell them otherwise.
Radish: It was really fun. Building planets with dirt is addicting much like in agar.io!
Squirrel: Help! I have created 500 planets! But I finally got to cultivate civilizations :D. I am now well established space whale. Controls are a bit wonky, but manageable.
Well done making so many planets! I agree the controls feel a bit slippery. You can switch to mouse controls by clicking the button in the bottom right corner, but those are even more slippery. I prefer WASD.
Very interesting, and I liked this approach to metamorphosis. I would have liked to have seen a little more guidance/tutorial on the civilization level -I didn't ever figure out what a civilization was, or how to make one (I was assuming it was something to do with birds at the time, but reading the comments it seems it had to do with aliens which I hadn't encountered in my civilization level... so perhaps I was doing something wrong). Also I really liked the cozy vibe with the space whale, the music, and the construction, but I feel that somehow the gravity and the physics engine (sometimes being crushed at the center of a gravity well) worked against that in some way - maybe if whales have some intrinsic ability to phase/ignore gravity when a button is pressed that might ease back into the cozy vibe?
Phase or boost to get the whale out of a jam would be a nice addition. Great idea!
So many interactivity! I didn't expect to see a ball of dirt becoming a planet with atmosphere, clouds, buildings and birds!
with my people being abducted by aliensCongrats on your entry, it was super fun to play! :)Thanks. I wanted much more interactivity and events and behaviours, but .. ambition often exceeds time and ability.
interesting physics
Interesting game.... Not sure I entirely understand it, but I made some big trees on some planets! I really like the whale controls, reminded me of an old game called Starwhal!
Thanks for playing. You probably understood it well enough. :) It's my attempt at making an ambient game with no hit points or death or brain-melting puzzles. Just fly around and have fun.
Well then mission accomplished, nice work
I had fun with this one. It was a little unclear at first that I could switch between the dirt, seed and water, but once I figured it out I enjoyed flying around and watching things bounce together. The gravity pull was especially fun. I think more sound effects for things bouncing into each other or the water interacting with the plants could be a fun addition.
Aw dang. I missed adding audio sFX to water hitting plants. Good catch! That one should have been the first effect I added. Oh well. Post-jam, Easy fix.
I love audio feedback for interactions
Nice relaxing game. Gameplay and calm music left me wanting more!
I think the last stage bugged for me, as I did not create any civilization (not sure how yet - something to do with Aliens?), only entered the black hole looking thing and then it completed (went to "thanks 4 playing" level)
I like the sandbox gameplay - some more polish and a couple more objects added for variety and you could release it as some kind of puzzle game, or maybe just a pure sandbox.
Thanks. Not exactly a bug, but I can see why it felt that way. I left the black hole portals to the next level in because I wanted players to be able to advance even if they couldn't figure out what to do. But, I see now that might have been a mistake.