Great job submitting a game and congrats placing second overall! This game is literally near endless entertainment. I cannot believe that this is a game made in two weeks and with general Nokia restrictions.
The visuals are stunning, such a great use of dithering. The characters have great personality in both their portraits, dialogue and sound. I like how aspects of the game are explained as they come up instead of being an upfront info dump. It keeps learning the game more manageable.
Mixing and matching upgrades is so fun. My favorite combo was grav wells on either side of the exit with a max strength beam sending huge clumps of people up at a time. The fist, springs, hammer, and not to forget the wrecking ball are hilarious especially when used in combination with each other and other upgrades. Sound in general was used very effectively.
Awesome to see that you had given it a post jam update. Good work and thanks for participating!
This feels too frantic to me. I was constantly trying to get a feel for how the individual mechanics work while the whole time just hearing the sound of humans escaping every so often with not much I could do about it. Then by the time I saw what the other items did they were in terrible spots.
Also the battery applying to non-electric objects seems weird.
We purposefully made missing humans only detract 10 credits vs 24/50 for harvesting them, additionally your score can never go below zero , so you should feel pretty comfortable experimenting with different items!
Also, genuinely not sure what you mean by "non-electric" items consuming battery... all items are being deployed by a UFO and would conceivably consume energy to use.
The items I used were the tractor beam, the gravity well, the spring and the board. The tractor beam is continuous and a part of the ship, so it makes sense that it would use the ship's energy the whole time. The gravity is clearly self-sustaining, but it makes sense to need energy to set it up. However, the spring and the board both look like they're just being dropped. How does opening a hatch use more of the ship's energy than just moving around? Also, on a game mechanics level, what is the point to making the placement of automation items use the same resource as the tractor beam to begin with, especially when they're already their own limited resource?
Well, the real reason that the items take up battery is because we didn't want people spamming the "drop spring" button since springs kill on impact. We decided against using individual ammo indicators for each item since we wanted it to be a more streamlined, arcadey experience. But if it helps, just imagine that when you are spawning a spring or a girder the ship is fabricating them with an advanced 3d printer that takes up a lot of energy.
Very cool game! I'm amazed by just how much detail you squeezed out of such a limited resolution and colour palette. The dialogue to explain the story and mechanics was a nice touch (though perhaps there could be a way to skip through it faster). Dragging the humans into the ship is quite satisfying. The variety of upgrades is cool, though I didn't feel the need to use a lot of them. Stat boosts aside, I only really used the spring and grav well.
The presentation on this one is insane. Great art and feel, funny too. Top-tier entry for sure.
Wasn’t certain what the oil slick did or how to make good use of the floor objects, but the automation was a really cool hook. I felt rather proud of myself when I could just spring guys into grav traps above the exit door, and launch them up to the mothership with a light touch of the tractor beam every so often.
Buying ‘go home’ didn’t seem to trigger an ending, not sure what that pricey wrecking ball purchase did either.
Comments
Great job submitting a game and congrats placing second overall! This game is literally near endless entertainment. I cannot believe that this is a game made in two weeks and with general Nokia restrictions.
The visuals are stunning, such a great use of dithering. The characters have great personality in both their portraits, dialogue and sound. I like how aspects of the game are explained as they come up instead of being an upfront info dump. It keeps learning the game more manageable.
Mixing and matching upgrades is so fun. My favorite combo was grav wells on either side of the exit with a max strength beam sending huge clumps of people up at a time. The fist, springs, hammer, and not to forget the wrecking ball are hilarious especially when used in combination with each other and other upgrades. Sound in general was used very effectively.
Awesome to see that you had given it a post jam update. Good work and thanks for participating!
This feels too frantic to me. I was constantly trying to get a feel for how the individual mechanics work while the whole time just hearing the sound of humans escaping every so often with not much I could do about it. Then by the time I saw what the other items did they were in terrible spots.
Also the battery applying to non-electric objects seems weird.
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback!
We purposefully made missing humans only detract 10 credits vs 24/50 for harvesting them, additionally your score can never go below zero , so you should feel pretty comfortable experimenting with different items!
Also, genuinely not sure what you mean by "non-electric" items consuming battery... all items are being deployed by a UFO and would conceivably consume energy to use.
The items I used were the tractor beam, the gravity well, the spring and the board. The tractor beam is continuous and a part of the ship, so it makes sense that it would use the ship's energy the whole time. The gravity is clearly self-sustaining, but it makes sense to need energy to set it up. However, the spring and the board both look like they're just being dropped. How does opening a hatch use more of the ship's energy than just moving around? Also, on a game mechanics level, what is the point to making the placement of automation items use the same resource as the tractor beam to begin with, especially when they're already their own limited resource?
Well, the real reason that the items take up battery is because we didn't want people spamming the "drop spring" button since springs kill on impact. We decided against using individual ammo indicators for each item since we wanted it to be a more streamlined, arcadey experience. But if it helps, just imagine that when you are spawning a spring or a girder the ship is fabricating them with an advanced 3d printer that takes up a lot of energy.
Very cool game! I'm amazed by just how much detail you squeezed out of such a limited resolution and colour palette. The dialogue to explain the story and mechanics was a nice touch (though perhaps there could be a way to skip through it faster). Dragging the humans into the ship is quite satisfying. The variety of upgrades is cool, though I didn't feel the need to use a lot of them. Stat boosts aside, I only really used the spring and grav well.
Very neat game! I included it in my Nokia 3310 Jam 4 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :)
The presentation on this one is insane. Great art and feel, funny too. Top-tier entry for sure.
Wasn’t certain what the oil slick did or how to make good use of the floor objects, but the automation was a really cool hook. I felt rather proud of myself when I could just spring guys into grav traps above the exit door, and launch them up to the mothership with a light touch of the tractor beam every so often.
Buying ‘go home’ didn’t seem to trigger an ending, not sure what that pricey wrecking ball purchase did either.
Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback!
The “Go Home” item should have unlocked an item in your inventory that you had to then “use” to trigger the ending.
Ah, haha, probably should have cycled through my tools again, but I was in a bit of a hurry. Maybe next time.
Best game in the jam Ive played so far, main gravity mechanic feels weighty, the art is dope, and a good variety in the upgrades. Nice work.