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A jam submission

AstronominiView game page

Asynchronous multiplayer space exploration adventure to name all the constellations of the universe!
Submitted by Moon Tile, Coding4rtist (@coding4rtist) — 7 minutes, 15 seconds before the deadline
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Astronomini's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Adheres to jam theme#74.5454.545
Overall#124.1824.182
Presentation (visuals)#184.2734.273
Concept (gameplay)#383.7273.727

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Strangely, this is the one I keep coming back to. Maybe it's the virtual-multiplayer aspect and I want to see the constellations found, maybe it's all the potential the game has to become really really good?

Anyways, some food for thought:

Allowing players to view already-found constellations in a menu, along with their coordinates so they could go and find them.

Maybe persistent locations, your location updated every time you land to refuel, so there is more permanence to where you are, and you can maintain one consistent play session, stepping back only a little bit whenever you make a mistake and explode on a planet or a black hole.

Probably reducing the planet frequency, so space is less dense, and perhaps organizing planets into orbits around stars, though that would get in the way of the "find constellations" gameplay mechanic, like, a lot...

And definitely adjust how the camera zooms, to give the player more information when they're flying around the cosmos, hah!

Bug: The camera seems to not do anything special when the player is frozen and allowed to name the constellation, so if you hit the last star fast enough, away from the center of the constellation, you'll be frozen outside of its "zoom out to view me" zone, and be forced to name a constellation you can't see!! I'd rather the camera be specially forced to focus on the constellation while the player is frozen, on top of the ordinary dynamic "zoom out to view me" behavior when you fly by a previously-discovered constellation.

Developer(+1)

We're really thrilled that you enjoyed the game!

Your ideas and feedback are greatly appreciated, and we assure you that we're seriously considering implementing some of them. However, we won't spoil the surprises just yet :P

Regarding updates on the game, after the jam ends, we plan to release a first update that includes the WebGL version and several improvements, such as enhanced control and camera systems.
Additionally, we're excited to share a blog post with some sneak peeks of what's to come in a future version of the game, which will bring many exciting new features and enhancements. Stay tuned for more news and thank you for being a part of our intergalactic journey!

Submitted(+1)

This game made me rage so hard... ^^'

The presentation & the uses of the assets are really on spot & give a real atmosphere to this game.
And the whole concept on exploring constelation to leave you name in there really hooked me right away & fit the theme perfectly.

Unfortunatly the very hight gravity & lack of visibility (I don't know why you zoom in as soon as you launch from a planet...) made it near to impossible for me to accomplish anything in there. I kept ending up crashing into planets i didn't even know where there...
So eventually, I just closed the game out of frustration...

Which is too bad, because with some little tweaks to make it a bit easier to handle I could definetly see myself spend way too much time in there ^^

Hope you udpate/expend it after the jam. You got a really cool concept there.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback! I'm sorry for the frustration.
Indeed, in the current version, it can be quite challenging not to crash and it takes some time to get used to the controls. We're already working on improving the control system and the camera, and by the end of the jam, there will be a first update with these fixes, as well as adding the WebGL verison.

Additionally, we're considering releasing a more complete version of the game later, with a difficulty progression curve and many new features, so that everyone can enjoy and explore the universe!

Submitted(+1)

Presentation is top! And the theme was nicely respected. And making a multiplayer game in 2 days deserves nothing but praises! But I have some criticism to say for that game. I believe the Camera to be too zoomed in and that there is either, way too many planets, or, the gravity is way too violent.

But the concept is really really cute. And since I really like that concept and you seems to want this to be a long term project. I'm gonna be a bit presumptuous and try proposing a different approach to that idea.

I believe the gameplay is too energetic and the scale is way too big for that game to work as intended. The chance of finding someone's constellation are really low! Perhaps having a gallery with all constellation that have been found with some sort of "like" system could work best. As for the "Explore the cosmos together"... I felt a bit lonely in that game. The only thing that reminded I was in a multiplayer game was the "last constellation found" above my screen. Having a minimap with arrows pointing to player's constellations and/or other player could maybe work best. I'd say scrap that gravity mayhem and replace that with another less tiring gameplay loop with a tchat system.
I think you could get some inspiration from that game https://ynoproject.net/2kki/ You explore a dream world with your friend which is a similar setting in a way.

I wish you the best with that game!

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you! :D

You are not presumptuous at all! On the contrary, we are actively thinking and searching for ideas to improve the game!

So thank you very much for the feedback, for the ideas, and for the reference! This is exactly what we are looking for! :)

Submitted (1 edit)

I just got reminded of another game which made exploration and multiplayer a perfect mariage.
Play Sky Children Of The Light. It's a MMO version of The Journey and the communication of this game could maybe be put in your game as well!

Submitted(+1)

Not being able to see far enough in front or around you hurts the experience, in my eyes. It's a solid game otherwise (yea, perhaps too many planets scattered about), just that it's hard to last for very long when I'm almost literally blindly stumbling around the galaxy...

Seeing the warping visual effect around the black holes was refreshing- I don't see that sort of warping capability that shaders can do leveraged all that often- but the way it twists the view doesn't seem right, and the way the gravity amps up really quickly also doesn't seem quite right. I've been trying to orbit one for a while now and it's just not happening!

Submitted

Oh, one last thing! The warping applied to textures to make planets isn't quite right either, it's too stretched in the middle, it doesn't mimic a perfect sphere made out of the texture

Developer

Thank you!

We are aware that there are a lot of things we can do to improve the experience!

These kinds of feedback are what we are looking for, so thank you for spending your time writing this detailed review, this helps us a lot!! :D

Submitted(+1)

This was a surprise! Nicely executed, good attention to detail with the UI and the animations, the controls are a bit hard but it adds to the challenge. Nothing like almost crashing head-first into a planet when you're just missing the last star in a constellation :D The feeling of exploration is there, it gets pretty addicting too

Developer

Thank you! :D :D

Maybe we made it a little bit too challenging, but we are happy that, for someone at least, it was the right amount!

It highly depends on the person playing, so we hope that we can improve on that making a better progression curve.

Submitted(+2)

First of all, thanks for the mac build. Great polished game. No need to criticize!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! :D

We hoped to do a WebGL build but we faced some last-minute problems, so the least we can do was to build for every operating system we had. :)

Submitted(+2)

It's very bold - and impressive - to create a game with multiplayer elements in a game jam, but you know what, it paid off. I really love the whole concept and driving the ship around while trying not to crash was very fun. May my constellation Pizza Pasta 2 ElectricBoogaloo live on for eternity.

Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone else's constellations. The map seems to be too big considering the player count.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, the universe is huge, with over 10000 constellations! We would love for this to be a long-term project, where it takes a considerable amount of time and collaboration from many people to complete the entire universe.

Thank you for being part of our journey through the cosmos!

(+2)

Good work! Your game is fun!
5 stars !

Developer

Thanks a lot!

Submitted (2 edits) (+2)

The gravity is too high. Otherwise, great game!

EDIT: it's ok for the gravity to be that high when trying to land, because it adds to the challenge. You could even make it so that turning the ship consume fuel, then you have to manage that resource if you want to do a successful landing. But I found it frustrating to always be pulled toward a planet outside of the view. 

EDIT 2: maybe reduce the number of planets? That could do the trick. Anyway, I really liked your game. Can't thank you enough for doing a MacOS export. :D

Developer

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Your suggestion about fuel management for turning the ship sounds interesting, we'll explore it further. Thank you for playing! :)