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A jam submission

UniveriaView game page

Learn how to make atoms by assembling elementary particles
Submitted by LaCrearthur (@LaCreArthur) — 1 minute, 20 seconds before the deadline
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Univeria's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio#304.0004.000
Graphics#1084.1004.100
Overall#2233.5833.583
Innovation#2623.5003.500
Game Design#3263.5003.500
Theme#4023.6003.600
Fun#9122.8002.800

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

In what way does your game fit the theme?
The attractive bound between Quarks and Gluons is called the Strong Force, isn't that cool ? =P

Did you write all the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes

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Comments

Developer (1 edit)

Hey guys, many of you struggled to see the point of the game, I should have make it clearer, so I updated the description page : 

Based on real elementary physic interactions, this game let you control any sub-atomic particles in the originel Quark-Gluon Plasma, less than 1 microsecond after the Big-Bang. Your "goal" is to learn how to bound together quarks, gluons and nucleons to make more complex particles. 

PS [SPOILER]: For this build, the game is over if you succeed in creating a Hydrogen Atom (make a Proton and catch an electron)

Submitted(+1)

Like the initial vibe, would have loved an audio setting. I was only flying around and taking in the atmosphere and watching the little ball's do their ding as I could not figure out what to do with them. The crosshair also did not match the actual collision point, which brings me to the second flaw for me, it was very hard to determine where your player/3dCursor was when there where no movement particles around.

To bad your final build for the jam failed though. Well it happens.

All in all, I liked the style and overall vibe.


ps. In unity try to catch your mouse next time when having a free look feature, as soon as the mouse leaves the focus window of your game the control to look around is gone.

Developer

Thanks for taking the time to write this feedback ! 

I've fixed the free look issue and the 3D orientation and a lot of other bugs (disappearing particles, collision not working properly) already and will publish the update once the rating period is over(to be fair with the submission). Also the visuals are clearer and there are more interactions around you to learn from. 

I really want to keep the discovery / goal free experience for the player to learn by experimenting, but also don't want it to be frustrating as you describe, what do you suggest me to do ?

Submitted(+1)

Perhaps people can view some sort of "recipe" book. In which combinations are still hidden and they can unlock as soon as they find a viable combination. The silhouettes of the hidden particles could give the player a hint on which particles they would need to combine and unlocking particle combinations visualizes them in the book, making more locked combinations available. That way you keep the awesome free spirit of your current style, but give the player an option to "find" the right path when needed.

Developer (1 edit)

very good ideas and some of them I had in mind already, thanks a lot !

Submitted

I personally think that this type of game is kind of cool, but it wouldn't be fun for the average gamer. It just doesn't have a clear goal, and knowing which things would combine with others. It just got a bit frustrating. Still a cool concept and a pretty good game.

Developer

I understand your frustration but not having a clear goal is not an issue for gamers since Minecraft is one of the biggest game out there and (not until the enderdragon update) had no goals. 

I really want to keep the discovery / goal free experience for the player to learn by experimenting, but also don't want it to be frustrating as you describe, what do you suggest me to do ?

Submitted(+1)

I like the artstyle.
The particles fit the galaxy environment and I like how they suround the bigger particles.

The music is great and gives good vibes.

The theme "Stronger Together" fits your game very well.


If i got it right, then the goal in your game is to combine as many particles as possible without destroying it. But I don't really see a reason for it.
It would be cool if you would have a little collection menu where you can see all the diffrent types of combinations you can do and which one of these you already had.
That way you would have a small goal of trying out all these variations of combining particles.

A little mainmenu might have been nice to have.
In the mainmenu you could then also add a little library of the diffrent types of particles.

I hope this little feedback was usefull and I wish you a lot of fun creating games in the future.
(and sry that I'm not very good at writing feedback o.o)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for taking the time to write this feedback ! Very well detailed and valuable.

I've really overshoot the scope for this one, my bad. I'm working on a collection menu with an info panel for each discovery to learn more about them, and will publish the update once the rating period is over(to be fair with the submission). 

Also the original end-goal idea is to create more and more complex particles; going from elementary ones to atoms, to chemical molecules and so on until planets and galaxies ! I really want to keep the discovery / goal free experience for the player to learn by experimenting, but also don't want the to feel lost as you describe, what do you suggest me to do ?

PS: You can unlock the end-screen in the game by creating a Hydrogen Atom (create a Proton and catch an electron) but the proton creation is buggy in the submitted build, you'll have to wait my update (already fixed it)

Submitted

Very cool game! The music is awesome!

Developer

Thanks !

Submitted

The graphics are cool!

Submitted

Really innovative concept, although the goal is not super obvious. The soundtrack suits the atmosphere well and your itchi page looks great.
We actually had a similar problem with the WebGL build of our game too. :/

Developer

Thanks for the feedback :). It has a intended goal-free setting but I get you and should make a clear introduction about this fact !
Dude WebGL build error are the worst ! Everything was working great on editor. But my bad, I needed to build and test earlier :/

Submitted (1 edit)

So I played the fixed version, but I wasn't too sure what to do. I captured a Gluon but I wasn't really sure what to do with it since the goals aren't very clear in-game. It's cool being able to move in all directions and be surrounded by a galaxy, but it also means that I'm not really sure where to go next. Also the mouse sensitivity disoriented me. While I couldn't figure out the gameplay, the art and sound track were great of what I played, I liked the feeling of floating in space and the cover art is great!


(also the formatting of your itch page is top notch, might cop ngl)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback ! :) 

It is intentional as a discovery goal-free game so you are supposed to find by yourself. Yet I understand you because I didn't had suffisant time to make the experience  as playable and enjoyable as originally planned. 

I will make adjustment updates and bugfixes today and this week though :)

(Spoiler alert) gluons can bound to quarks if their color (or anti-color) match, then you can bind quark together if they are of pairing colors, then I stop there for the spoil and invite you to check Wikipedia on how a nucleon is made :)

Submitted(+1)

Ah okay, in that case it might be good to give the player a tutorial on how each of these atoms looks, since even if I went on Wikipedia and knew how a nucleon was made, I wouldn't know what that visually translates to in the game

Developer

But how would you make it clearer when it already shows you the name and color of particles when you select them, while keeping a non-guided discovering vibe ?

Submitted(+1)

Nice game. I so like the graphics. Thank you. Gl in your next projects <3

Developer (2 edits)

Thanks for not playing my game, the build was broken, and I just upload the fix on a new page (https://lacrearthur.itch.io/univeria) ... As such I will not play yours :) But I bet it has amazing graphics too <3

Developer

Hey guys, thanks for checking on my game, here is the link to play on web : https://lacrearthur.itch.io/univeria Enjoy and relax in this open space game :)