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A jam submission

Orbital TraversalView game page

Exploit or battle the laws of physics.
Submitted by blusails — 14 days, 19 hours before the deadline
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Orbital Traversal's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
IDEA | Was this game innovative, or did it use interesting mechanics?#84.1004.100
Overall#163.6803.680
MOOD | Did this game have atmosphere, or did it make you feel something?#233.6003.600
AUDIO | Did this game have great music or sound design?#233.4003.400
FUN | Was this game satisfying to play or did it bring you joy?#253.6003.600
VISUALS | Did this game have nice graphics, art or design?#283.7003.700

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

How long has this Project been going?
A couple of weeks, since about the beginning of the year.

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Comments

Submitted

Very nice! I hope you guys are familiar with Gravitar, by Atari - it's basically the same idea.

One minor point: the tutorial has a part where it says "assert". Wouldn't it be "exert"?

Developer(+1)

Thanks! also that's a quality edit, it doesn't make much sense for a planet to assert gravity.... I will fix that in the next build - this list is getting long.  I can't imagine edits on a big game.

Submitted(+1)

Whoa, like a harder version of moon lander, nice!  For me just starting out in the game, I felt that the gravitational pull and overall speed from short mouse click bursts could have been lower, giving me more time to adapt. Also, a low-fuel warning would be appreciated - wouldn't notice until it was too late. Regardless, good luck on Android!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I think while play-testing I got way to used to this game so I may have it dialed in to a super hard difficulty level.  Maybe I should add a difficulty option which lowers the all the forces on easy to slow everything down?  I don't know why but I wanted this game to be really hard haha -  I will definitely dial it back a bit.

Submitted

Ooo, the equivalent of a slo-mo easy mode with lower forces would be great for beginners. If it's anything like Moon Lander, it might even add to the tension being able to watch the fuel gauge wind down.

Developer(+1)

I've updated the game to include 3 difficulty levels which scale the ships mass, gravity and rocket force to slow the game down and give more control on easy and medium difficulty.  The hard or "starbuck" mode is the same as the original.  Also I quickly forced the fuel text to change to red at 20%.  Thanks again for your input! If you get a change let me know if this is the balance you were advocating.  

Submitted

Sure is! Far more accessible now.

Submitted

I was using a mouse and it never felt like I was in control.  It might work better using touch.  It looks and sound very nice though.

Developer

Thanks for playing! The touch version should play nearly identical to the mouse one haha... But I appreciate your optimism.

Jam JudgeSubmitted

I like these puzzles :) I feel like the gravitation and acceleration needs a bit of fine-tuning. Often I got pulled into planets, and it didn't feel ike there was a way for me to react anymore. 

Developer

Thanks for playing! There are certainly "points of no return" on the maps where you get sucked in.  The easiest way to balance this is to make the ship's rocket more powerful.  The only issue with that is that at a certain point the ship can go wherever it wants and the primary gravity mechanic becomes a slight novelty.  Where there particular levels you felt this way?  I'm sure each level could use some tweaking.  Though in orbital mechanics you really are at the mercy of the the planetary body you are near and have to work with those forces.  Perhaps I should include more tutorial.  Thanks again!

Developer

I added a few different difficulty levels if you are interested in another go you may feel the game is more balanced on easy ("ensign") or medium("astrostylist").  Thanks again!

This is a very cool idea! I think a stylized font would add to the immersion, but very nice job on this game. The music is beautiful by the way, did you make it?

Developer(+1)

Thanks! I love the music I wish I made it, but all credit goes to The Cynic Project / cynicmusic.com / pixelsphere.org.  I will certainly toy with the fonts on the next iteration.

Developer(+1)

If you have time to take a second look I took your advice and updated the fonts, I think it helped alot! Thanks!

(+1)

I can’t  wait to play it, but I’m not at my computer right now. I’ll definitely check it out tomorrow!

(+1)

I played it, that looks really good! Playing it again, this game is fun and challenging enough so that I want to play it over to complete the level. Nice job.