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Dioretsa's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #1300 | 3.326 | 3.326 |
| Creativity | #1755 | 3.488 | 3.488 |
| Overall | #2032 | 3.248 | 3.248 |
| Presentation | #2943 | 2.930 | 2.930 |
Ranked from 43 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Asteroids, but you control the asteroids, not the ship
Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?
Yes
We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam
Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?
No
We used pre-existing audio
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Comments
Very nostalgic. Good idea.
Thank you! I considered a couple ideas before this one, but in the end I decided that this one was both interesting, and something that I could reasonably pull of in only 48 hours. Glad you liked it!
Cool concept, wish it was a little bit faster and that the asteroids didn't have air-drag (slowdown) when throwing them onto the field, but the idea is super solid and fun!
Thank you for the feedback!
I added the physics drag because without it, you could get the asteroids moving super fast when you threw them which made it too easy to hit the AI before it could react. However, I probably could have made the throwing feel less sluggish while still having a speed limit if I had used a more custom solution (Maybe no speed limit outside the arena, but immediately slow the asteroids down as soon as they enter it? Maybe only apply drag above a certain speed?). If I had more time to playtest, that is something I would have experimented with.
Nice one, great idea! Just one point... the asteroid dragging was kind of slow for me and the shooting sound was a bit too often & repetetive, so I switched off the sound after a bit. Other than that, I enjoyed it much!
Thanks for the feedback!
In regards to the asteroid dragging, I needed some way to enforce a speed limit, or else it would be too easy to throw the asteroids too quickly for the AI to react to. I used built-in physics drag, but I probably could have made things feel nicer to throw while still having a reasonable speed limit with a more custom solution.
In regards to the sounds, I tried to pick a sound that wasn't too obnoxious, but sound was one of the last things I added and it was like 5AM before the deadline, so I was super tired. I probably could have done a better job with the sounds if I wasn't so tired. Usually, I'd try to record my own SFX instead of using other audio packs, but the time limit got in my way.
A delightful twist on a classic formula. The AI was quite a good shot. Think one thing it could use is a little more emphasis on where the asteroids are gonna pop up from off screen. Dig it so far though.
Thank you for the feedback! Yeah, spotting the new steroids is definitely an issue. If I had more time to playtest, I might've made them bigger or a different color.
Quite a similar concept to our jam entry, nice work! I would say the asteroids blend in a bit with the background too much
Yeah. The small ones especially can be quite hard to spot, and that's something I'd improve if I spent more time refining this game.
The AI was surprisingly good at getting my best attempts out of the way ! Great job :)
Thank you! Getting it working to any significant level was a challenge. I still would've liked to push it further, but I'm glad my efforts weren't wasted.
Im pretty impressed with how smart the ai player moves in this one and its more impressive that this is all done by one developer too. I think the hitbox for the small asteroids can ruin the hurling momentum throughout the game especially since i want to launch all those asteroids at once.
I manage to circumvent this by piling up the asteroids first and knowing them all at once with the big asteroid. Oh speaking of asteroid collision, it was elegant and well done, it added more nuance to the classic asteroid game.
Thank you! yeah, the difficulty in grabbing the small asteroids is definitely an issue. If I were to refine this game further, I'd definitely want to resolve that somehow. Maybe by snapping your grab to the nearest asteroid within a radius when you clicked, or something like that. I'd also have to make the tiny little things a lot easier to spot.
Using the big asteroid as a plough to shove the smaller asteroids is clever. The best way to overwhelm the AI is probably by using as many asteroids at once as possible, and that's probably one of the most reliable ways to do it.
Interesting to see other takes on asteroids! I got the controls being floaty and all, but maybe a bit more control would be nicer. Also, the ship is very good at shooting things down! Nice challenge, good game :)
Thank you! Yeah, the floatyness of the controls is a bit much. It's tricky to balance having snappy controls, while also enforcing a speed limit on the asteroids so that the game doesn't get too easy. The current implementation just uses physics drag to enforce the speed limit, but a custom solution (Maybe let the asteroids go as fast as you want outside the arena, but slow them down upon entry? Maybe keep a speed limit, but not limit acceleration?) would most likely be better.
nice game! the asteroids was a little hard to control and sometimes i couldnt find them easily. good job nonethless :)
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, finding and grabbing the asteroids is definitely one of the weakest parts of this game, and something I would have improved if I had more time to playtest.
this Is a super fun concept, I will say the spawn rates for the asteroids where a little slow but other than that it was atone of fun! well done!
Thank you! The spawn rate does increase as the game goes on, but I definitely should have increased both the initial spawn count and the rate at which it increases.
What an aesthetically pleasing game! Really love the black-white with a touch of neon stars.
It was a bit difficult for me to spot the asteroids when they spawn in though, partially due to the stars in the background making them less contrasting with the background. Maybe it would help if, in the asteroid spawning area, there were fewer stars?
I also think the asteroid dragging physics are pretty funky, but it does add to the space theme and it does make the game more challenging - at least, if the meteor would just match your cursor I think this game would be way too easy!
The AI is also very good, but I did notice that it tends to lock onto one meteor, and only that meteor - so I could use a decoy meteor and then use a different meteor to smash the ship. (Although not doing that and playing the game as intended is just more fun!)
Still, really neat game and it's fun messing around with the physics. Also love that particles whenever something gets destroyed!
Thank you for the feedback!
All of your critiques are definitely things that could be improved, and I definitely would have if I had more time and playtesting. The difficulty in spotting asteroids probably could have been resolved by making them bigger and maybe even a different color. The dragging physics probably also could've been made nicer with a more custom solution rather than relying on built-in drag to enforce a speed limit. The AI does take into account multiple asteroids, but I probably should have spent more time tweaking how it weights them all and decides what to do.
The particles and sounds were the last things I added. I finished most of the mechanics, and I was like 'this needs just a touch more' so I added some particles and sounds because they're pretty quick and easy for the amount of impact that they deliver.
Great looking game, I wish I could throw asteroids easily. Good work with the AI!
Thank you!
Asteroid throwing is definitely one of the things I'd tweak the most if I had more time.
I like how you took the concept one step farther and didn't just settle with "you are the asteroid". Instead, you hurl the asteroids at the ship! The AI was very good and there were not a lot of games that implemented an AI into their game. They were a little too good for me though haha (I was bad at the game). Graphics were simple but effective and sound effects fit well.
Good job and good luck :)
Thank you!
There's a reason not a lot of games used AIs. Making that AI took me most of the second day, so I wasn't able to add quite as much polish as I would've liked because of it. Glad you liked it, though!
Oh yeah I know. My original game idea was going to be that you were the game creating the levels for the player between ad breaks, and then an AI player would try to beat the level but I did not get far with it at all. The AI ignored gravity and collision lol. You should definitely be proud that you're one of the few people that actually went through with putting an AI into their game!
Cool. Nailed the look. Pacing a little slow at the beginning and took me a bit to understand the mechanic but then the fun kicked in. Some of the asteroids were way to small for me anyway.
Nice game and ideas overall.
Thank you!
I agree that things are a bit slow to start, and that the asteroids are too small. Those are both things that I would've changed had I had more time to playtest before the jam deadline.
I might just really suck, but I think more asteroids per second would improve the experience lol, give the player more to chuck at the ship! Really fun take on the theme, the bullets wrapping around the screen is a really nice touch bc it makes it a real challenge to get anywhere near the ship if you aren't paying attention to where it's shooting. Great work here :)
Thank you! The way asteroid spawning works is that a whole wave of them spawns at once, and the next wave doesn't start until all asteroids from the previous wave have been destroyed. Each wave has more asteroids than the last, but I probably should have increased the rate at which the wave size increases.
Very fun! I like how well the ship's AI aims at incoming asteroids, especially when it uses the edges of the screen to get more accurate shots off.
Thank You! I had to do quite a bit of math trickery to pull that off.
I like it! A unique take, once you get used to the controls it can be really fun. I like how everything wraps around on itself in the center so you can get some major chaos theory going.
I might make the asteroids a bit of a different color though, only because it was hard at times to tell asteroids from the ship or the stars. It also was a bit of a struggle to get some of those asteroids to really get going but sometimes that helped set up neat strategies.
Thanks for the feedback!
Getting the wrapping to both feel and look good was what I spend most of the first day of the jam working on. I ended up having to take the nuclear option of spawning multiple copies of each object as they wrapped around the arena and syncing their physics, as every solution that only involved teleporting had some other flaw that sacrificed game-feel in favor of simplicity.
And yeah, differentiating the foreground from the background more would have been nice. I probably shouldn't have committed to everything being white.
This is a good concept. I wish the asteroids were a little easier to throw - especially the small ones, and I found it challenging to tell when new rocks appeared that I was able to throw. Making them stand out more from the background or highlighting them when they spawn would have been appreciated.
Good work with the ship's AI, it plays well and has a decent level of difficulty. I thought the gameplay was a little one-dimensional and the game could have used some added feature for spice but obviously the time constraint makes that difficult.
Nice job
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, the throwing controls are definitely one of the weakest links of this game. I probably should have coded a more dedicated system for it rather than just relying on Unity's built in physics. That would've allowed me to make it snappier without the max throwable speed being so high that it was too hard for the AI to dodge.
Each wave of rocks spawn just offscreen as soon as the last rock from the previous wave has been destroyed, and are pushed onscreen. But you're right, some feedback for that would definitely be nice.
I also agree that it's a bit one-dimensional. I suppose that I could've added a score system, or maybe bonus objectives to spice things up.
Enjoyed playing it. I liked grabbing the astroids, but I think the small ones feel too heavy.
I think it would have been better to flick the small ones, not swing them.
Thanks for your feedback!
Yeah, controlling the asteroids feels a bit more sluggish than it probably should. I tried tweaking a bunch of values to get it feeling nicer, but then it was too easy to get them moving so fast that the AI ship couldn't dodge them at all. I probably could've fixed it by implementing a more custom system with a programmable speed cap rather than relying on physics drag to enforce the speed cap, but alas, I ran out of time.
Pretty cool concept and simple to play. I thought it was a little too easy to just spam the player with asteroids, but maybe I got lucky. I think having a visual or audio feedback from grabbing the asteroids would be helpful.
Yeah, I tried to craft an AI that wouldn't die to random asteroids, but was still thwartable with clever planning. I'm not sure that I quite struck that balance.
And you're right about feedback for grabbing the asteroids. I think just drawing a line between the point on the asteroid that you grabbed and the mouse would have made a big difference.