Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

Mothership's factoryView game page

make nice looking pipelines to create things
Submitted by mike239x — 28 minutes, 7 seconds before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Mothership's factory's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creative use of art assets#2423.2143.214
Overall#3572.8812.881
Overall polish#3922.6432.643
Engagement#4122.7862.786

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted

This is awesome. I didn't have much time to play, but the fusion is intriguing, for sure. Fast-forward and crafting recipes being included made for great quality-of-life upgrades that a game like this really needs.

Submitted

I love the concept! I haven't figured out how to produce more than one thing with only one box. But it is a nice game!

Submitted

You should advertise the presence of a linux build. We are just as numerous as mac users.

I always enjoy a little factory automation game. Thematically "I feel confused" ;) Why are UFOs building cauldrons? Are they perhaps steered by little green goblins?

There where a few issues that I would like to address:

  • It was a little hard to grab the end product in the middle of the crafting field. Especially if the recipe required an ingredient in the middle. Perhaps you could make a drop of field? (Minecraft does it, if I remember correctly)
  • some levels felt unsolvable. Especially those that required you to make a sub component for a final product, but gave you only one crafting spot to work with. The UFO's ether grabbed the wrong thing or would simply get stuck. As far as I understand it this is the meat of the game. Figure out how to make it work. Unfortunately you didn't lay enough foundation to give me the necessary knowledge to solve it. I only learned how to (very unreliably) pick up objects and put them in their place. I am not a fan of tutorials that tell you everything you need to know in drawn out paragraphs, but a couple of encouraging arrows and short explanations would be appreciated.
  • currently your UFOs move at their own pace. I think that some levels could be solved by making some of them go a longer path than others, but I am really unsure, since I don't know the timings and they are impossible to synchronize. It might be prudent to make a tick that they all follow and a start/stop button (if you're going for timing puzzles of cause).
  • The crafting table got a little old after a while. Place the ingredients in the correct spot, move the product to the output wait for a few seconds until they repeat it a dozen times. Adding some different material converters for a post jam version would spice things up.
Developer

Thanks for the feedback!
I am aware of most of there problems, especially the UFO grabbing wrong things is an annoying bug that I never managed to fix.
None of the levels are unsolvable, but I clearly need an extra teaching level before the "boat" level to explain how to properly time things, so that the crafting box doesn't get clogged. It turns out level design is damn hard.

Submitted

Really interesting idea and concept! I think it definitely could use a bit more polish around feedback and controls (mouse controls would be amazing), and it'd be nice to be able to queue up a bunch of flight paths and then "start" the construction, because with the ships starting immediately, it makes the game kind of confusing and hard to keep track of. The most fun is definitely planning the routing and trying to make your ships do the "right" thing, so building the gameplay loop to support that idea makes the most sense to me.
But when you nail the build order and just get to watch the item factory, it's really satisfying, and a lot of fun! Great work on this game!

Submitted

It was really fun to see my motherships zip around and construct parts. I think the game would benefit a lot from mouse controls, as using WASD got quite tedious.

Definitely got a nice little puzzler on your hands, well done!

Submitted(+1)

A nice game that automates the crafting of items! I think it’s pretty cool how the ships follow the path of the crosshair, and setting up a production line was satisfying when it all comes together. It has a comprehensive crafting wiki and adjustable speed. There are a lot of levels which can be skipped and selected from the main menu which I think is a good decision. However, I think the overlapping of sprites and the lack of feedback or indication for the player’s actions makes it very confusing to play. For items like the stick, it appears to overlap with the basic wooden blocks and the UFO ships after it is crafted. When that happens, it is difficult to set up the next automation path - I can’t tell if I’m picking up the crafted stick, or the basic wooden block. I know I can turn the speed to 1, and in that timeframe, move the stick, but it doesn’t feel good to do so. I think this can be solved by simply having the output be generated in a different tile outside of the 3x3 crafting area. Or, have an option to toggle the visibility of the automation paths based on the item type. I think for this type of game, the priority should be focused on getting the feel right, so it needs a sound effect or some simple animation to show that the UFO ships are releasing the blocks, or to signify that the production line is being blocked, and more player feedback in general to achieve that satisfying automation loop and understand what’s going on. It would have been much more amazing, even if there was only one or two items to craft. Overall, I had some fun solving the puzzles. Good effort!

Developer

Thanks for detailed reply! I knew the overlap of crafted item and the UFO ships is annoying, but I never managed to make if feel right. The idea to put the generated block outside the box sadly never came to my mind.

Submitted

Very tough to understand for me ahah.

like the mechanic you had, like the UFO that follows the path you gives it.

i think this can receive more polishing to make the game easier to understand

Cool concept^^

Submitted

It is very rewarding when you find the solution, but very difficult to solve. Good game!

Submitted

Neat game! It took me a little bit to understand what was gong on, but I think I got it. I was a little confused by how the ships follow your crosshair movement exactly, it made me think I was missing something (like I'd have a reason to draw a non-direct path at some point). I'm impressed with how many recipes you got in though.