Have to agree with lethandralis. Looks very cool, plays very nice, but the theme is not explored really in depth. At this point I feel like Mark Brown already gave to many options about what "only one" could mean.
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I mean technically you did, absolutely.
To me personally, there were a few possible ideas (and most of them Mark mentioned) that are too bland in my opinion. For example you would go for a game that has only 1 level. Now you could make any game you want, no matter what, and just include one level and you fulfilled the topic 100%. Is it innovative? Probably not. Is the design good? No idea, depends on your game, but the 1 level aspect does not play into the design.
And I feel similar about the the 1 button control. Yes, you fulfill the topic 100%. But you can make all sorts of games with one button controls, and they all share that same requirement, and none of them would really tell me anything about it's design, originality. etc. If it helps, I feel the same about all the one button games in this jam.
Don't take it personally please, your game is still awesome. In the end, it's about how you interpret things. Not me, not others, not even Mark.
Thanks for the clarification !
I agree with you 100%, it's really easy to fit the theme this year. And our game isn't an exception. That is why even fitting the theme isn't enough this year
And what I think makes our game good is the other points to mentionned. We tried to make a game with a deeper design that most one button game you can find.
- You have a recharge system
- You can use comets (even if that's hard right now, needs tweaking) to charge your ship and give you an extra pulse
- You can orbit around planet (and recharge around them)
- You have to manage the rotation of your ship to go where you want
- The impulse has to charge, enough or it won't work but not too much so it doesn't explode
- The rotation means you need to explore the map to know what is the better strategy to go far away
And that's just on the top of my head, our designer would do a better job than me for that. And everything listed above... Is with one button ^^
Thank you for the feedback anyway it's great to see how other people see our game, because it's quite clear to us, but it seems it's not obvious :)
Hey @Hermicrab,
I think I understand what you mean, but do you think that having this single system (our 1mpulse reactor) activated by a single button and let the player go 360°, use orbit, recharge the reactor, slow time and cancel the 1mpulse was a lazy exploration and that we only wanted to "tick the box" of the theme?
Because for us, it drove every single one decision we made regarding the design and how to have art/sound support it. I don't say you're wrong, I just want to understand if you didn't see the design depth and that's why you think we didn't really explore the theme or if if we're missing something else here.
And don't worry, we don't take anything personally and are happy to have constructive feedback ^^
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Ok, so the answer would be yes. Because everything was designed around the "only one system" idea. Without this, I'd have left the player choose the ship's direction and remove the spinning mechanic or the orbit and slingshot mechanic, the player could recharge the reactor just by grabbing "floating collectible batteries" like in some many game, instead of forcing him to use the only one button.
Remove this idea, add other systems and buttons and of course It'd be a completely different game. To be honest, it wouldn't even be a game in space, the idea itself came from the restriction. And guess what, it'd be a boring game in my opinion, yes. I suppose it's not your opinion then, and I understand it, no worries ;)
Thanks for your feedback.