itch.io

Hi kegnor, I re-compiled the APK, hopefully that fixed it!

If not, could you tell me your Android version so I can try to debug?

Quite challenging, I could not beat it so far - still a lot of fun!

Adorable game! :)

I really like how the atmosphere getting bad is not just a generic bar in the HUD, but visually represented by things like the planet getting a sad face - great design!

Sorry, can't rate because it didn't run on my machine (Java 7, OSX El Capitan) :/

- Running the jar crashes with "GLFW windows may only be created on the main thread and that thread must be the first thread in the process."

- Running the jar using "java -jar -XstartOnFirstThread Panspermia.jar" starts the game but crashes when the play button is pressed.

- Building from source using gradle fails to compile Kotlin at UpgradeUI.kt

Box2D at it's best :)

I'm really bad at RTS games, but still had a lot of fun!

After reading the description on the game's page, I was able to see trees and logs ;)

Interesting concept, good luck with your future development!

Really cool, one of my favorite jam entries so far!

Some thoughts:

Graphics - Ah, Box2DLights and particles are awesome. I wanted to use them too but didn't have enough time / skill. I also dig how you did your screen transitions, really cool! I don't know if you are aware, but on my macbook the title screen looks messed up: http://imgur.com/CDxr6Uc

Camera - I always pay close attention to game cameras and liked how you zoom out based on the ship's velocity! The downside with your camera is that it always drags behind the ship when it should be in front - players should see more of where they are going and less of where they are coming from.

Audio - no complaints here ;)

Gameplay - I agree with CiderPunk that the targets are really hard to hit because they move so fast. When I managed to destroy them, it felt like luck.

Anyhow, this is a great little game and I am looking forward to learn how you implemented it!

Nice game!

Maybe you could tweak the physics parameters a little? I found it really hard to aim because my spaceship spins so fast, while the enemy hits me with almost every shot.

Congrats for finishing you first game jam - most people don't even get that far!

Solid effort, a complete vertical slice of a 2D platformer! I was sad when it was over, which means the first level must have been fun to play :)

Short, challenging and addictive - I am getting a 'flappy bird'-vibe from your game! Good job overall!

I really liked this one! You should definitely release this on mobile platforms!

Thanks for playing everyone!

@CiderPunk: the yellow one can give energy to the cities so they can evolve! There are more detailed instructions in-game when you select "How to play" on the title screen!

@them and Sea of Goblets: Eric Matyas of soundimage.org made the music and so kind to let me use it - check out his other work, he's really good!

@marcciosilva: the humans turning hostile is my favorite mechanic in the game's design - glad you liked it!

Very nice game!

pros: Graphics and sounds are really polished, creating a suspenseful atmosphere. Controls are simple and effective.

cons: I think the game borrows way too much from "Lone Survivor"... I would have liked to see more innovation here.

Update #3

YEAH - just released the first version of the game! Here is the game's page: http://semperhilaris.itch.io/biosphere

A detailed post-mortem will hopefully follow in the near future, but now it is time to get some rest I guess ;)

Update #2

Time flies, and the deadline is approaching - so here we go with some progress:

Menu/Title Screen

This is my title screen. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Gameplay

I managed to get a lot of the core mechanics done:

1) Made a beam-effect, which is drawing a trapezoid with PolygonSpriteBatch and a semi-transparent texture.

2) There are now asteroids randomly spawning around the planet...

3) ... and they can be destroyed using the red alien's beam, revealing Energy resource inside that can be collected.

4) I also implemented a timer, so the game actually ends at some point :)

Next steps

Almost feature complete! There are just a few things left to implement:

- A Game-Over screen, saving the highscore

- I am looking for a loopable music track to play in the background. If someone wants to get their music in this, shoot me a message!

- Tuning the gameplay parameters like the human resource generation, energy consumption or asteroid spawn rate.

- Not sure about sound effect, if there is time I will try to get some sfx implemented at least for the beam ability.

The final sprint is on! I hope to see you all at the next update which will hopefully be the first release version!

Update #1

After the first week of coding I am quite happy how this turned out so far! Here is some in-game footage:

https://gfycat.com/PertinentDesertedGenet

Camera

Finally, I could use the smooth camera system I wrote years ago in an actual project! I had to port it to an EntitySystem for Ashley though.

Physics

Box2D, naturally. The aliens use simple circle shapes for collision detection, the planet has one as well. I am using collision filtering to keep the aliens from colliding.

Steering

The movement of the aliens is built using gdxAI's Steering Behaviors. The currently active alien uses Arrive to follow the touch/click position, the inactive aliens use Arrive to follow the active alien while simultaneously using Flee to keep them away from each other:

Alien switching

Just a simple scale animation, but good enough for now.

Demo: https://gfycat.com/BabyishTenderDwarfrabbit

The Planet

For now, there is one planet with 8 settlements on it. The settlements continuously produce the "Humans" resource, which can be harvested by the blue alien. There is a maximum number of humans per settlement though. The settlements can be upgraded by giving them "Energy" using the yellow alien. An upgraded settlement produces humans at a higher rate, but further upgrades require more energy. Her are the sprites I currently use for the settlements:

Alien abilities

Yellow alien: Give energy - implemented, but needs some kind of visual effect

Blue alien: Abduct humans - implemented, but also needs a visual effect

Red alien: Laser Beam - TODO

That is all for now, see you all at the next update!

So here is what I came up with:

BIOSPHERE (working title)

A 2D simulation game where the player controls 3 aliens who are trying to create LIFE IN SPACE. And then harvest it. >:D

The aliens each have one unique ability: One can beam stuff up (gathering resources), another can use those resources to alter the biosphere of a planet (so something can live there), and the last one can blow stuff up.

Progress so far:

I planned on re-using some "engine" I wrote a while back based on artemis-odb, but the latest version no longer worked with my project and I decided to rewrite my code to use ashley instead. It went really smooth and I can start implementing gameplay systems now.

Also, I drew the aliens:

For now, I will be using them as static images, but I structured their layers in a way that would make it possible to convert them to Spine skeletons and animate them later.

To be continued...

Hi all!

My name is David, and I am a web developer from Austria!

After playing around with libGDX for a few years now (prototyping), I actually never built a full game with it. So I figured this game jam will be a nice opportunity to do just that. Or at least a nice learning experience :)

Have fun everybody, and good luck with your projects!