[SA Game Jam 2019] Space Trash

eviL_joSh

Jam Name: SA Game Jam 2019
Theme: Crafting
Project Name: Space Trash
Entry Type: Student
Location: Cape Town
48hr entry




Promo Poster / Non-animated version of our main menu


Fuel Tank, Cargo Block, Reactor and Battery


Structural Components



Player Cockpit


Thrusters


Meteors


Guns




Weapons Platform


Unmanned Turret Animation


Data Module


Play our game by downloading the last file in the list below.
The file has been zipped with 7zip for convenient downloading.
Some people had trouble finding the zip down below so here is a google drive link : D. (Same Build as zip below).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JZmi-OM0UnTOD0QGxiCgUsbz14xxpYH6/view?usp=sharing


Our reviews of other people's games:
https://makegamessa.com/discussion/5755/sa-game-jam-2019-life-story#latest
https://makegamessa.com/discussion/5764/sa-game-jam-2019-the-great-factory#latest
https://makegamessa.com/discussion/5773/sa-game-jam-2019-geomorph#latest
https://makegamessa.com/discussion/5775/sa-game-jam-2019-mad-stax#latest
https://makegamessa.com/discussion/5769/sa-game-jam-2019-jelly-jailbreak#latest
https://makegamessa.com/discussion/5765/sa-game-jam-2019-biocraft#latest

Gnoblar_agency

Very impressive! You nailed the atmosphere and soundscape really well. Above that, the mechanic of building your ship from parts felt really good and it functioned well! I got a bit lost though, I understood the pings were guiding me but got a confused by their directions. Awesome job! :D

absolutwillie

I had such a blast with the thrusters! Took me a second to realise one colour is stronger than the other, which led to much spinning and mirth :) Have you considered adding an overlay to improve legibility of your help text?

PartyPanda

I think you've combined exploration and crafting very very well in this game! I had so much fun going through space and finding new and exciting pieces to equip onto my ship :)

The text that displays the instructions/narrative are a little hard to read. Perhaps if these boards had a flashing light on them instead of the player's light, it would be a bit easier to read?

Maybe I didn't read correctly on the instruction board, but it took some time for me to figure out how to equip stuff onto my ship (to drag and drop the parts). I tried to rotate them with the right mouse button but couldn't do it? Maybe it's just me though.

The overall mood of the game is so great! Well done :)

GiGGa

Played around for a bit (and will be playing some more tomorrow).

I thought the sound and visuals were amazing! Felt very cool and really made me feel like an explorer in space. I like that the game is mysterious and has me running after beacons, with no idea what I might find.

I'll have to play a bit more before giving proper feedback, but I loved finding strange things (like a donut-meteor-thing with enemy turrets inside). So obviously I'd love to see even more weird things in space in future if you continue adding features.

The right-click to rotate seems a bit unresponsive (although I did manage to correctly rotate my parts every time after spamming right-click a bit and constantly dropping and picking up the object).

Overall - awesome game ;) The lighting and visuals overall really fit the space theme.

Enthused_Dragon

The sound in this game is stunning.
I love the exploration aspect.

I also had some issues with the Right Click rotate not responding properly, and I could fire weapons using Space.

Overall, I would play this if this was a space survival game.

TrulyInsane

I really like the art and the sound design, like really really like it. I am a sucker for pixel art. The sound for placing parts on your ship were just so satisfying.

The atmosphere is perfect. I do feel like I am lost in space, but maybe too lost sometimes. I understand that the pings help guide you and a mini-map might take away from the feeling of being lost in space, but sometimes I get too lost and have trouble locating the position of the pings.

Maybe you could add a specific upgrade that gives you a very minimalistic mini-map, that way you could still keep the feeling of being lost in space at the beginning, at least until they find this specific upgrade. It doesn't even have to be a map it could be a sonar thing where it can give better information about the ping directions.

I love the weightless feel you gave the ship. battling to keep control of the ship added to the overall atmosphere of helpless being lost in space.
The rotation of parts seems to work sometimes and doesn't other times.

TL; DR: I loved it but I am bad at video games and need map plz.

SighlentNite

First off, amazing game considering the short time span.

The game has a wonderful idea, the crafting felt really satisfying with the sound and grid-based system.
On the negative side, I felt it was hard to really gauge exactly the effect of where you placed the blocks, I realised placing thrusters the right way around was important(after opening the help screen and realizing right-click is rotate)

The movement before thrusters seemed slow and unwieldy(though I assume that was the point), however, with thrusters, it made aiming incredibly difficult, and then when block started getting destroyed, the colour palette is so similar to the background that it made it difficult to see what was happening.
It seemed spacebar was opening the help screen after I lost my gun?

I enjoyed the messages, although they were tough to read while zoomed out(and the aforementioned difficulty navigating made it tough to stay close enough that the zooming in made the text be in place). Perhaps a clickable UI that allowed you to read the message? If that is possible then perhaps a journal to read the text again later as you unlock it.

The sonar ping was amazing, as soon as I felt lost it appeared and I intuitively felt that I needed to go there with the pulse and sound.

In regards to other comments
I do agree movement felt a bit rough
The initially tutorial was slightly off-screen making it hard to know what buttons to press
Help button being small and top right makes it not very noticeable
I felt maybe the sonar could have a small lighter ''aftershock'' that could help you notice the direction it came from.

Assuming the thrusters were intended to be unwieldy, as a space trash spaceship should be, I thought it was a great game with a wonderful crafting system. I intend to play it again and see the "story" to completion.

Pro's
Crafting
Intuitive exploration
Sound
Art
Weighting system on crafting was believable and made it fun to try out new configurations(kinda like besieged)

Con's
Text was hard to get to
Im bad at moving ship and aiming
Start was difficult as I had no idea what to do

I applaud you for this. Makes me sad to have missed the game jam

fcortese

Had a lot of fun actually playing this now and when working next to you guys, the game is great and i really love the ambient sound you have going, sounds like you are in deepest darkest space, just some other things like the thrusts when lobsided make you swirl really fast round and round. love to see more addons for the ships :)

DarthMurky

Really not a bad little gem. A very atmospheric aesthetic combined with interesting crafting mechanics and exploration mechanics. Sound design is also really really well done.

Fengol

Please let me know if you're based in CT, JHB or where?

vetkaashaas

Wow, good job! this was so relaxing, the music with the slow flight through space was awesome. I really enjoyed the gameplay as well as the artwork. I might be a bit biased because I love space games lol, but this was really nice.

I am trying to think of something you could have done better, but creating this in 48 hours alone, has me speechless. Really good job!

absolutwillie

Fengol said:

Please let me know if you're based in CT, JHB or where?

They're CT :)

eviL_joSh

Fengol said:

Please let me know if you're based in CT, JHB or where?

Cape Town. Sorry for the late response, I was out of the house.

eviL_joSh

absolutwillie said:

Fengol said:

Please let me know if you're based in CT, JHB or where?

They're CT :)

Thank you XD

APC_Tophat

I really like the game, I think the visuals and sound really enhance the game's atmosphere.

I only had a little issue rotating parts. I would have to click multiple times to make the part rotate.

Overall I think this is a fantastic game idea with a near smooth execution.

dammit

Congratulations! For someone who's been a little slow to get round to playing all the titles, at least I know where to start...

watman

Well done guys!

eviL_joSh

dammit said:

Congratulations! For someone who's been a little slow to get round to playing all the titles, at least I know where to start...

Thanks very much!
Some suggestions for you
Mad Stax is one of our favourites
Vitae Defense (play the latest version, not the version 1.0)
The Great Factory
Biocraft

Some amazing games this year and had a huge amount of fun getting ours done and playing all the others.

eviL_joSh

watman said:

Well done guys!

Thanks a bunch! We had a lot of fun making this and couldn't be happier (or surprised XD) with the results.

Tuism

Congrats! Never saw a Mac build so I hope to see one over day!

eviL_joSh

Tuism said:

Congrats! Never saw a Mac build so I hope to see one over day!

We'll see what happens but currently no plans for one unfortunately