Ludum Dare 24
August 24th-27th 2012 :: Theme: Evolution
Catching Life - Fadobo - 48 Hour Compo Entry
Windows | HowToPlay(YouTube) | Source
This is a small arcade / puzzle mix I came up with for my first ever Ludum Dare 48.
The game is XNA 4.0 and Windows only unfortunately. Sorry about that :(
Please read the HOW TO PLAY.txt for instructions, but here is a small rundown:
(ARROW KEYS) Select solar system. You should start selecting the one with a planet with a small aura around it
Tap (W) or (SPACE) quickly to evolve the planet. Once fully evolved, a rocket will automatically start traveling to the closest Planet.
Use (D) and (A) to spin planets clockwise / counter-clockwise.
Try getting a rocket to travel to the wormhole before the time runs out
Enjoy! :)
*UPDATE 2* I realized that it might be difficult to understand the concept in the beginning, so I added a short How To Play - Video to the links.
*UPDATE* I re-packaged the installer of the game, so it should now run in English instead of German. The link is updated, but except the installer, the game is completely unchanged! Unfortunately due to the confusing nature of XNA I wasn't able to deploy a simple .exe file. Sorry :(
View Fadobo's journal. | View all entries by Fadobo
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 64% |
| #193 | Innovation | 3.25 |
| #410 | Audio | 2.29 |
| #482 | Fun | 2.59 |
| #512 | Overall | 2.72 |
| #534 | Theme | 2.47 |
| #536 | Graphics | 2.47 |
| #545 | Humor | 1.58 |
| #593 | Mood | 2.18 |
Comments
Don't know how to win at this, the timer runs out before i can send my rocket to the other planet. Simple, but nothing lags, it works nicely. :)
Nice, innovative game. Controlling the solar systems with the A and D keys seemed a bit fiddly to me, though.
I'm trying to understand the gameplay, i'm going to check the source, thank you!
When i clicked setup, a wild installer in german (maybe) appeared. That was the bad thing.
I liked the idea of the gameplay, i've never seen something lke that.
Thanks for all the feedback :) To answer to some of you: @NiceAlexanderAS: Thanks. I actually suck at math, so I had to look some stuff up (like orbit - calculation).
@commanderstitch: I added some instructions above. You have to select the right system and quickly tap W to launch the rocket.
@Kuulog: Yeah, it's a bit off, but the slowdown-time is on purpose. I wanted to add circular movement for rotation on the XboxPad Thumbstick, but ran out of time.
@juaxix: to put it simply: tap W until the rocket goes into the wormhole. Rotating planets helps to get there faster.
@infernet89: Really? I am using German Visual Studio, so that is most likely causing it. Wasn't aware it's German everywhere. I will try to change it tonight and upload an .exe version (with a seperate XNA 4.0 Redist)
Interesting, a mix of timing, finding the shortest path, watching the surrounding so the rocket target the right planet.
It looks more like infestation than evolution though :D Makes me think about independance day you know "They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next."
Anyway, I think you could probably make the concept "evolve" by setting some gravitationnal traps for your rocket like a solar system to avoid or finding the right timing to go through an area.
Good game (:
I don't quite understand it, but the spinning and rocket launching was cool. Scoring was totally beyond me...!
This was fun, although I didn't feel like I had much control over what was going on (maybe I did, but I couldn't really figure out how the spin direction did much - do I need to make sure to fully evolve a planet while it's close to the black hole?) I tried a few times, enjoyed some frantic key mashing, and lost, but I had fun. Graphics were cool; interface was straightforward (although including it in the game would be helpful rather than in a README). Nice work.
I've never seen a puzzle game like this. One might exist, but it's still a relatively innovative idea. Nice work!
A nice, simple game. The video was very helpful in understanding how to get started. It's an original idea, I hope you have the time to build on it as it just needs a bit more depth. Well done.
I enjoyed it, a simple and fun game with a cute story. :)
I was hoping it would be more puzzley though.
If you designed the universes yourself it probably would be.
The random generation leads to some universes that are super easy to complete and some that are impossible.
Thanks everybody for the comments and ideas. I planned for differently shaped, increasingly difficult systems (additional obstacles are also a great idea), but the problem is, that I am a pretty crappy programmer and slimmed it down as much as possible to be done within the 48 hours. I might go back to add some stuff, but I hacked/hard-coded a bunch of things in there, so I'll have to see if it's worth the time and effort. Maybe I even start from scratch for that and change some of the mechanics (like the button-tapping)
I liked the sound effects and the concept. However, I didn't quite get into the game play as it wasn't very fun for me. I think speeding up the game play or allowing for more time before you lose might help with the pacing and fun factor.
Nice game but never force me to play in full screen again! I hate it and kills Windows...
I think it would be nice if the rocket keep monitoring the distance of surrounding planets so you can rotate them after the launch.
@Rawbits: Actually you can switch to Window-Mode by pressing "Shift + O" (added it last second, so it's not well documented, but I mention it in the readme).
About turning the Rockets: Yeah, close to the end I thought about changing the system slightly (i.e. rocket always going to the closest planet at any given time, not just at launch) but there was just no time to try.
Short and sweet. After learning how to play the game, the game turns out to be simple. I like the idea on building your rocket base and then lift-off to the nearest planet.
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Simple but quite good. Good work Fadobo. My vote is yours ;)