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Stranded in Space's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity & Theme | #508 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
| Visuals | #521 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
| Overall | #896 | 3.439 | 3.439 |
| Seriousness | #1068 | 3.444 | 3.444 |
| Enjoyment | #1232 | 3.111 | 3.111 |
| Audio | #1541 | 2.806 | 2.806 |
Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Game Engine
Other/Custom
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Comments
Only being able to spin in one direction is a bit unnerving, given a little lack of aim means I have to give it a full 360º spin to try and get that one again. The setting is pretty, the sound effects are a bit unalive and general 8-bit. It’s great to have the difficult settings. I would appreciate it if they increased our aim or added a bit of auto-aim.
I think it's a very original game, to be honest! I appreciate that you added the difficulty tab so we could adjust the difficulty, that said, I think what was most difficult to me was that I had to move the mouse to get air and energy.
I don't know if other people found that iffy, but I just didn't like it since I have to look away from the enemies, and check where my mouse is at instead of just blindly pressing a key, yk? So yeah, I think that was the main drawback for me in terms on gameplay. Other than that the visuals are simple but work and the audio is pretty nice as well, though I would made add a greater warning for when your air is running out, maybe? cause I wasn't really following, and I lost my air a couple times :(( could be just a skill issue but yk.
This is well polished! I liked the visuals and game mechanics. It was a simple premise (just spin and shoot) but having the other elements like air use, upgrades, etc really made the whole package better. Also the inclusion of the difficulty setting was awesome. I'd love some background music though, and hope you can include that in the future.
Some thoughts: I think it's better to be able to spin both ways though you'd probably have to balance this. There's at least a better sense of control from the player if you allow for this. You could also add different gun styles? like beam vs projectile with different damages?
Well done!
A fun and addictive game
A bit difficult but cool!
Thanks for playing :)
very nice, although i would not have won without the turret modifier xD
Lil guys did a lot for me.
the difficulty sliders were nice, although i wish increasing max energy or air would also increase how much of it you buy at once- i feel like thats an important aspect of it too.
either way, great job! loved the graphics as well :)
First mention of turret!!! Thanks for that! I initially wanted to make it just a maximum of just 2 spawns. To give the player a temporary escape incase they very suddenly overwhelmed. But I wanted to add one modifier that was overpowered in case the player was not able to complete despite many tries and also to reward experimentation. So I added the regeneration mechanic that was there in mines, to this one too.
And yeah games like this require a lot of playtesting and tuning for a good experience. So probably wasn't the best idea for a game jam. And thanks for the idea to change the buy amount too, a brand new and great suggestion! Glad you enjoyed!
I love this game in concept. There's a very intentional pace to it, where enemies take their time getting to you and you have advance warning, but you also have to take the time to turn and face them. It wasn't a fast-twitch game, but it was still intense because any mistake will be costly and there's no way to fix them. The difficulty modifiers are also awesome, and I really enjoyed the art style. (My game is also 1-bit, I just happen to love those kinds of visuals.)
I agree with other players' thoughts on the keybindings. 100%.
And while I figure you probably won't listen based on prior feedback, the game's difficulty curve is not in a great place right now. As much as I love the difficulty options provided, they don't fix the problem of the way it feels to play the game.
My feeling when playing the game was that if a missile appeared just a bit too counter clockwise of where I was aiming, if I had anything else on screen to shoot, I was just going to take damage. No way around it. When I lost health, I did not always feel like it was my fault. And whether I need to 'get good' or not, that *feeling* is not a good one for a game to create.
I don't think the player should turn in two directions. You could play with upping the rotation speed slightly (veeeery slightly) or further revising enemy attack patterns (though these are already really well done.)
But what I would recommend is that you just go a little easier in the early game so the player can grab some upgrades. If the player has a little more control over their playstyle via quick early upgrades, they are more likely to feel like it was their fault for not taking advantage of their choices well enough when they die.
Thank you so much for the comment!
Really glad to hear about the parts you enjoyed! Also you are totally right about the difficulty curve of the game. Basically I have a curated set of attack patterns that randomly get spawned. While additional tougher waves do get spawned after getting 2 modifiers, maybe I should have had a easier set for the time before any modifiers. As it stands now the difficulty curve is definitely weird, with one of the hardest parts being right at the start, and probably getting noticeably easier after the first modifier when it should be the opposite instead! But curating such sets, perfecting the rotation time etc. are things that take a lot of time to create, playtest and balance. Working alone, I don't think that level of polish can reasonably be expected in a 7 day game jam, but maybe that's a skill issue :)
One area where I will disagree is, you mentioned that the feeling of dying not being your fault is a bad thing for a game to have. But I see it as a natural consequence of the genre of game. With roguelikes having random generation and permadeath, the chances of feeling that your of death was unfair, is sort of always there. It can definitely be mitigated through tuning, but like I said it was hard to do in this game, given the 7 day time. Also such instances are naturally there more often when you start playing, but reduce as you rack up more runs and gain more skill. And later as you get familiar with the exact mechanics, you get to know what works and what doesn't and once you know that, it gets harder to blame the game, and not yourself. Also games of a similar nature that generate similar emotions do go on to become very popular. Examples could be, Enter the Gungeon, Don't Starve, Downwell, Getting over it and maybe Hotline Miami. It's all a matter of execution, which obviously would be poor for a jam game quickly scrapped together :)
Happy discuss this further if you want to...
I always feel like it is my fault when I die in Slay the Spire, Risk of Rain 2, Downwell, and Enter the Gungeon. But I think we're saying the same thing.
When I died early on in these games, I did not know how to avoid it but felt like I could if I knew how, so I still did not blame the game.
Some of your patterns gave me the feeling that it was impossible to avoid at all. Still issue, probably, but the feeling was different for me.
I agree calibrating that skill curve in 7 days would be roughly impossible.
Edit: I agree with your skill curve analysis though
Too hard for me, I keep dying before even get the third modifier, aaaaa,
It is hard, but once you get used to the controls it feels much easier and you'll be asking for tougher waves :)
But for now try decreasing difficulty maybe?
It was bit tricky to at beginning then it was soo good playing,
My suggestion is that to add camera shake and othervisual feedback.
Thanks for the comment!
My first game jam so didn't have a list of things to polish. But Camera shake and visual feedback is now something I will consider for every game :)
Love the the 1 bit art style, and the core concept!
I could be missing something, but I agree with some of the other feedback about it feeling too difficult. The most fun run I had was when I modified the difficulty to give as much of every stat as I could get. xD
I could see any of the previously suggested ideas being a nice improvements:
- momentum to continue spinning you
- the ability to control which way you spin
- hot keys for refilling air and energy
Regardless, great job!
Thanks for the comment!
The thing about games like this it rewards people who spend the time getting used to the controls and wave patterns. I didn't realize that in a game jam entry, most people won't play it long enough to get better so maybe this genre itself was a bad idea lol.
But I definitely agree with the hotkeys! But about controlling which way you spin, my thinking was it would make the game more generic and also the theme was to "spin", and spinning usually means rotating in one direction when you think about it. If I constantly rotate between left and right it doesn't really seem like I'm spinning. Also momentum logically makes sense in the space setting, in a game like this where precision is important, I feel it can get annoying real fast. Just my initial thoughts. Will definitely try out all suggestions later with proper playtesting!
Honestly, the only think I can ask for are keybind for air and energy, since it breaks a bit the game loop having to unfocus from the action. Great game!
Thanks for the comment!
And exactly right! If I could make one quick change right now it would be that.
I idea is great, and probably could be fantastic with some balance tweaking. Right now the game is far too unforgiving with the air mechanic especially, and I think some sort of aim assist/magnetism could be very beneficial so that the aim doesn't need to be so precise. Visuals and aesthetics are great though.
Thanks for the comment!
And its funny so many people complementing the visuals when I consider that my more weaker area. But I guess the overall style is very cohesive!
I like the concept, anything space and wave defense is usually my cup of tea. I can't help but feel that the air you get to spin is way too little. As spinning around is the core of what you do. Having that tied to a (too) short stamina bar, which refills with a button outside of the shooting area. It becomes quickly difficult to rotate your guy to aim at the enemies.
I think adding a way to spin in both directions would make it feel a lot more responsive for the player.
Well done! :)
Thanks for playing, fellow space enthusiast!
Easy to learn, hard to master. I am a fan of 1 bit so this really hit the mark for me, great use of theme.
If was to nit pick, I would have loved momentum and inertia added to sell the space spinning theme, but that's me being greedy.
Thanks for playing!!
And I did consider inertia/momentum! It makes total sense given the setting. But it doesn't match with the limited air mechanic. since the whole point was to make moving(rotating) a conscious decision each time. I also considered but in a tiny bit of momentum, for game polish purposes, but for a game like this where precision is important, I think even that tiny difference could cause you to miss a shot an die. Basically I had to hold back a bit on the realism in favour of game fairness which imo is a reasonable trade off.
BTW I LOVED your game, my personal favorite in this jam. Truly a level of polish and atmosphere that I hope to achieve in my games someday. I really hope you and your team keep working on it. Not that it feels incomplete, I just want to see it developing somehow :)
We have big plans cooking, and a devlog about our thinking regarding jams and continuity coming soon.
Great game! Tricky to get the hang of, but really satisfying especially once you get upgrades. Also really nice to have the difficulty settings!
I will say, it would be nice to have keyboard button controls instead of the ui buttons, it's annoying to have to move my mouse back and forth. Or maybe map shooting to a different button instead
Hey thanks for the comment, hope you are enjoying it. And yeah the keyboard button definitely was a simple addition that could have made a huge difference. When I started I had this concept of setting constraints so that I can finish the game. Like "Playable only with a mouse" and "Black and White color palette". But didn't do playtesting, so I got used to clicking those buttons periodically and didn't realize it was cumbersome for someone new to the game. But I still very proud of what I made though. And will definitely add button input after the jam at least. Thanks again!
Very cool game but I found it difficult balancing air and energy. I decreased the difficulty but it was still tough love the game!
Thank you so much. It gets easier the more you practice! And if your reflexes aren't that good try to find the best modifiers. Some combinations make the game so easy you almost can do it by randomly clicking the mouse :)
yeah the bouncing modifier was great for balancing!
Great find! And I'm sure you can beat the game, do post a screenshot after:)
I usually write play by plays! So lets see how it goes. I love the aesthetic of this first of all. The menu is pretty and the UI juice is neat. The "click" sound is LOUD though. It peaked my speakers.
This is one of those, "Get gud" kind of games. And I think that dying is a skill issue. I have skill issues.
Hahaha loved the comment. Yeah definitely not an easy game. I like making difficult games and getting the feeling of achievement, but making a hard game probably wasn't a good idea for a game jam.
Here are some tips in case you want to try and beat campaign mode:
Great game, I really like the core idea! The fact that you can only spin in one direction made me strategize about my movements. I didn’t enjoy the refill mechanic, though, seems like it doesn’t add much of a challenge, only annoyance. Would be more bearable if there were keyboard shortcuts to add air and energy, but, honestly, I’d remove it completely and focus on the action part.
Still, very engaging and polished game, good job! Here’s my playthrough video if you want to see me struggle. :)
Hey thanks so much for the feedback! And for taking effort to video yourself playing!! You got a hang of things pretty fast and I'm sure you can easily beat the campaign mode with a bit more time, even without decreasing difficulty or any OP combos. Also I almost laughed out loud at 0:40, I could feel the confusion, like the enemies are just a bit counter clockwise, in normal games it should be easily killable but not in this game. As expected you quickly made sense that you shouldn't rotate unless necessary. Which I feel is one of the most unique parts of the game.
About the refill mechanic, I work alone and couldn't find anyone to help playtest it. But now that you mentioned it, it is painfully obvious that the "Get X" buttons are annoying. It was a part of the very first ideation and prototype. I like constraints to help keep scope small and making the game playable with only mouse and the black and white palette etc. helped me finish the game on time. And I personally sort of just got used to topping up resources when gameplay cooled down. But looking at it with a fresh perspective, it is clear it disrupts the flow quite a bit, especially given its a fast paced game. A simple extra button input as you said could have tremendously helped. Ah well, at least I learned a lesson lol.
very cool visual style but the gameplay is a little lacking, being able to only spin in one direction and having the air run out so fast makes it impossible to stay alive very long imo. I think this game could be very special if worked on after the jam keep it up
Personal best 26 seconds. Ignoring my apparent lack of video game skills this game is creative, well made, has a great visual style and is addictive to play. Very good game.
I know you asked not to rate until after bug fixes but it already seems good and mostly stable in my limited time. I'll check it out again after the window closes though and happily adjust my rating.