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Astral treasure hunter's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #97 | 3.680 | 3.680 |
| Graphics | #113 | 4.040 | 4.040 |
| Quirkiness | #215 | 3.320 | 3.320 |
| Gameboy Soul | #226 | 3.560 | 3.560 |
| Overall | #313 | 2.980 | 2.980 |
| Secondary Theme Interpretation | #452 | 2.240 | 2.240 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #577 | 1.040 | 1.040 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game meet GBJam's theme
Pirate Purplebeard died and left his old gold hidden on on a planet. Players must build a fleet, conquer the system, and defeat the AI protecting the treasure to get the gold.
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Comments
Very cool game, I enjoyed plopping down ships and seeing how to fit the puzzle pieces together. There were a few ships I couldn't figure out how to make use of, like the ones that fired vertically or behind, so I just had to ignore those. Cramming battles all into one turn is pretty clever, I like this idea a lot.
I love the art, good game!
Thanks for playing!!
Great job on the visual polish! Really cool gameplay concept too as a strategy game. Good job!
Thanks for playing!!!
Yeah, this one is just really good. Shame about not being able to get the music/SFX implemented in time, but the gameplay loop itself is really well done, and as a lover of turn based tactics, this really hits the spot for me. The missing tutorial is noticeable, but the description is at least complete and concise enough to learn quickly from. If I end up giving it another go, I'll give my extended thoughts on the balancing since I didn't experiment that much build-wise, but it did feel pretty well done, if a bit on the easy side.
Thanks for playing!! I'm glad people could understand the game, I was a bit nervous because I could not do a proper tutorial. I was thinking to make the game harder, but after watching my gildfriend play, I decided that It was a better experience for the jam to keep the game in the easy side. At the end, most of the people are only going to play one time, and I wanted everyone to experience the full loop. I guess that for players like you or me, who likes this types of games, it feels a bit easy. We are too good ;D. Thanks for the feedback!!
I'd be really happy to hear your extended thoughts! I've put quite a bit of time into trying to make the game balance as fun as possible, even if it can be broken pretty easily!!
I also handed the controller over to my girlfriend for balancing, and it worked out well enough haha. I did end up coming back to this one for a few replays, and the gameplay holds up even on repeat runs, so here are my extended thoughts.
Being able to afford to upgrade to Ironmaul X but not a single new ship unless you sell gears on your second shop is... certainly a choice. (Removed as I forgot you start with 3 coin and 0 gears, not the other way around).First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed comment. We must have a very similar perspective on video games, because it seems you have completely seen through the decisions I made during the jam haha, I’m really impressed!!
The Spider ship is a very risky choice, you can have a good run with it if you surround it with cards that give it buffs!
I'm glad you appreciate the idea of starting with four ships! At first, I had planned to start just with the starting ship, but the game was incredibly boring. In the first four rounds, you could hardly do anything since you only had one or two ships. So I looked at how other deck-building and strategy games handled it and decided to have a starting deck with the other 3 cards.
I included the option to go to the friendly planet on every turn because, with so few turns, there was a good chance that players would have different needs throughout the game. But I imagine that in a larger game, it would be better not to offer that option and instead have x stores scattered across the map, so players don't get frustrated about having to "waste" a turn instead of fighting.
"Years of similar games have conditioned me to think that "harder mission = better rewards", which is a very hard habit to break here since you do get better rewards, but only if you get a full clear. Had to train myself to take easier missions when I was really needing upgrades so I could actually afford them.
I love this feedback, I hadn't thought of it, but you're absolutely right. I need to think about this, because it's true that I don't know of any game where you don't earn rewards just by beating a level. And it's clear that most players are going to come in with knowledge of those other games!
You're absolutely right about the prices in the store. Once again, you've seen right through my decision. I had planned to create a more complex system, but due to time constraints, I decided to simplify it as much as possible. Giving the player 3 coins at the start was just a way to balance the game given this constraint.
As for the difficulty, you're absolutely right. After watching my girlfriend play for a while, I noticed that too. The game penalizes you for not completing levels, so someone who isn't used to these kinds of games can get stuck in a loop where they don't complete levels, don't get the rewards, don't upgrade their ships, and then don't complete following levels because of that. That makes the game either too easy or too hard. If I decide to expand the game, that's definitely something I'll have to change!
Thank you for your feedback on the layout previews. I didn't want to show all the information so that the user doesn't always choose the best option, but maybe I'm not providing enough information. I was thinking that perhaps if I show the total (aggregate) attack and defense stats of the enemy ships, or something similar, the user might be able to make better decisions.
Yes, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to complete the first rounds without losing any ships. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest, hahaha. In my playtests, you could always buy a ship after the first two turns to replace the one you lost, but maybe that doesn’t feel very satisfying. I need to think more about this... hahaha.
Thank you so much for this incredible comment. I wasn't expecting anything this good, especially in a jam comment. I'm so grateful, and I've learned so much from it!! If I ever make a bigger game, I'll have to put you in the credits, hahaha. Thank you so, so much!!!!
I like your ship designs. There is a neat puzzle aspect to it. I like that there's another strategy game.
Thanks for playing!
this is the best-looking game I saw so far. the number of ships you can choose from is so many which leads to a deep strategic gameplay if someone spent a good amount of time in this game and understood everything it is unstoppable game. maybe the lack of soundtrack made it empty ,but for me everything else make up for it so I didn't even notice
Thanks for playing!! Yes, it's a shame I didn't have time to add sound or music. But I'm really glad you liked the strategy aspect of the game!! I spent quite a bit of time trying to balance the ships, so I'm glad you enjoyed the experience :).
WOW! Absolutely loved this one. Art was very polished and the gameplay was fun and challenging. Added to my favorites collection. I would love to see this game with some music!
Thanks so much for playing!
The controls are not intuitive, which is frustrating. It would be much easier to figure out the controls if you at least added a button‑switching sound. Also, the lack of a soundtrack is a huge minus for me. All these little things make a quite decent game seem like a rather unfinished product, despite the very interesting idea and gameplay.
Thanks for the feedback! I was actually curious about your comment on the controls, since I put quite a bit of thought into making them simple and intuitive. Would you mind elaborating a bit on what you found unintuitive about them? There are only two action keys, and I tried to make their functions clear with the banner at the bottom, that at any time tell the player what the buttons do, so I’d really love to get constructive feedback so I can improve for my next jam! ;)
Really original concept, and I loved the visuals. The little ships look great, and the whole presentation has a lot of personality.
Thanks for playing!
I love the art design. Solid work on this game! It's a shame that you weren't able to get the music/sfx ready on time, but you should definitely work on it after the jam!
Thanks!! yes, I will add the music when the voting finishes, sometimes it's hard to find time between my work hours in a jam. I'm glad you liked it
I am very simple, I love turn based and clean pixel art, your game has both! The pixel art and graphics are so fire. I haven't play many space games but the art makes it feel more comfy and enjoyable to explore. It forsure has the game boy soul to it and could really feel it after playing a few rounds. I think the only thing that is missing is some audio/sound which I would love to hear if you ever add!
Great work and keep it up!
Thanks for playing :). Yes, I didn't have time to add the music :(, so I'm expecting a 0 in the music rating hahaha, but well, things that happens when you are alone in a game jam hahaha
I really enjoyed this game! At first, I didn't quite get the hang of it; I reached the final planet and escaped without defeating the last ship. But the second time around, I managed to build an invincible fleet and beat the game.
The art style, balance, uniqueness, and Game Boy aesthetic are all top-notch. While the fit with the theme seems a bit debatable to me, that doesn't detract from the quality of the game itself. I hope you'll add a soundtrack to the game in the future.
Thanks for playing :). I'm glad you manage to win the second time. I didn't have time to develop a tutorial, so I'm glad you manage to get the rules without that :)
I feel like you have a lovely little base for a smaller commercial game here, the gameplay felt tight ships were varied, with some expansion and sfx mx this could be a lovely little indie game.
Graphic wise it is clean, sprites look different enough to quickly differentiate between ships once you get to know them
SFX and mx are sadly lacking here, for sfx you can use tools like bfxr to generate you stuff in a pinch, or you can record yourself doing beeps and boops and bitcrush it for some oldschool vibe.
Overall, cool little entry, miss me some music though! Well done!
Thanks for playing :)
I love turn based strategy games, and this is reduce to the max. very cool. great graphics and I love how you managed to cram all this information into those pixels. well done!
Thanks tripod!! your game is one of my favorites of this jam, so I'm glad you liked my game.
The puzzle here is great! One of the best "Game Boy" games I've played (I guess that's what the "Gameboy Soul" category is for). I could totally see getting obsessed with a larger version of this (both in the past and present). Obviously sound would help, and you know this, but I think a little UI pizzazz and feedback would also go a long way. Still a really excellent submission.
Thanks for playing. I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, it's clear that one week wasn't is not enough to make the game I had in mind hahaha, and I had to cut out some important things, like the music. Plus, fitting all the information onto the Game Boy screen was harder than I thought, xD. But hey, that's part of taking part in a game jam, hehe. Thanks so much for the feedback.
Pretty cool game, this is cool to see this genre coming up ! Too bad there's no sound at all, a couple of hit and impacts could have gone a long way.
Also a bit annoying, on my end at least, the keystrokes were not fully catched by the game and the arrows were moving the scroll on the web page too.
But kudos on having an entry done with Raylib !
I'm glad you liked it. I could not finish the music in time :(.
Sorry about the keystroke issues, that didn't happen to me in Firefox, so I didn't notice it in time. It seems to happen more in Chrome :(.
YES, I'm a huge Raylib fan , even though I've had to deal with a few segfaults during the week, hehe.
Really enjoyed trying to figure out the puzzle pieces and how I could jenga my way into killing them all. I would've never have thought of this, super fun!
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it!!!
This was pretty cool. It was quite well-polished for such a short time and the pixel art was very cute.
Thanks for playing!
Amazing pixel art and fun strategic gameplay!
Thanks for playing!