Nappi

Excellent progress and a very enjoyable stream, @Nick Breckon! This may have been addressed in the stream/comments already, but if you eventually get tired of guessing whether you have enough delta-v for your planned mission or not (I guarantee that there will be plenty of other issues to deal with when building a Duna colony), I would recommend installing Kerbal Engineer Redux (or something similar) that shows you the delta-v, burn time, etc. of each stage. Mainly recommending this because I want to see this map pulled out during the stream: Source: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/87463-13-community-delta-v-map-26-sep-29th/ I will stop backseat gaming now...

I'm really happy that Nick got back to Kerbal Space Program! I haven't watched the latest stream yet but I bet he got the Mars colony up and running by the end. https://www.twitch.tv/nickbreckon

I haven't heard anything. I was just hoping there would be one. There is a post from July 2016 from one of the developers on Steam forum stating that they are not working on the sequel "at the moment". Hopefully the Switch releases for Heist and Dig work for them, as both series are cool.

I bought and finished SteamWorld Dig 2 and Steamworld Heist. I really liked the feeling of progression in SteamWorld Dig 2. Unlocking new systems, abilities, and gear never stopped feeling good. I wasn't too keen on the challenge caves that required good precision and/or speed, and hated most of the Boss fights. Fortunately, I had heard about the final boss beforehand, and knew how to prepare accordingly. I enjoyed the game, but probably won't be buying SteamWorld Dig, because I assume the sequel is a more polished version of that. The basic gameplay of SteamWord Heist is absolutely my shit, and I feel that sequel (which is hopefully in the works) will be fantastic as long as they tweak the progression system a bit. The 10 or so playable characters all had pretty cool and unique abilities that are gradually unlocked as they level up. However, they only get experience points if they take part and survive the story missions (for which you select 3 characters on average). Because (1) the missions are typically quite challenging, (2) because you don't know what kind of enemies to expect from any given mission, and (3) because you lose half of your fucking money if you fail a mission, I didn't feel like experimenting and instead used my highest level characters that I had found to be effective in most scenarios. This of course meant that the level cap between those characters and the other ones grew even larger, which was unfortunate because the other characters seemed pretty cool too. I get the per-character progression system in XCOM because you only have a few classes and the soldiers can die permanently. With 10 characters and no permadeath, the decision just takes some fun out of the game. On a more positive note, I'm in awe about how well they implemented 2D turn-based tactical shooter with analog aiming work. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to distinguish between different elements (e.g. floors that you can shoot through and that you cannot) but that was never the case. Landing a blind ricocheting shot never stopped feeling good. Like I said, I think the sequel of this game will be amazing. I already liked this more than I did Mario + Rabbids (which I got bored of and quit playing halfway through act 3). Next up on my Switch list will probably be Bayonetta 2. I'm not a huge fan these types of 3rd person action games, but if I start to feel frustrated, I will probably just turn down the difficulty and enjoy the craziness.

Congrats! You did it!

I second the Would I Lie to You endorsement. I'm a sucker for British panel/game shows with heavy concentration of comedians or otherwise funny people. Other shows worth checking out: QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Insert Name Here, Big Fat Quiz of..., 8 Out of 10 Cats (Does Countdown)...

I love Unknown Mortal Orchestra's new sound. That fuzz!

I finished the game. Leveling up for the final few missions definitely stated to feel like a grind, but I'm still glad I finished the game. I'm happy that they got rid of many of the most frustrating aspects of old Assassin's Creed games, for example, the insta-fail sneaking and tailing missions. Unfortunately, that meant that the way they ramped up the difficulty towards the end was to introduce a bunch of boss battles. The combat wasn't my favorite part of the game, but luckily the fights weren't too bad. I didn't like the plot very much. I'm super tired stories that start with some bad guys killing or kidnapping your child/spouse/family just because that is the easiest way to motivate the players. In this game, I disliked it even more because, while they kept talking about their kid all the time, the plot revolved so much around political intrigue that I really didn't feel like I was seeking justice for my kid. The writers clearly wanted to make a story with a lot of twists and turns, but because of the pacing of the missions, nothing felt very impactful ("I can't believe this guy betrayed u... there, he is dead. I killed him"). I would have been much happier if they had just introduced a hierarchy of bad guys, so that I had felt I was making some progress with my revenge plan instead of just waiting for the new name and marker to appear.

Sure. What I meant is that I'm currently at a stage where I need 12,000+ xp for the next level, and my options are to complete low-level side missions that reward ~1000 xp (and useless loot) or newer missions that reward >3000 xp. With no obvious differences in the quality or length of the missions I'm going to choose the latter. This is, of course, quite standard thing in RPGs, but still..

UPDATE: Released Available on itch.io: https://ktomi.itch.io/some-kind-of-star-drifter Gameplay video: Music by @badatstuff (Jordan Hartley: https://jordanhartley.bandcamp.com/) I am yet to implement the constellation gallery, but I'm simply too tired to do it now. I will definitely do it later, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Original post: The concept You are drifting in space. Parsec after parsec of nothingness. Your engines are shot. But you got places to be, and vast quantities of energy to expend. You start creating stars. Gameplay (I know the trajectories are messed up in this one.) Your goal is to go through each checkpoint in the level. You do not have direct control over your ships movement. Instead you click on the game area to create stars that affect the trajectory of your ship. By holding down on the mouse button you gradually increase the mass of the stars and thus change your orbit. When you release the mouse button you start to orbit the newly created star. Create more stars until you have passed each checkpoint. The scoring can be based on e.g. the distance covered or the energy expended to create the stars. Or maybe I will just make a relaxing game, and let the players create and name constellations at their own pace. Random considerations Multi-star systems are bound to get pretty crazy fast, so I may end up having to have only the newly created star affect the trajectory of the ship. I also may need to include a way to disable gravity to give more control over the movement. We'll see..

Thanks for playing! Yeah, you only have control over the location and the mass of the star, so making the ship follow the path you want will be difficult (unless you are somehow naturally good with elliptical orbits). I eventually got the hang of it (see tips above), but then again, I played quite a bit while testing. Pressing ESC resets the level.

I have played most Assassin's Creed games from AC2 on, but got super tired after Unity and skipped Syndicate altogether. I think both me taking a break from the series and the developers reworking some aspects were good ideas, because I'm definitely enjoying the game more than I did Unity. However, I'm still not sure what my overall impression of the game is because most great things are balanced by some annoyances. For example, on the one hand, Egypt is absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand, I feel like I shouldn't be enjoying the scenery but smashing down statues or killing wild animals for their pelts or moving from one objective to the next. Exploring cities like Alexandria or Memphis is super cool in theory, but there are only a couple of main missions and a couple more side missions in each and you are not encouraged to go back to those later because the leveling system discourages completing low-level side missions. Scouting out enemy camps with your eagle drone, and successfully clearing them out silently with your bow and occasional back-stab feels really great at first. However, practically every side mission requires (or at least encourages) you to do this in some form, so after a while, it loses its effect. The weapon types seem to offer good variety and each player can choose the one which fits their playstyle the best – except in gladiator arena type main missions where you absolutely have to use a specific weapon type (this was a a real problem for me because I was used to deal with shielded soldiers using a sickle swords). I like finding good loot and seeing my numbers go up, but this is also one of the few games where I feel like I have to do serious work to reach the recommended level for the main missions. It would help a lot if the side missions had better variety and/or writing. Finally, exploring Ptolemaic Egypt is really fascinating, because I haven't consumed other media set in this period (I'm sure it exists, just haven't personally engaged in it). But of course, this is an Assassin's Creed game, so there has to be a modern day super-plot that the player should care about for whatever reason. Not only that but Ubisoft seems to use the historical setting for stupid cross-promotional stuff now as well: (side-mission spoilers) I know it is just a goofy thing borne from some sort of product placement deal, but it really annoyed me because it sullied the actual historical setting. As if Egypt didn't have enough cool shit in it. Anyway, I just killed the Croc boss, and I'm getting a bit tired of this game, but I think I will still try to complete the game, because there are enough things that I like in it.

I'm impressed by how effective the reader's plot to erase an alternative title, they did not like, was.

I finally had time to implement constellation saving and the gallery. Version 1.2 is now available on itch.io: https://ktomi.itch.io/some-kind-of-star-drifter I loved watching people play the game on their streams. I tried to make the progression a bit gentler so that people will have more time to get a hang of the systems. The key points in making the game easier are: -Try to avoid creating stars directly in front of or behind the ship. Instead, place the stars next to the ship, some distance away from it. - Use right click to disable existing stars. This way you don't have to finetune the the orbit so that it crosses the checkpoint.

Yesterday's announcement that Mew-Genetics is uncancelled reminded me of its weird-ass teaser: I remember being really intrigued by the tone and art style of Deus Ex: Human Revolution cinematic trailer a lot when I first saw it. (I liked the "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here" quote a lot more when I didn't know it was a Lostprophets single.)

I really hope the new Mario Tennis game will be good! I have been itching to playing something like this for some time now.

This is a good point. It might be a bit hard to implement but sidescroller type camera and movement would definitely make solve the platforming issue.

It took me a while to realize why the text felt so familiar. Oh, Steve.. I'm not sure if I got to the hot beats part of the soundtrack as I went through the game quite fast. It was definitely quite striking though.

I'm not quite sure what is going on in this game, but I don't mind because it looks hilarious.

The gameplay loop is as satisfying as I suspected. The minimalistic artstyle works really well. I especially like the particle effects when digging. A very minor thing, but because of the size of the character, it can be quite difficult to jump through one piece high vertical caps sometimes.

I like the look of this game, and especially the lighting, a lot. The title treatment is very nice too. I would like to see more of this game in the future.

I liked the puzzles quite a bit and the presentation and writing are hilarious! The mouse sensitivity was quite high on my setup, but fortunately you don't have to do anything that requires you to be quick or precise.

The graphics and the atmosphere in general are simply amazing! The text is handled really elegantly as well. I'm super impressed that you managed to achieve this level of detail within a game jam. As to the gameplay, I agree with the previous comments that while the fixed camera system looks really nice and cinematic it is not the best fit for kinda punishing platforming challenges. Part of the issue is also that I have come to expect games of this style to be more forgiving in general (usually the character can either grab the ledges or the jumps are assisted somehow). I wouldn't be complaining about this if the rest of the game wasn't so brilliant. Congrats on being featured on itch.io! That is well deserved.

I think the gameplay feels really natural and cool. I would definitely like to see this developed further (to what direction, I do not know). I like that you can shoot backwards while running, but I'm not sure what to think of this:

I liked the atmosphere and the tactile feeling of the interface. I must say that I had no idea what I was doing for quite a bit, but I got the hang of it eventually. The mouse sensitivity felt quite high to me. I'm not sure if it is a resolution issue or something.