Nappi

I like the lighting a lot! Good job!

Yeah, that timer emptying animation is amazing!

Revisiting your first project is such a neat idea! Looking forward to this!

I couldn't work on the game on Saturday, but fortunately things were better today. I managed to implement the basic player controls (left click and drag to create a star, and right click to cancel star creation or disable a star), the checkpoint system, and the orbit visualizer (which needs some tidying up still). I still need to implement some gameplay elements but I think I will focus on the visual style next, just to keep myself motivated.

Nice work! I think A and E are my favorites.

Maybe this is a Fallout clone instead of STALKER one, then.

Thanks a lot for the offer! I was playing with the idea of trying to make some sort of ambient soundtrack myself, but time and skill considerations may prevent that. I will send you a message once I know what my plans are with that and what kind of aesthetic I'm going with. Definitely aiming for chill. One of the main reasons I like the idea of making a game like this (apart from the fact that space and space exploration are really cool) is that the underlying mechanics are really simple. Basically, I just look for all objects with a mass in the scene and then calculate and apply the forces they exert on the player. When I first played around with this type of system during the summer (with an orbit golf game that is now on hiatus), I started by simply applying the forces to the rigidbody and letting Unity's physics system handle the rest. It worked fine, but I ran into troubles when I wanted to visualize the orbit (something I'm planning to do with this jam game as well), as I couldn't get the calculated and the actual orbits to match perfectly. To fix this, I ditched the physics system and calculated the velocity and position manually based on the acceleration caused by the massive bodies. Again, a simple calculation. To make sure that the orbits would remain at least relatively stable I went with fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. I spent a couple of afternoon's figuring this all out back in the summer, and happily recycled the system here to be able to focus on other parts of the game. So, in short, the gravitational system is easy to implement, but of course I had some missteps on the way. I like the combined modifier and warning system in Spelunky a lot, the one where the text "My skin is crawling..." at the beginning of the level means that there are giant spiders in the level. My current plan is to borrow that system for this games. Something like: "The comms system picks up whispers of the wind" (Solar) winds, as discussed earlier. Possibly rotating patterns of wind. "Have I been here before?" The play area has a star or black hole in it. My vision, at this stage, is that you start with a completely empty space, which means that existing stars are either previously created by you or that you are not alone after all. This will probably be one of the hardest modifiers in the game because multiple star systems can get really unstable. "My navigational computer is experiencing problem" Cannot visualize orbits and you have to fly blind. "I'm sensing some kind of a force field here" A barrier that you have to avoid.

Took me while to realize what this was referring to! Terminal7 seems like a goldmine for Wizard Jam titles. Looking forward to seeing what this ends up being! The introduction is very intriguing already.

Wow, nice progress! The poster placement system seems really good already.

I really dig this aesthetics first approach!

I didn't have much time or energy to work on the project today, but I drafted the star creating system (dragging increases the size of the star), and implemented the gravity system. The gravitational calculations are recycled from a project this summer that I did not have time to work on. What became immediately obvious was that I need to implement a safeguard for when the player is about to collide with a star. My current plan is to erase the offending star once a certain threshold in proximity or speed is reached. I can take the training wheels of in hard mode.

Yesss! I'm really looking forward to the progress updates!

I just started playing Steamworld Dig. There is something very satisfying about mining for resources and resurfacing to sell the goods, buying upgrades, etc, so I'm really looking forward to this game. Danger Layer seems like cool additional mechanic to spice things up.

This sounds interesting! Somehow it got me thinking about 80 Days and The Last Express, although there are other games that have structures more similar to this. In your vision, will turn optimization play a big part in the game? I don't know what kind of form the actions take, but 9 (or 5) actions sounds like a limited set to solve a mystery. (I still have to think about ideas for the extras.)

Yeah, those features make the gameplay sound really satisfying already.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions! I was already planning to introduce new mechanics on top of the base gameplay, and some kind of cosmic wind is definitely in my feature list. I'm not exactly aiming on realism here so I don't mind if they are not a big factor in interstellar travel. A simplified version of cosmic winds should be relatively straightforward to implement at least. I'm investigating other possibilities to spice up the gameplay as well. However, I don't know how much jam time I will have during the holidays, so I will focus on the core mechanics first and see how much time I have left after that.

I'm really interested to see what this ends up being!

This sounds fun (and stressful, but in a good way)! It also seems like a perfect jam game because you can add more inputs / mini games based on how much time you have.

I have only listened to the beginning of the episode, and I think you nailed the remote setup! If you hadn't talked about it, I would probably not have realized that Nick wasn't in the room. I hope the setup feels comfortable enough for you too to keep going.

Hmm.. now that my console isn't at my parents' place, I might actually finally try this game.

Ooooohh... This looks awesome! The setting seems perfect for this type of game.

What did you people think about Dad McElroy's Adventure Zone arc? In my opinion, of the main characters, only Justin's was actually funny or interesting. Then again, it took quite a long time for the characters of the first story arc to find their place as well. This was the first time that not using character voices annoyed me, especially with Griffin, since his character seemed to react to stuff in much the same way I imagine Griffin would out-of-game. It was refreshing to not have to follow a ridiculously grim and epic storyline after a long while, but I can totally see how a superhero setting would turn into exactly that eventually. Some (or at least one, namely the color/wavelength one) of the puzzles were presented in a really obscure way, but Clint would surely get better in that after a while. The serial killer-esque collages he made as the visual aid for the episodes were great though. I didn't really get a good handle on the actual gameplay system. It didn't seems like a big improvement on the D&D system, but didn't really bother the storytelling either. Between this and My Dad Wrote a Porno, I love how much needless business/institutional admin dads want to cram in their works.

I finished the game yesterday. I ended up loving the characters a lot. Even Blazkowicz managed to be quite interesting, with windows to his childhood and his constant yearning for Caroline. While the general structure of the story was felt pretty typical for this type of game, on a microscopic level, the plot was super fun and goofy. And oh boy, there were some bizarre moments towards the end! I don't know if I liked the gunplay a lot. At best, the gunfights felt hectic and badass, but then you make the mistake of trying to pick up a heavy weapon and the prompt simply keeps eluding you. Or else you get stuck in a doorway or a small step or something for no apparent reason. I felt that some of the gameplay mechanics were serving opposite goals. The commander/alert system for example pushes you forward if (when) you fail at stealth, keeping the momentum going. But once you have plowed through all the enemies, you are low on armor and need health, so you should probably comb through the areas you just covered in blood. Oh, and while you are at it, pick up all the collectibles and upgrade kits. Scouring through the areas took longer than the gunfights, which did not always feel right. The perk system is a really nice system, and I kinda hope they had taken a similar route for weapon upgrades. Overall, I'm really happy that I saw the story through, but also that I turned the difficulty down, because some of the stuff would probably driven me nuts.

I may have to update the list when I remember what games I actually played this year. 1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (by far) 2. Super Mario Odyssey 3. What Remains of Edith Finch? 4. Splatoon 2 5. Wolfenstein 2 I'm still planning but yet to play Assassin's Creed Origins and SteamWorld Dig 2. Other games of 2017: I was quite excited about Tacoma and liked it quite a bit, but finally it didn't leave nearly as lasting an impression on me as Gone Home. Night in the Woods was very interesting but also way too long and the movement did not feel great. Horizon Zero Dawn was quite fun for a bit, but somehow I felt that the game did not focus on its strengths: there was way too much combat against humans, and traversing the world felt pretty dull (at least when compared to Breath of the WIld, which was released shortly after Horizon). I didn't enjoy the combat in Nier: Automata very much and really disliked the repetitive elements, plus I wasn't nearly as blown away by the story as many people seemed to be. Thimbleweed Park had quite good puzzle design but the writing ruined the experience for me.

Nice! I think I will have time to take part this time.