Cargo ship Calamity!

Nice game, with clear graphics, and a serene tune which futilely tries to calm the player in the late game, where ships are running rampant everywhere.

Simple mechanics, which yet generated a lot of different situations - elegant! Having to freeze two ships in opposite directions on the same course in an eternal faceoff, was probably my favorite of these, and a good sign that the end was near.

Three specific points I wanted to mention:

• I missed a way of seeing which paths belonged to which ships. Especially later in the game, if you were focusing elsewhere when the ship appeared, it would be a matter of guesswork to see if it would be a collision risk later on. It felt a bit unfair at times. Although, I guess it could be interpreted as a "chaos" element, and also worked as a nudging mechanism for moving the ship (and its path) off the board as quickly as possible.
• The "breaking distance" of the ships seemed somewhat random (perhaps linked to how far along the length of the path-node the ship was currently on?). But it made some of the later manoeuvres hard to predict.
• Some of the obstacles should have been ducks ;-)

Diolch yn fawr am greu y gem yma, roedd y profiad yn helpi fi i ymlacio. Hyd yn oed nad yw'r gem yn cyffroes iawn, mae yna level of satisfactrwydd sy'n dod worth gorchwylio'r cychod wrth mi yfyd ny nghoffi a ymlacio!

Hoffwn weld defnydd gwell o'r elfen graffugol, nad oedd yr effaith y mor yn perthyn gyda gweddyll y elfennau gweledol. Roedd y cerddoriaeth yn dda, ac yn ychwanegu'n dda i naws y gem.

I found the game surprisingly satisfying - despite the simplicity of it, it felt a game where you could sit back and not control thing, but still feel pretty engaged. A nice puzzle mechanic, though sometimes I was surprised by the collisions, I'm not sure if routes merge or if boats travel different speeds, or perhaps its when a ship goes diagnally that the ship behind it can collide (when it was otherwise at a safe distance).

Da iawn, dal ati!
Good effort, glad to have played your game.

Simple but original idea, well executed. The difficulty ramps up quickly, but not too quickly, and I never got the feeling of being entirely overwhelmed. I did feel myself longing for a pause button… but that would have changed the game for the worse.

One tiny point of criticism is that it seems to be grid based and ships only stop on whole grid cells (I guess), so they sometimes take a second or so to come to a halt. It would feel more responsive if they stopped instantly (or more realistic if they gradually slowed down), although of course it's then no longer always obvious whether something will be a collision or not. Alternatively, drawing the grid would make the current stopping behaviour more intuitive for the player.

Also, I dig the music! Very relaxing.

@Somnium

Thanks! The eternal faceoff situation didn't come up in testing (not enough time for testing!), but it will be easy to fix by allowing the ships to find a new path while stopped. For the other three points:

• I wanted to put in color coding and to limit the maximum amount of ships to something manageable, but time was my enemy here too.
• The breaking is based on the path nodes indeed. It was initially instant, but then pathfinding would have to take into consideration off-grid objects and I once again had no time for that. A stopped ship could claim multiple nodes of course (will give that hack a go for the post-jam version).
• Yes! I still have the 3D-model so it would have only taken a few minutes to put it in. This time something else than time was the enemy… Post-jam will feature the one and only.

@thomastc

Thanks! Drawing a grid was on my mental list, but I forgot it actually. It'll be an easy addition, if I cannot figure out a way to stop the ships immediately. Glad you liked the music.

A really nice game, which quickly gets chaotic (I started out thinking it was easy, but I was immediately proved wrong!!!). You've taken a simple concept and turned it into a decent game, it's just a pity the game's unranked.

Both the 'ships' and 'chaos' themes are used, and the graphics are good. I liked the way the camera zoomed in on the two ships which collided, it was a nice touch.

I did find the varying stopping distances for ships a bit confusing, as it meant I had to stop a ship well before it could crash in order to be certain that it wouldn't keep on sailing into the side of another ship (although this may be intentional?)

It would be nice if ships could be rerouted (this might solve the eternal faceoff situation, but could also make it too easy I guess), although the lack of this feature adds to the challenge of the game.

I loved the overall look of the game and the music was a nice touch.

I have to point out, I hated the fact that, sometimes, the ships wouldn't stop when I clicked on them. They would stop a 2-3 seconds after I click them.

It would be nice if you were able to see which ship belonged to what path. Maybe something like colored paths to indicate this, because at some times, I had no idea where the ship was going because the same path it was on had tons of paths connected to it.

Overall great game and I enjoyed playing it :)

It took a few seconds to understand how I could interact with the ships. Nice idea!

It's great how much you were able to code and design in such a short time: some pathfinding, a nice ship model, it's great you were able to add music too.

I love the simplicity of this design and the execution. Sound, graphics, music. It's all there - especially the chaos. And you managed to incorporate all three themes. :). Good job!

A simple mechanic that gets chaotic very quickly. I'd like to see a slower ramp up in difficulty that allows you to get used to the mechanics first, but I can see the appeal of it as a difficult arcade game as is.
The overlapping paths are fun to follow around and figure out, and it's calming to watch the ships sailing across and reaching their destinations to the tune.