Close to the horizon

That was fun! Really liked the wormhole effect! I think you could've amped up the difficulty a bit. Would work well as a mobile game in my opinion. Good work!

ps. torille

Sweet, liked the low poly work. Made it out, without too much difficulty, agree with @akselmo I think increasing the difficulty a bit would help the gameplay. Liked the wormhole effect although as the grid is static you lose a bit of a feeling of motion, maybe just animating it by updating the UV coordinates would look good, maybe not :). Somehow was dissapointed not to be able to shoot, all those shoot em ups set in space must have drilled that into me. Had fun.

Very cool concept, and I like the way that you shifted the topology of a genre to create something I haven't really seen before. The visualization of the wormhole is really cool, and I like the way everything accelerates towards it. I also really appreciate the invert input button, thanks for that!

I feel like it would fit the fantasy a bit more to have it be a little more dangerous. As it stands, it is a kind of one and done experience when the genre and the concept should be quite replayable.

@Akselmo @automatonvx @Kleinzach
Thanks for playing! The new version should be more challenging. Although the spawner is still very random, it at least uses the right target point now….

@automatonvx
Updating the UV coordinates would, indeed, look good. I'll need to rewrite the shader though. A shader which actually warps the perspective would affect the objects too and go on forever, unlike this one which only works on a single mesh. Hopefully I'll find time to reasearch that, no promises.

@Kleinzach
Yeah, there could be all sorts of additional mechanics here, such as multiple powerups, a gravity gun, a grappling hook… I can think of loads which would work great with an actual endlessly expanding wormhole.

Such immaculate presentation of such a simple idea. I love the simple controls, art style, atmospheric audio, everything is great. I won my first try (which is always flattering, but I feel the game could have been a little more challenging).

I just played again so I could experience the lose state. So slick!

Lovely entry, great work

This gameover sequence… It literally hypnotize me each time. The zoom out and slow fade on sound is enough to really bring a juge emptyness feeling. The gameplay is fun but feels a bit unfait sometime when blue ball overlap mines.

The gameplay feel pretty original. Its easy to learn the game. It needs a bit more balancing, to make it feel more enjoyable. The only thing I didn't like, was the grid when view from far. Overall its pretty decent!

@voxel
Thanks! Immaculate, don't hear that word too often.
The spawner is too random it seems. Should have tweaked it manually some more.

@benjamin
Thanks! The end sequence was one of those experimental-late-evening-jam-discoveries.
Yes, the blue energy crystals (or something like that) don't have colliders at all, now that I think about it. Would be an easy fix, but… Who knows.

@terrykim426
Thanks! The grid does look quite loopy, especially when stretched to oblivion. I'll take decent any day though!

Dunno if I now played the updated version, but it was still very much on the easy side. Are you over compensating a bit for your vert hard game last time? It also was super short. I think I spent more time staring at the ending animation that actually playing the game. Would have loved to play more

Very intuitive gameplay. No need for any tutorials or anything, was very clear right from the get go on what to do, what to touch, and what to not.

But very much a good job! Especially so considering the amount of time you were able to squeeze in this weekend. And why isn't it ranked, wasn't 22.45 Finnish time still within the ranked submission hour?

@anttihaavikko
Thanks!

The spawner is very random, erring on the easy side it seems. With more time I would have tweaked it, same with the duration. Changing a few values here and there would be enough as a quick fix, although I'd really just like to rewrite the spawner and the wormhole systems.

It's unranked because I lack the competitive spirit. (Constructive) Criticism is what I'm after!

Suprisingly terrifying game about struggling to escape a spooky wormhole. I'm glad that there actually was an ending and I wasn't just destined to die in the middle of space. Gameplay was simple and effective, but the randomness annoyed me quite a bit. It felt like a lot of deaths weren't my fault and that there were too many of those blue cube things that were simply unreachable. Maybe having them "repel" the space junk or something would have been good. The graphics are nice, mainly the zooming out on the wormhole which manages to be quite grandiose in a scary existential way. The music is simple, not much to say other than it gets the job done. Overall good game despite a slightly broken spawner IMO.

The ending feels like one of these demoscene moments where the public goes wooow

Well, the game might not be made in 4 kilobytes, but there's definitely a special atmosphere that comes out of it. The distorted 3D grid, camera work and that dark music that announces your impending doom combine perfectly to set the mood.

I also have to point out the pleasure I have watching your 3D modeling skills go a step further with each of your games.

The overall gameplay is well found, and fits the theme well. I however find the balancing could use some tweaks: it feels currently quite slow and largely dependant on the randomness of spawning items. Having a more fast-paced gameplay, with smaller & faster items would crank up the fun a lot.

Overall a nice find & great art-wise execution!

@Baconinvader

Thanks! I'm sure to fix the spawner and the blue cube thing issues in the post-jam version. Now I just have to find the time for it…

@Wan

The ending feels like one of these demoscene moments where the public goes wooow

Wooow! Now, that is quite the compliment. Thanks!

Put 80% of the time into the audio visuals, happy it shows. Music is especially fun to compose in an hour. I didn't exactly intend the track to be so ominous, but those are the instruments I ended up with as they seemed to fit together and the clock was ticking away.

Smaller & faster items is certainly a good idea. Will think of additional obstacles & powerups for the next version. Trying to keep it simple and short and fast-paced of course!

The beginning is very striking. Love it! The gameplay and difficulty feel a bit unbalanced, though. I like that you teach the players about the blue orbs at the start, but the game could really ease you into using them, and then how the obstacles work and how to avoid them. It kind of goes from 0 to 100 in a second at present. I didn't get particularly far, so I'm not sure if there's variety in the gameplay. Still, visually bold and an idea worth developing further! Great job!

This is a really great concept, and well executed. I love the art and the music, especially the way it fades out forlornly when you fall in the black hole. It gives you a real sense of cosmic futility. I think this game just needs a scoring system and a bit of variety introduced as you start getting further out, and it would be something I would be playing for a while.

Great concept, very tense to be forever chased by the edge of the black hole. I would change the camera though, so that the ship always points upwards (on tall screens, like mobile), or to the right (on wide screens).

Graphically looking cool, especially at the start when the wave hits. The engine exhaust of the ship should be a particle trail that moves relative to the grid, rather than the ship, so it shows your path.

The music is fitting, but could be a bit more frantic.

Did someone mention yet that this would work great on mobile?

I made it out! Great game, really enjoyed it. It was a nice challenge to gather enough "power ups" to not fall into the hole. It seemed like every time I moved the ship drifted a bit inside. Is this the case? It was a bit annyoing to not be able to move too much. Otherwise, very cool.

@smbe19
Yes, turning does reduce the forward thrust. You need to pick your timings carefully. It would actually work better with multiple powerups, i.e having to choose where to go more so than now.

Thanks!

Really sweet visuals, sound and theme. The game is lackluster in depth, however. Great work!

The graphics is nice and the music is moody but the lack of control was frustrating. One time I got very close to the edge but then all the powerups at that point was too far away. Felt there's a lot of chance element. Gave up after a few dozens of attempts.

This game is terrifying :D I really like the mood here, the unknown both in the growing hole and in the distance that you are trying to reach.

Like others said above, it feels very luck based. Maybe the power boosts could just be granted to the player every X seconds that they don't screw up, or something to that effect.

There is good basis for a great game here, I really hope you continue this one after the jam. :)