Survival of Spaceman - Game Design Log

Crazybreadman

Hello, I decided to create a thread to post progress on my new game. I hope to hear feedback from the GS community and hopefully you can help me make the best version possible. I've been wanting to do this project for over a year, and finally have the time available in the next few months to work on it!

Survival of Spaceman is a demanding survival/adventure/puzzle game with elements from some of my favorite recent games, Don't Starve, Spelunky, and Dark Souls. The characters and setup provide a quirky humorous tone, but the world's creatures and environments will be harsh and brutal. This dichotomy is meant to produce a tone of having comic relief but also shocking or scary moments that will be memorable to the player.

As you can tell from the screenshot there is still a lot of work to be done and in progress (crafting, UI, art)
I'll post progress as things develop and would love to receive feedback to help shape this game!

Screenshot: Maverick Silver on the surface of Planet Bazingo

Here's the story setup:

In the distant future of 2007, a team of former 80s TV action heroes travel the stars. Their destination is the planet known as Bazingo. Desperate to regain their former popularity, the four man squad will explore the planet on a live TV survival show.

Their voyage is funded by a partnership of BEAR power company and the fledgling TV broadcasting company, WOLF. The objectives of the four man squad, the S-Team, are two fold. The first objective is to increase network ratings with the daring, first of it's kind survival show. The second objective is to act as a pilot mission to harvest Zing. This gel-like substance found on Bazingo is a powerful source of thermal energy. Your team will harvest 1 Zetta Joule of Zing energy, which will satisfy global energy needs for 2 full years. After completing the mission, an extraction team will arrive and take the S-Team back home. The success of this mission will place BEAR as the most powerful company in the world, and also give WOLF the edge it needs to dethrone GBC (Ginormous Broadcasting Company) as the world's entertainment king.

Things go horribly wrong.

Everyone in the crew perishes in a freak accident while entering the planet's atmosphere. Everyone but… Maverick Silver.

gamestudent

@Crazybreadman said:
Hello, I decided to create a thread to post progress on my new game. I hope to hear feedback from the GS community and hopefully you can help me make the best version possible. I've been wanting to do this project for over a year, and finally have the time available in the next few months to work on it!

Survival of Spaceman is a demanding survival/adventure/puzzle game with elements from some of my favorite recent games, Don't Starve, Spelunky, and Dark Souls. The characters and setup provide a quirky humorous tone, but the world's creatures and environments will be harsh and brutal. This dichotomy is meant to produce a tone of having comic relief but also shocking or scary moments that will be memorable to the player.

Screenshot: Maverick Silver on the surface of Planet Bazingo

Here's the story setup:

In the distant future of 2007, a team of former 80s TV action heroes travel the stars. Their destination is the planet known as Bazingo. Desperate to regain their former popularity, the four man squad will explore the planet on a live TV survival show.

Their voyage is funded by a partnership of BEAR power company and the fledgling TV broadcasting company, WOLF. The objectives of the four man squad, the S-Team, are two fold. The first objective is to increase network ratings with the daring, first of it's kind survival show. The second objective is to act as a pilot mission to harvest Zing. This gel-like substance found on Bazingo is a powerful source of thermal energy. Your team will harvest 1 Zetta Joule of Zing energy, which will satisfy global energy needs for 2 full years. After completing the mission, an extraction team will arrive and take the S-Team back home. The success of this mission will place BEAR as the most powerful company in the world, and also give WOLF the edge it needs to dethrone GBC (Ginormous Broadcasting Company) as Earth's entertainment king.

Ha ha! that's awesome! Good luck with this!

Crazybreadman

Thanks @gamestudent

I updated the UI yesterday and here's the result. The Craftatron will use the spinner to switch between craft items. Basically you can swipe anywhere near it left and right and then tap to craft the selected item (don't have to use tiny buttons but they animate when you swipe or tap). The joulez meter will show energy collected from the planet. The round icons on the top left are health, food, and water. The slots on the right are your carried inventory.
Here's a screenshot for iPad.

inventory.

Crazybreadman

Here's a video of some gameplay. The quality isn't the best because I just used the Quicktime screen capture at iPhone size.

This is a randomly generated area. I collect some items and then pummel a "trider" with a rock. Then I use the worm to suck an attacking trider away. Also I craft an axe using a rock and leg from the trider creature to chop a tree.

Crazybreadman

New screenshot with some updated graphics/lighting and now a fully working "craftotron" which has a spinner to toggle craft items and press the hammer button to craft!

Armelline

This is actually really impressive! And it reminds me of my youth playing on my Atari Lynx for some reason

Crazybreadman

@Armelline - Awesome, I'm going for the 80's-early 90s sci-fi vibe. The UI (command center) on the sides is meant to have an Atari feel to it. The player is commanding the character from his control center, so the display on that looks retro, but the graphics on the "monitor" portion are supposed to be true to life (in a cartoon world). Hopefully in the end I will have a successful meld of retro aspects with a modern coat of paint.

Crazybreadman

This screenshot features a new tree design and an enemy that feeds on the tree's energy and lives atop them to lay eggs. Can you see her on top of that one tree? Yeah that one. Her name is mukduk, she spits acid, and she doesn't like you. On the plus side if you can figure out how to kill her, you can grab those eggs which are nice acid bomb weapons, yay!