Ludum Dare 27 — entry: #Hindsight

Care to play?

Communications.

We did end up finishing something of a product in time!  I can't actually express how much fun and energy-giving this was.  Working with Brian is a blast.  We joked a good deal about sci-fi space opera tropes, and tried to incorporate some nods to popular series. Since the theme was 10 seconds, we wanted to put the player in a situation where every second and choice counts, and let them see the consequences of those choices in an entertaining way.  By letting the player rewind through time, we could extend the gameplay beyond the constraints of the traditional '10 seconds' while preserving the theme and experience once choices were again being made in a new timeline.

Its a point-and-click choose your own adventure, and the rewind mechanic is in a basic state is functioning. There are roughly 5 endings achievable, character elevation works, and sound is in (thanks to Brian's daughter!)  There are some spelling errors in the initial scenes- The Incomprehensible seems to be appropriately the biggest contender in that.  Just can't comprehend that alien enemy...

Captain: "...."

  Some of the things that were planned, but we were short on time to finish: (1) Animated rewind of time, (2) The rest of the endings/interactions to get them (3) Animated view screen content based on the current threats.  There was a whole list of features that were not part of the 'core' experience that it would be a lot of fun to get working on a second pass, like parallax shifting of stars through the windows of the Pequod's hallway and  a greater sense of the battle that the game throws you in in medias res among others.  I believe there will be further development, but it's going to be secondary to the primary company projects.  

There's a few days left of voting at Ludum Dare's site, but more importantly there's some nice feedback in the comments regarding how people felt about the retro-styling and the comic-y cut-scene presentation.  I enjoyed painting all the little cells, and rather like all the little characters and their little ships.  (I actually want a folder or shirt or something with the Ensign panicking on it )

I believe that there are plans for a formal post-mortem on the game, probably to be put on RealityFoil's own website, so stay tuned for that as well.  I'll save talk about design decisions and art development for that so that this doesn't all get painfully repetitive.  In the meantime, enjoy some more art~

Emergency landing, planet side!  Lucky you navigated towards water, Captain.

Attacking the Incomprehensible, without sacrificing your ally the Albatross for the greater good.

Warp Cores are very sensitive to space combat.