Getting Started

Tip: CLICK IN THE GAME WINDOW to get control of the game.  :)

Tip: Shoot some asteroids to find some resources!  Then you can begin trading with the various planets you will find.

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Controls

  • Fly around using the ARROW KEYS.
  • Z and X are action buttons, and are shown onscreen based on context.

Note: You can also play the game with a generic gamepad (like a NES style controller, etc).

Note: Press CTRL+R if you want to Restart the game with a new universe.  It's different every time you play.

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Trading

When you stop at a planet to trade, you will see 

  • red down arrows next to resources that are cheap (buy!)
  • green up arrows next to resources that are expensive (sell!)

These can help you to make trading decisions -> buy low, sell high.

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What's next?

I'm building this in PICO-8 and really enjoying it!  It's a fun way to practice programming outside of my usual Unity + C# combination.  It's something I like to work on when I clock off from other projects.  I'll post updates as they come to hand.  

Here's some things I'm thinking of doing next...

  • There's currently no specific goal.  I'm thinking about something like...  Give the player a goal of making $1000, and once you reach that you can zap to another dimension, now with a higher goal of $3000, and it keeps increasing.  This could be a bit plain and repetitive, so I think what would be more fun is...
  • For each universe you go to, give 3 randomised missions for the player to do before they can go to the next dimension.  ie: The player could have a set of 3 objectives to complete, then they get to go to a new dimension.  You can achieve them in any order, and once one is ticked off, it's ticked off for good (so you don't need to maintain all three objectives at once).  eg: "Obtain 300 Agon", "Obtain $2000", and "Make sure planet Alephron has 500 Unergy". 

Also

  • Draw spaceship as a triangle with facing direction.
  • Add shoot sound.
  • Respawn asteroids occasionally, so they don't run out.
  • Player should die if collide with asteroid.
  • Add background music.
  • Make sure sound fx are harmonious with the music.
  • Planets should build back up their money slowly.
  • Prices at planets should adjust a bit based on what you buy and sell from them.
  • Flying around should take a bit of Unergy, if you run out you fly slowly.
  • Ship could have limited cargo capacity.  Go to "space stations" to buy more cargo space.

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StatusIn development
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(1 total ratings)
AuthorMUZBOZ
GenreSimulation, Strategy
Made withPICO-8
TagsEconomy, Flying, Pixel Art, resources, Space, Trading

Comments

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I had fun playing this! I like the little green & red arrows next to the prices, saved me having to write stuff down.

Nice job with the music & sound effects !

Thanks!  Great to hear.  :)

I learned a lot writing this little PICO-8 game.

It'd be cool to have a small list of specific goals to achieve or something, so that each playthru or level was a bit different, and then moved you on to a new level...  or something!  :D

Maybe one day!

I already uploaded this to Lexaloffle, but anyway...

No goal you say? I'll make my own goals then.

:)  Nice one @pobop, you maverick!

I have never actually earned this much money in my own game!  Haha.

You have ascended!  :D  

So... you got so much money, that the number wrapped around into the negatives?

What actually happens?  If you get over 16384, then the number wraps around to -16384, and then counts down towards 0??

Pico-8 numbers are "16.16" fixed point values, rounded to four decimal spaces. 16 bits for integers and 16 bits for fractional values (I don't know how the fractionals work exactly, but the game only has integers for cash values anyway).   https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/Lua has more details.

So that's 2^16 = 65536 possible values, but for the integers that includes 0 and negative values, so:

>print(32767+1)

-32768

For a range of numbers from -32768 to 32767.

(I noticed just now that the range is uneven, with more negative numbers. I guess they have to include the zero so it has to be uneven.)

So I got to 32767 by trading and then +1 over to -32768, which doesn't fit the screen. Of course I couldn't buy anything anymore, but selling would count towards 0. I don't think it's possible to get back there though since the planets/systems probably don't have enough money at that point :)

Thanks for the extra details!

Oh man, you played an epic amount then!  :)

I should tweak it up some more one day with some proper goals, and some more polish, etc.  :D

Deleted 257 days ago

Thanks buddy!  :)  

That's pretty cool!

Thanks!  :)  Just started playing with PICO-8.  

I've got some further ideas for tinkering away on this project, sorta as an "after hours" thing when not working on my other games.  :)

Need to put in a shooting sound, add some background music, and add in some actual goals.  

(+1)

Yeah ... good stuff. It reminds me of the game 'Homeworld', where you fly around in space harvesting asteroids, fighting bad guys and building a fleet. Fun game play. Rock on!