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[Stargoat]

Yo,

Working on a prototype for an artillery style game set in space. Instead of gravity acting downwards, it acts towards the centre of mass of various bodies- planets, suns etc.

At the moment, all I have is a rough physics engine.

Controls are: Mouse aims the turret on the space station, left click fires a projectile, right click destroys it. Mouse wheel up and down control the initial velocity of the shot (in pixels per second).

Gravity Slingshot

And a screenshot:

What kind of information would dudes like to see in this sort of game? Any suggestions for UI features?

Thanks.

Edit: linked to the wrong game >.>. New link is correct.

[suggo]

This is looking really cool! I already like playing with it

Perhaps it would be good to have a projected calculation of where the missile will go before you fire so you can more easily create the slingshot effect rather than having to learn by trial or an area marked around the planets, like a sweet spot you can aim for.

Just some ideas, not sure if that will translate into what your aims are for this game.

EDIT: I'm getting some really cool weaving between the planets. Good work 

[FARTRON]

This is already fun, getting cool loops and patterns going. I look forward to bigger maps and more planets.

The numbers for velocity are a little abstract. I'd suggest displaying a line that represents the distance between the dots so it is immediately visually descriptive of the outcome.

Possibly also a click and drag interface, with length of the drag determining velocity.

Finally keep track of the loops you make for a score multiplyer... taking the long route should pay off when you blow up the bad guys.

[Stargoat]

Perhaps it would be good to have a projected calculation of where the missile will go before you fire so you can more easily create the slingshot effect rather than having to learn by trial or an area marked around the planets, like a sweet spot you can aim for.

Ah, I think a projected calculation would sort of destroy part of what makes this interesting, at least for me. Also, I'm having trouble visualising how I'd actually get that done.

This is already fun, getting cool loops and patterns going. I look forward to bigger maps and more planets.

The numbers for velocity are a little abstract. I'd suggest displaying a line that represents the distance between the dots so it is immediately visually descriptive of the outcome.

Possibly also a click and drag interface, with length of the drag determining velocity.

Finally keep track of the loops you make for a score multiplyer... taking the long route should pay off when you blow up the bad guys.

These are all good ideas. I'd like to track loops, it should be an intresting challenge.

Glad to see dudes think it's fun even on this basic level.

[Grif]

UI: Adding an option for "precision" angle/speed controls would be nice. Mouse based is fun and easy when you actually have a mouse, but on laptops it's a real pain.

Adding a more concrete scale could really help, albeit with the option to change it. Imagine a level progression from "planet w/ moon" to "planet around star" to "star around galaxy" or something ridiculous like that. Obviously, you'll run out of possible objects at some point, but I think having a noticeable difference between planet and star systems could be really nifty.

Graphical: Adding different traits to planets (that keep to real, physical properties based on mass and diameter) would be nice. EG, a large, low density planet is probably a gas giant, but if the mass gets high enough it compacts into a brown dwarf, and if even more mass is added it could become a self-sustaining fusion body (star).

As others have said (here and on IRC), adding score multipliers for traveling around planets, time spent in flight in general, and lagrange points would all be really fascinating. Being able to say, pull off the one in a million shot that orbits a planet until it slingshots into a solar orbit then zips out to the edge of the system and around a gas giant back to the target should get me just slightly more points than aiming just between two planets and having the shot swerve a little bit.

A sandbox mode where you can either A: place planets freely or B: take shots freely or C: both would be really neat, and add some amount of replayability (again, one in a million shot)

Level saving and editing could go places, especially with custom art assets (background, planets, stars, artillery platforms, shots, etc.

I don't know if I'm getting ridiculous (I probably am) but adding worms-style destructible planets would be awesome. Which would then lead to worms-style multiple munitions. But that seems like it's moving away from your original design idea, which is to keep it simple (not a bad thing).

Oh hey neat idea I just had: use a grid-based line effect to map out the gravitational effect of different bodies. This could be a replacement for tooltips (which would be useful but hard to visualize), or just a neat visual effect to help with aiming.