Practical Spacefaring
The Game
Travel through space to reach your target planet on the other side of the sector; use your very limited fuel and the gravitational fields of planets, suns and moons to gracefully slingshot your way through the solar systems.
Fly near a sun to gather new fuel, but be careful not to overheat in the process. Change your trajectory or build up speed with the help of a nearby planet, but don't get flung into the void through carelessness or urgency. The name of the game is practical spacefaring after all.
The procedurally generated sectors makes sure you'll never have to play the same map more then once. Test your skill by how many sectors can you clear in a row.
The Controls
Navigate the menus using you arrow keys. X or Z confirms your selection.
While in game, use the arrow keys to fire your thrusters (until you run out of fuel). X brings up the map, which shows you the planet you need to make your way to, as well as where you are in relation to it.
The game plays fine with gamepads. It will not play very well on phones as there are some sound issues.
The Jam
This game was made for Cartridge Jam 3, Hosted by Dallas Society Of Play. The beautiful cartridge art that inspired this game was made by Ben Hopkins.
This was my first ever game jam as well as the first game I've ever made. If you enjoyed it or have some feedback, please don't hesitate to post your thoughts below.
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Comments
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This game looks and sounds amazing! Very polished menus and look overall. It's very difficult to control, and the ramp-up in gravity vs distance to the gravitating body makes it hard to predict what will happen, but it was still fun to play and I kept on trying, failure after failure. I also love all the flavor text.
I've also made a gravity-sim game for Pico8. Let me know what you think of it if you get a chance!
Love it! Great work. Very challenging and fun. Message me if you want to do a 4k, hi-res version!
Hey, thank you for making a game out of the cart! I love how you ran with the aesthetics, right down to the design of this page.
The game's a real challenge, I think my best streak was 2! It makes the title pretty amusing, this method of spacefaring seems rarely practical. The refueling/overheating mechanic is very satisfying. Planning ahead is only roughly possible for me, in particular because of the influence of the moving planets. But as hard as the game is, I imagine a very skilled player could win most of the time. If you did want to make it more accessible without significant changes, maybe a larger fuel tank with a lower limit as the player gets a longer streak could ease people into the game.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun with it, well done!