PyWeek - Universe Factory 20 - feedback

Very well made, but perhaps less fun than the usual Universe Factory games. The core mechanic
of switching spaceships is nice and provides a solid setting. But then you just fly around and
do the tasks. There's not much challenge. And as you get better at the basics the game rewards
you by becoming simpler (the combined ships require less swapping). Usually a game becomes
more complex as a reward, and keeps challenging the player. Here the gameplay never really
took off for me. The writing and the voice acting are excellent. The graphics are okay. I think
the rotating circular space doesn't add much other than confusion.

Wow, this is great! It took me a while to figure out how to finish the game. I liked the idea of
teleporting around this unknown place, discovering stuff. This is a great idea that I feel
like could be even expanded further. Story was fun but I wish it didn't end in such a
cliffhanger. Music fit the game perfectly. Also: yay, voiceovers!

Mid-game was a bit slow, but maybe I didn't have to get all the ships. I liked the idea of getting
the ships, but in the end I don't think they made much difference. It would be cool if there was a
challenge where you actually needed all ships. I was thinking that eventually I would get a
super ship to cross the horizon, but I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, this was really cool, and, of course, in terms of effort this is impressive given the
timeline. Thanks for making it!

unfortunately after some time playing I got an out of memory exception of pygame:
C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav>py -2 run_game.py
Traceback (most recent call last): File "run_game.py", line 9, in from src import main File
"C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav\src\main.py", line
125, in s.draw() File
"C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav\src\scenes\play.py",
line 329, in draw obj.draw() File
"C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav\src\enco.py", line
12, in func ret = method(*args, **kwargs) File
"C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav\src\thing.py",
line 633, in draw image.worlddraw(iname, X, y, s, rotate = False, alpha = alpha) File
"C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav\src\image.py",
line 53, in worlddraw img = get(filename, s, angle, alpha) File
"C:\pyweek20\beyond-the-horizon-wav-v1\beyond-the-horizon-wav\src\image.py",
line 17, in get img = get(filename, s, angle).copy() pygame.error: Out of memory

What was good about it? Everything. I really enjoyed the voice acting. The game is pretty
tight, simple yet complex, and aesthetically pleasing. A big fat window with resolution and
fullscreen options. Story is thoughtful and necessary: the human element really elevates
the experience. The music is moody and helps carry the sense of emerging mystery and vastness
of space. Excellent work by all. Very, very nice.

Some quirks:

- When maneuvering the teleport target some of cursor the key combos didn't combine. I
suppose this may be keyboard evil. I didn't try the other key choices.

- I got Out of memory error after unlocking the first ship upgrade. Could not resume after
that. Please fix and I will finish the game.

- The guy trapped in what used to be called a black hole was too cool with it. But maybe he is
used to being in a tin can so long he loses track of time. :D This wasn't a problem. It just
tickled my funny bone.

Thanks for this game. It was a joy to play.

Bravo Cosmo. I upgraded everything, headed to the core, and got to a screen with just the title
and the music vamping in the background. I assume that's the "worst ending"? P.S. this is
better than Enemy Mind

Concept and visuals are really good. The story premise is interesting and has potential with
further depth. Ran smoothly on Linux until froze after extended play, analysis indicate a
memory leak, a restart continued properly from the auto-save position.

Excellent.

Luv the voices < 3 Playable, fun, made really good, can't write more, going back to finish the
game - if I don't rate other games it is because I got stuck playing this on.

Amazing stuff. Top notch production all round (music/art/story/interface), can’t fault
it. Voice actors in a pyweek game: very cool and they were actually good :) Really awesome game
concept, such an imaginative use of the theme .. and it was actually fun … innovative game
mechanics. The music was really excellent and I loved the way it transitioned based on
proximity to the data horizon. I’m astounded that you can tick off all these aspects so well.
Best game of the comp by far ... this is the sort of game that makes it clear I will never, ever win
pyweek :)

Truly exceptional production, and very nice overall flow of the game and of the story! (And the
~twist ending!) (For the part when I was just chasing ??? to unlock ships, it got a bit tedious
after a while, though, and I didn't understand that (I guess?) I could skip straight to the data
horizon.)

A very well put together and presented game. I really liked the story, music (dynamic music!)
and the voice-overs. Very professionally done and polished. I did find the core movement and
coordinate system a bit unintuitive to begin with and it took me quite a while to realize that I
am losing health mostly randomly. That can make it a bit frustrating, particularly with the
smaller, quicker ships which can be full health and then die quickly, sending you right back.
Altogether this is a great game with all the elements in place and working together. Great
work!

Good game, had sound problems but it's because my PC is old and bad (I even had memory error).

The production values are fantastic for a one-week effort. In particular, I really liked how
the music changes as the player gets closer to the data horizon. The scenario incorporates the
theme in a very creative way. Gameplay-wise, it's a rather calm game. There's little danger of
actually running out of health since the player can just teleport, allowing much of the game to
be focused on exploration, which is where the game excels. It's a linear journey (unless I
missed something?), however, so it might not be very replayable. I had fun with my
playthrough, though!

Voice acting!

Pretty good game. The ships move too slow, which is a problem when I try to park survey ships on
hidden objects, and there seems to be no end to the ??? spots, but otherwise this is an
extraordinary game, especially for a week long project.