Safe Course 2024 1st devlog

Hello, this is technically my first devlog.

This game comes from a small game jam project from 2020 (here is the link to the original game if you're curious : https://maui-101.itch.io/safe-course-old). I've been working on it for a few months on my spare time and first released the new version about 3-4 weeks ago. I'm thankful for all the feedback I got. With this version, I tried to address the most recurring points.

Information overload : I simplified the UI and reduced the amount of information in the status panel.

Difficulty : The first levels should be simpler and difficulty should ramp up more slowly. Also, the much needed tutorial is finally here (available in the first level or from the pause menu).

Visibility : Several people mentionned that they wished they could explore the level freely without the camera being locked to the ship, that is now an available option ! You can switch between the locked camera mode ("L") and free camera mode ("F") to look around.

Content : That wasn't a complaint per say but the previous version was very short and only had 5 levels. There are now 12 levels divided into 3 sectors. As with the previous version, I chose to keep all the levels unlocked for now. If you struggle with a level, you can just go back to the main menu and skip to the next.

Audio : I also made some minor changes to the sound effects. If anyone wonders, the general idea is to only have sounds you could hear from inside the ship (since there are no sounds in space...) like computer UI sounds or entrance into the planet's atmosphere.

Finally, there are other minor changes like a pre-vizualisation of moving object's trajectories before launch or the notification system.

There are more tricky issues I didn't get a chance to address like the pacing of the game (feeling too slow at times) or player agency (the game feeling too much like trial and error without a clear way to plan ahead your trajectory) but hopefully the changes I made are a step in the right direction.