The Specimen
Submission to Godot Wild Jam #90
Save humanity by building up the most sophisticated biological specimen possible through upgrades and mutations. Use your specimen to eliminate alien threats and navigate through 4 different star systems. Play through the onboard terminal-based "SABLE" computer, in a retro 80s sci-fi immersive atmosphere.
A mix of text/terminal-based space exploration along with auto-combat & roguelite progression.
Effectively tried to combine Hades-like boons along with He is Coming auto-combat in an alien-themed space voyage.
Gameplay
Game is played 100% with the keyboard in the terminal.
Haven't had a chance to really spend time balancing out the gameplay yet - any feedback super welcome!
No sound unfortunately :(
Roadmap
Following feedback during the Godot Wild Jam, I'm planning to release a new version of the game with some initial adjustments:
- Improved balancing at the start of the game (feedback is that the game is too harsh at the center, leading to a lot of grind)
- New basic and easier enemy type (no membrane, slower than player) in the first star system
- Less punishing progression in the first couple of star systems
- Adding bosses on the last node, so there is a bigger challenge to work towards
- Resetting star system progression after each run, so that fuel is meaningful throughout the game
- Improved UX/UI
- Autocomplete of commands using tab (e.g., type d + tab and you get 'deploy' immediately)
- Map view which allows to visualize node progression even when not navigating (to allow for better planning upfront)
- Clearer colors on node threats in the map/nav view
- Change from ESC to 'Q' to go back/close certain screens (as this clashed with leaving full screen mode)
- Basic sounds (bips and bops)
About
- Made using Godot 4.6
- Godot logo used in splash screen (CC BY 4.0 International)
- Font is JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font Licence 1.1)
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Wow
Very impressive jam. the visuals are really polished and consistent. there is lore, and upgrades. it's a pretty solid rogue-like.
All I'm doing for the first 10 minutes is deploy enter nav upgrade. there isn't really any strategy. It's kind of like an incremental game, but with a little bit of typing.
I really appreciate the keyboard only controls.
This game seems to have potential, if you can get some good game design going.
Thanks! I've had a lot of feedback on the early grind and I'm working on balancing that out for the next update (after the voting period is over) ; I also want to add some QoL improvements to the terminal (like autocomplete) so its less of a pain to type the same commands over and over!