Kessler Syndrome

NOTE: DOWNLOADING AND RUNNING THE GAME IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. PLAYING THE GAME IN BROWSER HAS PROVEN TO BE UNSTABLE FOR ME AND CAN CAUSE GRAPHICAL AND FUNCTIONAL BUGS. DOWNLOADING AND RUNNING THE GAME WILL BE MORE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FINISHED CREATION.

Great work from everyone involved in LD42! Can’t wait to play some of those games!

Kessler Syndrome is a fun little game about launching satellites and stations into orbit while trying to not collide with the ones already up there. The game is based off of a real life theory that eventually space will become to crowded for us to fully utilise it. In the game, the player must pace their shots and spread out their satellite trajectories to avoid collision. Too many collisions will get your funding cut and your career will end. The game can quickly become hectic and challenging so plan ahead to see your career through to the end. Assuming that it actually does end… Perhaps?

I’m pretty proud of my programmer art as it turned out a lot better than expected. Hoping for this one to be my best Ludum Dare yet! Good luck to everyone!

Wasn’t originally planning on entering the Compo but since the game was pretty much finished and the Quill stream chat said I should, I did! Thanks guys :)

Features:

• Various exciting planet types.
• Multiple challenging difficulty levels.
• Half-decent art for a programmer.
• Various References and Easter Eggs.
• An actual soundbite of me throwing up in a bin.
• Hyper-realistic Orbital Mechanics simulations (Okay perhaps not but I did need to consult real life astrophysics formulae to calculate the speed of satellites).

All art, programming and sound was made by me.

Here’s to my best Ludum Dare so far! Cheers!

“Kessler Syndrome (also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading or ablation cascade), proposed by the NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low earth orbit (LEO) is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade where each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. One implication is that the distribution of debris in orbit could render space activities and the use of satellites in specific orbital ranges infeasible for many generations.” - Wikipedia