Schubi gravity action and skill game

[schubi]

Schubi

Action and skill game in spirit of Thrust and Space Taxi.

Direct link:

http://www.beppigames.de/play/schubi/index.html

Games page:

http://www.beppigames.de/schubi/index.html

Homepage (find my other games there, for each there is a html5 version):

http://www.beppigames.de

PREFACE

If puzzled by the first level please read "WHAT TO DO IN LEVEL 1" below.

May take 30 seconds to 10 minutes to pickup and develop necessary skills. 
Difficulty level is nasty but easier than in the aforementioned classics.
To solve all levels probably takes a week.
If you happen to solve level 28, notify (the only level I failed at).

MISSION

Pilot your little yellow ship and load all trucks with cargo at a construction site
(level) within the shift duration of 180 seconds. Cargo is picked up by flying over
a dispenser (the circular object). This hooks cargo to the ship and a truck
is loaded by ejecting the hooked cargo and hitting the truck with it.
 
- 30 largely varying levels, playable in any order.
- game within game principle, e.g. level 30 is a racing game. 
  You may find some references to e.g. 
  Asteroids, Thrust, Space Taxi and Cut The Rope in other levels.

ON THE IMPLEMENTATION

Wrote this as my first game in 2012. 
This html5 version is a mixture of transpiled javascript (emscripten) 
and normal javascript.
No engines were used, everything was written from scratch (physics, collision detection,...).

CONTROLS

Keyboard only:

A - turn ship left
S - turn ship right
K - thrust
L - eject hooked cargo

(keys above can be redefined in KEYS submenu)

Quit a level / back in menu: B, Backspace or ESC
Menu navigation and selection: Arrow keys and Return

WHAT TO DO IN LEVEL 1 AND HOW TO DEVELOP THE NECESSARY BASIC SKILLS

Your ship cannot cross the red white striped barrier, only cargo can.
First fly around using keys A,S,K. If you got that fly over the dispenser
(the green circular object). Now that the cargo is hooked to the ship fly some circles,
halfcircles and watch the cargo gyrating around the ship. If you got that eject the cargo with L. 
Study its flying path. Pick up more cargo and practice throwing (hurling) the cargo so it reaches the 
trucks beyond the barrier.  
If you loaded all trucks, congratulations, you developed necessary skills for this game.

One further useful skill to be developed is rotating the cargo 
to the ships nose (and keeping it there by maneuvering) so you can push it. 

Described in the game but overlooked: The yellow black striped areas are explosive ones.
Do not touch them, neither with the ship nor drop cargo there.

BROWSER REQUIREMENTS

WebGL capable browser, may not work with MS Edge.
There is no loading bar for the initial preloading of music. Be patient.

There is also an Android version available from itch.io in a free to play bundle
(see www.beppigames.de/schubi for links).
 

Edited October 15, 2018 by schubi
Set links to the game on my homepage. These will be valid for long time.

[BdR]

Interesting game concept, but the levels start out way too hard.

Quote

may take 30 seconds to 10 minutes to pickup and develop necessary skills

It's not good game design to make the first levels this difficult. I think in the very first level, the trucks should be at the bottom so the player can simply drop cargo straight down. This is just so players understand the goal of the game and get used to the controls. Also, the cargo should instantly reload IMHO, sometimes you are just waiting for the green ball to re-appear.

[schubi]

Yep, I agree. A first level where you just drop cargo straight down would have been better. I should have made the first levels all kind of training ground with inbuilt tutorial.

Regarding cargo issue: Agreed, the fact that no further cargo is dispensed until the old one was consumed (by truck loading or hitting other object) is puzzling. Its intentional as there are levels where your misses will have an effect this way. Also note there are levels where dispensers will emit only one cargo and then vanish. 

This game does things a player might not expect and which may be considered escapism. 

Not related to your comments, just as an addition:

Exploring the game is strongly advised.  If you want to practice flying you could also try level 30 (there you have to pickup cargo at the end of first lap). Why not literally kick some alien tourists in level 26 first ?