Space Station Self-Destruct Simulator

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My studio Doborog had another game jam! This time, I designed a puzzle game called Space Station Self-Destruct Simulator. The final exam for your Space Station Engineering class requires you to build an evacuation procedure for the residents of a virtual station. Put safety protocols in the right order to save as many lives as possible. Your space degree depends on it!!

I gave the game a 90s Mac shareware / HyperCard vibe…

šŸ’„ Play Space Station Self-Destruct Simulator on Itch! šŸ’„

The project gave me the chance to design something I’ve been thinking about for a while now: a “narrative marble shoot.” In a marble shoot, you let the marble go and watch as it bounces and whirls through all the elements you set-up, like bumpers and the little wheel that always breaks when multiple marbles try to go through it. In a narrative marble shoot, the player makes a bunch of choices at the beginning of the experience, setting up the virtual obstacles, then watches how all their choices play out one after the other. That’s in contrast to the classic Choose Your Own Adventure style narrative with intermittent prompts to branch the experience.

I’ve got a lot more to say about the game’s development in the next two newsletters, but I want to give you a chance to play it before I blab about it. Space Station Self-Destruct Simulator is free to play on Itch in browser! I’d love your thoughts. Comments here or on Itch are very welcome.

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Geoffrey Golden is a narrative designer, game creator, and interactive fiction author from Los Angeles. He’s written for Ubisoft, Disney, Gearbox, and indie studios around the world.

6 responses to “Space Station Self-Destruct Simulator”

  1. Elly

    Sadly the game doesnā€™t seem to like my iPad and doesnā€™t properly adjust to my browser window. Iā€™m stuck seeing only about a quarter of the game screen which renders it unplayable. No clue if itā€™s a game issue or an Itch issue. Weird tech stuff that happens to literally nobody else is quite commonplace for me so it also very well could be just a me issue too.

    Reply
    1. Geoffrey Golden

      Sorry about that! I just tweaked some settings to make it more mobile friendly. I was able to get it working on my iPhone in landscape mode. If you can clear the cache on your iPad browser, you can try again. Admittedly, the computer is still going to be the best experience.

      Reply
      1. Elly

        I cleared the cache, but itā€™s still not displaying right though I see a bit more than before. Whenever I made websites for clients I would always use percentages instead of set pixel amounts for tables, images, etc to account for varying browser sizes. I feel like thatā€™s the problem here, but Iā€™m not sure if thatā€™s your gameā€™s coding or Itchā€™s website coding thatā€™s to blame. Possibly a bit of both.

        If I had a way to scroll the screen I could manage, but itā€™s locked which is unusual. Typically, if something is too big for the browser window to display it automatically allows scrolling so thereā€™s coding somewhere preventing that, likely on Itchā€™s side as itā€™s their website.

        No worries if you canā€™t fix it. Iā€™ll get around to booting up my pc soon and give it a try there. Poor thing has been a tad neglected now that I no longer do freelance graphic design work.

        Reply
        1. Geoffrey Golden

          Yes, the issue is that Itch only allows me to make the game window a set pixel dimension, and I guess the pixel dimension I chose isnā€™t compatible with iPad. (Though it does work well on my iPhone.) Iā€™ll keep this in mind for future projects.

          I made one more change! I checked the option to add scrollbars in case the screen gets cut-off. If that doesnā€™t work, then yeah, Iā€™ll look forward to you reconnecting with your estranged PC.

          Reply
          1. Elly

            Still doesnā€™t want to work with my iPad, but itā€™s working now with my iPhone. Managed to save 93% and pass. Very fun simulator as expected, but dang my tiny phone screen did not make it easy to play. I will try it on my pc this weekend as well.

            Reply
            1. Geoffrey Golden

              I couldn’t ask for a more diligent playtester. šŸ™ Glad you got it to work on a device ā€“ and did so well! I wonder if you’ll get 100% on the PC…

              Reply

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