Planet Looper
PLANET LOOPER
GMTK Game Jam 2025: Loop
Description
Planet Looper is a fast-paced, single-button arcade game with retro style graphics. You play as a rocket ship boosting between the orbits of different planets trying to collect fuel cans.
Made in under 4 days for the GMTK Game Jam 2025 as a solo entry by Ben Bevan using Godot 4.
Try to beat my high-score of 7425! Leave your high-scores in the comments and let me know if you enjoyed playing!
And as always... Fly safe, astronaut!
Instructions
- Use LMB, Space or tap to boost your rocket
- Time your boost to position in the middle area of the planets' rings
- Score points by successfully boosting at higher speeds
- You lose speed as you orbit, so boost sooner to score more points
- Boosting uses fuel but so does orbiting
- Fuel cans will spawn with arrows guiding you to them
- Fuel cans refill half of your fuel tank and adds capacity
- Avoid crashing into planets or shooting off into space
- Use Esc or the pause button to access the menu
- You can turn off the CRT effect, camera shake and look-ahead in the options
Behind the Scenes
You can find a breakdown of the design process on my portfolio: https://www.benbevan.dev/games/planet-looper
Credits
Art Assets:
- Deep-Fold - Pixel Space Background Generator: https://deep-fold.itch.io/space-background-generator
- Deep-Fold - Pixel Planet Generator: https://deep-fold.itch.io/pixel-planet-generator
- BeeMaxStudio - Rocket Pack Pixel-Art: https://beemaxstudio.itch.io/rocket-pack-pixel-art
- KlenchAndrei: Free Pixel Rocket Exhaust! fx: https://klenchandrei.itch.io/exhaust-free
- ansimuz: Explosion Animations Pack: https://ansimuz.itch.io/explosion-animations-pack
Music and SFX
- Goose Ninja - Space Music Pack: https://gooseninja.itch.io/space-music-pack
- Soundly: https://getsoundly.com
- EVRetro (freesound) - Text Scroll F-# 0 230.wav: https://freesound.org/people/EVRetro/sounds/494920
- Kronbits - 200 Free SFX: https://kronbits.itch.io/freesfx
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Minor Update #1 - Text Fix2 days ago
- Planet Looper Launch!3 days ago
Comments
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I had a lot of fun with this simple concept, congrats !
Did you use physics computation to decide wether the ship was captured in orbit, or a well-designed rule of thumb?
Anyhow, your game and its various assets work very nicely !
Hi, thanks for playing my game!
The orbit gets triggered by a collider (visualised using the atmospheric glow) then it uses some simple trigonometry to calculate how fast and which direction the rocket should rotate around the planet based on different planet variables.
So to put it simply, not true physics but a maths-based rule of thumb!
Cool concept, and great use of a minimal amount of assets I think.
I found it very difficult to judge the difference between hitting the loop, and faceplanting into the planet. Some kind of indicator of current trajectory could help, but a bit more lenience on angle or maybe a wider track on the orbits could help as well.
found the infinite loop glitch lol
Loved the retro visuals and the satisfying looping mechanic super fun to chain those planet jumps! However, I think the game would benefit from a clearer goal or sense of progression, a smoother difficulty curve (maybe a quick tutorial at the start), and some tweaks to the camera for better visibility during fast moves. Great work overall.
i am really suprised by its ideal of being one of the most irritated games that ive ever played.
The idea of looping around planets is really creative! it's very satisfying to get a successful transfer between planets, though that the timing be too precise and feels like frame-perfect.
Found a configuration of an infinite loop where two mid sizish to big planets were overlaped enough to jumo from one to the other automatically, eventually fuel finished but that was my highest score lol
cool idea!
LOVE THE IDEA AND THE ARTWARK
A really good idea in playing a spacecraft.but sometimes i do not know where is the boundary of the game.
Holy crap. The game feel incredible to play. From the snappy respone of your input, to the little details like the crt and the animation really add to the feel of the game.
An extremely well done game. a simple idea excuted to most perfection.
I would love to see this idea being expaneded more in the future. 9/10
Thanks a lot for the kind words! May I ask what would make this game 10/10 for you?
Right. I was intending to write fully detailed report, but I was too absorbed playing to actually notice.
I will leave the good parts aside and focus on the part I think can be improve. (There are too much good points to point out.)
1/ The Difficulty: While the mechanic is the type of simple to understand and hard to master, the lack of the path between them hurts the game a bit. Not to be point of frustrating like many others.
A good tutorial can be where you give the player small planets for them to figure out the timing of the flights (because small planets have smaller force).
2/ The Goal: There is a lack of clear goal in your game.
Let me clarify: I assume from your design that you want to player to aim for higher scores and fuels to survive.
However, be aware that this type of gameplay doesn't really signpost the progress to the player, and thus creating a gap between engagement and boredome.
Because the gameplay is difficult, and there are no sense of progress that the character is clearing making (passing a level can be a progress signpost). It is extremely hard to keep the player engage.
3/ The Camera: (A very minor gripe)
The Camera, from its follow of the mouse, I assume by design you want the player to stop and plan their route ahead.
But, the movement of the spaceship and the overall feel of the game is fast. This clash with the slowness of the camera.
Furthermore, when you try to chain, or weave, between planet. The lack of a clear view can be very frustrating.
I think that is all. Let me say it again, you game is extremely polished for a game jam, you should be proud of it.
These are only my opinion base on the analysis of my games and others, so take it as a grain of salt. Think for yourself and take what you need.
That's all.
Thanks for the honest feedback, this is exactly the sort of critique I wanted to hear so don't think you're being rude sharing your analysis! I am really glad you loved the game and want to hear from those who do enjoy it how it can get even better!
Just to cover some of the things you mentioned:
All that being said, I will get back to working on Planet Looper once the jam is finished so keep an eye out for updates. Following will notify you of any updates I post! Thanks again, and as always... fly safe, astronaut!
Hi again! I was wondering if I could use this as a quote for my portfolio? Should I also include your name or leave it anon? Thanks!
Sure, no problem, you can leave my name there.
pretty cool! nice polish
This is such a pretty game, and really polished. loved it
looks amazing really like the style tho it is difficult, i think the rocket is just a bit too fast, it caught my attention since it has a similar theme to my game, checkit if you have the time!
Really cool
The game is really nice, just very difficult. A sound effect to indicate you successfully locked onto a planet's orbit would be nice too
The game look amazing the only problem is that it's way too hard T-T probably a skill issue I have never been good at those types of minigames
This is such a nice and fun game :) Definitely gives me that "oh okay, just ONE more try" (repeatedly) feeling.
I appreciate the ping-pong delay in the music as well.
I love it, so hard though… cool to see more people have space ideas :D
damn this game is so well made! It's just crazy hard!!
Got 2950 as my high score
I love the aesthetics! Really cool!
That's a very high score... in testing I'd always eventually have to move and never quite got to those scores even with this little exploit. I am working on a way to deal with this after the jam!
Awesome game! Got 1475
Very cool graphics and gamefeel ! A little hard but nice idea ! :)
Addicting to play. Nicely Done
This is really nice work ... vibe works well kept me busy for some time :) !!!
Managed to get 1850 points aha Quite hard but very polished, nice vibe overall!!
Great concept, love the production value!
Feel bad about all the craters I'm making in the beautiful planets, tho :P
Great job, the idea is super creative!
Great job man! This looks awesome, very well polished aswell. Funny that we made very similar games haha
Its awesome. (It is kind of hard tho)
Ahahahah love this gam! Not so good to play that though...
I love that pixel art very cool
I love it! Even though I'm bad at it...
Great game!
When it clicks it feels amazing, but it's a little hard :)
Awesome vibe! Music is great, just wish I could hear past the first few seconds before violently explodi-
10/10 comment, would crash into an innocent plant again
Very clean, reminds me of arcade games!
well made, probably this game will win
Yeah yall better win