Foreword

This game was created for the "Brackeys Game Jam 2020.1" from 16th to 23st of February 2020. The theme for this game jam was: "Holes". Due to some real life circumstances, this project had to be done in only five days.

You can also find our other projects here.

Intro

A Game Jam is a good opportunity to learn something new. For me it was time to learn more about Unity's Data Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) feature. This provides access to the Entity Component System (ECS), the C# Job System for multithreaded code and the mighty Burst Compiler.

With that and the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) it was possible for me to create this project with such a huge scale. Unfortunately, I was not able to build in time for Linux or Mac due to a problem with the Burst Compiler.

Description

This is a very slow-paced space simulation game. You take control of a small black hole, which roams through a universe. The movement is slow and sluggish, because everything moves by forces. Therefore, it is not advisable to try to fly with max speed, because the time you needed to accelerate is the same time you need to decelerate.

If you are suffering from epilepsy, this game is probably not for you. This is due to the huge amount of bright stars, which flicker and rotate around you.

Also, if you don't like slow games then this game is also not for you, because to achieve the goal you have to spare some time. The amount of time depends on how many stars you want in your universe.

Goal

The goal is to absorb the whole universe. First, absorb the nearby suns to grow in mass. Second, absorb the other black holes in the universe, if you are greater in mass. Third, absorb the rest of the universe through your new added huge mass.

You lost the game, if any black hole absorbs you. This happens if you get to close to them with a lesser mass.

Features

• Every universe is unique due to procedural generation.
• There are 6 different galaxy forms to explore (Random, Circle, Sphere, Spiral-2-Arms, Spiral-4-Arms, Spiral-8-Arms).
• Each galaxy form can have a small, medium, large or huge size.

1. Small: 1.000 Stars (potato PC)
2. Medium: 10.000 Stars (medium laptop)
3. Large: 100.000 Stars (good PC)
4. Huge: 1.000.000 Stars (High-End-PC)

• Be careful if you choose "huge". If your PC is to weak, you can end up freezing your system and you have to reboot it. My setup with a I7-4790K@4,0GHz and a GTX 1070TI gets ~10 FPS at a huge galaxy.

Controls

Latest non Steam version: Press F1 to see the controls.

Game Jam Version:

• WASD or Arrow Keys: apply force to your black hole in camera view
• Mouse: rotate the camera view
• Mouse Wheel: zoom in/out
• F: toggle FPS on/off (works everywhere)
• H: toggle HUD on/off (works everywhere)
• ESC: 1. skip video / 2. go back to main menu if you're ingame

The forces you apply to the black hole are in camera direction. This means if you press W it moves away from you, S to you, etc.

Future Improvements

1. For those who have a VR headset and a strong stomach, a VR port is easily possible.

Credits

• Icon and Title is done by Cloud-Jumper05
• Music from Zapsplat
• Videos from corresponding specified source
• Programming by Clever AI

Epilog

If you have any ideas, criticism or feedback, let me know in the comments.

Last but not least, have fun and embrace the void!