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In 1957, the Soviets launched the first dog into space. Her name was Laika, and you're on a mission to bring her home alive. Navigate the treacherous gravity of low-Earth orbit and fire camera probes at passing satellites to determine which one is Sputnik-2.

Laika was made in around 48 hours as part of Global Game Jam 2021. Everything was made by hand, except for SFX, which are courtesy of ChipTone by SFBGames.

Made by: Steven Messner

Music by: Matthew O'Connor

Tips:

  • Satellites will orbit back around, so save your boost for making small adjustments!
  • Work with Earth's orbital gravity, not against it.

HOW TO PLAY

The goal is to find Laika aboard Sputnik-2. Each time you play, the satellites orbiting Earth are randomly generated, so Laika is aboard a different-looking satellite each time.

To find out which one is Sputnik-2, fire camera probes at the passing satellites or board them by getting close to one.

You only have a limited amount of fuel and camera probes, so use them sparingly. Flying in space is hard, so make small adjustments to your trajectory instead of holding down the boost button—or else you'll overshoot your target!

CONTROLS

W: Boost
A/D: Rotate
Space: Launch camera probe
Mouse: Can control space craft using HUD. Also used for some menu prompts.

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, HTML5
Release date Feb 01, 2021
AuthorSteven Messner
GenreAction
Made withUnity
Tags16-bit, 2D, Arcade, Casual, Flying, Pixel Art, Space, Space Sim
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse
LinksTwitter, YouTube

Download

Download
Laika v1.1 PC.zip 30 MB

Comments

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maybe i got lucky but i found her first satellite, first try lol

Definitely lucky!

To peek behind the curtain a little bit, the satellites are randomly generated each session, including their position and appearance. So it's very possible (and likely) that one of the first ones you encounter will be Sputnik-2. 

If I had the time to go back and improve this prototype, I'd definitely include a bit of code to ensure Sputnik-2 didn't spawn in the same quadrant as the player :).

Thanks so much for taking the time to play!!