Hectic Galactic (2024)

The stars stretch infinitely before you, a sea of cosmic wonder. The hum of the ESFV Fireball fills your ears as you take your place in the captain’s chair. The blinking lights of the Monitoring and Management Console (MMC™) demand your immediate attention—thrusters unresponsive, shields fluctuating, reactor temperature rising…
Panic sets in.
But fear not! The United Nations of Earth Fleet Technical Support is here to guide you through every crisis. Well… almost. Your support officer has all the answers, but there’s a catch: they can’t see what you see. With only their trusty paper manual, they must decipher your frantic descriptions and tell you exactly how to fix the ship before it’s too late.
The fate of the Fireball is in your hands—work together, think fast, and pray the coffee machine doesn’t break.

Hectic Galactic is a cooperative puzzle game set in deep space, designed for two players. One player sits in the cockpit of the ESFV Fireball, operating a complex dashboard filled with mysterious switches, blinking lights, and unpredictable malfunctions. The other player, the Technical Support Representative, has no access to the game—only a paper manual filled with crucial instructions.

To succeed, both players must communicate effectively under pressure. One describes the problem, the other searches for the solution. Simple? Think again.

Features

• 🚀 Immersive spaceship cockpit—interact with buttons, switches, dials, and complex systems.
• 📖 Physical manual gameplay—one player relies entirely on a paper guide to help the pilot navigate chaos.
• ⏳ Fast-paced decision-making—react to emergencies before the ship falls apart.
• 🎙️ Hilarious and chaotic communication—explain, interpret, and (hopefully) not misunderstand each other.
• 🌌 Varied space environments—asteroid fields, nebulae, enemy encounters, and more.

Gameplay Overview

Console Operator

• Seated in front of a fully interactable spaceship console, responsible for:
  • Navigation, weapons, communications, reactor control, shields, damage management, and even…
  • The captain’s coffee machine.
• Must describe problems clearly to the Technical Support Representative.
• React to randomized space events and keep the ship from falling apart.

Technical Support Representative

• Holds the official UNE-issued manual, filled with instructions, troubleshooting guides, and cryptic diagrams.
• Cannot see the ship’s cockpit but must listen carefully and provide accurate guidance.
• Quickly scans through the manual to decode the correct procedures before disaster strikes.

How to Win

• Work together to solve enough challenges and reach your destination intact.
• Succeed, and you’ll go down in UNE Fleet history.
• Fail? Well… there’s always another recruit willing to take your place.

What I learned

Hectic Galactic was my first take on a puzzle game. On a technical side, there was nothing special we have not done before, but there was a lot of focus on proper design practices - multiple iterations of Game Design Documents, elevator pitch, sales pitch, presentations, multiple playtest sessions, all of that…

• Proper game design practices - GDDs, pitches, playtesting sessions…
• Design of advanced puzzles requiring logical thinking and communication to solve.
• Better collaboration in a team.

Purpose

Hectic Galactic was developed as part of Game Development courses I and II at FI MUNI.

Team and contributors

Matěj Vašek (programming, puzzle design)
Filip Nováček (programming, puzzle design)
Šárka Portešová (2D art, puzzle design)