FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD24 → Dusty Balls

Dusty Balls

By bablo

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness279
Graphics1133.70
Innovation1153.52
Overall2333.22
Mood3202.72
Fun3272.87
Audio4592.16
Humor5821.43
Theme6641.94

Comments

nostradamon 2012-08-26 22:10

I like the environment, reminds me 'The Ball'.
Sometimes, a ball just go through the floor, because of the high speed. Then, I'm stuck in the game. It's a known issue in the physics of Unity, you should try to make your walls a little thicker, or add additional walls.

bablo 2012-08-27 04:01

yeah, when I realized that issue I didn't have time to fix it :/. I'm gonna update it in an after compo release.
You should get away from it by pressing Esc, which takes you to main menu and pressing play again. Game saves your situation after each "level", so you shouldnt lose that much progress.

andybrown 2012-08-27 05:10

Oh man, that gets really hard to focus on so many screens at once, interesting game!

bablo 2012-08-27 07:32

Seems that when playing on Mac, there is very annoying shuttering bug with the cameras. That is NOT intenional, I just didn't have a mac to test it on during the development.

karel 2012-08-27 07:44

Don't really see the connection with the theme, but fun nonetheless!

desiquintans 2012-08-27 07:48

Great concept! I would have liked for a light or a particle effect on spikes, though, so that you could see them in the corner of your eye.

bablo 2012-08-27 07:56

Karel, yeah my original idea had much more emphasis on the theme, but I failed to achieve it in time. :/ This one just "evolves as you play it" as in, more balls to control and longer levels.

Desi, there should be a red light near spikes, which you should be able to see with a corner of your eyes. Don't know if they are too feint then after all. :o

thurig 2012-08-27 07:59

This game reminds me of Metroid. This is fun to play, but a bit hard with 6 balls on the screen. I enjoyed it.

michax 2012-08-27 09:07

Enjoyed playing it!

eyehawk 2012-08-27 09:38

Nice graphics! There's an xbox indie game just like this. Not sure how this fits the evolution theme?

depp 2012-08-27 09:40

Reminds me of Oxyd, and also that time I played two carts in Mario Kart. The idea is cool, but the game is harde

bablo 2012-08-27 10:05

Thanks for the feedback, guys.
Thurig: Yeah, even though I've played metroid quite a bit, didnt connect this one to it until you mentioned. :P
eyehawk: thanks, do you remember the name of that indie game?
Dietrich: Haha, haven't tried "dual mario kart" :P Oxyd seems like a cool concept, especially for it's age.

odrega 2012-08-27 10:31

Your right about making my brain hurt! Good game, good game

bemmu 2012-08-27 11:33

Not my favorite type of puzzle, but great art and a lot of content especially considering the time limit.

bablo 2012-08-27 12:05

Thanks, Bemmu. Really enjoyed your game. :)

Althegreat 2012-08-27 12:26

I frickn' love this game!

steelraven7 2012-08-27 12:31

Had trouble understanding the control and how the wall climb worked. The game has a nice setting!

aschearer 2012-08-27 13:48

I really like the idea however in practice I'm not convinced it's very fun. Controlling each ball at the same time was impossible for me once I reached three or more. I ended up just focusing on one and hoping things went OK for the others. I think the mechanic of controlling multiple balls at the same time is interesting, but maybe you can find a variation that doesn't prove overwhelming.

madpew 2012-08-27 13:50

Nice mechanic. Really liked the idea. My brain doesn't seem to be able to manage more than 4 views at the same time tough :D Some ambience/music would have made this really complete.

bablo 2012-08-27 14:00

aschearer: Thanks for the feedback. I've realized, that after three or more balls, good tactic is to try get one ball at a time to the goal while only concentrating on other balls if they are near spikes. If you, or someone come up with variations to the gameplay, please let me know. :)

madpew: Thanks, mate. I would've wanted some kick ass ambient there, but wasn't able to produce it in time :/

waynetron 2012-08-27 14:01

Ouch, my brain!

sgehlich 2012-08-27 14:18

Great idea, I like the graphics. But it's really really hard.

dedhedzed 2012-08-27 14:36

I was doing quite well, and then I got to like, 9 at once, or something, and THEN my ball fell through the floor. It's REALLY cool, and I'd like to see you take it further after the competition.

ncannasse 2012-08-27 15:00

Easy to learn, impossible to master ? :)

bablo 2012-08-27 15:27

ncannasse: Definitely. I've noticed that I like to play the game myself more and more as I'm forced to play it when testing it. :) That happens rarely for me with my own games.

Zed: Thanks :). Oh that ball falling through the floor bug is really nerve wrecking if have a good score :/ Sorry about that.

sgehlich: Thanks :)

foxfiesta 2012-08-27 16:30

Wow, very interesting concept ! And the graphics are very good too. Good job !

captainicy 2012-08-27 18:16

Wow, what a great concept! It's very hard, but very fun. I like this. Good job!

covebit 2012-08-27 18:39

Cool, but a bit clunk.

devaki 2012-08-27 19:06

Very creative gameplay, congrats!

polegar 2012-08-27 19:49

Good idea and realisation, nice work ! Even if the camera goes crazy sometime on mac as you said :)

vamflax 2012-08-27 20:04

My poor brain...

Great idea, well executed! Literally in my case, balls were dying left, right, and centre!! :)

I like!

maxium 2012-08-27 20:15

Pretty fun, coulnd't keep up at around 4 screens lol

vordux 2012-08-27 22:26

That was really cool, I agree that it reminds me of 'The Ball' in terms of its art style. Your game play mechanic with the split screen was excellent.

luizhgmonclar 2012-08-27 23:01

I liked it, but I didn't quite get this: I only need to finish the stage with one of the balls? I thought at first that I needed to make all of them go in, but once they died and I could finish with only one I was confused!

Good job! Nice art :)

aaronflippo 2012-08-28 02:06

Very interesting!

bablo 2012-08-28 05:07

LuizHGMonclar: Thanks. :) The goal is to play through all nine levels and try to get as many balls to the goal as possible. You don't need to get any of the balls to the goal to proceed to the next level. Maximum score possible is 45/45, which means you don't hit ANY spikes. :P

Thanks for all the feedback guys. If you can think of anything how I could improve the game in future, please let me know.

matthias_zarzecki 2012-08-28 08:54

Interesting idea! I like the going-up-walls gag, it gives this another dimension :)

(remember to upload your source, otherwise we can't score this)

x-0ut 2012-08-28 13:09

Very good production standards.
Encountered a game breaking bug on stage 4, one of the balls fell through the scene.

pighead10 2012-08-28 14:21

Nice concept. When you have loads of screens it gets quite frustrating because it's nearly impossible to spot the spikes on all the screens at once. Was fun to play.

sclark39 2012-08-28 15:26

I think a game like this requires much stronger level design. As it stands, I found myself just controlling each ball one by one to get them to the end, rather than trying to control them all harmoniously.
One easy way to ensure people can't do that would be to actually have walls blocking one ball also block the others (so if one ball is stuck, they are all stuck). But again, that requires good level design to ensure the challenge can actually be completed.
Nice texture work.

gustavodort 2012-08-28 15:58

Man, I loved the renders, it's so beautiful!

Great puzzle design, kudos!

igor-silva 2012-08-28 17:46

I like this game, the multi-cameras is amazing.

wlad 2012-08-31 07:19

nice game! i think you might want to stretch the intervalls between new balls. e.g. three levels with one ball, four with two etc. so our brains can adapt to the new situation. i really like the graphics!

bablo 2012-08-31 14:07

Wlad, thanks for the feedback. That is a great idea, I'm currently developing this idea further and will do that. For this competition entry, I thought that people might want to see the game develop faster and not get bored out too quickly :P

wombatica 2012-09-01 19:59

very cool. Like the graphics

azurenimbus 2012-09-04 19:30

Nice game. It does make your brain hurt a bit. Some very promising ideas.