Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD30 → Starving Symbiosis
By lasty
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 3 | 62 | ||
| Theme | 239 | 3.68 | ||
| Innovation | 360 | 3.42 | ||
| Overall | 454 | 3.30 | ||
| Fun | 477 | 3.13 | ||
| Graphics | 509 | 3.16 | ||
| Humor | 595 | 2.26 | ||
| Audio | 658 | 2.53 | ||
| Mood | 690 | 2.83 |
I didn't understand why you used the name for the game you did until I actually played it. It was pretty intriguing and definitely has potential. Once you add that zombie defense portion I have no doubt I could play this for extensive periods of time.
Very interesting idea, though very difficult to play I found. Would definitely be fun with more gameplay to it.
The guy moves around very slipperily, so it was hard to get the coins. Also switching between the worlds I always ran out of time. I am probably just bad at it.
The graphics are pretty good, and sound effects are decent, though there is no music. This could possibly go somewhere with more work.
Would have been great to see the zombie waves indeed. Just running around with the portals and ferrying items back and forth was actually pretty satisfying. Played this for longer than some of the other submissions with content!
That was a lot of fun! I loved the differing natures of the two worlds and how you had to share between them. (This was actually even cooler having recently played the submission "Taupe".)
Having not read your instructions and just diving right in, it took me until my friend in the underworld died for me to realize it was two separate people and I wasn't just 'warping' between the worlds. At that point though it clicked! and I really liked this idea that the only connection you have to your 'partner' is this shared portal that items can be passed through. I think this central mechanic has a lot of interesting potential and I think the basic way in which you've explored it with money and shops demonstrates that well.
I would have really liked to have actually seen no money _at all_ in the surface world to make the two worlds truely symbiotic. As in my first play it was fairly easy to keep the surface player alive, and it was only the underworld player that truly had a dependency on the other for food supplies. This sort of makes the relationship seem more parasitic than symbiotic, but the abundancy of the money underworld does make up for this well enough to still express the themes you were going for.
The controls and general feel was a little slidey but they were good enough to express this key thing that you were getting at with the game which was this co-dependency and shared portal mechanic. I think however the general control experience is what I would put a lot of focus into if you do decide to take this concept further, and I hope that you do!
I really really like what you're exploring with this game, and even though you say you had much more you wanted to add (didn't we all!) I think you get the essential message across reasonably well! A lot of potential and a cool use of the theme.
Thanks for the comments and feedback :D
I realise it was a bit harsh to start the players with low hunger at first.. Probably should have bumped that up more... But If I had, they would have no immediate goal, and it would become a bit boring.
I should have made a better intro/tutorial screen, but.. ran out of time and lack of sleep so yeah. I tried to put some intro screens at the last minute, but I had no infrastructure in place for it, so it was poor planning on my part.
The physics, yes I couldn't quite get the player right.. I had simulated friction on the player, but he kept the same velocity when you stopped input. I couldn't get the friction right, somehow. I figured it was good enough and could tweak it later. Might use a library like Box2D next time.
As for coins on the overworld, I didn't even think of removing them all, facepalm ensues.
fun! Nice use of theme for sure
Interesting idea!
Really like the idea of this game! Would love to see a finished and polished version with more action!
Also, controls are slippery. Yuck. =(
Cool idea and awesome game!
This has to be one of the best entries I've seen so far. Excellent use of the theme, Easy to play, pleasing aesthetics and best of all. Just plain fun to play!
A few details that stood out to me. First, instructions in game. Not needing to switch windows to see how to play was refreshing. Also, frantically trying to aim items at the portal when one of the guys was starving would have been hilarious had I not been on the edge of my seat, well, frantically trying to aim items at the portal when one of the guys was starving!
Thanks for tripling the happiness of my evening :)
This didn't run on OSX.
"ld30 cannot be opened because of a problem."
Useful error message!
Cool concept having to trade items between the worlds. First time I spent too much collecting coins, which ended with the overworld guy starving to death :P
Would love to see more of this game - very interesting start :)
JoshuaBurr: Thanks for OSX feedback, I probably missed including a library or a framework in the app bundle. What version were you using? It was built for Mavericks 64bit.
The unhelpful error message is OSX's I think, not mine :( If you could click on "Report..." then copy the text there into a pastebin, I can try and fix it. (Then click don't send)
Interesting game :)
Fun game. I also agree that adding fighting in the game would make it much more fun. Once you figure it out, it gets easy.
I really liked how items worked, imagine a multiplayer game like this where you can throw stuff at your friends and go around collecting items? So much potential, I dig it.