FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD38 → Virulence

Virulence

By sputnik3d

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3963.0024
Fun4072.7724
Innovation1623.4524
Theme1963.5924
Graphics4262.7224
Audio2642.8921
Humor4281.8421
Mood3992.7522

Comments

sputnik3d 2017-04-24 02:25

Changelog:

Made a minor change due to a bug where the time scale didn't reset after starting a new game. Game is no longer in slow-mo.

2017-04-27 00:05

Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation [video series](https://youtu.be/1N8pCHp9YZg), if you’d like to take a look :)

kantieno 2017-05-02 02:24

It's nice entry! I really enjoy these building block games. The only real complaint would be that the controls are pretty slippery but then again it's kind of fun watching my character spin out trying to run away! Would love to see you expand the game!

ace17 2017-05-04 04:56

Took me a while to understand, but I like the innovative idea! The creature is hard to control, though, which is pretty frustrating when the collectible dots appear on the other side of the screen.. (Too much inertia, maybe?)

sputnik3d 2017-05-12 21:58

Weekend is here! I've finally got some time to sit down and play/rate some more entries. If you'd like me to play/review your game, post it here and I'd love to take a look.

Also, since I'm very low on votes, I'd love some help getting up to 20, too! Happy Friday!

symmsaur 2017-05-12 22:08

Good concept of creating organisms out of building blocks. Needs more direct feedback about how the combat happens. It seems like the main goal is to try and avoid the others mostly?

ajayajayaj 2017-05-12 22:17

Really cool concept, but is there supposed to be so much drift. It seems like there is too much.

Other than that, it's a great game. Also, the Web Build is almost unplayably slow, the downloaded one works fine.

zgragselus 2017-05-12 22:24

Interesting game, but super hard to control on keyboard (especially in WebGL version).

carsen-d 2017-05-12 22:29

Interesting concept with creating a "modular" organism with blocks and such. The way it controls though is really frustrating and slide-y, and it what made me stop playing after a little bit even though I would rather have kept going and evolving. It could be really fun if this is fixed and maybe some extra objectives are added. I like it!

canochaba 2017-05-12 22:50

Very very nice concept. Good opera prima for a jam!

atmospherium 2017-05-13 16:13

As everyone else has said, you've got a great concept. Building your creature and then trying to customize it to have better odds of survival is a really strong foundation. It was easy to forget which color did what, so having the color descriptions on the customization screen would probably be a good idea.

The gameplay itself was more difficult than I think you intended. The physics of Unity's AddForce (which I assume you're using) are a bit floaty and make for difficult controls. Increasing the power of the force (and clamping the player velocity) or switching to Impulse would probably smooth out a lot of those issues.

On the whole, great entry for your first Ludum Dare. Giving player customization in addition to gameplay is difficult to accomplish, but you made it work. Good job!

mooncalf 2017-05-13 19:31

Great concept. I liked the creature editor. In game I didn't feel I could control the creature well enough for my choices to be very important.

After I beat the first level, subsequent levels required me to collect negative goo and I never saw an enemy again.

The edit mode and gameplay mode were ambitious but you succeeded, everything was well executed. Great entry! Thanks for making it for us.

ryte2byte 2017-05-13 19:54

I really like the idea of this (memories of the early parts of Spore), but the execution is pretty lacking.

Just from the start, the color key for the parts should be on the build screen, not just in a little pop-up. Also, just start the player with a color block. There's no point in mousewheeling away from the unplaceable block. Also, I need to know which direction forward is.

So... controls problem. Like, all the control problems. I get how you were going for a 'swimmy' feel to it, but it was frustrating. Acceleration too low, turn speed too high. Couple this with enemies that are VERY aggressive, and I honestly couldn't get very far. I see other players have done much better, so maybe just me. Maybe all it would take is changing to a more camera relative control system (ie. up is up).

Music was excellent!

pete 2017-05-13 21:41

Nice idea and but the interaction seems a bit limiting. I think the block design are a bit limiting. The attack vs armor seems to not give as much wanted customization as I would have hoped, and the placement of speed doesn't seem to matter? They always push the same way no matter how they are placed.

One of the things I am miss is more information on like what blocks do I have left, and what blocks do I get. Also some feedback on the actions you do like attacking, would be great. I also seemed to get a bug where it let me place unlimited green blocks and red blocks.

The gameplay loop of evolving is quite nice, but could use some changes. The music is good too.

rother-games 2017-05-14 15:33

(I played the webgl version) Good concept, but It was a little bit hard to control it with the keyboard. When you collect more goo than the expected, the counter get negative and before you collect the first, the counter is 0. Overall you did a good job, but there a some smaller things you should fix.

ccglp 2017-05-16 11:07

Good idea, but it's very difficult to control the criature with the keyboard, and the canvas seems to be a bit out if you play on a bit screen. Good entry overall because of the effort and it being your first game :D

gael-philippe 2017-05-16 13:26

It's an interesting entry, and congrats on your first game !

We did our first entry too, come have a look ! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/locker-c-18

philomory 2017-05-19 20:20

This is a very interesting idea, I'm a huge fan of games where you evolve a creature and then fight with it (like, E.V.O.-style, not Pokemon-style).

Unfortunately, the controls here are problematic. My little guy is just too hard to steer; also, there's no easy well to tell which side of your guy is "forward", which makes rotation+velocity controls extremely problematic. Even just adding some indicator to the white block to show which side was the front would have been a big help in that regard.

Other than that, I fee like in the build phase it would have been much cooler if you could choose what type of blocks you wanted, rather than just getting a uniform two of each; it would let the player experiment with different "builds", etc. I also think, rather than giving bonuses for having adjacent squares of the same color, there should be bonuses for building certain shapes (a simple one would be, a red, a green, and a blue, in a row, or, an L with a yellow on each side and a red in the middle). Some of these could be known to the player, and some of them could be surprises, but it would encourage experimentation more. Of course, it means you have to do shape recognition code, but for small shapes it's really not that hard (and you only need to run it when the shape changes, i.e. during build mode and when you lose a block to damage).

Anyway, all in all I can see this game going places, it's got a lot of potential! But please, work on those controls.