tad 2017-08-01 02:55
I had lots of fun with this one, folks! Great work!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Growing Pains
By Timothy Hoffman, ctjet99 and MatthewNoel
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 192 | 3.72 | 63 | |
| Fun | 168 | 3.60 | 63 | |
| Innovation | 227 | 3.41 | 63 | |
| Theme | 762 | 2.76 | 62 | |
| Graphics | 342 | 3.73 | 63 | |
| Audio | 94 | 3.85 | 62 | |
| Humor | 22 | 4.21 | 62 | |
| Mood | 138 | 3.78 | 63 |
I had lots of fun with this one, folks! Great work!
Wow, what a lovely fun game! I really enjoyed playing that. And that rock, omg hahahaha
Congratulation guys, that's the kind of game that makes me wanna play more! Keep the good work
I wasn't exactly sure when I started the first segment, but I definitely don't regret sticking until the end. The humor is on point (The falling animation and sound are perfect) and the gameplay definitely is its own thing: it has weird controls, but it fits perfectly! It helps the tone so much and give it a unique and quirky feeling. Amazing job!
Great game! The graphic style is nice, the different music is perfect and the gameplay and "story" is fun. Played it through the end! Good job! :)
Wow, enjoyed! Really like you music!
Not to spoil the game, but the moment when I realized the sperm minigame and the car driving minigame were basically the same was, like, a revelatory moment for me. So thanks for that.
I hit a bug with the web version where in the Baby stage, hitting the right arrow didn't do anything, but I downloaded and played straight from the source and I'm glad I did! Good music, and I liked how a lot of the later stage mini-games are sort of callbacks to the earlier stages.
Overall a very nice game. The humor was on point, art looked nice and music worked well. Additionally I really enjoyed the feel of the driving sections and the retirement part. Good job.
@arkthalohs That's very strange. Thank you so much for taking your time to download and play straight from the source. We haven't ever had that bug, and my team and I have played through it possibly 90 or so times collectively.
Really great game, it made me almost cry at the end. I hope to see more games from you guys in the future.
Hahahaha, fantastic, game of the year at least! Loved every bit of it! Fantastic work guys!
Nice game overall! I enjoyed the graphics and the music. The humour is a nice touch, which adds to the general atmosphere of the game :)
A unique take on the theme. The music was also pretty good! good job
Nice graphics and idea.
Really funny game ! Although I didn't really get how it relates to the theme at the end but that's fine. The game is still very good.
Nice game! I like the way you implemented the theme: the fact that as you age you run out of power! And the "Rock"! Good job!
Very funny game, the Pee controls a bit rough. Great work!
@brent Actually that was a planned feature. It was too easy otherwise
Amazing game, very nice storytelling and mood. I loved the metal music on the block part =). I did not understand the ending though, so I didn't feel it fit the theme, other than that it is an amazing game, definitely showing to other people, nice job!
Great work! Straight, fun and polished. Could perfectly be a normal indie game out of LD. Congratulations to the team.
The game looks good, the sound is good and the game works pretty weel, the peeing stuff is very difficult brother The concept of this game is too good! Yeah, Growing Pains
I played this twice and I still can't figure out if this simply a bunch of simple mini games with bad controls, or an inspired use of controls that lets the player experience a story through their interactions. I don't know what your intention was but I'm going to go with the latter.
I love when games use their controls as part of the story and this game did just that (reminded me of Brothers, if you're familiar with that game). Struggling early on as a sperm to control where you were going, then later mirroring that in the drive to work was great; driving your car seemed much easier but the message seemed to be that even as an adult we are just a small thing following a predetermined path. Then the walking, both as a child and when you're elderly, as the controls became more and more frustrating, just like the frustration one would feel as their body beings to fail them.
Graphics and music were great, the overall presentation here is very good for something made in such a short time. There was humor in there too with the peeing and yard defence sections. This could definitely be expanded upon, maybe including those awkward teenage years and some more use of "power" as an adult to tell a fuller story.
@kodiqi You hit it right on the nose there. We took a more abstract approach to the theme and decided that we would tell the story of a man who worked his entire life to gain more, he learned to walk, and drive. He climbed the corporate ladder, he did all of those things, and despite that, in the end it just became harder and harder for him. He lost the abilities that he once had.
This was actually somewhat inspired from something that my grandpa said a long time ago, "one day I woke up, and I wasn't able to run anymore." It's a real thing that everyone has to deal with.
The controls are supposed to be tricky on all of the games. If you notice the command in the first walking scene, it says "learn to walk," and since most games are simply hold right to walk, I decided to change that. Doing this can help create a bond with the character, and as you notice from some of the comments above, it appeared to work.
To be honest, my team and I had no idea when we chose this game from our ideas list that it would turn out this good. All four of us had never participated in LD before, and only one of us had ever made a game that was released. We had planned for a lot more to be in but of course we barely made the cutoff point as it was. Thank you so much for enjoying this game!
@ghust1995
SPOILER WARNING: the end is a fourth wall break where the character realizes that he never had control, all of his actions are pre-programmed. This is evidenced when the typed out text "maybe I never really did have power" changes to "but these people did have power" and rolls the credits. We had control over the entirety of the game, and you completing the game was planned by us. We controlled the entire experience and built that world from the ground up.
The character never had any power at all, he was controlled by you, and your experience, as stated, was controlled by us.
Great game! The art and music are well made. After struggling for a while at the peeing part which I found the most difficult I realized that I just could stand still and I passed it. Anyways the idea was very interesting and this game looks very polished.
Overall it's a good game. Good job.
Great complete game! Very polished. I feel like you strayed from the theme a little bit, but the humor was spot on. Nice job.
Nice little piece of art. Thanks for making it.
walking is a pain in the a** but it's part of the experience :) steering is weird but the overal game is relly fun and worth to be played. really good job
Really deceptively difficult. The humor of it is what kept me playing. The walking part was just really annoying tbh, but it really did add to the humor of it. Great job!
As a woman I managed to aim... After trying several times of course... good work! :)
Nailed the realistic peeing, the concentration needed is comparable to a game in Starcraft. The controls were slightly awkward in each of the segments but I guess it shows how learning anything or doing something the first time is difficult and awkward.
I had a fun time with this one, you got the humoristic aspects of growing up in the game well.
I played the game entirely just to know what happens at the end! I don'w want to spoiler but I think the last level is Superb. Good job, very funny!
Great game it made me laugh several times good job :D
Nice meta entry, although the theme connection seems to be a bit tenuous? Love the BGM. That's a huge team! Great teamwork and more power to you guys/gals!
It was very ambitious to deliver a multiple gameplay game. And the idea of man life evolution was a great idea to keep the player motivated to go on and try every game. Nice!
Really fun title, did find walking frustrating because you have to have correct timing, and driving the car felt off, but this was a really funny entry.
Great game with a cool story, the art is well made, really cool, the sounds are great also, the give a nice atmosphere to the game, the game was harder than I thought that it would be, which is great, overall a pretty good game.
It was really fun, you made me laugth a couple of times :) Great work !
interesting game, i enjoyed this one.
Good art, and story, intresting concept, well chosen soundtrack, but game, for me, is boring. Minigames are really simple and the game is too protracted. But it's really good game for game jam :)
That roy easter egg though :grin:. Fun concept, good execution.
@mathijs750 Holy cow someone actually found it!
I liked the pixel art and the humor! I think this was more of an interactive experience to deliver the comedy. Gameplay wise, I didn't like some of it, especially walking when you were an old man, but the others were fine. I didn't really understand the ending though, felt like there was some inception twist/deeper meaning going but it flew right over my head.
Otherwise, I enjoyed it, good job!
Ha - that was funny, particularly the "see ladies, aiming isn't easy" comment which occurred as my wife was busy playing the "pee" section of the game. I also liked that fact that you had to walk slowly when you got old - that was a nice touch.
I am a father of three and just looking at my kids growing up and my parents growing old and this game really makes you think. You did a wonderful job to put it together both visually (love the pixel art style), music, and with the diversity of game mechanics. I laughed at times, for example for the toilet aiming as it's very similar to what I go through with my son who wakes up at night and I have to twist and turn him to steer, just like that, for him to hit the toilet. Falling over when walking as a senior also made me smile and I realized why with the friendly message that I should walk slower because my knees are too weak. At the end, walking through the field of flowers towards the grave made me stop and think even more about life's different stages and where we will all head in the end. So thanks for this experience and for putting this game together. It reminded me to continue to treasure all moments in life as much as possible!
Amazing graphics and gameplay that kept me coming back for more. I burst out laughing during the pee mini game(Took me 5 tries to beat it). good job!!! :smile: