FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → Critters Inc.

Critters Inc.

By squid and stefenism

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3743.6325
Fun5193.3725
Innovation1993.6525
Theme6313.3725
Graphics2853.9725
Audio3543.3824
Humor4353.2024
Mood4573.4324

Comments

mercerbox 2017-12-05 04:46

Love the graphics, Had some issues with when my gun can push or pull enemies, I guess they 'trip' and you can't move them until they get back up, but it's not super clear. Still a cool entry!

exploding-bits 2017-12-05 04:48

Overall this was pretty fun. It seemed there were a couple of times where the push wouldn't work if they were too close to me. Also there was a second version of me that seemed to prevent me from walking when he was across the room using the leaf blower. Fun game though and interesting concept.

pkenney 2017-12-05 04:50

WOW! Loved this entry. The concept and mechanics are especially strong. I played a bunch, shipped 18 critters (3 full freights) and burned 81 on my last run. Initially I thought a whole slew of clones of myself was going to be great, but it was too much chaos, and they kept eating my sandwiches. So in later runs I worked closely with a single clone, and tried to stay on top of the incineration of bad units while being opportunistic about shipping good ones.

This was a really strong entry, with nice graphics and a strong idea. Actually several strong ideas: the shipping, the super duper, the blower/sucker, it all came together really nicely into a cohesive interrelated game.

I do want to say I had some frustration with the blower. It seemed kind of random. Sometimes a creature would go flying across the room, other times they would not move at all. I tried to get a screenshot of a really clear case of where I expected a critter to move but it didn't, and I only got this mediocre one: https://imgur.com/7CwdByR

The other issue was that I kept getting guys stuck on the edge of going in. Instead of feeling like a smooth operator, I was usually stymied by a corner blocking the shot. Then I'd come around the side and blow, but he'd blow past the opening entirely. I guess I wished the openings were a bit more forgiving - that would have made the game easier of course, but I wanted the challenge to be about the higher-level positioning and not the jank of the edge case of getting the dude in the door.

I'm drilling into the nuance of the feel only because this is a great game that I enjoyed a lot, and I think it could be ridiculous-level fun if I felt smoother at the controls.

Really nice job here!

Edit: went back to test a little more about the feel nuances I mentioned. Here's a better screenshot of the corner thing - this critter doesn't go in from here: https://imgur.com/a/PziH1 Then the time I'm using the blower and not sure why the monster isn't being moved is here: https://imgur.com/a/JtX3t

nikolaj 2017-12-05 04:58

cute! I had a little trouble getting the bugs to move. Also i had to ALT-TAB and kill to get out on mac.

Overall nice job!

hdtv 2017-12-05 20:18

This game has a bit of an addicting mechanic. I got sucked in and can feel the need to try again and get a better score.

There is a bit of a learning curve that you need to help players through.

Usually the mechanic felt great, but once and awhile the suck or blow did not really do what I expected it too.

leonyx 2017-12-06 17:27

I was somehow able to clone myself? I bet there are a bunch of hidden things in this game like that, it's really cool. I didn't know initially that I could also suck critters up so I had some difficulty there though.

flip120 2017-12-06 18:19

Nice concept ;)

masadow 2017-12-06 18:28

Cool graphics, but I was confused about what to do, I pushed enemies into fire, killed myself to have more clone of me and gets more powerful but I'm just not sure I was supposed to do that ?

Anyway, it was still a fun experience. However, the fact that when my clones dies, there leaf blower is still working is quite weird.

rob-white 2017-12-06 18:29

A really cool concept executed well. I loved the creature design. The creatures did occasionally get caught in corner so that became a bit frustrating (so if you could have like a brief suction mode on your gun for a right click that might be good).

fluidvolt 2017-12-06 19:04

Cool idea for a game! I like the feel of moving things around and the robotron-style aiming. I wasn't very good at it though. Graphics stood out to me too, they're very crisp! Good work.

cg-fred 2017-12-06 22:00

Good game, nice graphics and good music. Though it was a bit too easy, think you ramp up the difficulty faster.

aaronw 2017-12-06 22:20

Interesting mechanics! I've never had to hold right click to succ before, definitely enjoyed it. Also gameplay was nice. Good work, homeslice.

lautregars 2017-12-06 22:29

Nice ideas, good mechanics, really good graphics,and it gets addictive so that means that works. GMaybe the movement could be a little faster, but noice overall

makiyoshi 2017-12-06 23:00

Nice! I liked it alot! The graphics are very well done and you've got some really interesting mechanics. I just thought maybe it's a little bit too hard to get the critters going in the direction you want them to go. But you did an amazing job. :)

james-dunlap 2017-12-06 23:14

Enjoyable game. I liked the music and the graphics as well as the fit with the theme. I played the WebGL build and did not like playing it on Newgrounds as I didn't see how to make it full screen. With a mouse controlled game this is a problem as I kept clicking outside the window and even sometimes navigated away from the game.

Overall, though, quite enjoyable and a nice idea.

honest-dan 2017-12-07 16:37

Some really nice ideas and art was nice enough. I would recommend hosting the WEB version on a different site, there are many adverts and once during play it actually redirected me to some dodgy website! I liked the idea of duplicating, either them or yourself. I was a little unsure what the end goal was. It felt cool picking up the enemies and then blowing them into the right place, kind of a HL2 Gravity Gun feel once I stacked up a few clones of myself.

hatchet 2017-12-07 20:23

:D This is really fun. Great artwork too!! It feels so satisfying pushing the critters around with wind, and then into the burner :D

furet 2017-12-08 23:50

Nice music, and the little critters were kinda cute, so I tried to ship rather than toast them! The animation where the big critters get the wind knocked out of them is funny.

noble-robot 2017-12-25 14:02

Greetings from the Widget Satchel team! We just published a Let's Play episode of Nice Games Club where we played thirty-six (!!) Ludum Dare 40 games, including yours!

[Check it out here!](http://nicegames.club/2017/12/nice-plays-ludum-dare-40-games-2017/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGt66ZnLME

2017-12-26 18:33

Really interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26D5qtoYgoQ