Chubby

roxter08 2017-12-05 18:38

Hi mate. Really like your game. Its fun and the idea of promoting fitness as a part of the game objective is really cool. The graphics is more like a prototype but I do understand that given the time limit.

Although I guess I encountered a bug when chubby fell inside a catapult kind of a thing which launched it into the air and then it never came back down :p

Ended up restarting the game :D

But overall its really fun to play. Keep it up guys! And thanks for sharing the cube sphere script :)

roxter08 2017-12-05 18:41

We updated a game as well for android. It will be great if you guys can play it and rate us and definitely give us your best feedbacks and comments. Would love to here from you guys .

Cheers.

Game Link: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/zap-the-zombies

badly-drawn-rod 2017-12-12 20:02

Oddly fun.... I really wanted to get up those stairs for cake..... not in real life, that would be too much like hard work! I liked the mechanic of gaining and losing weight as I hadn't seen anything like that before, and you incorporated into the game rather deftly.

roxter08 2017-12-15 06:48

Here you go mate.

I created an HTML file of our game. Have fun zapping zombies.

https://roxter08.itch.io/zap-the-zombies

roxter08 2017-12-15 06:50

Also I see you need more ratings. Its better if you rate games of more people and comment on their games. It increases the chances of showing up your game on the list even more.

More you get seen => more they play => MORE RATINGS ;)

starlin 2017-12-21 18:40

Hi, your game has the same concept as us :) Getting fat and can't move :D

yishalee 2017-12-22 06:07

Quite fun and humor.I enjoy the process seeing chubby growing fat. But the jump action is not so clear for me. I guess when I'm fatter I'll jump lower. At the big stairs sometimes I don't know how I got over it by pressing space with no strategy. Also it moves too fast when chubby is a cube. Is that intentional? Overall it's quite nice.

aeveis 2017-12-22 07:36

Liked the mechanic! I fell off at the very end and got the game over text haha. I didn't expect it to be so physics based, but it was an interesting direction with the levels. I had to sort of finesse with pressing back and forward again and timing jump to get up those steps, even as a cube, but it felt nice after being able to do it. Pressing back and forward in the air sort of felt like it had an unbounded acceleration, maybe you could have a max velocity. I could see you extending this with more puzzles either having to do with fitting through things or maybe more physics shenanigans. Keep up the good work!

Oh yeah- it's okay to reuse some code if you count as your "internal library," as long as you still share the source in the end.

dining-philosopher 2017-12-22 15:12

Couldn't get up the stairs, even after losing all them pounds and jumping like a maniac :(

frozenfractal 2017-12-22 16:17

Very cute! The physics are a bit weird when trying to hop up the stairs, but once I figured out the jumping, it worked okay. I do love that, unlike some other games I know, this one actually _does_ have the promised cake at the end :)

dcolgan 2017-12-23 02:58

I had a good time with this. Impressive physics engine. Flopping around as a cube is pretty fun. Gets hard fast.

huvaakoodia 2017-12-25 10:30

Neat idea, little content. I like the graphics even with the grey drab backgrounds. Audio is severely lacking and impacts the mood. Big points for humor, the highlight of the entry.

The biggest issue is the interactivity. Move right and left, jump a bit, fiddle with the catapult... That's it. There are no decisions to make, no problems to solve, no exploration.... Nothing to do apart from treading the obvious linear path. Sure, not entirely finished, yet I can't see these mechanics alone being enough.

Here are just a few ideas: - Weight based triggers. When fat or slim the trigger will do something: open/close a door, activate machine, spawn in more cakes, etc. - Use triggers and mechanism to build complex levels with actual thought required to pass. You could end up with a puzzle (deductive logic problem) or... - Introduce enemies and other opposing forces to make it into a game (inductive logic competition)

Some flesh around the bones is needed.

Overall: *Above average (3.5)* Fun: *Not really (1.5)* Innovation: *Good (4.0)* Theme: *Good (4.0)* Graphics: *Good (4.0)* Humor: *Excellent (5.0)* Mood: *Below average (2.5)*

m-1 2017-12-25 22:39

@roxter08 Thanks. If you are interested in the CubeSphere script, I have uploaded the source at itch.io.

m-1 2017-12-26 00:51

@yishalee Yes, Chubby jumps higher and moves faster when not fat. The best strategy to climb the steepest stairs is to lose weight (become a cube), then step on the stair and jump, then press "Right" in-air when reaching the "peak" of the jump. This should get you up easily.

m-1 2017-12-26 10:54

@aeveis There is a velocity limit throughout the whole game except for the last part - it is disabled when touching the catapult (hacking at 3 AM :grin:) to avoid getting slowed down when flying. It should be re-enabled (and maybe controls disabled until) probably after touching the ground (or even better: the speed limit should be applied only to player controls), but I didn't have time for that... I was also thinking about more advanced things I could do with physics, as you describe, which I would like to implement when I have more time.

carraka 2017-12-26 23:34

As much as I enjoy eating cake, I find myself pausing to consider what this game really means. As a player, I never had a choice to not eat the cake, even when I didn't want to. Was I addicted? Without losing weight, I was unable to advance. Is this meant to echo real life? If so, the result was a strangely dispiriting game that made me think about body shaming. I hope that wasn't your intent, but it's definitely food for thought ... the best kind of food.

m-1 2017-12-27 11:56

@huvaakoodia Thanks for the detailed review and interesting ideas.

The game is not entirely linear, there is one "secret" passage right at the beginning (if you are slim enough, you can fit below the ramp), but you are right, there could be many more paths (and endings :thinking:).

If there was more time (and debugging the catapult didn't take so long), the last level would contain more platforms to land on, based on player's weight (player would have to eat "just enough" cakes to find the right weight). But you are right, more complex puzzles or enemies should be there.

m-1 2017-12-27 19:46

@carraka Thanks for your thoughts and ideas. The game wasn't meant to make fun of anyone, I just liked the idea of changing player's weight throughout the game in a way that affects the gameplay so I implemented it without thinking about its deeper meanings. I think the main message of the game could be "the *easiest-looking* path may not be the best one – think before you act else what you do may cause you trouble in the future".

The "cake addiction" (inability to avoid eating more cakes) is just a result of the increased weight (lower jumps for unchanged "jump impulse force") in the physics simulation. (Physics parameters will need to be tweaked so the impulse force is higher with greater weight...) The player's model was just a cube in the early stages, but it felt natural to make it "rounder" rather than adding a progressbar or text showing current weight.

(An interesting fact: although it wasn't designed that way, game can be finished without eating single cake by jumping over all the cakes using [space], but that would eliminate basically the only game mechanic. :grin:)