Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → Popcorn Mayhem
By cary-stanley
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 355 | 3.39 | 49 | |
| Fun | 367 | 3.23 | 49 | |
| Innovation | 212 | 3.46 | 49 | |
| Theme | 54 | 4.21 | 49 | |
| Graphics | 200 | 3.64 | 49 | |
| Audio | 408 | 2.75 | 46 | |
| Humor | 58 | 3.54 | 45 | |
| Mood | 296 | 3.06 | 44 |
really like the vibe here - the art is great and the concept is hilarious and cute - the only thing is it really needs a bit of tweaking in terms of movement speed and jump - the second level is really really hard and I had to start over a bunch of times in general - for this type of game might be better to make it easy so that you can see the whole game on your first or second try. but for 10 hours I'm very impressed
Nice. :D I really dig the concept, graphics and sound. It's really funny too. The kitty is rly cute and a nice touch. :O Hmm some times the physics can be a bit frustrating though, could use some polish there. Really great work! I worked on a platformer too. :)
Is there any chance that the popcorn spawn rate is framerate dependent and faster computers cause the popcorn to fill faster but the player to not run faster? Or is there some trick to moving? I can't get more than 3 steps before the popcorn has caught me. Otherwise, I like the art and sound.
the art style and concept are excellent, but the gameplay is slightly tilted towards frustrated instead of fun. I love the way the popcorn spreads and it fits the theme perfectly. the art is amazing as well as the presentation. There is much flexibility in terms of level design and wish I could have reached the end.
@tinamil I wonder if your monitor is at a higher frame-rate. I put in a bug fix to make the game a fixed 60fps. So hopefully that fixes the issue you were seeing.
@cary-stanley Yep, that was it. I was using a 165hz monitor refresh rate. It doesn't look fixed yet, but I switched to a monitor using 60hz and it worked fine.
I like the concept, though I'm having trouble beating the first stage. Gonna change my refresh rate and see if it helps
Good concept. Execution was OK. Controls felt delayed and clunky. Great game mind
Although fun, very hard. I can't make it to the second floor on third level. Is this level my final boss? ;)
@kamilko yup, only had the time to make a few levels, so the 3rd level is the Final Boss ;)
Didn't play in Chrome and don't know my laptop screen refresh rate. Controls feel delayed. First level was fine but the stairs + turning around in the next one were really hard to get past.
@tinamil thanks for pointing out the issue!!! Phaser 3 is new and I think they change the game config object format. I believe I'm sending the right format now, but not sure if it is respecting the value :frowning: I added a note to the description about monitor refresh rate too, just in case.
Time to pick a new snack! microwave popcorn is obviously too dangerous. How many homes do you have to buy? How many cats must die? :smile_cat: I really like the graphics, especially the main character, and I liked the popcorn sounds. I wish that the popcorn was a little bit slower, and/or I could jump a little higher. I couldn't beat level 3.
That was adorable! The theme, graphics and humor were great! I really like how you can use the popcorn itself as a moving platform to help you out provided you aren't on the wrong side of it. And those cats getting buried by the popcorn was hilariously cute! :smiley_cat: The controls do feel a bit sluggish and jumping on and off stairs is somewhat difficult, but I enjoyed this game a lot. Congrats on your first Ludum Dare and great job!
MC looks like a racoon xD Cute art and nice use of the theme. Stair physics feels a bit off, but otherwise nice entry :)
Like the art a lot. Sometimes when moving up, the game screen would tear or something where there would be black lines all over it. It's pretty difficult though, feel like it's a decent balance but it could be a little bit easier for the player, whether that comes from making the player a teensy bit faster or the popcorn a little bit slower. Great job though!
Funny and sticky platformer, but sooooo complicated. The second level I've finished after 10th attempt, and the third one turned out to be impassable :( I don't know how this can be, but our game is also about microwave and popcorn: D
Funny done) It was filled popcorn space, but with difficulty goes the second level, it seems slow raccoon (very similar to it the main character). When you press the key forward, it starts to just jump and because of it slows down the movement and covers you with a wave of popcorn)) Interesting , which coincided with the theme of popcorn)
Great take on the theme! :smile:
In the end I sort of got used to the controls, but I frequently got the impression that they were as much of an obstacle as the popcorn blob itself. In a way it contributed to the tension (omfg, the last level with the stairs!), but they certainly could use some improvements.
I'm not sure if this was intended or emergent behaviour caused by the physics, but in some cases I felt I could use the popcorn to my own advantage. I was only able to get some glimpses of it before being crushed half a second later, but I think this might be a really cool feature ("Ride the wave!").
Nice job!
Nice game! I thought it was a really creative idea. I got 2 game overs before I beat it!
This was fun. My only complaint, is that I wish it had WASD enabled as controls. Actually, my second complaint is that it wasn't long enough! Bravo!
@ratstail91 Good Feedback, I will try to remember to to enable additional controls, I know people have different preferences. :smiley_cat:
Bonus points for "butter luck next time."
Pretty short! I'd have liked the actual jumping to "feel" smoother, because that's the main part of the game - it feels like you get stuck around corners. But otherwise, cool concept and execution! I liked it!
@arcadonauts Glad someone appreciates my attempt at a pun :wink:
@diptoman I think others mentioned the jump. There are a couple factors that might be related to it not being "smooth", I'm not sure which is the issue:
I wrote the game to be retro style so it is actually only 256 x 220 pixels like the old "Mario Bros"/"Donkey Kong" (You can see this if you shrink the window size) This means the pixels are chunky and the jump will be a bit jagged.
I also made the jump variable, so it accelerates like in the the original "Super Mario Bros" for the first 8 frames that you press the button, this allows you to jump to different heights based on how long you press the button. I also allow right to left acceleration both on the ground and in the air to change trajectory, but like in the old "Super Mario Bros" this has less control in the air (about 1/4 of the horizontal acceleration). So its best to shift direction on the ground, not in the air.
Finally, the jump was originally higher, but I felt it made going up the stairs to easy (you could just jump to the top). So I reduced it to make the game a bit more challenging. I wanted you to have points in the game where the popcorn was getting dangerously close to you and you felt the pressure.
Feedback would be really helpful from anyone who didn't like the jump, would love to learn from this first Ludum Dare for the next one :smile:
Plays good in Edge as well. What I take from other comments, the controls are somewhat clunky. The second level is really really tough. Graphics are great, sounds effects are a good match as well.
Too hard for me! couldn't beat the third level, but I really enjoyed the concept. Rating games, I hadn't seen as many literal takes on 'running out of space', but this definitely fits the bill. Even though I died 20 times on level 2, I laughed every time. Great job
it was a very easy game but cool made. and a very cool idea :) i love some games where speed and jumping is important^^
@cary-stanley We've finished Part 1 of our Play and Rate video for Ludum Dare 42, and we've added it per your response. Check it out! https://youtu.be/vuUp1EYEiuA (The video may be uploading for a little while. If so, check back after a day or so)
i liked this game but jumping is not good
Thanks for positing the video @koala-squad !! :koala:
cute + weird = FUN!
Pretty cool concept and graphics. But that jumping is so wonky,
Super cute interpretation of the theme. Really loved the idea and great job if you were only able to spend 10 hours on it this is a very impressive entry for such a short implementation time!
I really appreciated that the game wasn't just simple "you die when the popcorn touches you", but you really worked on it - first it gave you a hint when you touched the popcorn and you died only when you were being crushed in the corner by it. Details like this makes the game seem fair and playable. The only thing that irritated me was the jumping - it was too slow, so one mistake made you look at how your character is slowly falling, the popcorn is quickly approaching and you can't really do anything about it - this made me feel powerless and I felt like blaming the game instead of my skill. If the player felt more in control (important note: he doesn't have to be, he just have to feel like it), it would be more fun and exiting. But I have to add: it's amazing that you were able to create such a great game in only 10 hours. Keep up the great work!
Super cute. This time a round I've seen a lot of "Shrinking island" or "wall of death" games, but outrunning popcorn and actually being able to use it as a platform in while rounding corners around stairs actually is handy at times. The popcorn popping sound is more on the cartoony side, but it works, it would have been nice to have more sound or music like for getting hit, getting squished, or finishing levels. Stairs can be a little frustrating just because of the way they basically kill any momentum you have and usually taking at least 3 jumps to get up the stairs and round the corner.
Still, very impressive entry for such a short time to work on it!
Thank you all for your feedback. I see again and again the jump being mentioned, and I even posted above trying to understand the details of why the jump is bad. I see now that I misunderstood how variable jumping was done is Super Mario Bros. I knew it had a acceleration component when you held the jump button down and that is what I implemented. But it also has an initial impulse velocity. So my jump it less of a jump and more of a momentary anti-gravity. I will probably make a Post-Compo version that fixes this. But I think its stuck this way for now. :frowning2: Lesson learned for next time! Sorry my jump physics probably frustrated a lot of you.
Hah, fun game, good job! But I feel control some uncomfortable :/
Cute! Impressive for 10 hours but as people have mentioned there can definitely be improvements regarding the physics as it feels very sluggish. I like the concept though and a fun idea for the theme.
Cute idea and amazing pixelart + coding!! Totally an amazing work. Congratulations. :)