FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → Dirty Duty

Dirty Duty

By grahhhhhhhhh

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall28
Fun28
Innovation28
Theme28
Graphics28
Audio27
Humor28
Mood26

Comments

wrenpirate 2018-08-15 00:37

I actually liked how stupid the premise is. How long does the poop last? I'm pretty sure I pooped in the plant twice, but I only got caught the second time. Maybe the second time was right before the thing I intentionally avoided the first time. I'll say that, lovely voice acting aside, the leaving and coming home interludes really killed the pace for me. That's the main reason I don't want to play again to see if I can sort out the houseplant thing. It feels like 30% of game play waiting for the owner to get out of the room. I would also appreciate more than two bars of music. Solid work on putting all the elements together. It's gross, but I still think it's funny, just gotz to be faster.

bela-bohlender 2018-08-15 09:19

funny game but i didn't understand how to hide my poop lol anyways u posted ur game under "Source Code", maybe post under html so everybody knows that the link leads to the game :v:

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-15 12:12

@bela-bohlender Thanks for noting the wrong source... I blame it on the ludum dareier's lack of sleep.. Thanks for playing!

raccoon-js 2018-08-16 01:53

The only entry in this Jam that has a toilet humor. Not really much of a criticism but it's humorous enough to be enjoyable.

jsd 2018-08-16 09:43

Fun game, I like the idea of having to shit everywhere without the owner noticing it xD

vlashikito 2018-08-16 22:38

saw it on stream a bizarre entry that fit my humor, i like the cliche tone of the people saying "Don't poop in the house" :D

eric-smith 2018-08-16 22:49

Well done! Reminds me so much of my dogs when they were pups.

dev-for-pizza 2018-08-16 23:16

Wow, the best poop game in this ludum ! ^^

nam-nguyen 2018-08-16 23:30

HAhahaha very funny. I beat the game in first try, there was one part she said she will check out the podcast I thought she would go to the cassette but she didnt haha. Overall, a very fun(ny) game. I get your references to ludum dare and had some good laugh, I know its not everyone's taste but its my kind of humor, I also made some LD reference in my game too haha. The theme presence is pretty strong tho, you literally run out of place to poop LMAO. So yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed your game, good job!

megalink 2018-08-17 01:54

Hahaha this is really funny! Didn't like the art that much but the sound effects and music were well done! Game concept was quite humorous and well executed. Found some strange collision issues but other then that, I didn't encounter any major bugs. Good work!

josia-roncancio 2018-08-17 02:13

I enjoyed this! Like the silly concept and how it fits the theme perfectly! The voice acting was a real nice touch, added a lot of character & humor! I did get a little unlucky and lost in a way i felt like i couldn't have prevented. The first thing I pooped on was the couch, only to find out one day later that my owner was going to watch tv on thursday. but by then it was too to do anything about it :'( Another tiny thing I personally would have welcomed would be for it to be playable using only the mouse (click to walk) or only the keyboard (space to poop). I prefer playing with one hand when possible, and having the controls split this way felt a little unnecessary. But that's being really nitpicky, all in all I really liked this one! Good job! :)

triplefox 2018-08-17 02:24

This is a great "intentionally taking the joke too far" piece, which puts it in a similar space to [Twinbeard](http://www.twinbeard.com/) (Frog Fractions et al). I would even say that it might not be going far enough yet - it has plenty of the poop joke part which was good in that it focused everything for LD and the theme, it just needs diversifiers, like how you can sweep items off the shelves in Catlateral Damage. A more complete "bad dog experience" where you dig holes and chase cars and howl to annoy people would actually be material for a sizable game.

aaranos 2018-08-17 03:03

The art isn't bad but it was not all designed the same. You have different perspectives in the same scene. Pick a side you want facing the camera and make sure that is the side you see on all applicable sprites.

I like the fact that you have to plan your actions according to the tips as something you did two days ago could give you away.

nam-nguyen 2018-08-17 05:48

Okay so I saw your post on the feed, and come back for what you asked for haha. Most of the time people are aware of the flaws in their game, just that they havent had time to fix I think. Anyhow, so animation was rough, the game was very predictable and thus was not challenging. She has already watered the plan on monday, then on tuesday I can poop there. She does yoga on tuesday already so on wednesday I can poop under the rug. I think it was a simple game but lack the difficulty to the puzzle. Also why did she go upstairs when there are still things to interact with downstairs, such as the blue cabinet in the living room and the cassette player. Speaking of the blue cabinet, it was not obvious to player that this is not the fridge and the first room is the kitchen. When she said she would cook, I was not 100% sure which one is the fridge. Things start to get interesting in week 2 when she takes out the trash, but that was when the game ends too. So overall it is a good entry but the puzzle element was not as strong as it could be. I hope you dont get triggered and come rate my game with all 1 haha

jima 2018-08-17 08:52

You wanted a honest review and I will leave one. @nam-nguyen already told you about gameplay flaws, so I would like to concentrate on graphics.

It is clear that you wanted to create pixelart graphics, but had not much experience in it. It is totally okay and you would create awesome art if you practice a lot. It seems like you enjoyed drawing assets for you game and this is what really important.

I'll give you some general advices of how you can simply improve your art quality:

* If you are going with pixelart graphics, scale all your art 2 or 3 times larger. Just draw every object 2 times smaller and then scale it. Pixelart often looks better this way. Here is an example:

001.png

* All your straight lines has to be, well, perfectly straight. Pixel art is about precision and it is actually realy easy to draw perfect lines. It is small thing, but it really makes your art look more professional:

002.png

* Try not to use black for all lines. It works nice for outer edges, but for inner edges you often would not want to go for a solid black color. In this shelf it would be a lot better to use dark blue color or even a light shade of blue, as I used here:

003.png

* And the last advice is about your patterns. It is cool that you filled floor and walls with some kind of patterns. But I think they are really dense, I would make both floor and wall tiles at least two times bigger. And wall tiles are too prominent, maybe colors should be turned down a bit like this:

004.png

I believe that with enough practice you can achieve a lot in pixelart, my first works looked similar to your ones. And this is my last work, for example:

1.png

Do not stop making games and good luck in next projects!

Sorry if I had mistakes, English is my second language.

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-17 12:22

@nam-nguyen Thank you for the feedback... 1-star ratings are coming... jk :) Thank you pointing out the flaws, I think knowing how much I can do in a weekend is one of my weaknesses, and as you've pointed out, the game suffers when I try to do too much. The best entries in the jam I've found are usually from teams, professionals (or at least more full time hobbyists), or people that take the simplest idea and polish the heck out of it. It's a problem when 3 hours out from the deadline, I'm still working on level design. I need to take a step back and work on a simpler project next time, thanks for the feedback, I'll be checking out games including yours later tonight!

I didn't see that you already commented earlier (responding by scrolling upwards)! Then thank you for going back to give more feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to critique.

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-17 12:35

@jima your post is above and beyond, thank you for taking the time to be so detailed. I've never considered myself an artist, this is the first game where I think it came out halfway decent... here is one from I forget which jam it was.. you are the monster (sorry for resolution, I'm on work computer and don't want history to show the actual game loaded, so just a SS of a thumbnail)

Capture.PNG

I'm really happy with where my artwork has gone, but am aware that there's still a lot more skill to be learned.

Love the spaceship you've drawn, it's easy to admire, while not being able to break down what you've drawn and learn from it. Your explanation was incredibly helpful, and I can't wait to "get back to the drawing board" and try out some of the tips you gave! I can't believe you took the time to draw examples, especially after a long jam weekend!

Thank you for taking the time, this is the kind of feedback that is actually helpful, but I think some people are afraid to give. I understand why, when we're looking for feedback on our own games we don't want to upset people that could then come and give bad feedback on ours... but it doesn't help us grow either. This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-17 12:38

@triplefox thanks for the feedback! I enjoyed making this game, but honestly like you said, it came from my wife and I talking about a 2 minute joke, which got made into "taken too far"! I like your idea for expansion, though I'm not sure this is my favorite game I've made, I also felt it was too far, and by day 2 it wasn't really funny anymore lol! Thanks for the comment and taking the time to play!

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-17 12:40

@aaranos Thank you for playing! To be fair, I don't like the artwork either lol! I'm not an artist, only trying to get better each time I do one of these! @jima gave some great tips that I'm going to try out this weekend and see if I can improve some more... watch out next jam, I'm coming!

nam-nguyen 2018-08-17 12:42

@grahhhhhhhhh I feel you. Its my first LD and I sacrified everything for the jam, even eating, and yet by the deadline of the compo, I was still designing levels and eventually missed that. I agree that game jams are really best for games with a simple original mechanic and a lot of polishing, but then if you cant manage to polish your game enough, it'd do very poorly, so thats the risk with "pure mechanic" games as well. I think for me next time I would opt out completely for some categories and focuses only on things that I want to do. Thats a bit less stressful T_T.

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-17 12:45

@josia-roncancio That is an awesome suggestion, using one hand when possible. I remember being scolded for using arrows for movement and not including WASD. Now, so long as I don't need them, I make movement work using either.. you gave me another good tip to keep in mind!

The level design is my fault, when I was making it, I was aware that it was becoming too predictable, so I screwed the player by making some things relatively interpretive, and once even she takes a nap that she doesn't tell you about until the day of, so it's either good or bad luck, and then you have to remember next play through. It's not a great puzzle, but it's how I managed to get it done in time haha, bad excuse, I know :)

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-17 12:47

@megalink Thank you for the feedback! I'm surprised you like the music.. The title screen is 8 bars long, but the game is SUPER repetitive at only 2 bars! The only thing worse than my graphics are my musics, so I spent little time on it, got 2 bars that sounded OK, and then said go with it! Curious what collision issues you found? Playing games tonight, yours looks fun, thanks again!

superqgs 2018-08-18 01:11

Hey you left a really helpful comment on my game so I wanted to return the favor, but it doesn't seem to load. Is it my browser? I'm using Firefox.

grahhhhhhhhh 2018-08-18 01:58

@superqgs Hey! I tried uploading the flash file for direct download as well.. unfortunately I'm one of like 3 people on here that use stencyl, and to publish windows/mac, I need an upgraded version. Perhaps your flash player is out of date? No big deal if you can't play it :v:

superqgs 2018-08-18 02:12

@grahhhhhhhhh Thanks, that's probably the reason. I'll update it and try again

mza 2018-08-19 17:23

Voice acting is great. The audio and premise is really funny. It is like a point and click puzzle game. The good thing is that it looks like a early prototype and you can make it into multiple things. A stealth poop game.. etc...

foxisxiii 2018-09-01 14:06

Ive been playing like one hour to this. Its well finished and its quite funny. Good job!! You can put more places to poop in and more scenarios to unlock if you want to follow developing the game, or add some new mechanics... the game has potential and there aren't many of his type on the market.

james-shipp 2018-09-01 14:23

I dig it!

rangoiv 2018-09-01 14:23

Good job on sound effects there awesome. Sounds proffesional. Played it for half an hour its very funny. it has a lot of potencial.

axkarth 2018-09-01 14:54

Pooping is fun. I run out of places where to poop, so I guess you nailed the theme. But seriously, what kind of person doesn't take their dog for a walk so it can poop. It's her fault to begin with. Pam's voice acting is great! The music is good and so is the pixel art, it gave me a feeling nostalgia because I used to draw pixel art like that when I was little. 4/5

superqgs 2018-09-02 20:16

What? this is probably the weirdest puzzle game i've ever played. Still a solid logic game? Haha funny game though.

gustavo-christino 2018-09-03 03:17

DirtyDuty.png

gustavo-christino 2018-09-03 03:20

I finally had time to play ... ^^

But I could not download and the game (unfortunately) did not run on the online version. = / Call me if I upload a version that I can download from the game. o/