FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD43 → The Tearable Three

The Tearable Three

By grandtheftmarmot and subtlydramatic

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall8423.0055
Fun8252.8155
Innovation3873.3155
Theme2553.8555
Graphics5593.4455
Audio3603.3152
Humor3963.0850
Mood6783.1252

Comments

tetralogia 2018-12-04 17:22

I like the graphics and the overall artistic direction of this game, the concept is nice, but the hitboxes make it really hard to play

trifectuh 2018-12-05 02:02

Hitboxes aside this game is pretty fun. Look forward to the non-jam version.

pudding 2018-12-05 02:08

Weird collisions but amazing sound design.

trusty 2018-12-05 02:13

The controls were kind of jittery, made it hard to play. The whole tearing up your character concept was a cool take on the theme

ladyknight1825 2018-12-05 02:15

I was unable to really play your game, but I like the concept. Everytime I jumped towards the key the character went into the wall and instantly died. :(

lucas-carvalho 2018-12-05 02:16

i like the art of the characters and the relation with the team

ninnec 2018-12-05 03:27

I enjoyed the the graphics and the idea. I had trouble playing though as he would bounce off things some times

harark 2018-12-05 03:57

Nice concept. Had problems controlling it though. Bounced of corners too easily. Liked that the tearing had very different effects.

sketchycode 2018-12-05 03:59

I liked the idea, the controls felt a bit off, as did some of the physics. I was digging the music.

royur 2018-12-05 04:08

the control super hard..

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 15:16

@tetralogia - Thank you! The art was really fun to do! I'm hoping to spend some time post-jam to make the characters look more stitched/stuffed!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 15:19

@trifectuh - I'm looking forward to post-jam version as well! (I can't program to save my life!)

My wonderful programming partner has been working on the bugs since the minute the jam ended! lol He's definitely really dedicated and he's making a GREAT game! :D Thanks for your comment!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 15:20

@ladyknight1825 - Thanks for your feedback! We're definitely working on that fix right now! It was pretty funny the first time it happened to me! I think I disappeared and ended up in the ceiling! :D

oakenman 2018-12-05 15:56

It looked very cool but I haven't managed to go really far because of collisions bugs :( Anyway, the art is really really cool and the idea is interesting. I look forward the Post-Jam version !

mmason 2018-12-05 20:20

I never made it past the sock monkey stage, I think you had a good game there but I kept bouncing off walls at weird angles. Interesting use of the theme though

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 20:45

@mmason - thanks for playing! We're working on making the controls and hitboxes more playable/user friendly right now! Excited to have the post-jam game available soon!

mmason 2018-12-05 22:12

@subtlydramatic I don't know what engine you used or how you're handling hitboxes, but we had iffy hitboxes until we combined all the adjacent tiles into one hitbox, that might help

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 22:20

@mmason, thank you for the suggestion! I currently lack any programming knowledge, but our programmer is definitely making great progress getting all our bugs fixed! If this is still one of our issues, I'll definitely relay your input! :D

odlog-oglog 2018-12-05 22:25

A very nice game! the control are kind of hard to play with but I know you're on the way to fixing it so I have no complaints about it at all, I really like the art style of the game. You took the subject to a very creative and unexpected idea.You took the subject to a very creative and unexpected idea.Overall it's a very interesting and creative game. good job :)

subtlydramatic 2018-12-05 22:33

@odlog-oglog - Thank you for playing, and thank you mentioning that you know we're fixing the controls! :P We just were REALLY excited to get a game uploaded, so controls are on their way.

We had a slightly different idea going at the start of the Jam, actually... probably until mid-Saturday, so I'm really glad our idea morphed into what it was and we have such a good start to a game!

kirke 2018-12-05 22:40

Really good (and brutal) idea of choosing playable character! I luv it! :D

furtive-pygmy 2018-12-06 07:34

Haha, amazing start. Unfortunately I can't really play it too well due to the controls :( looks really fun though.

fireslash 2018-12-06 08:09

Echoing other comments here: I love the visual style, the theme, and the choices. But the hitboxes and other bugs (I fell out of the world twice) make this game a bit hard to really enjoy.

Please do make a post-compo version of this!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-06 14:07

For those anticipating a post-jam version, it was added to the above post last night:

http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version @trifectuh @oakenman @fireslash

subtlydramatic 2018-12-06 15:36

If you'd like to play with our adjusted controls & fixed bugs, here's a link to the current post-jam version!

http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

Thanks for testing and giving feedback! @tetralogia @pudding @trusty @ladyknight1825 @ninnec @harark @sketchycode @royur @odlog-oglog @furtive-pygmy

codesity 2018-12-06 15:51

The graphics are cute, but for my flavour a bit to brutally. Good Work!

vlad11 2018-12-06 16:01

A great idea to sacrifice some parts of our character, sometimes I had a small problem with movement but I can play with it. good job :)

subtlydramatic 2018-12-06 16:13

@Vlad11, thanks for playing.

If you get a chance (and weren't already playing the post-jam version) check it out! Post-jam version has some updated controls! Though we did leave those a little difficult as well, each sacrifice type has a different negative effect on how you move!

http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

jiri-one 2018-12-06 16:38

Very interesting mechanic, it's quite unique. The game was however quite difficult and I had to check the postjam version to see what the different sacrifices did. If this game gets a bit more polish it's a nice starting point for a "bigger" game.

najmm 2018-12-06 16:44

Cool concept...Going blind worked best for me... Btw...If I am not wrong it is totally OK to do bug fixes after the jam so you can update your current link...

subtlydramatic 2018-12-06 16:44

Thank you so much, @jiri-one! The post-jam version is DEFINITELY an improvement! I appreciate you checking out both!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-06 16:52

Thanks @najmm, we have fixed bugs and there is a post-jam link above.

http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

I'll look into it, but I was under the impression the initial submission has to be what was completed in the 72 hour jam!

arvejeitor 2018-12-06 20:55

Nice game! I like how you can replay it with those three variations (the one without eyes is super hard!)

easy82 2018-12-06 23:54

Ohhoho this is a fun idea, and it's nicely done! I loved the intro by the way :D The controls make it difficult to navigate... Make it a bit easier next time, please. :)

subtlydramatic 2018-12-07 00:34

@easy82, did you check out the post jam link? Definitely working on the controls, but depending on what body part you sacrifice, your controls and movement will be impacted differently! :) http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

easy82 2018-12-07 06:21

@subtlydramatic Will do after werk. Cheers mate ;)

thomas-lagana 2018-12-07 14:16

Good work !Nice concept ! Really cool sound design but it's a little bit difficult to navigate in the game !

purpoappo 2018-12-07 21:03

Very fun game and a good idea. A little buggy though.

subtlydramatic 2018-12-07 21:25

@purpoappo, thank you! Which version did you check out?

We did a lot of bug fixes for the post-jam release! http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

dining-philosopher 2018-12-08 23:00

Cute idea, I like the stuffed animals but I also found it really hard, even post-jam and with the unstability-handicap (the easiest imho) because of some collision wonkiness. Also the goal wasn't completely clear, I tried jumping way to the top in the first level, but couldn't get on top of the blocks.

subtlydramatic 2018-12-08 23:17

@dining-philosopher, you need to collect the key to get to the door. We're currently working on a boss level once through the door, but we were not able to get that done before the end of the jam!

Thanks a bunch for playing! Will definitely do more work on the controls!

dining-philosopher 2018-12-08 23:19

@subtlydramatic Ah thanks, guess I wasn't persistent enough to puzzle it out.

dk5000p 2018-12-09 22:19

Web build leads nowhere

yopox 2018-12-09 22:29

I liked the concept a lot ! I wasn't wise choosing to sacrifice the legs first haha

grandtheftmarmot 2018-12-09 22:31

@dk5000p Thanks for the heads up! It's the same page as the other one, but fixed the link!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-09 22:35

@yopox, I just played our game some more and I'm STILL so bad with no legs! lol!

Thanks for testing the game out! :)

dk5000p 2018-12-09 22:59

Loved the artwork, I own a lot of sock monkeys. Was a little disappointing that each level was the exact same. The characters did play a little differently, though, so that was nice. As others have stated you can fix game breaking bugs and warping through the wall is a game breaking bug. It was a fun concept and I bet the post jam version will be great, as you already noticed this version was just a little too tough. I ended up skipping each level to see if there was a fun end screen, but there was just you won, still good job.

birdwards 2018-12-09 23:26

Nice work! Here are my thoughts: - This is a great concept. The difficulty of the three sacrifices is pretty well-balanced. I still can't decide which to favor, and that's a good thing. - I really like the filter you use after removing the eyes. It looks like you're squinting through several layers of fabric, and as a cosplayer who uses masks a lot, the feeling hits pretty close to home. - I also like how there are multiple ways to approach each level, especially given the double jump (though the instructions should really mention that you can double jump). Even though this game is a purely physical challenge on the surface, making decisions about your sacrifice and the route you take through the level help give it more of a cerebral feel. - It's a shame you couldn't get the collision bug fixed before the deadline, but thank you for putting up a fixed version so quickly. It's definitely a lot more playable, and allowed me to see much more for your content than I would have otherwise. That said, I did notice a few more minor issues, even with the post-jam version: - While the collision no longer clips you through the level or anything like that, collision with ceilings in particular could still stand to be improved. For example, if you're jumping to the left and hit a ceiling, it pushes you back to the right. In the post-jam version, you are allowed to move to the left again after falling for about half a tile, but even the small amount of pushback that still happens can make it difficult to progress in some areas (such as the little nook containing the key in the first level of the post-jam version), especially since you can't control your jump height if you sacrifice your legs. It would feel more natural if hitting a ceiling preserved your X velocity and only changed your Y velocity. - I got no audio at all on my first playthrough of each version. I would have chalked it up to a weird sandboxing thing that my antivirus (Avast) does when running certain unfamiliar programs for the first time, but I checked the HTML5 build, and it happened there too, with no (visible) intervention from Avast. The audio is now working for me on both builds of both versions. I have no idea what could cause a bug like that... maybe it's still something specific to my computer. In any case, I'm glad it's working now- the audio is great! - On the sacrifice select screen, if you click a sacrifice but press the left or right arrow keys during the fade to black, you can change the sacrifice before the level begins. I discovered this accidentally, and I imagine that this is unintentional.

subtlydramatic 2018-12-10 00:26

@dk5000p, thanks for complimenting the art! It was SO much fun for me to make! As for the levels, we haven't yet decided what we will do for future levels. We didn't want any additional advantages/disadvantages for the early stages of the game, aside from the handicap you select at the beginning!

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we didn't get our boss level or "win" screen finished, but I assure you we are working on some text/plot! The art for the ending is complete! :) We're just going to work out the details once we've gotten back to normal, post-game-jam life!

Post-jam version has been in the works with quite a few bug and control fixes. If you didn't see the link above or get to check it out- here it is!

http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

subtlydramatic 2018-12-10 00:32

@birdwards, thank you so much for checking out both versions! I really appreciate that!

I really like how you described your experience with no eyes, that's really cool! I wasn't sure WHAT that was going to look like when @grandtheftmarmot was telling me about it. But once he added it and I saw it/played with it, I was incredibly impressed!

I do realize I'm still having some trouble controlling my character when I collide with blocks, so that's something we'll discuss as a team and work on for future versions!

As for the audio, I'm not sure what's happening on your end, but I have had functioning audio on my computer each play through (I'm not the programmer, so I will definitely relay this info!)

I didn't know about the sacrifice changing with the arrow keys, though! I will definitely ask about/look into that, thanks!

meskaline 2018-12-10 14:51

Super nice game and concept. Good polish to it too. The audio keeps on with the mood. Good job!

grandtheftmarmot 2018-12-11 01:11

@birdwards Thank you so much for putting in the time to write such a detailed review. Wow. You're a caped hero of the LD community. And thank you for sharing your experience about the cosplay fabric-- that is so incredibly cool.

- You are right that we should mention the double jump. Also the no-legs version has a totally different jump mechanic, which I never got around to mentioning. (Jumps when you hit release, and jumps sideways if you hold down run, but up if you don't.)

- Yeah, collision with ceilings doesn't feel great. Originally we had a "hit your head too hard and you get knocked out for a second" mechanic that slowly got stripped down more and more because it was more fun without it. That was mostly added to nerf the no-legs sacrifice, but I agree that it might be more fun without any sort of impact mechanic associated with the ceiling collision. We'll change that.

- Hmm. I was under the impression that the game won't start until all the assets are loaded into memory, since I'm not doing it asynchronously or anything. It literally just loads them all first and then starts. That it did it on both builds has me worried it's something I did, and not something in the engine. Even with antivirus sandboxing, I didn't think that could affect an executable loading assets into memory after it's already running. I'm curious if this happened for anybody else and they just thought it didn't have any audio. Some people skipped voting for our audio, and I wonder if that's why and they just didn't say anything. I can't reproduce this on either version though, although I have literally no antivirus stuff running. One other thought that I have-- GameMaker is by default sandboxed to a directory in the Users/AppData folder, but I modified mine, originally for making apps, like our Sound Effects Generator so you can save things wherever you want, that doesn't have any sandboxing. It normally requires that I package it with a .dll that does the actual circumventing, which I don't include with any of my games, but I do have all of the "unplugged wires" for it in there. I wonder if your antivirus knows the usual fingerprint of the engine's API access and saw something was amiss and freaked out a little and limited the API access until it saw there wasn't anything actually trying to reach out. Anyways, if you do come across any more behavior like this on our stuff or any other GM2 games you see, please let me know!

- Good catch on the sacrifice screen! The sacrifice image objects handle their own mouse hover detection but the keyboard input is handled by a singleton, and I forgot to lock the inputs after the sequence starts. Derp.

subtlydramatic 2018-12-11 01:21

@grandtheftmarmot - derp!

derek-volker 2018-12-12 17:31

Considering the time spent to develop the game it is impressive, but the collision bouncing bug makes it almost unplayable.

However, it is really interesting to note the effort put on the mechanics, graphics and audio. The simple and sad melody sets the mood as the graphics complement it in a nice way.

Like many, you had the idea of losing parts of the body as to fit the sacrifice mechanic, and i though of doing something like that but though it would be way too complicated to implement. Good to see that you went through this way and it resulted in not only a nice concept but also a nice entry.

Congrats!

subtlydramatic 2018-12-12 19:50

Thanks @derek-volker! If you're interested in the game without the collision bug, we did provide a post-jam link in the blog above. We really appreciate you playing and providing feedback!!

POST JAM: http://grandtheftmarmot.itch.io/the-tearable-three-release-version

julian-creutz 2018-12-12 19:59

Nice graphics and audio, but the gameplay is lacking. The post-jam version improved upon it, but that's not what we have to rate :) sorry. But nice entry nonetheless.

subtlydramatic 2018-12-12 20:54

@julian-creutz, thanks for checking out both!

arron-fowler 2018-12-13 08:51

I like the art style and concept. The theme is bang on. I was frustrated by the physics, it was very varied and not in a fun way. I particularly liked the artwork when the eyes were sacrificed, it was really nice.

subtlydramatic 2018-12-13 13:46

Thanks,@arron-fowler! We have a lot of very hit or miss feedback on the controls! We'll have to look through the comments and take everything into consideration and do a LOT of play through to find something that works for most people!

aurel 2018-12-17 21:00

Took me a while to beat it, mostly because I didn't understand why the movement was so janky... only to later discover that literally was what have no arms did... lol. Great atmosphere and mode, the no legs mechanic is a little bit OP and I was able to just fly around the map madly with it. Interesting start on a game though!