Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → Prostage
By ogma, caffeinated-psychics, Drafura and Zhaan
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1145 | 2.38 | 24 | |
| Fun | 1114 | 2.36 | 24 | |
| Innovation | 690 | 2.97 | 24 | |
| Theme | 884 | 2.92 | 23 | |
| Graphics | 1026 | 2.27 | 24 | |
| Audio | 601 | 2.73 | 23 | |
| Humor | 871 | 2.15 | 21 | |
| Mood | 1053 | 2.36 | 24 |
The game is okay but I feel like the speed of the shield when holding down shift should be the default speed. I don't see any benefit of not holding down shift. I think some sort of visual indicator on which enemy is going to shoot should also be there. Other than that it's pretty good
@adam-clayden Thanks for playing! :) The shield's default speed and max speed weren't supposed to be like this initially. We wanted to give a kind of "really quick but a bit too imprecise / hard to manoeuvre" vibe to the sped up shield. Unfortunately we were too short on time to tweak the game or playtest it.^^" Yep, there is clearly a lack of feedback. It was planned to add an exclamation dot behind "activated" cops, but again, I didn't have the time to add that feature. :( Anyway, thanks for the feedback! o/
So I feel like the controls for this game are a bit rough. It was incredibly difficult to rotate the shield where I needed it to go, especially with how quickly the projectiles move and there is no indication of where I should be protecting (at least not that I saw). I think perhaps having the shield follow the mouse pointer may have worked? That or perhaps just added in a little bit of flashing or something to indicate which thing is going to shoot you. Overall, nicely done :)
I like that the shield is composed of this hostages, it's disturbing. Maybe you could increase the size of the projectiles and slow down their speed to make it better.
I really love the nil gravitas of picking up dollar bills and coins while surrounded by cops shooting at you. And that the shield appears to PROTECT the hostages. Clearly done in a hurry, as stated. But worth the minute I spent on it
@norris-eldridge Thanks for playing and for the review! :) I hesitated a lot between making the shield to follow the mouse pointer and simply Q/D. I endend implementing it this way 'cause it seemed to me a bit "painful" to spin your mouse around the character, also because this way, I feel like it really gives the sensation that you control "two different entities" and since a lot of people are working with laptops/touchpads, I thought it was a bit more playable this way for a lot of people. Anyway, I think I'll try to implement the mouse-pointer-following in a v2 or v3, maybe letting the player choose which way they prefer to play the game, I'm still not sure about that.
@julienlussiez thanks for testing our game and the feedback :) The human shielding was an idea from our graphical artist, it's kinda inspired by a scene in an episode of House MD IIRC. I think I'll slow down the bullet in a V2. Initially I wanted to implement some kind of "lock" system. By that I mean something like -Cops track you during 5s -then, they stop the tracking during ~1s -then, they shoot at the direction they were locked on it would let a bit more time to player to anticipate / dodge the bullet.
@eelstork Thanks for playtesting and for the review. :) Well, the shield protects the hostages that protect against their will the robber.^^ What I had in mind was that the cops threw the money at the robber to "make him" move around to try and shoot him more easily. :p
Hilarious concept, and great idea. Maybe you could adjust a bit the proyectile speed, it keeps in air along few fps and its hard to predict. Very nice overall mate, have you tested another field shapes?
@pequenodev Thank you for your feedback!
A '!' symbol was supposed to show up near the heads of the policemen when they were about to shoot, to make the shot more predictable, but we didn't have the time to implement it during the LD sadly. We will surely add this feature at the second version of the game. We have already planned to adjust the bullets speed and their design as well to make it more visible.
This is a funny idea - I love how the music sets the tone!
I think the police projectiles could be a tad slower, it's prettyhard to see them coming and react accordingly. I also thought the hostages would die if they were shot, but you just die at once. I suppose these officers are real good shots? :)
Nice theme interpretation!
@tiagorrech Thank you for your feedback and nice words! As I said in a previous comment, we are working on a second version of the game where the bullets will be reworked to be more predictable, slower, bigger so a bit easier to dodge, but the policemen will still be as good at shooting indeed. ;)
Neat idea! Not really sure how to avoid being shot though. Also, I thought the humans were the shield, but there's also a shield? But a great start for 12 hours!
Nice for 12 hours of work, unfortunately it is fairly hard to see which cops are about to shoot you which makes game a bit random, could be a bit better if it was more skill based, like for instance clearer indication for when the cops are about to shot... But again for 12 hours quite nice.
Nice concept and good take on the theme, I like that! I didn't understand if when a hostage is shot you are meant to loose or it creates a "hole" where you can get shot.
Impressive for 12 hours! It was a little difficult to see which of the police are about to shoot you as the sprites are a little small, and I noticed there is not collision with the walls. Great game!
@madbarron & @owlycode : Thank you guys for the feedback and testing our game! That was my idea at first to use the hostages as a human shield, and make them dissapear one by one when they get shot, but I quickly realized that I won't have the time during the LD to implement it. Also, there's no much sense that the cops wants to shot the hostages. So I've add this kind of shield that the hostages are holding.
@cerkiewny & @notquinn : Thank you! Yes sadly we didn't had the time during the LD to implement any signals on the policemen to show they are about to shot. Also the bullets will change in the second version of the game, so it will be more easy, and more fair to dodge! I will be careful on the next game about the characters and NPC size as well.
I like the idea, but the controls seem a bit weird, maybe that's because I am using a QWERTZ keyboard, but yeah. I like the idea, but I wish the people around would have actually served as a second shield that slowly dies off. A solid entry for the time you mentioned though!
@andidebob Thanks for playing :) Ohh I think I get what you're saying about controls. I set 'A' & 'Q' as the keys to press to make a counter-clockwise rotation as to please QWERTY/Z AND AZERTY people, but I forgot to specify that in the instructions. I just noticed that thanks to your comment.^^" Well, I hope that's what you meant by that, I'll fix that. Thanks for the suggestion as well. It was a discussed feature while in dev, but we didn't have time to really think on it.
Hi @ogma , first of I enjoyed the game. It was fun. Very good idea. The sound/music was really good for me. It is a catchy tune. I loved it. Feedback on some stuff that stood out for me which could be improved, first I would say make the bullets of the cops a little bit slower, I really struggled to dodge them. Regarding the GUI/HUD, it was so small almost unnoticeable. Controls also felt a little bit strange to use. I would make use of the mouse as well. Maybe click mouse to move somewhere. Overall, nice entry.
@tgiant thanks! :) For the music we're really lucky and glad our friend could join us at the last moment and that he caught the gist of the game's spirit immediately. I have to agree with you there, when I was implementing the shooting mechanic, I didn't have the time to playtest and you need some kind of Jedi Reflexes to escape those bullets.^^" Interesting suggestion for the mouse "driven" movements, it could be fun to try something like clicking your way to the money and using the mouse wheel to move the shield.^^
The use of a hostage is a good idea to fit the theme ^^ Good job for only 12 hours :p
@kack3y thanks for playing our game! :)