Dummy Doggy

fussenkuh 2020-04-20 02:59

What the Hell, Dodger?!?!? Don't chase after that car! Or, that car! Oh, come on now, don't go strolling into the water next to that shark. I gotta say, I had a fun time attempting to keep Dodger out of harm's way... even though I mostly sucked at it. Thankfully, the sound effects kept me entertained. Wait, should I be entertained by a shark eating my dog? Great job!

Not sure if it's a bug or not, but, on the 3rd Day, I had a car veer off the bridge heading South East. It actually kind of looked it it was trying to dodge Dodger. Is that a thing?

nick-rafalski 2020-04-20 03:06

@fussenkuh Thanks! No, cars dodging Dodger isn't a thing, but they occasionally veer off course after hitting a goose or a power-up on the road. Thanks for playing!

bjl 2020-04-20 15:35

Fun game. Why can't I type N in real life to make the day end? Would like to see click to move so I could play this on my phone.

nekoruma 2020-04-21 02:09

very nice and cute!!

gwinnell 2020-04-21 17:39

I'm guessing your dog Barley gets up to all sorts of mischief! I found it quite difficult (cognitively jarring) using the mouse to click the abilities but then controlling everything else with keyboard keys. Despite this, after getting used to it, I had fun. Damn that toxic grass though! :joy:

lmb 2020-04-21 19:00

I hate those days in which my dog is eaten by a shark!

Nice game, enjoyed playing it! Graphics and animations are *really* very nice (cool attention to the details, like dog legs and guy body disappearing when swimming).

Suggestion (the big one suggestion): the one single that often ruined my experience were the controls. This mixed keyboard/mouse controls were too complicated for my taste. I'd suggest using keys like 1, 2 and 3 for each of the items, so that I can easily use the one I want. With the current control scheme I often had one item selected but wanted to use a different one, so I had to take one hand away from the keyboard to the mouse, my attention away from Dodger to my mouse pointer, my mind away from the action to focus on the controls... I have a *strong* feeling that your game would feel *much* better with the control scheme like the one I am suggesting.

Minor suggestion: add instructions (even if only here on the game description page) telling how exactly the ball works. It took me some time to find out that Dodger will run to the ball only if it is on his line of sight. I believe this works well as a game mechanic, but it was a bit frustrating until I found out how it works.

But I am wondering if should report your game as breaking Compo rules. You should have done it alone, but you admitted having help from Barley :thinking:

Just kidding! :smile: Very nice game, thanks for making and sharing it!

nick-rafalski 2020-04-21 19:15

@nekoruma thanks for playing!

@gwinnell Thanks for the kind words! You're definitely right about the controls. I've gotten some good feedback on ways to improve them now, but I wish I had thought of it before the end of the compo. Thanks again!

@lmb Wow thanks for all the detailed feedback. You are right about the controls, they should be more intuitive. I myself use WSAD and move, and the mouse to control the abilities, so I don't have to take my hand off the keyboard, but I definitely see where you're coming from. Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for playing!

dave-follett 2020-04-21 21:19

Wow what a great game, amazing you created it in 48 hours. You were able to really get a full game: levels, sounds, animations, everything. I hope you put it in the Andriod app store.

Poor poor dodger died many deaths under my watch. One slight thing was that dodger died when he walked into the back of a car that was moving forward and also died walking into the front of a stationary car.

I also love that you used real dog sounds from Barley.

csharprun 2020-04-22 02:24

Love the game. Graphics and Audio are great. UI is clear and controls are easy a responsive. I felt bad when Dodger died. There was immediate emotional buy-in using a dog in your primary mechanic. Nice work!

flash22 2020-04-22 15:23

Love the audio man and the Graphics too :thumbsup:

room606 2020-04-24 22:25

Fun and juicy sounds, love it for sure in this game! I'm not sure that I've got the idea of how items change balance of the game.

Also, is it a bug or a feature? I can walk on the water and swim on the back of the sharks, I can even control them via movement keys! :laughing: :shark:

bug_menu.png

P.S. Say Hi to Barley! He did good job! :dog2:

nick-rafalski 2020-04-24 23:32

@csharprun Thanks so much for the detailed feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game.

@flash22 Thanks for the kind words! I'm so happy you enjoyed it

@room606 Oh my gosh! I can't believe I didn't notice the 'shark riding' bug. It is definitely NOT intentional. What's happening is that you're inside the sharks detection circle (so he 'sees' you), but not quite in his killing circle (so he doesn't eat you). He follows your commands because he basically wants to get as close as possible to you. Thanks for the bug report! I'm glad you liked the game :)

thermacon 2020-04-25 01:15

Over great work! I found it to be pretty entertaining. I didn't experience the shark bug that some people were talking about, but that sure does sound like even more additional fun. Sound effects were great and really added to the atmosphere.

100th-coin 2020-04-25 19:52

That was fun. I wish there was a bit more to do though.

dvlv 2020-04-26 09:33

Very fun, and a cool idea!

hakro 2020-04-26 11:41

Really nice little game. I like it a lot. Your dog did a nice job too for the sounds in there :) Cheers

nick-rafalski 2020-04-26 14:34

@thermacon Thanks so much for the kind words

@blobo Thanks for the feedback! Yes, it definitely could use some more action-y things for the player to do. Most of the work went into making the dog's AI, and the player was almost an afterthought. Thanks for playing!

@dvlv Thanks so much!

@hakro Thanks! I told Barley he's a good boy one extra time for you :)

frenchie 2020-04-29 04:04

Very cute little game! I love the way it looks and all the sound / ambience you put into it.

I had coffee spawn on top of Dodger a few times which was pretty frustrating since he would just die instantly without my ability to do anything. Was there something I was messing up?

nick-rafalski 2020-04-30 03:07

@frenchie Thanks so much for the feedback. What you experienced is something I noticed right at the end of the jam. Since all the pickups are spawned randomly, it's just bad luck that a coffee spawned right on top of Dodger. I actually tried to alleviate this by keeping track of how long each pickup has been 'alive' and making Dodger ignore ones that have only been alive for 2 seconds or less. This would give Dodger a chance to walk past them and not die so fast. And it actually worked! But then I broke it again somehow, and didn't notice till after submission. I'm still not 100% sure what's causing Dodger to not-ignore them like he used to, but I know I've experienced it too. Sorry about that!

Thanks again for the kind words :)

lcstark 2020-05-02 12:00

That was a fun game! Good looking graphics and wonderful sound effects, plus a pretty fun gameplay. ;)

I found it really great when I noticed that Dodger picks up spawned items and brings the balls to you. That was a fun addition. ;) It felt much worse when Dodger accidentally picked up a coffee and it made him sick.

There's also a small issue with the abilities. In the instructions above you wrote: > Use the MOUSE to select an ability to perform, and SPACEBAR to execute it. But that only works like that for the ball. For the treats and coffee when you click the ability it is automatically activated when you select that ability. That made me waste some of them when I just wanted to select them to be used soon.

Also, the ball throwing is pretty difficult, given it always throws the ball where your character is facing. I guess adding a separate throw targeting, using the mouse or second controller stick to target your throws, would work much better.

Overall it's a great entry. Well done! ;)

nick-rafalski 2020-05-03 02:55

@lcstark Thanks for the great feedback! You point out many legitimate flaws with the instructions/controls. I can totally see how it's clunky. I always get ideas for gameplay in my head first, but often struggle to find control schemes that are intuitive. Thanks for the kind words :)

good-enough 2020-05-12 14:23

This was pretty interesting. I couldn't quite figure out the controls, but I didn't really look at the how to play section, so it's my fault probably.