FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → It Alive

It Alive

By mathurin

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall5393.4125
Fun6143.1725
Innovation5483.2625
Theme5023.6925
Graphics6993.1525
Humor4252.9525
Mood8142.8123

Comments

meemog 2020-04-20 15:34

Great game, loved the joke at the start. It would be nice if you didn't get stuck on enemies

rirdeg 2020-04-20 15:36

Neat idea having to bring the sign with you and throwing it at enemies. The throwing mechanic feels nice and kinetic, that you have to retrieve the sign as well adds an interesting challenge.

Walking is slower than jumping? That feels a bit strange and lead to me bunny hopping everywhere. Overall though fun game. Congrats on your entry.

njm-games 2020-04-20 15:37

the throw mechanic felt a bit weird, like I'm aiming the wrong way all the time.

yeetukus 2020-04-20 15:42

This is not a compo game as you used someone else's art and a collision library

hanamigi 2020-04-20 15:44

Interesting gameplay, even if I found the reversed mouse aiming a bit confusing. Must be because I am using a trackpad at the moment. I really enjoyed the graphics and mood, quite surreal. I suggest to make the "end level flower" clearer, and possibly to avoid confusing the player on which direction points to the level's end when a level starts (e.g. in leve 2 I went to the right, fought some enemies and wondered why the level was not ending, then went to the left and found out that it was the right direction.) I find the "smart" interpretation of the theme a bit tryhard though.

fahad-aameer 2020-04-20 15:56

Awesome game. you got me when the game started lol.

mathurin 2020-04-20 16:17

@yeetukus I created all the art myself with aseprite as I mentionned it. I think it's fine using a collision library while a lot of people are using [engine name] with build in physics, doesn't you ? I could have used my engine physics library but that would have been overkill for a game like that.

nekoruma 2020-04-21 02:10

good job!!

mathurin 2020-04-21 15:34

@meemog thanks for support! Nice advice for the enemies. I'll change that by pushing/crossing enemies, it should feel much much better.

@rirdeg Thanks for the feedback ! (yes I was doing the same about the jump, but it's not because you goes faster (just 10% faster) that it's powerful, it's because level and enemies are not well designed, I'll fix it :)

@njm-games In fact it's designed to feel kinetic and like aiming with a bow, but I understand it takes time to get used to it and the game is really short, it makes it hard to feel great. Also I cannot make a video/gif to show how to properly throw (because of my very old laptop) people sometimes misunderstand how to use it. Thanks for your feedback.

@hanamigi Yes, I didn't try it on a trackpad but it's mouse designed (I'm adding that to the description). Thanks for the kind words about the graphics, and you're right the "end level flower" is not clear at all it's why I even put a big picture in the description, I knew it was going to be a problem. For the level camera side that's a good point, I'll fix those issues. Thank you for that complete feedback !

@fahad-aameer Haha, nice! I did have the menu idea first and the game idea came after. Thanks!

@nekoruma Thank you!

notexplosive 2020-04-22 15:02

Incredibly clever use of the theme, it works on several layers! Although I didn't really use the main mechanic until I got to the level with a ton of enemies. All of the other levels I could pretty easily platform around them. Perhaps there could be a level early on with narrow chokepoints that enemies block so you could teach the mechanic early on and gradually demonstrate wider use cases.

Very impressive for a compo game!

mathurin 2020-04-22 16:27

@notexplosive Thanks mate! I did also bhop them a lot while trying my game but I did the level design in a very short time, so levels are pretty bad. And I didn't manage time to make a "tutorial part" since I was in full rush to make those few levels. I'll make sure I'm ready before starting the next ld so I have time to really work on level design, gameplay balance and tutorial instead of just making the game working.

I'll develop a post jam release that should be a lot of fun to play !

saviorium 2020-04-22 20:28

The literal use of theme was absolutely hilarious. Great job for a compo game!

mathurin 2020-04-22 22:07

@saviorium Cпасибо! Hope you liked it ;)

patatenouille 2020-04-23 02:04

I like the mechanic of throwing your health at the nemies to kill them, it palce the player in a dangerous position but it also is the only way to kill enemis to reduce the threat, making every shoot almost a strategic choice. Even more if you consider that monsters don't attack you if you don't have It Alive in your hands, so making sure to kill enough enemies while having land in a safe spot to then crawl on the monsters to reach it.

I think the thing i can the most criticise is the controls, which are quite hard to use precisely, it would probably make more sense to be able to throw in the direction you point rather in the opposite, could be funnier to throw the box around if it was simple to aim. The other only thing that bothered me was the enemies stepping on me, making me stuck and unable to do anything, being able to push them a bit and jump on them would be really nice ;)

Otherwise you made a pretty good job, would love more levels and to see what this mechanic could turn into :P

keanutah 2020-04-23 02:14

Nice work, love seeing fellow love2d programmers! I thought this was a pretty good game. Would have liked to see the sign throwing mechanic used more, like someone else mentioned I didn't really need to use it for a while. Maybe you could throw the sign and it would stick into stuff and become a platform? Something like that might be neat. Still, a fun little platformer, nice work!

mathurin 2020-04-23 13:30

@patatenouille Merci! Actually a lot of people are complaining about that reverse aim system so I'll change it, at least I tried! Also I'll completely change the way your behave with enemies because as you said, it's actually quite bad to not be able to push them and not be able to jump when you landed on their head. Thanks for your feedback!

mathurin 2020-04-23 13:34

@keanutah I'm thinking about a lot of different ways to actually use the mechanics for the post jam release, thanks for mentioning that. Thanks for the feedback!

duke 2020-04-23 16:13

I went in completely blind and tried to find out the game mechanics by what the game gives me. The throwing mechanic was not ovious but after trying out all buttons, I was able to shoot by accident :) Also, I didn't know, what the aim of each levle was... somehow it just ended when I went to a specific spot. There was nothing there though. Seems like a bug? It was really strange.

The art is adequate, nothing too special, but it works! The platforming was a bit strange. running seemed like the pc was glued to the ground. Jumping was a lot faster. The game play itself got a bit stale after a short while. A little more variation in level design would've been great. Music and audio was missing as well. too bad! The game would benefit a lot from audio support.

Keep it up!

devesh-sharma 2020-04-23 16:48

Dude really great game with a cute art style, really liked it, keep up the good work!

mathurin 2020-04-23 19:59

@duke Thanks a lot for your complete feedback, I appreciate it. Going into a game completely blind is a good test, a good game make the player understand how to play and what are the objectives by itself with clear design (level and graphic). The problem here was that I never took part in a short game jam and I didn't program games for around two years so my time management was poor and my project ambitious regarding my situation. It's why the level design is complete garbage, I just rushed it. The game should show how to properly shoot and my "end level flower" which is the place you have to go is not well designed, hard to see and not very explicit.

It's why I tried to compensate those bad point by adding tips in the game description so the player start with a bit of knowledge about what he should do. For me it proves a bad game design.

But hey I'm back to game dev!! And my game is running, that was my main goal for this ld so I'm happy with that :)

mathurin 2020-04-23 20:00

@devesh-sharma Appreciate the support!

kaisean-games 2020-04-25 21:12

Hey, nice little game. It was a bit confusing at first. And it took me quite a while that I can use this thing as a weapon. But afterwards I found my way...

The only thing I'd change is to make it not inverted, so that if I want to shoot to the right, I don't need to move mouse to the left... That was unintuitive to me.

Otherwise, nice game for the compo.

mathurin 2020-04-26 12:30

@kaisean-games Thanks! I'm going to change that for sure!

andrfw 2020-05-04 00:31

haha I get it, nice one.

2020-05-09 11:21

Good start. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/S9pVfrriZ3E

thewinrawr 2020-05-09 23:59

I found the literal sense of "Keep it alive" to be really funny, lol. I like the added mechanic of throwing the sign and retrieving it, it adds another layer of challenge to the game, especially on the level with tons of enemies. Overall, nice work!

mathurin 2020-05-13 20:46

@thewinrawr Thanks a lot!