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SideKick
SideKick
By paul-nadan
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 588 | 3.37 | 25 | |
| Fun | 372 | 3.47 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 611 | 3.18 | 24 | |
| Theme | 172 | 4.04 | 25 | |
| Graphics | 699 | 3.15 | 25 | |
| Audio | 506 | 3.06 | 25 | |
| Humor | 372 | 3.06 | 25 | |
| Mood | 681 | 3.00 | 23 | |
Comments
Great entry! Good attention to detail with the sprites and animations. It was a really good design choice to have different enemy types that force you to interact in different ways --- for instance, aliens in the air and cabs on the ground that force you to move around a lot vertically.
The sound effects were appropriate (especially the nefarious "nyehehe"), but I think could be a good area to work to push games the next level. I think this game could have benefited a lot with exaggerated cartoon sounds, and by the end where there were a lot of enemies, it would get increasingly hectic. With mostly beeps and boops, it sounded a little bit empty even when there was a lot happening on screen.
It was really nice to have random levels! It kept each run fresh where it otherwise might have grown stale with a single hand-designed level.
Well done for 48 hours!
noucake
2020-04-20 05:27
I totaly just clicked on this game because of a Rick & Morty line ("Mortys were raised as a Sidekick, but without a Side to kick they just start kicking) Besides that, the game was fun to play!
This was not an easy game but I have to say I had a lot of fun and absolutely loved the ending.
I liked this entry a lot! The variety of enemies really made it important to really pay attention to what was actually going to be a threat and what the path of the sidekick was going to be. I loved the aliens especially since you could save the side kick from them even as he's being tractor beamed up. That was real cool. The boss then turned the previous gameplay on its head by making things dangerous to you now as well! Finishing off by relying on your sidekick to defeat him!
A couple things I would've liked to see: I think some exploration on making it really feel good to destroy each individual enemy would be good. There didn't feel like there was a lot of weight to hitting an enemy. Moreover, The music was really great but I think a little too involved for being the background for the game. It kinda distracted me at times.
Well made. Had a great time.
hhsaez
2020-04-23 21:18
Great game! And a very nice use of theme. You did a lot of things in just two days. It's challenging and fun. Congrats!
This was brilliant! At first it looks like a generic platformer, but there are so many good game design decisions here. The procedural generation is simple, but really makes each run different. You can't memorize the level to win; you have to get better.
The enemies area all different. Super fast but predicable taxis. Completely static bombs, but right where Blue-boy will jump up. Sneaky Professor Purple. Aliens that make you watchful of the vertical spaces.
Then there's a boss battle?! what? That was great. A little unintuitive, and if I'm totally honest, I'm not sure how I won. I just kept trying to eat the bombs as they were tossed and eventually I won.
Still, the game was great. My favorite of the jam so far
duke
2020-04-24 22:53
Nice entry, I like the general concept of this "baby sitting" simulator :D It was a bit problematic that the game is practivally over, if the little guy jumps on top of a building where a ufo is waiting und you miss a jump and can't get on the buidings fast enough. Some kind of double jump (or higher jump) for the main hero would've been nice. It was pretty hard to follow the guy around at all times.
The art is a bit rough but works to convey the visuals for you game. Same games for music and sfx. Still a lot to improve, but works as it is!
Nice take on the endless runner genre. Art and music could used some work, but game play mechanics were awesome.
nice artstyle
khyrgrim
2020-04-25 08:43
Make me think of M.Indestructible and Buddy (his powerless fan). Had fun playing trying to save him, great job !
I liked the idea and it was very fun but the screen was too tall and I couldn't see the bottom off the screen so it was hard to play.
Thanks for all the feedback!
@duke Double jump is an interesting idea - I'm a little concerned it would make the platforming aspect less relevant, but I can also see how it could feel frustrating right now if you miss a key jump. Thanks for the suggestion!
@ludumdaredevil I'm sorry about that, I didn't get a chance to test on other screen resolutions. If you'd like to try it again you might be able to open windows display settings and temporarily set the "Change the size of text, apps, and other items" option to be 25% lower, but I understand that's quite a hassle.
######## WARNING: Spoilers below - do not read unless you've beaten Professor Purple #########
@nick-rafalski Thanks, I'm glad you had fun! The idea with the boss battle is that the professor designed a special shield to block your attacks, but didn't consider your sidekick to be a threat. When hope seems lost because nothing you do can get through the shield, your sidekick discovers his powers and deals the decisive blow. I realize it's kind of hard to pick up on because the player might be distracted and not watching the sidekick, and if I had more time it would probably help to slow down time and/or zoom in on the sidekick when he defeats the boss. Hope that clears things up!
gentel
2020-04-26 01:11
Nice, I like how you were able to do procedural generation with the city skyline and still have it look and feel like a real city. I liked the multiple types of enemies and the difficulty was tuned very well. I appreciated having a down button so I didn't get stuck on the buildings.
To improve, for the boss fight I just ran face-first into the boss until it exploded and hoped the sidekick didn't get killed, so some more challenge and complexity there would be good. And maybe some extra skill mechanics like a side-dash could give more room to do well mechanically.
The screen is too large to be played on my computer :(
This is fantastic!
Liked: The theme interpretation. The art style was colorful and fun. The soundtrack was catchy. I liked all the different risks coming at my sidekick. I liked that you had different art for whether I stopped a taxi from the side or from above (crush the taxicabs!!)
artemftw
2020-04-29 13:19
Well done! The soundtrack and graphics are pretty nice. It would be great if you could resize the window since it didn't quite fit on my screen.
Victory! Defeated Mr.Purple first try! quick and easy, the difficulty ramped up a lot mid-way through, a lot to keep your side-kick safe from, liked it!
jonaspk
2020-04-30 15:17
Wow, very fun game. Very polished and well rounded, and a literal but unique and very well done take on the theme. And while the art is nothing spectacular on its own, it all comes together for a very attractive game. The music is very good too, and the sound effects add a lot to the player experience. My only real complaint, is that the game is a bit random. There were times where my sidekick is being chased by purple at the same time as falling into a taxi, it felt unwinnable at times. Still, that is an easy mistake to make and a difficult one to fix, and it didn't stop me from enjoying the game. Great entry, and I'm glad I could give you your 20 ratings!
I enjoyed this very much, the music was great, and it was a quite addictive. I made a video of my playing it: https://youtu.be/DwZUNHAQkXs
Hello from the PyGame community! It took a bit of fiddling to get your game to run on my machine, and it doesn't quite run on the current development version of PyGame 2.0, so we'll use your game as a test case.
I liked your programmer art. It's very legible and quite charming!
2023-04-09 09:49
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