FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → Sticky Diagnosis

Sticky Diagnosis

By cephalo, Zombree and made3

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2683.9333
Fun2183.9033
Innovation1144.0633
Theme834.3233
Graphics4564.0633
Audio1764.0132
Humor974.0433
Mood6703.6731

Comments

usenrame 2021-04-26 23:18

This game is a perfect! Original style & sounds, omg this is soooo goood

jeanbon 2021-04-27 00:28

Very well done. However there is a memory leak.

made3 2021-04-27 07:26

@jeanbon Thank you. How do you know/How did you notice? Works fine over here

quite-good 2021-04-27 07:39

Omg this game is foul in the best way!! How deep does this mouth go?? :0 hahah i love the concept, really unique take on the theme. Graphics are top notch, I love the soundtrack, gameplay is simple but fun. Sometimes I felt like I would get cornered by the enemies with no way to recover. Nevertheless excellent work!

iluvatar 2021-04-27 07:48

Haha, I just love these kind of weird game. Every Ludum Dare there are some of these. AND WE NEED THEM! Pros: Fun gameplay, interesting idea, disgusting idea, cool idea! Cons: A bit repeptitive (but hey! aren't all LD game? :) )

evil-as-shit 2021-04-27 08:00

Amazing game! Funny and great artwork, the music is so good and fits the game perfectly. The upgrade mechanics kept me wanting to play more and more. I think 1300 was my best run. Thanks for making a great game! Gj!

steve-dragon 2021-04-27 09:05

First of all, having a decent upgrade system to a strong core loop in an LD game is absolutely amazing. Really impressive that you got all that done. I fiddled around with it a bit and there's definitely some strategies one can develop to get better.

The balance of the game was a little off. I think the spawn of items and enemies is a bit too random. So, getting 4 bad guy germs before a single defensive food token killed some runs very early on. Too much luck involved, in that way. I think the core loop works, the level design needs a little more love.

Overall, cool concept, decent art, trippy music and a good game.

kev-the-gamedev 2021-04-27 19:33

Great job! I really liked the art style and the "going deeper and deeper"-effect. I enjoyed your music as well! It got me hooked immediately and I enjoyed the switch after getting to a certain depth. It's great you had the time to implement some upgrades. Made play the game even longer!

As @steve-dragon said before, the spawning of the items & enemies felt too random. Sometimes I found myself surrounded by 4-5 enemies.

Great concept of getting deeper and deeper, good art work and a nice soundtrack! Once again, great job!

bmacintosh 2021-04-27 19:53

This game is really excellent. The art and audio were great, the upgrade paths made sense and gave a good sense of progression, though I didn't initially understand that the game had permanent progression, which made it feel quite hard. I really liked the way "going deeper" was presented visually. I didn't quite understand how the Stackbuddy fire rate worked - some kind of indicator of when they were going to fire would have been helpful.

EDIT: the game did freeze and eventually run out of memory once during the game over screen, at about 700 cm

prerak 2021-04-28 07:50

Great game art and engaging game

boclow 2021-04-28 07:57

Great weird game. It was fun to play and looks great. Shame it crashed before I managed to buy all upgrades but it was fun until then.

phoenix-fireflower 2021-04-28 07:58

This is by far the most original game I've played so far. Although the beginning can be quite rough if too many enemies spawn at once, the upgrades and the nice background music kept me going.

thisismatt 2021-04-28 08:09

This is such a fun and unique game, very glad I clicked on it! Only criticism is that it is sometimes hard to tell where the bacteria was going to hit into the depresser. played for like 15 minutes though really fun!

matterlinx 2021-04-28 08:22

Great job on the art of this game. I thought this was an interesting take on the game. As others have mentioned however, there is a memory leak!

jk5000 2021-04-28 08:45

An interesting and funny little game. Sadly it end up freezing. Overall a very well made jam game. Well done.

kaappis 2021-04-28 09:22

Man, that was a big guy! I went over 1300cm and didn't reach the back of its throat! Joking aside, you nailed the theme and art was good, showing that guy sweating was a nice touch. Using left mouse click to confirm was a weird decision when you didn't need mouse for anything else.

Sadly I ran into memory leak error (played web build) and the game crashed so I didn't finish it. I left game on that game over screen and went AFK for a minute or two and when I returned, there was a error message.

made3 2021-04-28 16:05

@jeanbon @bmacintosh @boclow @matterlinx @kaappis Thank you all for your feedback and for describing the memory leak. Sorry for the crashing, I imagine it being frustrating to grind the coins just to have the game freeze. But we have updated it, so there should be no memory leak anymore!

made3 2021-04-28 16:10

@quite-good @iluvatar @evil-as-shit @steve-dragon @kev-the-gamedev @prerak @boclow @phoenix-fireflower @thisismatt @jk5000 Thank you all so much for playing and the great feedback! It means a lot to us <3

leorid 2021-04-29 09:03

A very unique idea - and quite challenging too. ^^

imzary 2021-04-29 13:58

Great game, Love how simple & easy, yet very hard it can be the game, & the upgrades really add to the game a lot, really apreciate the backstory, & the music is simple, yet goes very well with the game, Good job the team behind this game, love it

minefreak 2021-04-29 16:20

Wow, this game is one of the most cohesive ones I've seen so far. The art style is great and consistent. Gameplay loop is at bit slow at first but still a nice concept. Leftovers don't always collide with bacteria all that well, but overall a darn good entry. Well done!

made3 2021-04-29 17:22

@leorid @imzary @minefreak Thank you all so much for the nice feedback, really appreciate it!

silkypantsdan 2021-05-01 14:04

Thanks for reminding me I need to go to the Dentist!

(also thanks for the awesome entry too :wink:)

Feedback: * It's a bit hard to line up the left overs with the bacteria when you have it on the side (though could be as intended) * Initial loop is slow, and can get a little frustrating * Can be a little disorientating in the menu as there's no cursor - but it's quick to work out. Might be a nice addition to also use Space instead of mouse click?

conduit 2021-05-04 20:52

Yo! big ups to @cephalo for commenting on one of my blog posts, not sure if I would've discovered this gem otherwise! Loved the graphics and entire concept of this entry. Had a blast trying to beat my previous score and upgrading my tongue depressor lol I have one important question though, why does this guy have teeth just hanging around on his tongue? XD fantastically done homies <3

made3 2021-05-06 08:40

@silkypantsdan Thanks for the feedback! The left and right collisions were tough. It's also the perspective that makes it harder, but the hitbox of the leftovers is already extended towards the back.

The menu cursor is a good feedback! We disabled the mouse shortly before submitting because otherwise the player would have tried to click on (for example) the upgrade button with the mouse. With a little more time and motivation it would have made sense to, as you said, use space/any other keyboard button instead of mouse click. Or implement both, keyboard movement/press as well as mouse movement/click.

@conduit Thank you! :smile: We did not have the chance to interview the patient. Once we do we will ask about the teeth :grimacing:

etrealjunior 2021-05-06 17:30

Congratulations on the game, I will not mention the things to improve because they have already been mentioned, I found the game super fun, I particularly love this type of art, it is a mixture of underground and modern, I hope I have helped, and I await your feedback on my game I will be very happy, thank you my friends.

krammetje 2021-05-06 19:26

Interesting game, fun to play. It would be nice if the hitbox of the leftovers was a bit bigger, since it sometimes felt like the bacteria should hit the leftovers, but then just walk through it.

bionikmonster 2021-05-06 19:40

Hi, I really love the concept of the game, but as mentioned above, it feels a bit too random and I think you need to complete too many runs in order to get the first upgrade. Also, I think it's a bit unfair to use the leftover this way, I mean, if it's on the left side of the screen, there's like no way to put it properly on the tongue depressor. I felt this a bit frustrating sometimes.

But, I really love the concept, game design is awesome, it's not buggy as hell, it's very polished, the facecam effect is sooo cool, and the audio is nice too.

Overall I think it just needs some little twists here and there.

Good work team! Keep it up ;)

johnnysix 2021-05-06 23:59

That was epic, loved the way the music escalated too, from the title screen to the game and then as you make progress. Great stuff. My only crit would be he menu, would like to use the mouse on the menu to point ( unless I missed how to ) :v:

lichead-studio 2021-05-07 19:57

I like your graphics style, the game is awesome.

gustavo-christino 2021-05-11 13:17

In this video I played your game and five other games. Soon I will make a detailed analysis via comment. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAQ0odowKTg

gustavo-christino 2021-05-12 20:38

**Analysis...**

1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow: Main mechanics: advance with the tongue depressor collecting coins, avoiding obstacles (teeth?) And annihilating bacteria (resembling the shape of some viruses) with the use of leftover food (what, hahahahahah). In addition, the game has the possibility (very interesting) of acquiring improvements (example: increasing hit points). The bacterium moves in such a way that (sometimes) it is impossible to escape (example: when they reach the bottom corner of the screen). My first suggestion: change the movement of the bacterium a little (the bacterium leaves the screen if it reaches the bottom, or the bacterium follows specific points on the tongue depressor). It would be interesting to be able to drop the food, to pick up again with another part of the tongue depressor, this would allow a better control capacity on the part of the player. The advance in the scenario depending on the position of the tongue depressor is something that I'm not sure is the best option, but it is something quite interesting anyway (it currently influences more the appearance of more elements and the displacement of fixed elements, not influencing a lot with regard to bacteria). The collision of the food with the bacteria could be more noticeable, or the food could attract a little bacteria if it were in the tongue depressor (to facilitate the hit). About learning to play: I really liked the menu, I thought the camera would be equivalent to the menu camera, which would make me think that the menu would be teaching how to play (but the background style of the scenario in the main loop of the game was also very interesting and well resolved). As for learning in the main loop: I found it easy to understand the workings of the elements and difficult to advance a lot (I believe it was on purpose to take the person to the mechanics of improvements). The game starts out difficult and becomes very difficult in a few moments (not that constant). I suppose it is good on the one hand (because it has improvements to buy) and that it can be improved on the other (balance more, but that outside the event time). The game seems to me to be arcade (I haven't identified a win condition (so it is a suggestion to have a ranking for better scores in a post event version)).

2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative: I liked the graphics that incorporate clippings of images, I thought it was well finished in terms of Ludum Dare's time. It would suggest (as a form of polishment) the improvement of the menu screen (it would give a rethink for the most important elements to be at the minimum height) and only little used elements to be higher. I would also suggest changing the main screen's framing a little to give you a feeling of freedom (but this should be better reflected with the project's game designer, as it may not be the intended experience). I really liked the audio and I thought it was really cool to change it after some game time in the same "race". The music, however, becomes repetitive in a few games. Which makes me summarize for: it was very good for the event time, but there could be variations and / or other effects and mechanisms that would make the audio stay pleasant for a longer time. The narrative is not the focus of the project. Despite this, we can find a funny and funny character in a kind of surreal search for an exam.

3 - Culture: The game makes a lot of connection with the good mood it presents, it makes us laugh about our current situation (pandemic) and about exams in general. The game could be more connected to culture if it opted for a closer approach to reality by using other elements (but I couldn't imagine elements that could replace food as weapons against bacteria (perhaps medicine blisters?).

4 - Monetization: With polishment, the game could sell with advertisements on smartphones (especially if they add a table of better scores (distance and total money (even the money spent would go into that account)). Or maybe the game can be formatted to serve as tension relief during visits medical.

made3 2021-05-13 09:30

@gustavo-christino Thank you so much!

1 - In retrospect it seems really hard. We

2 - Thanks, the point about varying the menu buttons is helpful! I did not give it any thought while creating the menu, but next time I guess I have to do that.

4 - I don't think anyone would like to see a tongue depressor going a few meters deep into a throat before a doctors appointment! :laughing:

gustavo-christino 2021-05-13 20:27

:)

almost 2021-05-18 04:58

Interesting controls and mechanics. I'm not sure if I was messing something up, but I found the game really hard - it seemed like I could only have one leftovers attached, and if enemies came from the wrong side (or the leftover took too much damage) I felt pretty helpless against the enemies. I liked that I had to go pretty deep in order to get leftovers.