FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD56 → Pharma Frenzy

Pharma Frenzy

By jose-pedro-dias

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall9153.1120
Fun6953.2220
Innovation10142.4720
Theme10602.2720
Mood9982.7220

Comments

erasemenot 2024-10-08 00:56

Is it only me, or Z/X does not work?

gao-ming 2024-10-08 03:19

Simple and cool games

jose-pedro-dias 2024-10-08 08:46

@erasemenot, could you be so kind to share your browser and operating system so I can check? It should work fine regardless...

boodle 2024-10-08 11:49

A take on a classic game genre! I ran into some issues where causing chain reactions didn't update blocks to fall, so I had some hovering pills around, but otherwise just a solid, fun, proven formula.

vinogradovivan 2024-10-08 14:00

I like the simplicity, works nice

bumble 2024-10-08 14:01

@jose-pedro-dias Maybe it has something to do with different keyboard layouts. For me X and Z are not close together and I had to weirdly spread my hand (but it worked in general so...).

Good clone of Dr. Mario :thumbsup:

imberny 2024-10-08 14:16

Nice! Gonna admit, it's been a little while since I played Dr Mario, so at first I was very confused about the rules. A tiny tutorial level would help. You didn't need to restrict yourself to basic javascript (*shudders*) and drawing it all via code, but you did it anyway you madman!

kartoffel-licht 2024-10-08 14:24

Its defenetly fun to play, and pretty standart for that type of game. It has one simple, yet powerful game-mechanic. Rendering is well done. Only thing I noticed right away is a Bug, where you can rotate a pill into another solid, and the one with chain reactions. You might want to add a check for that. Also, levels get...well.. difficult! I never was a tetris player, so I might just lack experience, but the higher levels are really hardcore. Well, now to the things I might consider adding/changing if I'd have time to: ########################## -music/sounds on z.B. clicking or chain-reactions -> makes the game more satisfying to play. You can easily encode a .mp3 file into base64, add the scheme and feed it into the 'src' field of an 'Audio'-object

-Background -> It might improve the artistic quality, the black background+white lines remind me of games like Undertale, but the pills/'x' don't fit that style that much. I'd root for the Undertaly look

-Visual feedback -> Flashing text, vibrating, etc... Might not be that noticible, but they do make the game feel more alive! (Which makes it more interesting to player)

-Moving the UI outside of the game-field -> makes it a bit less distracting, but cleaner

-Main menu -> can be as simple as 'Pharma Frenzy' + 'Start'. But it does make the game feel more premium

-Animations (on level switch, loss, win, etc..) -> Again, makes the game feel more premium ########################## Gameplay-wise I'd defenetly add more. It does not have to be that complicated, like simply resizing the game-field or changing the gravity, or adding Anti-bodies that help you, but might die and turn into an immovable object for the rest of the run, etc.. That should help keeping the interest of the player!

All in all I liked it, but might as well be a demo

jose-pedro-dias 2024-10-09 23:40

Great feedback from you all. I knew i had some bugs in and my todo list was not fully addressed at deadline. I have since improved several aspects (a annoying gravity bug, the lack of support for keys when in caps/shift, lack of score system or high scores...) Biggest regret was that I added support for gamepad api and not keyboard bindings definition. Sorry for that.

My progress after the deadline is in a different, unpublished branch https://github.com/JosePedroDias/ldjam56/commits/after-the-jam/

I could serve that version as well on a different link, but I fear it may look dodgy/cheating. Let me know what you think.

bacalear 2024-10-12 12:08

Simple, but I got really into it)

scsdww 2024-10-15 09:31

I do not know the concept, but it is interesting.

dianavi 2024-10-17 21:17

simple but cool for a jam ^^

silliest-goose 2024-10-24 00:36

nice lil Dr Mario type thingy! I wish there were something stopping me from stacking unnecessary pills to the side besides the top not filling to make the game a bit more fun and hard to play.