Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Ben ONeal
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 42 | Running out of space | Crushing Depths | compo | 534 | 3.09 | 2.76 | 3.19 | 3.85 | 2.92 | 2.81 |
I really like the core mechanic, where you can modify the map with your kills. I couldn't figure out what the yellow triangles were or why they moved with me. It was pretty hard to play on a laptop without a dedicated mouse so I couldn't last long enough to see how difficult it becomes as the screen really fills up. What happens if you get yourself completely surrounded in a bubble of corpses? Do you win? Lose?
I was playing on Chrome so I guess it was more difficult for me given the control issues. But the idea is clever and simple and the execution has good humour and fits the theme in a unique way. Well done!
Simple and effective implementation of the theme. The controls feel very sluggish and it seems the difficulty curve is too linear. It'd be nice if there was a stronger impact of player skill/choices on longevity and potential high score. Great work for your first LD!
@juxipolo The walls close in around you at a percentage rate per second, which means as they get bigger, they grow faster, and this is by design. The entire game is frame rate independent, with the unfortunate exception of the "pushing back" mechanic, which was an oversight that I've already fixed but can't upload because of the compo rules. For the pushing back, it's currently a percentage per frame, so a slower frame rate will mean you push back less effectively, which actually makes it easier in the beginning.
On my macbook, the performance is around 2.5ms per frame, which is about 400 fps, but it's "capped" at 60fps. I doubt your computer could ever be slow enough to drop under that, unless you're also mining bitcoin. It's likely what you're experiencing is the exponential increase in wall growth as they get bigger.
@ohmmus Ha! Yeah it's built around a strong risk/reward principle: the easier you make it for yourself the less points you earn. The harder you make it for yourself the more points you earn, exponentially.
The highest scores were achieved by skilfully keeping the walls tightly packed around the light on two/three sides the entire time. It's hard but you can certainly notice a massive difference in point gain from even a few seconds of being tightly surrounded.
@predominant Try it and see! :D
If you aren't touching the darkness, you won't accumulate any score at all. If you hold space constantly and try to stay near the darkness, your score gain will be incredibly low. Over time, the rate of wall growth increases, as does the speed of descent, while your ability to push the darkness back and your rate of movement do not. Within a minute or so, the rate of darkness growth will exceed your ability to push it back at all, and staying near the edges becomes incredibly difficult as they fluctuate faster than you can move. Soon enough, you'll be overwhelmed, having earned almost no points for your troubles.
Strictly speaking, the scoring is implemented as such: `count * difficulty * deltaTime * (level + 1)` Count is the number of darkness circles you're touching. Difficulty is the cumulative radius of each circle minus your radius (which deceases over time, thus increasing score gain). Level starts at 0 and increases by 1 every 5 seconds.
Essentially this means that it's essentially impossible to get a respectable score without making it difficult for yourself, and the highest scores can only be gained by a combination of luck and skilful aggressive play. I'd be surprised if anyone even made it into the tens of thousands by playing it super safe before the game crushed them.