Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → MurrayL
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Category | Score | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | 2012 | 24 | Evolution | Plan M | jam | Humor | 4.53 | |
| 🥇 | 2012 | 23 | Tiny World | subAtomic | jam | Humor | 4.69 |
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | Cm | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 31 | Entire Game on One Screen | 'Hoff Time Shuffle | jam | 308 | 3.44 | 3.48 | 3.03 | 3.03 | 3.73 | 3.84 | 3.55 | 61 | |||
| 2013 | 26 | Minimalism | Spring | jam | ||||||||||||
| 2012 | 24 | Evolution | Plan M | jam | 9 | 3.96 | 3.91 | 2.85 | 2.82 | 3.54 | 1.70 | 4.53 | 3.57 | 100 | ||
| 2012 | 23 | Tiny World | subAtomic | jam | 8 | 4.02 | 3.88 | 2.75 | 3.86 | 3.66 | 3.35 | 4.69 | 3.85 | 100 | ||
| 2011 | 22 | Alone | Head South | compo | 180 | 3.04 | 2.36 | 2.44 | 3.71 | 3.41 | 3.24 | 2.00 | 3.44 | 3.24 | 84 |
I had the same problem as others; unless I held R the screen scrolled so fast downwards that I couldn't play. I managed to get out of this loop by holding R and the movement controls and releasing them all at once, but I couldn't do anything in the game apart from place/remove my own blocks in the starting room.
I think I managed to wander off the part you are meant to be on, after the view zoomed out for the first time. I couldn't find the next part of the story and quit after wandering around aimlessly for about 5 minutes.
I like the idea that the game was trying to get across, and it looks like I missed out on something given the other comments, but I couldn't find it myself.
I *loved* the graphics, the Asimov-like storyline and the atmosphere; the only thing missing to me was atmospheric audio, which would've sealed the deal.
I've wanted to do something like this myself for a while, and it's great to see it executed so well. I hope you continue to develop it!
I'd love to see a more fleshed-out release. The gameplay was great although, as others have noted, the shots are a little too slow for my liking.
I really liked the music and how it changed. So much scope for you to build a bigger, better game on this foundation!
I loved the graphics. The first time I stole a bust and walked out with it on my head I laughed out loud!
I liked the feel of the game, although the grid based movement felt far too slow. I think there should have been a more clear guide as to what I was meant to do to get food (I worked it out eventually, but died before the seeds grew).
It was also quite frustrating having black text with no background - many times I couldn't read it as it overlapped a black wall!
Overall, a good idea but needs some tweaks to the execution.
I liked the idea in general. While zombies as a theme normally makes me roll my eyes, it was interesting to have zombies that still shoot back. I do wish, however, that they showed something other than random movement; it wasn't too much of a challenge to shoot them when they weren't looking.
The graphics were a bit 'loud' and the still-image screenshots looked pretty confusing as a result, but once the game was in motion it wasn't too bad. I wasn't a fan of the collision detection, though. Quite often I'd get stuck on a wall, or my fireballs would explode on a wall next to me instead of continuing along.
Overall, though, the game could easily have got a higher rating if the AI was more challenging and the control issues above were alleviated. Plenty of scope for expansion, as well - different spells, different enemy types, gameplay other than 'kill them all' etc.
A good first try!
I like the physics of throwing objects around - it's very satisfying, and adds a sense of something different about the game. The audio was also pleasant and unobtrusive.
If I am being picky, I'd say the graphics are a bit inconsistent in style. Some elements like the player character are very low-resolution compared to the life hearts or enemies. Both aspects look good individually, but it's a bit jarring to see them side by side.
Overall, as other comments point out, this is a pretty good attempt at a platformer!
Great puzzler! I wasn't a big fan of the black+white tiles, as the gradients gave me a headache.
Loved the concept, though, and I spotted a kitty!
Loved the game. Level 4.2 saw me dying repeatedly, but I persevered.
Would have loved to see more levels; it felt like it ended just as you were getting into the swing of things!
As others have stated, the mood is great, but the game is let down by the lack of... game!
I'm far from someone who should criticise a game for not being interactive enough (people in glass houses, etc.), but I think if you're going to go for more of an interactive story environment then you need to give the environment more of a personality. It started out great, and I love the graphics style and the quirky little music snippets. I was disappointed that the entire base looked the same, though. There were no real landmarks in the entire building to help me find my way around, and that was what made what little gameplay there was feel tedious.
Just my 2-cents, of course, but I think if you concentrate on making the environment the main character then you've got the start of a great game here.
When I started the game, I was astounded by how similar ours are to each other! I later realised, of course, that your game has far more actual game than mine! Initial impressions aside, I quite enjoyed exploring the little world you created.
There were some negative points, such as the very low frame rate in some places (no doubt not helped by my poor hardware, but it certainly could've done with distance fog or other optimisations) and the rather comical bird AI which saw them regularly flying into the ground and spinning away wildly like purple, winged boomerangs.
I also felt the particle effects would look better if they were less bright. As CAKE once said, 'the ornaments look pretty, but they're pulling down the branches of the tree'.
Overall, though, I liked the music and the mood, and I hope you give this more development after the competition is over.
In theory, when the message appears you can click to fade out and the game will quit. Unfortunately for some reason the quit command didn't want to work on my test build.
Rest assured that's the end :)
@demonpants: Sorry, I can't compile an OS/X version without being at my development rig (sometime later this week, hopefully).
When I get back to it I'll be sure to fix up all the issues people have noted and compile a MacOS build too! Sorry for the inconvenience.
I really loved the premise of this game - who wouldn't want a chance to noodle around in their very own flying saucer?
It had a very old-skool DOS game feel to it, which I liked, and I thought it had just enough elements to provide a good foundation for a game.
As you said, audio would really help this to be even better than it is, but I think you've got off to a really strong start if you choose to develop this idea further.
I liked the feel of gunning about in the ship, and the graphics were quite nice in their way. I think the most obvious omission is any kind of threat to the player; even flying into walls at top speed has no punishment.
Overall, I would love to see a version of this that takes the concept further and challenges the player more.
Sadly the game crashed just after getting into the game itself on my PC.
I had massive black stripes all over the screen when I tried to play :(
Shame, too! The screenshots look great.
WinXP SP3 32-bit
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
1GB DDR2
GeForce 8200 (256MB)
I really enjoyed the graphics and overall idea, but I didn't like the majorly over-sensitive controls for rotating the ship. I spent most of the game battling to point the ship in the right direction (which wasn't fun), rather than trying to figure out the best way to compensate for the gravitational effects (which was the fun).
Good little game, although quite difficult. My main problem was keeping track of the speech bubbles at the same time as paying attention to the phone.
Nice work for 48 hours, and definitely a lot of scope for an expanded version! I like the idea of removing the shapes and just keeping colours. What about doing away with shapes/colours altogether and using objects instead?
Loved it! So much fun stomping on buildings - had a tactile feel to it. Maybe some more effects (particles/screen shake) to sell it 100%?
Really interesting way of presenting a text adventure - I loved how the map unfolded as you played.
This game got really hard, really fast!
The music was great! Overall, I think this is a good idea but it needs more variety in the execution.
The gameplay seemed pretty basic, and wasn't particularly challenging until level 3 where the extra foot and the addition of mouse traps actually made it quite entertaining. The levels were all longer than they should have been, I thought.
The deadly foot was an amusing enemy, but could've been made more interesting. As it is, the player has no real warning to get out of the way, and the foot is just fast enough that I couldn't move to safety before I got flattened. Perhaps have it move a lot faster, but give the player a quick warning about where it's about to drop (like a shadow on the ground)?
I would've preferred if the mouse traps or the extra foot were introduced in level 2, as well as having some more interesting ground-level enemies to encounter across all the levels (other mice, for instance?).
I hope all that doesn't sound too negative! I did genuinely find myself enjoying the game, especially during the last level when it became challenging.
Really liked the idea behind this one although, as others have said, it takes a long time before the game gets more interesting. Was good fun once it got going.
My main gripe would be that the character moves too slowly! An increase in walking/sailing speed would make the game much less tedious in places.
Pretty cool! I got to wave 11, although it would've been nice to have some more variety as the game went on.
Strangely compelling!
Amazing game! A really outstanding entry. My only suggestion would be to add some music, and perhaps tweak the difficulty of some levels - I don't like the ones where it's possible to lose if you don't start moving immediately! :(
For some reason, a few seconds after hitting my first asteroid, the sound turned off in the game. Refreshing the SWF (even clearing the cache) did not bring it back. :(
Despite the deathly silence, I did enjoy the game! It was great fun smashing through planets.
Well, that was creepy.
Would've been nice to have an option for windowed mode!
Really great concept, though.
I loved this - had me laughing a lot at the concept of this stupid, fat rabbit bouncing around the level. I replayed it several times.
Would be brilliant with sound and either some more complicated objectives or the rabbit being more controllable. At the moment it's pretty much all down to luck as to how far you go before you get stuck (my shortest distance was 73, as I got stuck between two blocks before I'd even hit a cake).
Good fun; I liked the feel of the controls a lot!
I enjoyed the simple pleasure of trying to survive while watching the (quite pretty) particles explode around me!
My only suggestion would be that, as others have said, the main particle should move a lot faster to give the player a chance to move out of the way.
It's hard enough trying to spot the faster particles coming your way; there was no need to compound the problem by making it sluggish to move to safety once we've seen them!
The music speeding up made me chuckle
I get the same error as Shigor - running Win7 64-bit, Python 2.7.3 (32-bit).
Was quite fun, and an interesting take on the 'eat things to grow' theme that many games have used in this LD. I didn't realise there was a timer, though!
I really liked this entry! I do wish it had more levels, though.
The gameplay was pretty interesting, although it seemed quite buggy. Clicking to select or buy units seemed okay occasionally but randomly didn't work sometimes.
The audio could've done with some more variety, but I actually loved the ambient soundscape approach you took. It sounded like something out of a weird, scary sci-fi film and really helped to set the scene.
Certainly if there had been more audio along those lines (and more levels), I could've happily played for hours.
It also would've been cool to have some very quiet sound effects for game events, like distant laser shots or mining sounds.
Overall I was really drawn into the game universe you created, and I'd love to see this game get fleshed out!
Okay, this game made me laugh a lot.
It was a bit annoying that the tanks destroyed buildings, though - they wrecked my combos!
Definitely took lots of inspiration from Portal ;)
Pretty anticlimactic at the end, but that was a very fun, original puzzle game!
My only complaint would be that it was sometimes quite difficult to get through the doorways - especially the very last one (before the final room).
I think the No.1 change that should be made is to make the bullets affected by the gravity (meaning you have to arc your shots around the moon)! Bung that in and you've got the beginnings of a pretty original idea.
Camera was less of a problem once it was running in fullscreen mode, but MAN those jumps are really super hard. I think it's mostly because the little guy feels so darn slippery. Quite a few times I hit the platform but then slid off.
Also, I can only assume you imported the music as a 3D sound and attached it to the camera (or something nearby), as it gets a doppler warp when the camera moves! I actually kind of liked the otherworldly effect it made.
Crashes with the following exception:
System.Exception: Checkpoint too big (4065.228 units, should be under 10)
I downloaded the 1.1 version and still got the 'Checkpoint too big' exception! :(
Thanks for fixing the checkpoint problem; the game now launches, but I'm having the same problem as haslettj.
Here's a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/BZ3RG.png
I can press WASD/Arrows to rotate around, but all I can see are these grey boxes and this big red ribbon thing.
Really hard :(
Really enjoyed the story! Didn't see the ending coming at all, and it made me laugh.
Funny dialogue, but I got stuck at the end. Couldn't figure out that I needed to 'use spaceship'.
Amazing.
Lost it at the rap.
Good idea; would be better with a more concrete goal and less 'slippery' controls.
Loved the graphics! Reminded me of a PS1/MS-DOS game.
I think the soundtrack could do with being a bit more atmospheric, and a bit less, er, 'space-banjo'.
Loved the audio and humour!
What is this I don't even
Excellent idea - I enjoyed the game.
A couple of things I would suggest changing would be:
* Some pumping, action music and awesome sounds
* Allow players to hold down the fire button to save us from injuring our clicking fingers!
* Give a visual warning before the next 'wave' spawns, and make sure they don't spawn too close to or on top of the player.
* Remove the countdown timer after dying. I died a few times and I wanted to get straight back into the game, not wait for a countdown!
Loads of potential here, and a really original idea. Well done!
The game feels really polished, and I was quite excited to play from the main menu alone. In-game, the graphics and sound are just as high-quality and very enjoyable.
In terms of gameplay, I'm not sure I see too much progression or need to go to the other planets. I think they should be smaller or more varied - especially the starting planet, as that forms people's first impressions, and it was getting a bit repetitive after 10 minutes of running around, shooting blobs.
Also, the control scheme is a bit weird; especially having to switch between WASD and arrow keys whenever I entered the ship. Tapping to fire was a bit annoying, as someone else noted. Overall, though, I got on fine.
Sadly the game did randomly crash while I was blasting away on the first planet, after about 15 minutes of normal gameplay.
I also thought it was a shame that the music didn't loop!
And there was me thinking my game was the only one to include Carl Sagan!
That was pretty fun - I played through it a few times.
There's nothing wrong with the graphics (aside from the ants pointing directly at you all the time, as Phobos001 said), but it would've been nice to have some more visual feedback on the damage I was doing. Obviously you hear the gun fire, but unless an ant actually died it was very hard, if not impossible, to tell if I'd actually hit them or not.
Something as simple as a blood particle system, a 'damage dealt' number (ala Borderlands) or a 'hurt' animation on the ants would've done wonders for the feel of the game.
Great game; I especially loved when I found out you can zoom the camera out of the jar!
I thought the pacing was quite good, and the game was very relaxing. I would probably suggest making food more useful, as it just sort of built up and up, not getting used much.
I liked that each level had the name of a different part of the body, although I think adding variety other than just changing the colour of the virus would've been nice.
If you made further improvements, you could easily have the game show a 'map' of the body; where you are and where you're heading next, arcade game style. Add in some story between stages and you've got a pretty good game shaping up here!
Pretty funny game, although hard!
I liked how each player seemed to have their own little army of AI tanks! Definitely deserves some more development.
Could definitely do with a tutorial, or at least a help screen!
This game was hard! Perhaps make sure there are no enemies too close to the doorways when you enter a room?
Quite enjoyed the game - didn't have a problem understanding how to play after reading your updated instructions.
I'd suggest making it a lot more likely that the worms keep moving in the same direction (so it's easier to get them to eat), and display the next coloured block as well as the one you are currently about to place (to allow for planning).
Loved the graphics! I only wish there had been more of it :)
This game made me laugh - trying not to squash all the poor villagers. I ended up running around just shouting 'SORRY! OH GOD, I'M SO SORRY!' as I crushed people and homes underfoot.
Some of the jumps were hard :(
My only suggestion would be some way of easily finding where people are who you haven't 'met' yet. Once I was down to one or two people left it was very difficult to find them!
That giant vacuum thing was terrifying!
Interesting idea - there are lots of games in this LD which use the concept of eating to grow, but this is the first one I've seen where the 'enemies' are doing the same thing!
When I first heard the 'boing!' sound, I thought it was going to go into http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyxC8DzjQj0 !
Pretty entertaining game! The swarm mechanic is interesting, although it felt quite awkward trying to move around the levels - especially once they got bigger/more complex. It did, however, lead to the camera problems that others have mentioned.
Not sure how you'd fix the camera without changing the gameplay significantly. Still, that's a puzzle for you to work on ;)
I ended up stopping because some of my bots got stuck on canyon walls, and I couldn't finish the level (the first one with lava) :(
Good concept - a platformer where you have to adjust your stats as you play.
The bit with the spinning blades was really hard, though.
It took me a little while to understand what was going on, but that was mostly my fault for not reading the message at the start properly!
Obviously this is heavily influenced by Minecraft, and the basic ideas (carving and placing blocks) work pretty well.
The fuel seemed almost an afterthought in the main section of the game, and I didn't even notice it at first. It was a bit of a surprise when it became my life counter while fighting the dragon.
The dragons attack was also way too fast - I couldn't seem to dodge it and never managed to kill him before he blasted me twice.
I love this idea - it's super fun just to play with the music-maker.
It needs to be a little easier, though, in my opinion. Perhaps some kind of way to see the note sequence for each bacteria visually? I guess it'd be difficult to do it without giving away the answer!
I like the idea here. If you added some more depth to it, you could have a winner!
Dave says: As everyone else has said, having the attack animation reset everytime you press i was not something that I like. I would not mind a slow attack speed, but reseting the attack was not fun.
Wow - this gets pretty chaotic pretty quickly!
Dave says: Really cute art style, maybe jump needs cooldown as there is very little challenge to the game.
Moving around in the tiny spaces between the trees was a complete nightmare! I ended up having to quit because of motion-sickness.
Apart from that, the game had a good feel and an interesting idea behind it.
Pretty hilarious little 2D shooter. Throwing dead people around was brilliant fun!
Great concept - I loved the DNA interface, and the changes it made!
Would have been better with some more challenges other than just jumping on platforms. Also would've been great to be able to see the effect of a DNA strand once I've modified it once :)
Very interesting game! I'm not sure if I won or not, but everyone was pink.
The AI seemed to have a tendency to create a massive cluster in the centre of the game area. Winning was just a matter of hovering around it, spawning new cells. Would be very interested in playing a version with better AI!
I quite liked the sound, too! If you added some ambient background noise (perhaps related to the current game state in a very subtle way?) it would create the perfect atmosphere.
Pretty entertaining, although the gameplay is somewhat lacking in variety.
It's fun to see my little minions evolving!
Looked like it could have been playable, but the blue block flew off the right side of the screen without any input :(
I guess the game must store some information somewhere, because if I refresh the page the applet stays at the end of the game (white screen, black bar at the bottom).
Regardless, something is better than nothing at all. I hope you manage to do better next time!
Aw, man - I wanted more :(
Really great start!
Really neat idea, and well executed!
The first time the dog went to sleep I thought he had died :(
I got through to level 6. It'd be nice to see some variation in gameplay other than the cells getting a bit larger :)
There were also some problems occasionally with cells appearing on top of one another, which injured me when I couldn't see the danger.
Dave says: A fun puzzle game, with a very clean look.
Not much game in this game, but it was a fun diversion to play with :)
The cat sprites are cute, but could do with some animation!
Dave says: Simple but lots of fun. Only thing is it's a bit too fast to start. Maybe add a count down to when the game will begin? Just so the player is not in the middle of it without knowing.
As others have said, I had difficulty spotting the icons at first.
It was good fun once I knew what I was doing, and the screen shake effects worked well. Would be even better with more of a progression in difficulty, and some audio.
Really good mood. Could have done with some visual feedback showing how close the boss is to dying at the end.
Dave says: That background music! A fun little idea, but needs more info given to the player.
Dave says: Really loved the art stlye and the audio.
Really interesting concept! I'm not usually a great fan of rhythm games, but this was pretty fun.
Amazingly cool idea. As others have said, I do wish there was more of a use for the NES/SNES-like modes, and more interactions possible in the text-mode, but I can understand how time pressures will have restricted what was done here!
Pretty fun little first-person platformer. I had a tendency to get lost in the 'hub' area - I was never sure where I had already been.
THIS GAME IS SO HARD. OH GOD.
But pretty entertaining ;) I like the weirdness.
Hilarious concept. I agree with others that the control scheme seemed pretty convoluted, but I'm not sure how you could have made it simpler.
Hilarious! I am spinning an octopus around in circles to defend myself against submarines. Why? Who cares.
Loved it.
Pretty entertaining game!
The controls were a bit strange-feeling. I think it was mostly to do with how the ship sprite didn't rotate smoothly.
I'm guessing they were randomly chosen, but I very rarely got upgrades to my Burst ability. It would've been useful once the game started spawning 4 or more enemies in one room.
Overall, though, it was good fun.
Any word on the Windows port?
I have no idea what was meant to be happening, and I think I lost my 'flock'.
I hope you get this working as you intended at a later date ;)
Damn, it finished just as it was getting good! ;)
I liked the text narration - it set a good tone.
Dave says: Liked the art style and sound effects. I really like the way the head evolved.
Really interesting. Both because it's good to see other people using AGS, and because I also love board games :D
Lots of really funny things; could have benefited a lot from a few tweaks to make it easier to play. Mainly the addition of skippable cutscenes - it was a bit annoying having to see the intro every time I replayed (AGS provides StartCutscene() and EndCutscene()).
Regarding the size, did you try using the 'compress sprite file' option in the editor?
Really loved the music - it set a great, dream-like atmosphere.
This looks like it could be a lot of fun once it's worked through the teething problems. I love the idea of flying a saucer around and abducting tiny creatures.
Sadly I had the bug where the death ray didn't work, but I was just starting to enjoy myself!
Good lord that was hard.
There didn't seem to be a way to die...?
I managed to just sit in a corner of the second world getting run into by hundreds of bugs and other creatures, but nothing ever happened besides cats flying away.
Really good concept and, generally, a solid execution. Controls felt a bit unresponsive at times - the framerate seemed low?
Shame about the audio problems! Hope you manage to fix them in a later version.
Ah, I see you've gone with the collectible hats again ;)
Good to see you're developing a personal style - I enjoyed this, although the movement could have been a little quicker!
A damned good effort, Sir.
Sadly I'm rubbish at this sort of game, but I enjoyed it anyway!
Good idea - would benefit from some more post-compo love and polish.
A pretty fun game, although I found it very difficult to take in the mountain of background information and lore it presented.
I think I got the general idea of what was going on, but it was a struggle with so many strange terms and unexplained references being thrown around.
Hilarious audio and premise. I never did quite work out what I was doing, though...
Brilliant game, although could use some further variety/replayability added.
I loved the humour!
Good execution (although it's really hard!). It could really do with having smoother animation on the ship movement - it felt very jerky compared to the bullets.
An interesting game! It's a shame you didn't get to finish it :)
The game ended for me (Game Over) while I was playing the Snake stage. Not sure why - I hadn't lost any life :(
I just realised I forgot to mention - you didn't limit the player (or pickups) to the edges of the screen! ;)
I definitely noticed this in the first stage - not sure if it was the same in the second. I was able to chase after the bio-material off the edge, and still pick it up even though I couldn't see myself any more.
It looks pretty cool, but I mostly had no idea what was going on!
The sound while mining is way too loud :/
It'd be interesting to see a version of this with some user experience improvements.
I really enjoyed this. I'm not sure what I was meant to do once I had all three weapons, though - I died before I found an exit.
Very satisfying to use the flamethrower, and to smash glass blocks :)
I really liked this game. Good premise, and having to switch weapons based on the colour of the enemies was a great idea. The difficulty is pretty high too, which made it a challenge.
In future please make sure you put the game into a folder when you zip it - it makes it much faster to extract for people like me who download many games at once :)
Good start, although nothing stopped me from just spawning hundreds of soldiers at once and watching them obliterate the enemy base!
Dave says: Fun little game! The music was nice. Only thing I found was that the ball controls felt a little floaty.
Pretty effective! I like the idea of the enemies adapting to playstyle.
I worked out how to escape the Pong level after several tries, but I found the next two levels way too hard.
I loved the sounds and the idea behind it all, but the difficulty was sky high.
Pretty cool in its own way. I'd like to know which buttons are able to be clicked or not, though.
Thanks for the comments so far, guys! It's always good to hear what you liked and didn't like, and I'll be watching what you have to say for the post-compo version.
Madpew - Thanks for the feedback! I had a feeling the intro might be a bit on the lengthy side, even for adventure game veterans. I'll look into breaking it up with some gameplay in the post-compo version.
Eniko - Sorry about the passphrase thing. I didn't really want to make it impossible to use it until you find the phrase, but I realise it may be confusing if you accidentally do things out of order!
@imef - sorry to hear you had a problem! Try running winsetup.exe first. If the problem was that the resolution was too high for your monitor, just change 'Graphics filter' to 'None' and try running like that.
If that doesn't work, try changing 'Graphics driver' to use Direct3D 9 instead of DirectDraw 5.
Thanks for the positive comments! It means a lot.
@repstyle - I'm afraid the 'devolution' theme is as close as we get ;) Hope you find the time to finish the story, though!
@demonpants - Sorry; the AGS engine doesn't have a recent official MacOS port. The community is making strides towards a Mac compatible engine at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/?title=AGS_Engine_ports , but I can't vouch for how reliable it is. Sorry!
@Gidaio - You may be pleased to hear that the post-compo version is nearing completion. It's got sound and music, as well as several brand new/rewritten scenes and a whole bunch of small fixes.
@creative630 - Try using Nixon's nose (right-click)!
Josh - I believe the conflict is to do with widescreen AGS games not working well in WINE.
My first suggestion would be to run 'winsetup.exe', and check the box marked 'Force alternate letterbox resolution'. This will force the engine to use a 4:3 aspect ratio.
An alternative route would be to try running it using WINE in a virtual desktop mode.
I loved this idea - it was really entertaining to play, although sometimes I died within a second or two of starting a level :(
Would be better with some more competitive AI and something to do other than just killing the AI, but still a great effort.
Was the gameplay this deterministic in the original? It seems like whatever I try to do, the ball follows the same few paths!
Could do with a small amount of randomness in the angle.
Pretty funny, although the difficulty level is punishing!
This game is amazing! It reminds me a lot of a combination of Skool Daze and the Techno Raiders game from Dilbert's Desktop Games (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Dilbert_game_01.png). In fact, I would highly suggest checking out Techno Raiders (somehow) for some ideas for progression of this game.
I guess I just love games with little people wandering around on floors ;)
The idea of spreading the 'flu using three powers is brilliant, and it's executed pretty well here. As you noted, the random nature can make the game quite tedious at times, but I still enjoyed playing 'the waiting game'.
This could perhaps be alleviated by limiting employees to certain floors, or giving them visible tasks (i.e. a phone rings and you see a thought bubble above the head of whoever is going to go and answer it, or someone is thirsty so you know they are heading towards a water cooler). This would allow you to better target your efforts.
I had a problem wherein the manager and the doctor both routinely spawned on top of the roof of the building. This made the game a hell of a lot easier, but I don't think it was intended ;)
It would also really benefit from some variety in the floor appearances (different colour walls etc), music and sounds. Even just adding sound effects for sneezing etc would make a world of difference!
Looks/feels pretty nice, and plays well, but the difficulty needs to be adjusted.
On at least two occasions, I had seemed to have no parts that fitted any of the ones I could see. I actually lost the game because I couldn't make any moves.
Fascinating concept - it's a shame you didn't get to do more with it in the time allowed!
I hope you continue to work on it :)
Absolutely - we were stretching ourselves with Plan M, so we tried to scale things back with this one. Looks like we accidentally scaled things forwards instead!
It's disappointing for us to not have it finished by the deadline, but we will live and learn, and come back next time better prepared! :)
In a shameless bit of self-promotion, I should add that if you enjoyed my last two games (subAtomic & Plan M), or just like the look of my writing style, you should check out my (reasonably priced) retail release, Astroloco: Worst Contact!
It's had some great reviews (AdventureGamers gave us 4/5 stars - www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/24429), and I'm very proud of the overall level of polish.
You can get it over at http://hungryplanetgames.com/ !
Really interesting idea, but the controls make it a bit of a pain to play! I also couldn't find the bullets, and I'm pretty sure I searched every location :(
Fun little game! Would definitely play more.
Fun, and I like the graphics - it seems like a long-lost handheld game.
Way hard, though!
I would definitely play a game like this with multiple maps/randomly-generated quests for quick (5-10 minute) adventuring.
Looks and plays very well. It's always a challenge doing multiplayer for Ludum Dare, since there's never any guarantee that there will be other players online for judging.
Could really use an opening help screen, as it's not clear at all what players should be doing (apart from attacking enemies)!
Fun idea, but the gameplay needs some work! Stamina drains way too quickly to actually get around the track - I discovered it was much faster to just keep hammering 'boost'.
I don't really like twitch-reaction type games, but I found myself enjoying this. Simple idea, well made.
What a fun, silly little game! It's a pity you don't get a quest log to look back on at the end.
This is a novel take on the classic Pac-Man formula - although it's very strange that you didn't implement 'classic' Pac-Man movement (he should always be moving).
The main problem is that the pellets respawn, so there's really no sense of accomplishment while playing. Still very fun for a little while, though.
(Oh, and I managed to score 1844 before I made a stupid mistake and ran into a ghost!)
Really interesting concept. I grasped the gameplay quite quickly, but I can see why other people are finding it confusing.
Reminds me of the sort of fun little game you might find on the Atari 2600.
All values are appearing as undefined for me!
Would be nice to have even a brief description, as well.
Great little game, although I hope no-one ever has to endure that kind of cinema experience!
Perhaps a little too hectic - it felt like I spent the entire game just fighting fires, and never had time to think about moving people around to 'better' seats.
Interesting take on the 'eat stuff to get bigger' style. Cool visuals, too! It's a shame the scrolling is so jerky, and the controls don't feel very responsive.
A hilarious concept, and the end result looks brilliant.
I hope you develop this further!
Very interesting idea, but makes my brain hurt!
Really reminded me of classic GTA and Retro City Rampage. Incredible amount of work for 48 hours.
A fun idea - would be nice if there was something more to do!
Brilliant - I love it. Burst out laughing when I told a mugger I love him.
Good fun, with plenty of potential. At first, I was cursing the fact that it isn't a twin-stick shooter, but I think that adds an important level of difficulty.
The main problem I have is the hitbox on the player character. At the moment it seems like enemies are able to kill you by touching your guns or your head. I think you'd get a lot more playability very quickly by simply reducing the size of that hitbox to cover just the area around the player's feet.
It's the same problem that plagued E.T. on the Atari 2600 - you could fall down a pit by touching it with the top of your head, when your feet were nowhere near!
Apart from that, I actually enjoyed the few minutes I spent with the game. Fun back-story and tight controls. Well done.
A fun puzzle game with a novel idea! I did get super stuck on level 4 though...
Not terrible for a simple maze game. I like how you can take 'shortcuts' by moving through some parts of the static.
A fun little action-platformer. The randomly generated nature of the levels isn't too obvious, which is nice.
A very good little entry. The concept is easy to grasp, and trying to avoid the kids is fun.
Perhaps a little too easy to get stuck when trying to move around objects, but overall a solid effort.
The website isn't loading for me at the moment. I'll come back and try later!
Really fun idea! I'd love to see this developed further into a sort of 'run your own evil empire' management game.
A good idea, but the floaty controls and time constraints make it way too hard! I don't think I ever got past three or four levels in a row.
Nice idea, but Ctrl+W (shoot + walk up) closes the browser tab!
Took me a few goes to work out the controls, but an interesting idea once I understood it. Having the black hole instantly absorb in only one direction isn't particularly intuitive! Perhaps add animation showing things being dragged into the black hole, or replace the black hole with a giant laser that vaporises in each direction?
Lots of scope for a very playable game here, if you choose to continue working on it.
A really great idea, although the physics are a bit 'floaty' for a pinball game.
No gamepad here, so I couldn't really play properly, which is a shame.
Very nice looking game. The transition between levels is great!
Found myself really struggling once I had to use 'upside down' controls, though.
The AI is pretty brutal! Or maybe it's just random and I suck.
Sorry we couldn't get this finished on time, but rest assured there will be a fully-featured post-jam version coming very soon if you want to play more!
Aeveis - Yes, you can 'complete' the 1648 scenario by getting rid of the Royalist soldier. Thoroughly examine the room - it requires a bit of lateral thinking, and remember you have a time machine...
Pickens Inc. - Yes, sorry about the Royalist interrupting gameplay. I'll fix that in the post-jam version.
The full game will also feature a tonne of historic dates as easter eggs - I'm rather looking forward to adding them all in!
Quite right, about the audio category, too; I missed that during submission! Opted out now.
SinistraGames - Thanks! It's always good to see other people making adventure games. I've used AGS for lots of projects (including two previous Ludum Dares), so I'm very comfortable with it as a tool. It has a lot of idiosyncrasies and annoyances, but it's good at what it does and it makes it very quick to get a new project up and running.
I agree with you about the characters, too. I actually drew the backgrounds to the wrong scale, and had to tell the engine to draw the characters at 150% to compensate. If you look carefully, you can see the pixels on them are slightly bigger than the pixels in the backgrounds!
max_peabody - Yes, sorry we ran out of time before I could add scripting to the final parts of that puzzle! Glad you found it, though.
hissssssssss - Thanks for the feedback! I'll make sure to add a two-way scroll to the digits in the post-jam version.
The lack of interactions was just a consequence of running out of time, sadly. I like to make sure almost everything has a unique interaction in an adventure game, and I'll be doing the same thing here with the full version.
Fantastic visuals and atmosphere, although the game itself is somewhat lacking!
Has the same sort of appeal as playing something like Euro Truck Simulator or Train Simulator - a fairly relaxing experience that immerses the player. Sadly, constantly having to manage the pitch feels like something of a conceit, tacked-on so that the player has something to do during the flight.
Apart from that, a fantastic effort! An amazing accomplishment for two days work.
Really unique idea - I love it!