Ludum Dare 33 Games
Hey ya'll :D
Share your #LD33 games! :D
PokEscape: Magicrap's Battle for Survival & Gyrodeuce
A game of stealthy survival. But you have to eat your cover. Uh oh.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=35114
Share your #LD33 games! :D
PokEscape: Magicrap's Battle for Survival & Gyrodeuce
A game of stealthy survival. But you have to eat your cover. Uh oh.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=35114
Thanked by 11dammit Nitrogen EvanGreenwood Elyaradine GlacieredPyro garethf Pomb Miltage konman MCA NDDDave
Comments
Game developers are the real monsters.
The Tutorial is a point and click adventure game made with Unity and Adventure Creator. Left mouse click to walk or interact with objects. Right mouse button to "look" at objects.
Note: None of the art is my own - the animated main character is an Adventure Creator asset.
There is no sound.
This is my first unity game and my first LDJam game. It was made mostly on Sunday afternoon.
Web build: http://dammit.itch.io/the-tutorial
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=37514
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=29419
You are an alien species known as Rul. The Rul have discovered Earth and have tasked you to destroy it for some reason because you're a monstrous species that lives for destruction.
The Rul become "one" with their spaceships/technology and are able to mutate with it biologically. With each jump to a star system, your ship mutates into a better version. Along the way you will battle Sol Confederacy forces that are trying to prevent you from destroying their home,
There's more info in the "About this entry" menu in the game detailing ideas I had originally planned but due to time couldn't do properly.. I did the programming, game design, art and sound effects. I'm not good at art but tried to put effort into the spaceship art. I struggled finding a decent adaption of them theme.
This is actually my first submitted Ludum Dare... I've done 3-4 of them in the past but never submitted them because I felt unhappy with them and (embarrassed? it was always an odd feeling). Decided to get over that and submit one this time and I accomplished that finally which is great.
Both your games look interesting but I have yet to play them (and more LD games). Going to spend the rest of the week playing LD games/rating them but for now I'm off to bed!
Game called:
Crossed Path
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=56489
Theo and eternal damnation just aren't working anymore, Unsatisfied with their job at the Pacts & Soul acquisition department, Theo Niccol has signed in for their final week. There is however, still work to be done, and contracted souls to get to the boss... some jobs aren't just black and darker black.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=10871
A flying caterpillar collected pips to grow and golden pips to add layers to the music.
Lessons:
Sleep. You need this to make games fast, not sleeping makes you work slowly.
Eating. Eat your veggies, eating sweets/chips and pizza is not good for you. :(
Don't force it. If it's not working change it up, in the words of OJ from sillicon Valley: "Pivot".
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=21417
ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=3643
There’s been an explosion on your space station, and now the place is filled with flaming debris and other bits and pieces. Naturally, the explosion took out all the vital systems so you’re left to sort out this soupy mess in zero gravity. Explore the station and get things back in order!
@Manikin Not sure how deep 0G goes... It took me a long while to figure out the bubbles were repair bots. I got through that engine room with the tumbling orange core, but as far as I can tell it didn't lead anywhere (though I may have been lost, the surroundings repeated a lot). I was sort of hoping that I'd discover more about the robot I used to be, and what had happened, as I went. I felt there already was some nice misdirection there, with the sentience saying "I feel sick", where I presume given the theme of the jam the original nature of the sentience was anything other than squeamish around violence. Although I guess it could be a reference to the british nature of the sentience, pointing towards 2001 A Space Odysee themes, an interpretation that the choice of music supports.
I think the setting is really mysterious/tantalizing, and would be great in a longer game. Floating around in zero G with weak thrusters and poor vision is surprisingly fun. I don't think there needs to be collision damage, I think punishing players for not using the controls well goes against what appears to be the beginnings of a really great narrative focused experience.
I have been playing Gone Home recently, so I might be reading a bit far into your walk-em-up (or float-em-up in this case) aspirations.
Ah, yep that engine core thing is quite tricky to navigate because of the uniform lighting throughout. There's another small section on the other end with a room that contains a missing robot part. It doesn't really go much beyond that - you put all your parts back together again, the gravity returns to normal and that's the end of the game.
After reading your comments though, I actually wish I'd put a lot more thought into the narrative and the story implications of the robot character. I'm afraid that the writing and character stuff that's there was kind of carelessly written while I was tired and stressed, which is a mistake I commonly make in jams. It would've been really great if I'd put some more thought into conveying a bit more of a mystery, and then answering it in a compelling way, even if just through text.
I did actually have an idea early on, to have some sort of ending sequence that involved walking through a door (now accessible in your assembled form) and discovering a bunch of dead bodies and a clue revealing that your character had caused the explosion. It's a little cliched, but I like how it would've suggested that the sentience module had had its memory wiped and its personality "forgotten" from the damage, hence it's apparent squeamishness over seeing its separated limbs.
That's a good point too about the collision damage. With more of an intriguing narrative experience in place, it would be something to get rid of, I think. I still love gliding into a flaming fuel box and exploding, but that doesn't necessarily need to be tied to health.
Thanks for your feedback!
Oh, I didn't work out what to do with the robot parts that were floating around.
Well, that ending (with stumbling upon a room filled with floating corpses) may have been a bit forced :) I mean, assuming there isn't enough hinting and foreshadowing (which obviously would require a bunch more... content to be built).
That said, floating ragdoll corpses are fucking unnerving.
I really think there can be a lot of mystery here... kind of the empty space-hulk and you don't know what happened trope... I think that's sort of what Tacoma is going for https://tacoma-game.com/ ... Though the broken robot with no memories is especially interesting... It allows you to play with a lot of interesting questions. For instance, assuming you did cause the explosion, and assuming humans died, how did it get to this point? How would a robot protagonist be justified in killing humans? Do Asimov's laws apply in this universe? If so, how did an AI overcome them, or did the AI have help, or was it manipulated? What would remorse look like? I genuinely want answers to what happens at the start of this game.
The Fall asked some questions like this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/290770/ In that, in The Fall, you play as the AI of a combat suit who believes that the unconscious human inside is seriously injured and you must protect the human, which becomes increasingly difficult as other robots/suits/hazards are trying to kill you (and by extension the human within you)... though not everything is as it seems at first.
Tom Jubert https://sites.google.com/site/tjubert/ , who wrote the story for Talos Principle and The Swapper, seems fascinated by these kinds of questions as well.
I guess these are things that could only be explored in an extended post-jam version. I'm not sure if that's something you want to do, but I guess I'm saying that you've got a strong start (if you wanted to go in this direction). Maybe you could team up with a writer? (or like you say, spend more time when you aren't so stressed writing)
SAFARI RAMPAGE
Have that wilderness experience you've always dreamed of...
Credits
@DraughtVader
@SUGBOERIE
@Sash
@Tim_Harbour
Here's my entry:
SLASHER
Inspired by campy slasher movies, you play an axe murderer looking to spill the blood of naive teenagers.
@Manikin: I played about 20 minutes of 0G without reading any of the instructions on the LD page. I got all the robot parts except the head, and couldnt figure out how or where the head was, so gave up. The controls were really frustrating until I discovered spacebar is your brake - which is a bit puzzling because braking isnt practical in a zero gee environment unless you have unlimited thrusters or something. I would have wanted something like a thrust Up and thrust Down controls which would have made it more like Descent.
The repair bots were light grey on a grey background - pretty horrible to find. I think you should have made them have some gold at the core or something just so that it's not so frustrating. Also carrying the parts was tedious epecially when I found two and had to slowly inch my way backwards while alternately clicking on each one to carry it behind me.
Oh and why no physics on your 'laser tongue'? I wanted to flick things out the way by grabbing and flicking them, but they dont have momentum applied.
The game had good potential but I just didnt feel like a monster or threatened / saddened by the destruction around me.
Special mentions: (I did not have time yet to play all the games here...but plan to do so this weekend)
@Tuism PokEscape, what a wonderful mechanic. I did an air punch when I completed level 1 and got rainbow'ed, WTF!? :)
@hobblygobbly I managed to get through the stargate, this is one brutal, brutal game. Can we get a shield please?
@Pomb Your work is always so diverse. I love how those peachy planets throb to the music... I got a long caterpillar thing going. I played it again tonight to relax after a long hard week at work. Just for the soothing music. :) Now to figure out how it works properly...
@Manikin 0G is screaming... Occulus Rift so loud it's deafening. What an innovative concept. When i first got an eye open I just knew this is something special. WOW! My nose has never been this close to the monitor before. OCC RIFT please!
@rustybroomhandle Love that top-down world you created. I'm too scared to ask how. Hiding in the shadows. Patrolling AI and View cones to avoid, Awesome soundtrack! I can never resist games sneaking around guards and hiding in bushes. This game is just oozing potential. Hope you take this further?
@Miltage Slasher made me laugh so loud... the comments of the residents when you first pull up in the drive-way. Classic!
All those little touches, the slanted raindrops, the flashing thunder. The tactics. A seemingly simple game on the surface, but not.
Wow. Just wow. You guys did all this in a few HOURS!? Time to step-up MGSA! Love all your work so much. Please keep it up! So inspirational.
Here is mine, Monsters always finish last
Its a super short adventure!
Likely won't take it further. There were 31 participants (just me coding) and the youngest as far as I know was 9 - which means if we ever decided to make money off this, we'd probably get in trouble with some country's labour laws. ;) When we do these, our goals are usually:
1. Do something that allows anyone to participate in the making of assets
2. Do an easy-ish game so that everyone who helped make stuff can play it
Vision cones here were easy-ish:
1. Guards constantly do a Linecast to your character's position
2. If linecast hits, check if the angle between the guard's transform.forward and the direction the player is in is less than 15.0 (in our case) and distance less than something:
Vector3.Angle((player.transform.position - transform.position), transform.forward)
Guards in this have two vision cones... one checking 15 degrees and a longish view distance, and one checking 80 degrees and a short distance, which represents peripheral vision.
Finally i get more time to check out local dev talent from LD33...
Double click .exe...mmmh not the latest Unity? must be a connoisseur, someone who loves retro. Aaah, a fine menu I see... I crank the volume to max... yeah! Bring it on!
Game starts...The world has a cool interesting parallax effect, not just sideways, but closer and nearer to the camera too... mmmmmhhh. I just picked up a worm. Also, can it be? I think I look just like Bono from U2. Things are definately looking up!
Wait. I am stuck in an endless conversation with a frog. An attractive frog, but a frog none-the-less.
The sun sets romantically in the distance...
It's like talking to my girlfriend, which is different than talking to a stranger, because if I get it wrong I am mince meat. Hang-on. My conversation options don't have repercussions, so no handbag in the face? I am safe for now I think...
I try not to make eye contact. I look at a distant object behind the frog, hoping to distract it long enough so I can make my getaway. But it is fixated on me. Like that sweet old lady next door. I try to be polite and excuse myself, but it's like I'm the worm and I'm stuck on a hook.
The way the conversation is going is fascinating, I think. Wait... It's actually listening to me. To me?
I feel a connection here. I cannot help but wonder what lies beyond the next hill, but the eyes of the frog is mesmerizing. It's pulling me in.
Is this my soul mate? If I kiss it, would it let me go, or trap me forever?
WOW...This is your FIRST unity game? Is that Twine? Very nice!
Can you please ask that frog to let me go so I can go and explore the rest of your world? Thanks :)
This was a very funny and interesting prototype.
I'm very impressed! I just loooooove narrative in games.
K
I am working on a Twine game at the moment. Will post it when it's playable :)
Again a really good crop! I wonder why we aren't converting more of our LD successes into actual games... Or are they not really enough of successes yet? Opinions?
The difference between a prototype and a fully produced game is quite staggering, so it's quite understandable why that doesn't happen more often. And I think people want a bit more surety with regards to the future of the game before they commit to something of that scale.
I think we can take games that we did in LD further than their jam states and see how that's received, but again. How would you know which one to do that with?
And yes, that's part of my question too... I don't know which one of them can be considered the "most successful". I'm sure other people are in the same boat, but it's definitely a question that deserves a bit more thought than we've given it so far... I think.
How did Broforce get their internal greenlight? What was the external (metaphorical) greenlight? Can we learn from that?
We only decided to scrap our current project and focus on Broforce 6 weeks after the jam was over. We'd been putting in a fair bit of after-hours Broforce work (and some work hours of Broforce work), and at that point I was still really enjoying working on it, and people seemed to get more enjoyment playing it the more work we did on it.
I tend to call this the gold-mining test (after Jonathan Blow's talk about Braid). As in, if you consider yourself a miner and the game the bedrock, and if you keep mining and the game keeps giving you gold, then the chances are that the gold goes really far down. If mining starts giving you just a lot of dirt, then you're probably not mining in the direction of the gold, but if you can't find where the gold is then maybe you should start a mine somewhere else completely.
I guess I feel you can't really know whether there's gold at any particular mine unless you've mined a little way down, and you can't know how deep it really goes until you've explored a bit further, but unless you are willing to develop a game for five years you should definitely know if you're onto something within a few weeks (because generally the longer it takes to find a fun experience the longer it will take to finish the game).
There's of course a lot of factors that contribute to whether a game will just keep getting better the longer you work on it, and most of those factors are out of your control. It's much more reliable to just test whether the game does indeed get better the longer you work on it (by actually working on it), than to try predict whether it will through theorycrafting.
What made it easy for Broforce to get to the point of internal greenlighting (as a commercial product) was that the team saw value in taking a game jam game and improving it to the point where it's an interesting experience. We thought even a tiny free game that delivers an interesting experience can earn a developer some credit and develop a small amount of fanbase (or maybe follow the path that Derek Yu did with the Spelunky free version). That was initially the plan for Broforce, and was the rationale for developing it further after the jam. It was only weeks later, when the gold was still coming strong, that we saw the potential for commercial release.
I guess I'm saying, and I'd expect @Tuism agrees, that if you're having fun with it then work a bit more on it and find out. There's a lot of ways improving a game jam game beyond the jam can be useful to you, both immediately and in the long term. You certainly don't have to make a decision about releasing the thing commercially just after the jam, and you don't have to make that decision with just the jam and a couple comments being your only data.
But, then I proved them RIGHT. That was a pretty cool moment! :)
Also the soundtrack is great and fits the mood of this entry very well. Of all the games here (I haven't played all of them yet!), so far you stuck the closest to the theme... I certainly felt like a monster at the end. It's just so easy to kill... (I did not run into the blue guy yet, I suspected it was a cop? I will go test my theory after posting this... ;)
Well done!
This is all of No Man Sky we get to play this year ;)
Our entry is Pillage The Village:
Credits:
Specials thanks to @Tim_Harbour for the music!
@Cyberwiz
@mattpwest