[SA Game Jam 2018] Inkumbulo
SA Game Jam 2018
Project name: Inkumbulo
The team consists of young professionals and students. None of us are game developers and this is my second game.
72hr entry
The game’s name is Inkumbulo
The game’s name means memory in Xhosa. the games theme is centred around the experiences of South African Millennial, particularly black folk, entering the university space after having graduated from High School.
The game’s protagonists is a high school graduate coming from the Eastern Cape who has their eye on completing a university degree in the Western Cape.
The game’s introductory animation gives a user a view of the protagonist’s experience driving down from the Eastern Cape in a bus. With cutaway footage beautiful South African landscapes.
The game levels all take place on a university campus where the protagonist has to do has to complete a degree whilst avoiding certain game objects and seeking certain game objects.
The game objects that the University student has to seek include discipline-specific textbooks e.g Communication. Each textbooks unlocks certain skills for the protagonist.
The enemy objects that the protagonist has to avoid include on campus drones. The player can kill the drones by throwing fidget spinners at them.
The artwork of the game should speak to the current context on University campuses making specific references to fees must fall and Rhodes Must Fall activities and events. Photo and video footage from the movement is available and can be used in the game.
This will be a 2d game made using the phaser library.
Project name: Inkumbulo
The team consists of young professionals and students. None of us are game developers and this is my second game.
72hr entry
The game’s name is Inkumbulo
The game’s name means memory in Xhosa. the games theme is centred around the experiences of South African Millennial, particularly black folk, entering the university space after having graduated from High School.
The game’s protagonists is a high school graduate coming from the Eastern Cape who has their eye on completing a university degree in the Western Cape.
The game’s introductory animation gives a user a view of the protagonist’s experience driving down from the Eastern Cape in a bus. With cutaway footage beautiful South African landscapes.
The game levels all take place on a university campus where the protagonist has to do has to complete a degree whilst avoiding certain game objects and seeking certain game objects.
The game objects that the University student has to seek include discipline-specific textbooks e.g Communication. Each textbooks unlocks certain skills for the protagonist.
The enemy objects that the protagonist has to avoid include on campus drones. The player can kill the drones by throwing fidget spinners at them.
The artwork of the game should speak to the current context on University campuses making specific references to fees must fall and Rhodes Must Fall activities and events. Photo and video footage from the movement is available and can be used in the game.
This will be a 2d game made using the phaser library.
Comments
I am also having trouble following all the instructions for downloading and running (not sure which index file I should be opening or why certain things aren't responding, etc). Wondering if you can simplify the process for some people -- the judges can probably troubleshoot and review after the competition but it will limit the number of folk who can give guidance on your project during the jam.
That said, once my game is submitted I will try and get yours going to review it.
I've got node, followed instructions. :(
You can find my team's game at https://inkumbulo.herokuapp.com/ . Zoom in and out if the graphics are extending beyond your screen size.
Took me a second to figure out the controls myself, if you can introduce the player to the controls in the game that will be awesome. Maybe also make use of WASD controls and ( feels a bit more comfortable ).
For the shooting, I think a cursor will help to help the player know where he is going to shoot and don't limit the shooting just to sidewards. If you let the cursor move with the mouse and make shooting LMB, you can solve that pretty easily.
The resolution was bit messed up , so the game was cut of underneath and at the side, only after figuring out the controls and I jumped I noticed the character.
Maybe consider adding different move patterns for the drone, for example one that goes only horizontal or one that follows you if your knowledge surpasses a certain number and later on their speed can increase to add to the difficulty.
I will also look into creating setup text when the game state loads. I was really struggling with the timer method on phaser. I had made a few attempts, with my small team, to resolve this but with very little luck.
I'd like to raise a concern about the UI. As a player, I'd prefer the knowledge score counter be positioned in such a way that it isn't quite a static background element that takes up a significant chunk of screen real estate (on my machine some of the text is cut-off before moving across the map) but rather is more like a traditional score counter that moves as the player moves and maybe just sits in the corner of the screen. Same with the Game Over message, which was actually cut-off for me.
Also, I'd like to suggest adding a UI element for the controls in the game, so the player can just look at an element on screen or access a pause menu or something of the like to view them in-game, instead of having to work them out or look at this thread to see what they are.
The game will end if the player collides with an invisible drone
Unfortunately I can't seem to play the game. I'm sure I'm missing something with my browser setup or something. Is there a specific browser/setup that I can use that will run this for sure? Also, it might be worth it to put the working link in the first post. I almost gave up when the instructions to clone didn't work out for me.
Nice music.
good work on getting drones and items spawn progressively.
Here's what I think may be made better
-spreading out the items
-having more fluid movement controls
-UI could use some work too, auto resize based on computer resolution, and none obtrusive wording.