Weapon Regulator by drludos

[raw]
made by drludos for LD32 (COMPO)
Even the war has rules : some weapons are allowed, while others are forbidden.
They are called unconventional weapons.

You are sent to a battlefield.
Your mission is to seize any unconventional weapon that you'll see.
You are neutral, so the soldiers won't hurt you.
But beware of the stray bullets.

USE ARROW KEYS / WASD TO MOVE.
USE SPACE / CONTROL / SHIFT TO SEIZE A WEAPON FROM A SOLDIER
(you have to move over the soldier first).

THE WEAPONS CONVENTION CHANGE REGULARLY.
try to capture unconventional weapons only.

---------------

Tools used:
Flash, Photoshop, AS3SFXR and cgMusic/GXSCC

Ratings

Coolness 67% 3
Overall 3.81 94
Audio 2.74 530
Fun 3.84 70
Graphics 3.10 523
Humor 3.05 380
Innovation 4.01 60
Mood 3.09 416
Theme 4.33 16

Feedback

Miziziziz
20. Apr 2015 · 03:05 UTC
Great game! I really liked the idea and it worked well

my only criticism would be that sometimes I would grab one persons weapon while they were on top of someone else so I'd ending up grabbing both of their weapons causing me to lose points. Not a big deal, just a mild annoyance.

Also, why doesn't the music loop? it's good!
ruthiepee
20. Apr 2015 · 03:49 UTC
Well, you've definitely got a fun game here, and addictive too! The difficulty ramps up at a good speed, enough to keep things interesting. Nice job on providing different keyboard options (you pointed out mine wasn't AZERTY-friendly, something I wasn't aware of, so thank you!). Controls are smooth and fast. Nice job! My final score: 430
skylinegames
20. Apr 2015 · 15:01 UTC
This game is so relaxing 10/10
Jakob37
20. Apr 2015 · 15:05 UTC
I liked this a lot! Both the style and the gameplay itself. Also, the feeling of moving in an ongoing battle, it is interesting. Well done!
generic_ghost
20. Apr 2015 · 15:08 UTC
I really like how the "unconventional weapon" was unconventional in the context of the game itself. I also like the hero is regulating the weapons instead of using them. Good commentary on the topic. The game was a lot of fun, good job!
Zielak
20. Apr 2015 · 15:12 UTC
228!

Great idea for the game. I almost thought I'm invincible because I'm neutral... until they started shooting :D
jhell
20. Apr 2015 · 15:12 UTC
Very very good idea, excellent realisation, tight controls, simple gameplay, nice difficulty curve.

Too bad we don't get anything to improve ourselves (an unconventional weapon magnet for example?) in pick-ups.
ccglp
20. Apr 2015 · 15:13 UTC
I never see a game like this, so I can call it a very good work, congratulations.

(Red team cheats more)
Komos
20. Apr 2015 · 15:15 UTC
Great game. Simple, fun, well polished, and fits the theme :)
Jagang
20. Apr 2015 · 15:17 UTC
I favored blue, down with the red scum!
Great idea and execution of gameplay and presentation.
Good job!
Matsuki
20. Apr 2015 · 15:24 UTC
An incredibly unique idea, i loved your use of sound and had a lot of fun playing the game.
Coban31
20. Apr 2015 · 15:33 UTC
Very good game! Original and fun, what else? :D
PaulJs
20. Apr 2015 · 15:36 UTC
Bonne interprétation du thème après un peu dommage la difficulté trop vite exponentielle et la durée de vie ! Mais bien joué en tout cas, c'était sympa !
DarkGrisen
20. Apr 2015 · 15:37 UTC
This is the best game i've seen so far. 5 stars!
Scored 698!
Yoon
20. Apr 2015 · 15:54 UTC
Those things are SOOO cute ! Also the idea is great. I'm definitely diggin' it.
Cryotube
20. Apr 2015 · 16:11 UTC
Nice original concept, great visuals and audio as well!
vortex
20. Apr 2015 · 16:25 UTC
Such an awesome game... great idea... Take all the weapons from red!!!
AtkinsSJ
20. Apr 2015 · 16:29 UTC
Really clever! Fun game, and a nice use of the theme.
AxeTheory
20. Apr 2015 · 16:36 UTC
Great idea, I love your take on the Theme.
Somnium
20. Apr 2015 · 16:41 UTC
I like the concept, that what is conventional depends on who defines it to be so :-) The game feels fun and original as well.
stuffedgravy
20. Apr 2015 · 16:46 UTC
+1 for in-game instructions :)
The fact that you take the weapons of all people who are nearby is kind of annoying; I'd suggest only taking unconventional weapons if they're available, otherwise feel free to take points off haha.
Aside from that, this was an awesome game. Definitely innovative, I like the bullet dodging aspect of the game along with the weapon collecting. I feel like there should be some sort of penalty for not taking unconventional weapons, Overall it has great polish and looks/sounds/plays really good!
celisoft
20. Apr 2015 · 17:09 UTC
Very good game, I love it !! :-)
SelfTitled
20. Apr 2015 · 18:11 UTC
Idea is good, was fun and a bit chaotic.
Was difficult to ensure you were only hitting the dude you wanted too as control wasn't sensitive enough (8 directional).
I'd also perfer that disbarred weapons were in the same eyeline as the player character i.e. above his head as icons or somthing so I diddn't have to take my eye from my avatar.
Music is a plus.
Iak
20. Apr 2015 · 18:28 UTC
interesting use of the theme - I can only imagine a war where people run in between getting rid of unconventional weapons... XD
ProjectX593
20. Apr 2015 · 19:32 UTC
I really like this game! I just wish I could survive long enough to see if there are any guns after the SMGs haha.
🎤 drludos
20. Apr 2015 · 20:12 UTC
Thanks to all of you for your reply and kind words!

@ProjectX: There are two more "guns" after the SMG - a "cannon" that fire big bullets, and a plasma gun :).
EdwardGreysky
21. Apr 2015 · 07:16 UTC
I like the way you used the theme !

As said before, we sometimes grab few weapons at the same time wich is bad.
But good job
Pietro Ferrantelli
21. Apr 2015 · 11:28 UTC
Scored 187 !
I enjoyed your interpretation of the theme. It's pretty simple but also really addictive ! I took me a while to realize that I had HP, maybe because of the word "neutral", but it's a cool little game overall. Good work, drludos ;)
ftvs
21. Apr 2015 · 15:14 UTC
The scope and design were a good fit for a 48 hour game.
Tiago Ling Alexandre
22. Apr 2015 · 12:49 UTC
Very nice game! The weapon regulator idea is cool and the game played really well! Congratulations!
6DownStudios
24. Apr 2015 · 00:00 UTC
Great take on the theme, taking the player out of the role of warrior and into the role of warfare oversight. And quite fun to boot; good pacing with the weapons upgrades and soldier variation keeps manuevering/disarming interesting.
VDZ
24. Apr 2015 · 20:40 UTC
Overall a great game, but some minor flaws harm its replayability.

The gameplay of running into a battle is fun, and seeing what weapons come next (and which set of restrictions comes next) is an interesting motivator. It's all very well executed, too.

However, the scoring system and lack of early-game difficulty discouraged me from playing more than four games. Due to the way scoring scales, doing anything early-game is a waste of time and effort; the points you get are negligible compared to later on, and there's no danger to make it even slightly interesting. This means you're pretty much stuck waiting for the guns to arrive, at which point scoring starts to become useful (though still not all that relevant compared to later on) and you actually have to do something to not die. Still, at that point your primary goal is to survive so you can rack up the real points later on. Having to play the futile early-game every time discourages me from playing to improve my score (as less than 50% of my playtime is actually spent improving my score).

The game mechanics also discourage taking risks; there is no penalty for not doing your job, and simply surviving is enough to increase the amount of points gained per seized weapon. I'd have loved to see some kind of reward for jumping into the battle, like a combo system (increasing points for successive weapons seized if you don't take too long between weapons). Other rewards (recovering health? Score multiplier?) could also make early-game weapon seizing more useful.

Still, I enjoyed the couple games I played. The graphics look nice and, more importantly, are very clear (everything was recognizable without a problem), and the audio wasn't very interesting but fulfilled its purpose (though having a BGM beyond the first seconds would've added a lot). Though the interpretation of the theme was one of the more obvious choices, it was executed well.

High score: 841 (226 seconds)

P.S.: Is there any other set of restrictions beyond 'ban plasma rifles, allow bazookas'?
Franklin's Ghost
25. Apr 2015 · 09:32 UTC
Clever use of the theme. Liked the way you kept the player wanting to keep going to see what was the next weapon to appear.
Pierrec
27. Apr 2015 · 07:00 UTC
Love it
HeskHwis
27. Apr 2015 · 19:28 UTC
Great ! Fallout was wrong : war does change :)
wilbefast
28. Apr 2015 · 21:29 UTC
Interesting "mechanics as metaphor" as new weapons are banned and "old faithful" ones are allowed - I feel also that a player character without a weapon when the theme is weapon-based deserves extra points :) I got 286 on my first try (QFT https://twitter.com/wilbefast/status/593165866163908608).
impossibleleaf
29. Apr 2015 · 21:42 UTC
Pretty good however the chaos brought me a lot of confusion. And when the weapon convention changes, it's super easy to lose points instantaneously. I liked the idea of the 'contraband' interpretation of Unconventional Weapon. Good job, I hope to see more of these games in the future.
Javabot
01. May 2015 · 22:01 UTC
LOVE THIS GAME. Gonna play it so much, its addicting.
12 Pechás Of Souls
01. May 2015 · 22:47 UTC
Great idea. Awesome use of theme. Interesting and funny mechanic.
Eggplant
01. May 2015 · 23:22 UTC
Really fun, addicting game you got! I thought it fit the theme well. I love it!
danielilett
02. May 2015 · 01:52 UTC
This is a really nice game! I liked the approach to the theme, and the simple gameplay was easy to follow, yet addictive. The art was pretty decent, and went well with the simplicity of the game as a whole. I think the player and 'soldiers' are very cute! The sound effects also work really well with the game's general aesthetics. My only complaints are that sometimes while picking up a correct weapon, you also pick up an incorrect one, because the enemies are on top of each other. Also, sometimes it's a little difficult to move AND pick up weapons at the same time - perhaps mapping the mouse button to 'pickup' will help with that? Oh, and you should make the music loop too! Really good job, I liked it :)
hexdie
02. May 2015 · 02:18 UTC
I liked this! Great take on the theme and an enjoyable mechanic with some nice difficulty curve. The only part of the gameplay I have any criticism for is that sometimes a conventional and unconventional weapon wielder will overlap each other and it can be hard to grab the right weapon, but that was only a minor complaint. Also, it would have been nice if the music looped. Overall, very nice work!
crazya02
02. May 2015 · 02:36 UTC
206 points over 128 seconds!
Anyways, I *LOVED* the gameplay in this one. The mood of an ongoing battle was also extremely effective.
Trasevol_Dog
02. May 2015 · 12:28 UTC
Really fun game ! Good concept and efficient graphics !
Photon
02. May 2015 · 13:55 UTC
Giving hammers the banhammer? Hand-slapping for bringing knives to gunfights? Giving the loathed rocket launcher the boot? TOTALLY SOLD.

This was fantastic. The progression of weapon categorization was done really well and this was a hilarious take on the theme.
seankimdesign
03. May 2015 · 07:24 UTC
Damn fine game. I really like the unique approach you took in designing the game mechanics. Really creative. I also enjoyed the decision to keep the player out of the danger zone in the beginning of the game and easing the players in. Really fantastic stuff!
Arche-san
03. May 2015 · 12:56 UTC
Great idea! You interpreted the theme differently than most others games. Good job!
RyanNielson
03. May 2015 · 17:08 UTC
Very silly, you should make a screen saver our of this.
igoramendola
05. May 2015 · 16:52 UTC
The concept of gameplay is pretty cool and very innovative. Also, it has nice graphics and sounds. Good entry! :D

* My best so far is 666 >:D
Omiya Games
06. May 2015 · 02:45 UTC
It is a very interesting concept and take on the Ludum Dare theme by having different layers of context in the game. Everything else just seems fairly OK. I can see many improvements to be made.
goerp
11. May 2015 · 19:18 UTC
Ooh, nice! great idea and nice development of difficulty.
Our game mechanics are somewhat similar with the changing of right and wrong, but I'm sad to say that I think you implementation is better!

The only trouble is: when multiple people are at the same spot you can't tell the good and bad people apart.
SeriouslyCrunchy
11. May 2015 · 21:55 UTC
Oh wow best use of the theme I think I've seen. Really good stuff. The game is simple and fun too!
suppi
11. May 2015 · 22:00 UTC
very nice use of the theme. i really liked the special effects. solid entry!