LudumData

THUMP by Steffan 'Ruirize' James

[raw]
made by Steffan 'Ruirize' James for LD32 (COMPO)
THUMP your way to VICTORY by EUTHANIZING pathetic, stupid DRONES.

Bump and thump the drones into the killzones to stop them from escaping your maze. Do not rest until you achieve a great proportion of murder to freedom.

Controls: WASD or ARROWS.
Minimum Resolution: 1280x720.

This game requires (on OS/X and Linux) that you have Love2D installed - download it here: love2d.org

Known Bugs:
* The rams sometimes jam. Not sure what's going on with that!
Not-bugs:
* Drones will fly into the killzones without dying - they can only die after being thumped

Planned improvements:
* Make the killzones less visible when they are "inactive"
* AI Difficulty slider for motion planning
* Separate charge meters for each ram

Problems in development:
* I spent way too long making the rams "meaty".
* Love2D's implementation of Box2D is haaaard.
* Also spent way too long playing Mario Kart 8 with my fellow Darers.
* Probably spent a little too much time selecting fonts.

Interesting stuff about development:
* The rams were the first thing I made.
* The actual game was the last.
* It was my first time playing with vector graphics for visuals; I think it went well!

I'd love to hear what you think about my game and where I can take it further!
Windows 32 Bit https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5odKduPf_Z2VDl2NE1wU3psOEE&authuser=0
Windows 64 Bit https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5odKduPf_Z2RVdoYnM0VlJ2WWc&authuser=0
OS/X https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5odKduPf_Z2S29qdDM0SXJHSk0&authuser=0
Linux https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5odKduPf_Z2S29qdDM0SXJHSk0&authuser=0
Source https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5odKduPf_Z2S29qdDM0SXJHSk0&authuser=0
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=44712

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.38 357
Audio 2.90 439
Fun 2.98 608
Graphics 3.35 377
Humor 2.17 826
Innovation 3.72 165
Mood 2.77 678
Theme 3.48 433

Feedback

roving-stone
22. Apr 2015 · 06:32 UTC
The graphics are really nice and clean. It's tough to play, every drone I euthanized seemed like it was by accident. The thumps do feel meaty though :)
Benjamin
22. Apr 2015 · 06:38 UTC
The game is innoventive and the weapon IS unconventional. Some of the killzones are really too small to be effectives. I think that spikes or lazers wall with instant death on touch would have feel more rewarding for this game. Sometime drones enter and leave killzone without apparent damage.
A Flat Miner Studios
22. Apr 2015 · 06:43 UTC
63-46 was my best. Neat idea! (And yes, the extra time spent on the ram sound and screenshake was apparent!)
biscuitdough
22. Apr 2015 · 07:02 UTC
difficult to play with skill, managed to get a few out, but felt it was more due to chance.
ElectroYak
22. Apr 2015 · 07:23 UTC
Very unconventional weapon, really good. Its a difficult though, I feel I was just getting the drones in the killzone by chance
eddynardo
22. Apr 2015 · 07:34 UTC
Well done.I really liked the concept,its really innovative but it was hard for me to understand the physics.Keep it up,you can make a brilliant puzzle game out of this!
joe40001
22. Apr 2015 · 07:53 UTC
Innovative game. There was a bit much going on so it was hard to feel fully in control, but I applaud how meaty those rams are. You definitely feel the impact. It's a fun game to play around with.

Small bug(?): When I finished the game an audio clip seemed to be constantly restarting. No big deal though.
phi
22. Apr 2015 · 08:05 UTC
The sounds are a little bit confusing at the beginning and start to be annoying when playing longer, but in some weird way I think they are very fitting. :D
Anyway, good gameplay with interesting mechanics, even though it feels a little bit out of control at times. Great job on visuals!
Kardamom
22. Apr 2015 · 08:19 UTC
I think the mechanics are good. I especially appreciate the idea of using (deliberately suboptimal) drone AI as a mechanic. When the game ended I was surprised, I didn't know what was the victory/loose condition and suspected there just isn't any. Maybe some stronger feedback when the drones reach the humans will help. The sound effects worked, but same music would further help to keep pacing.
🎤 Steffan 'Ruirize' James
22. Apr 2015 · 11:36 UTC
I have fixed the game-breaking bug that prevented you from killing drones in some situations.
CiderPunk
22. Apr 2015 · 12:52 UTC
59-25 I am death incarnate! nice game!
slowfrog
22. Apr 2015 · 19:59 UTC
Wow, fun and unexpected! The oblique killzone are especially frustrating, because there's no oblique thumping.
Bashabookoos
22. Apr 2015 · 20:01 UTC
Great visuals and physics. I like the idea behind the game play too, but I think it could have been developed more. The loud, high pitch charging noise was too grating on my ears. Also I don't think I was able to euthanize those little drones on purpose, every time I tried to knock one in it would just bounce out. I would say the theme was confusing and the goal unclear in the beginning.
Cosine
22. Apr 2015 · 20:09 UTC
I loved it! I really liked the difficulty level: hard to catch on but really satisfying once I could do it reliably. I noticed you said you used vector graphics: does that mean you couldn't have thrown in a maximize button? The graphics were quite nice. Really satisfying game. 90-30 :)
Solifuge
22. Apr 2015 · 20:29 UTC
Solid arcade style game, and for the compo no less! Does your engine natively use Vector Graphics, because that's pretty swanky. The core mechanic and graphical effects felt good to use, though the recharge time made it pretty tough to really defend yourself, or kill drones, or whatever heinous thing I was doing. Maybe longer but individual recharges for each direction's bumper would be nice, so you could strategize and make more meaningful choices? Speaking of whatever heinous thing I was doing, I liked how In Media Res the game's framing/narrative was too; I had no idea if I was a good guy or a bad guy, and as a player felt like a robot mindlessly euthenizing other robots. Good stuff!
mildmojo
23. Apr 2015 · 07:17 UTC
This is nifty. It sort of like extracting table nudges from pinball and making it into its own game. The thumping felt great (though it took me a bit to realize I wanted to shove fro the opposite side from my target) and your font selection was time well-spent. =)

I think I let everyone escape from that bottom left corner. Never figured out how to angle them into those tiny diagonal death boxes.

Clean design, good feel. Nice work.
Sublustris
23. Apr 2015 · 19:34 UTC
Nice idea )))
Wevel
23. Apr 2015 · 19:51 UTC
It seems a bit confusing how you euthanize a drone but other wise a nice game
Junber
23. Apr 2015 · 20:00 UTC
Cool game. Good concept and nice visuals. I would be a bit easier to understand the to understand the controls (and mor logical?) if they were reversed but you get used to it very quickly.
Butkeim
23. Apr 2015 · 20:11 UTC
Nice graphics, innovative gameplay, good job ;)
StrayByte
23. Apr 2015 · 22:18 UTC
I like the idea but it seems that it's quite random to get the guys in the killzones. probably would have been better to have more control over it. Good job anyway!
LD_LAN_Party
23. Apr 2015 · 22:26 UTC
Quite interesting mechanic.
josefnpat
24. Apr 2015 · 03:42 UTC
I love the polish and juice for this game, but I did feel left a rather bit helpless as to how I really could prevent my self from losing or help myself to win.

Clean up the gameplay so your actions have more of an effect on the game!

Really nice job!
taviandir
25. Apr 2015 · 14:26 UTC
Once I understood it, it was very interesting! Great entry!
Shivur
25. Apr 2015 · 15:45 UTC
Interesting
GlowingSnail
25. Apr 2015 · 17:19 UTC
Larger killzones, slower drones, or faster thumper reload would make it less random.
reheated
26. Apr 2015 · 09:18 UTC
Pretty fun! The rams do feel thouroughly meaty. Is there any way to... not.. survive the onslaught?
jprogman
26. Apr 2015 · 22:06 UTC
Definitely a unique game. Glad I wasn't too obligated to destroy every drone. That would be agonizing.

Pretty cool game, but I do wish for an ability to change to a smaller non-widescreen resolution though.
KaiseanGames
28. Apr 2015 · 20:42 UTC
Like others said, seems too accidental or drones enter the kill field and do not die. Otherwise, it's a nice concept. Just needs a bit more refining.

Well done.
Rialgar
28. Apr 2015 · 22:33 UTC
See me playing your game here: http://youtu.be/ilOi8hU84ZE

very unusual game mechanic. It works perfectly. The execution is flawless. The playing field looks like a screen, so I feel like I am playing a game inside the game. The upper rams jammed once, maybe it was part of the game, made it much harder in any case.