What Have We Created?! by Ranmara

[raw]
made by Ranmara for LD32 (JAM)
No really, what have we created?!

Perhaps the world is simply not yet ready for our genius. The called us fools! FOOLS! Their lack of vision will finally be their undoing when they face the might of our LAB GROWN GENETIC ABERRATION OF ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION!!

Using the power of SCIENCE you can now create your own monster, and set it loose upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of the city below. See its fire breath as it brings burning oblivion to your enemies. Watch as it topples the tallest tower block. Gasp as bullets deflect off its mighty armour.

Warfare will never be the same again once the most UNCONVENTIONAL WEAPON of all has been unleashed! How long will it survive before the pitiful weapons of mankind bring it to its knee/s?

Programming/Design - Alex Greenwood
Music/Sound - Becky Conning
Art - Samantha Turner

Made using Unity 5, Inkscape, Ableton Live.

If you like the game but want to play a more polished version, here is a link to our ongoing development build. Thanks . http://ranmara.itch.io/what-have-we-created-postld

Edit 21/04/2015 :- Added credits and downloadable link for those who can't play on web.
Edit 2 21/04/2015 :- Added ongoing development link.

Ratings

Coolness 69% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.41 346
Audio(Jam) 3.38 232
Fun(Jam) 3.13 473
Graphics(Jam) 3.59 361
Humor(Jam) 3.39 258
Innovation(Jam) 3.83 97
Mood(Jam) 3.31 343
Theme(Jam) 3.73 252

Feedback

fixedgerald
21. Apr 2015 · 01:22 UTC
Very cool idea, but confusing building mechanics. I cant seem to figure out how make a working monster. The pieces I'm allowed to use are randomly picked and I cant delete a piece I have placed.
mortus
21. Apr 2015 · 08:25 UTC
Fantastic! I just love such games where you can create something monstrous using basic parts! Will make sure to get back to it and have more fun.
Suvidriel
21. Apr 2015 · 11:57 UTC
Awesome idea :D
Agram
21. Apr 2015 · 11:59 UTC
Very original and fun idea. Great job !
DesignerNap
21. Apr 2015 · 14:44 UTC
High marks for this one :D A bit random on the construction but really good fun to watch. Some minor control over the character would be great. Excellent work
alpha_rat
21. Apr 2015 · 15:29 UTC
one of my favourite entries so far, great job !
ManicMiner
21. Apr 2015 · 16:34 UTC
Far and away my favourite game, not just of this jam, but that I've played this year - nearly perfect in every way!
MasterOfNaN
21. Apr 2015 · 19:50 UTC
Very nicely put together. My only minor criticism is that the monster battle stage can be quite long and slow to progress, given the lack of interaction. Nice work!
zwartraider
21. Apr 2015 · 19:51 UTC
This is a really cool original concept! Building a monster out of random parts and then unleashing it on a city is quite fun!I also like the look of the lab, but I'm just a sucker for liquid tanks and wires :)
ObscenelyTrue
21. Apr 2015 · 20:13 UTC
Excellent concept! A lot of fun...
Roysterini
21. Apr 2015 · 22:32 UTC
Love the concept and the deranged happy face of the creature that is created.
I too found the building of the creature a bit cumbersome, but got there in the end.
Demolish 8 building and lasted just short of 3 minutes.

Big thumbs up!
tentabrobpy
21. Apr 2015 · 22:36 UTC
Could you add a windows standalone version? Web player is funky on chrome :(
HotBoxGames
21. Apr 2015 · 22:42 UTC
Really original, nice one! :)
peejaygee
21. Apr 2015 · 23:32 UTC
Fun game once I got a grasp of what I was supposed to do. Reminded me of a variation of Rampage
Horsed
22. Apr 2015 · 13:41 UTC
I can't pick any body part. I can flush the tanks and get new parts but I the can't be moved to the plugging-are :-(
TTFTCUTS
22. Apr 2015 · 14:22 UTC
Randomness of parts was frustrating, but otherwise really neat.
Bensonance
22. Apr 2015 · 14:23 UTC
Very cool "Miami-like" game. The bullets blend in a lot with the brown tilesets, an issue of their tonal values, but otherwise an admirable Ludum Dare entry
Wevel
22. Apr 2015 · 17:36 UTC
It would be nice to have a bit more control over making the monster
Deity
23. Apr 2015 · 04:06 UTC
Very cool concept and the graphics look good.

The implementation of creating your character was a bit frustrating though. An 'undo' last attachment would be good. Also, getting the right part with the "Flush" option seemed a bit like the lottery and I would have preferred a scrollable list instead.
jhell
23. Apr 2015 · 10:59 UTC
Really cool, it took me a few tries, but I finally managed to down 1 building x). One gripe I have is that in the green tubes, we don't see the outlines of the blocks well enough, so sometimes it's hard to understand why a block won't fit where we want it to.

Liked it!
🎤 Ranmara
24. Apr 2015 · 22:24 UTC
Hi, thanks for the feedback. As is the nature of LD, there was a lot we wanted to do with the game that we didn't have time to do during the jam. I've found time to do a little bit of bug fixing since then, including weighting the tiles so that the most useful ones are more common and making there more of an indication of how they should fit together. Play the latest version here http://ranmara.itch.io/what-have-we-created-postld
Benjamin
25. Apr 2015 · 09:36 UTC
Once you destory the front buildings, no more red windows appears... My mosnter is still wreaking havoc as I type this :) The concept is really fun I love it.
The problem is you want claws as low as possible because most buildings are small one. So the higher the claw the less efficient it is. It spoils a bit the build mechanic.

Also at some points, building dont play their fall animations when they collapse and just vanish.
reiknight
25. Apr 2015 · 09:41 UTC
I liked your idea! The monster "pieces" placement seems very confusing to me. I think you need to add some kind of "highlight" to the positions that are correct. Good job!
CScribes
26. Apr 2015 · 05:14 UTC
Loved it! Such a cute face for an evil abomination xD!
xbcw
26. Apr 2015 · 16:15 UTC
That was fun. I would have liked a free mode where you can build whatever you want with unlimited pieces.
Danman9914
26. Apr 2015 · 19:08 UTC
The monster building was a little janky; it was hard to tell which pieces fit together and how to attach legs. Despite that, this is my favorite game of the jam so far. The art and music are fantastic and watching your creation tear down the city is humorous and satisfying.
mildmojo
26. Apr 2015 · 19:52 UTC
Cool idea.

The monster building part was nice, though it was difficult to tell by looking at a piece which way it would attack. I understand the green border system, but it didn't quite communicate enough to me. Pushing the armor art more toward the edge of the tile might help.

I had a really hard time using the parts I rolled to make a monster with more than one leg. The minimum height of a leg plus the armor block joining it to the body means you can't effectively attack short buildings. When I finally built a monster that had enough pincers to do some damage, I spawned in a city that was mostly short houses that I couldn't reach. It might help to have the city be all tall buildings, like Rampage.

The art and animation was good. The lab screen served its purpose, though it could use a little more polish and maybe some animation. I'm glad I was able to re-roll the available monster parts, but it often took too long to find what I needed.

I think a better strategy for the grid would be to allow you to place monster parts anywhere and remove them on the fly. When you hit "launch", any disconnected parts could just fall off. There were a bunch of times when I knew where I wanted to use a part, but I didn't have the intervening parts to get there yet. I wanted to place the part in the monster grid and use later parts to build the connections.

The text and the UI could be dressed up a bit. Using a non-system font would go a long way, and Unity's new UI system is really nice for creating good-looking HUDs.

Once you get a monster built, it's satisfying to see them tear through the city (at least when they have enough teeth). The "build it and watch it go" element is fun to play with, and you could spend a lot of time designing monsters if you didn't have the supply limit in place.

Nice work on the art and the monster building in general, though. That's a lot to get done in a short period.
Dining Philosopher
27. Apr 2015 · 00:58 UTC
I had fun builing my monster and watching it destroy the buildings, although it took a bit long. Nice graphics!