Cooper 32 vs. Doctor Dynamo by rnlf
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POST COMPO VERSION
So, I added a post compo version that fixes some of the annoyances in the original release:
- Doubled the number of checkpoints
- Defused some of the most difficult jumps
- Gave the player a 500ms delay between the time a guard changes his viewing direction and the player actually being detected
- Added more scripted events
- Fixed the "Super-Mario-Bros-Type" skip-half-the-level bug
Please rate the original version, but if you want to have a less frustrating time with the game, here you go!
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Cooper 32 is the top field operative of an undisclosed secret service.
The service found out that the super villain Doctor Dynamo is planning to bomb big cities all over the world. The villain is hiding in his secret volcanic hideout (as such people usually do) and Cooper has to blow the base (including the volcano, most likely) up. For that job, no conventional weapon would suffice, therefore he uses a mini nuke.
Can Cooper 32 sneak into the base undetected, plant the bomb and return to his safe hiding spot to free the world from Doctor Dynamo's menace? FIND OUT INSIDE!
Controls: Arrow keys to move, Up or X to jump. That's it.
You should watch the intro to find out what you're supposed to do, but you can skip it by just running ahead if you like.
The game is relatively difficult, there are some checkpoints along the way to lower your rage levels.
I almost finished everything I had planned, but I spent too much time on level and graphics design, so in the end I had to cut down on some nice-to-have features (there are no sweet particle effects, for example).
The game might glitch from time to time because I ran out of time for playtesting, but it should usually run just fine!
Enjoy!
Known Bugs/Issues:
* There is one think in the game that can be a bit unnerving: When one of the guards changes the direction he looks in and sees you there, you will get told that you have been detected but it looks like he actually didn't. But trust me, the detection is relatively solid. Just the presentation of this is a bit disappointing. I planned to have them show their field of view in red once you are detected, but you know how times runs a few hour before submission hour :3
* You can skip part of the level on your way back in a Super Mario Bros. kind of way. Let's just say that was intentional, okay? *coughs*
POST COMPO VERSION
So, I added a post compo version that fixes some of the annoyances in the original release:
- Doubled the number of checkpoints
- Defused some of the most difficult jumps
- Gave the player a 500ms delay between the time a guard changes his viewing direction and the player actually being detected
- Added more scripted events
- Fixed the "Super-Mario-Bros-Type" skip-half-the-level bug
Please rate the original version, but if you want to have a less frustrating time with the game, here you go!
******************
Cooper 32 is the top field operative of an undisclosed secret service.
The service found out that the super villain Doctor Dynamo is planning to bomb big cities all over the world. The villain is hiding in his secret volcanic hideout (as such people usually do) and Cooper has to blow the base (including the volcano, most likely) up. For that job, no conventional weapon would suffice, therefore he uses a mini nuke.
Can Cooper 32 sneak into the base undetected, plant the bomb and return to his safe hiding spot to free the world from Doctor Dynamo's menace? FIND OUT INSIDE!
Controls: Arrow keys to move, Up or X to jump. That's it.
You should watch the intro to find out what you're supposed to do, but you can skip it by just running ahead if you like.
The game is relatively difficult, there are some checkpoints along the way to lower your rage levels.
I almost finished everything I had planned, but I spent too much time on level and graphics design, so in the end I had to cut down on some nice-to-have features (there are no sweet particle effects, for example).
The game might glitch from time to time because I ran out of time for playtesting, but it should usually run just fine!
Enjoy!
Known Bugs/Issues:
* There is one think in the game that can be a bit unnerving: When one of the guards changes the direction he looks in and sees you there, you will get told that you have been detected but it looks like he actually didn't. But trust me, the detection is relatively solid. Just the presentation of this is a bit disappointing. I planned to have them show their field of view in red once you are detected, but you know how times runs a few hour before submission hour :3
* You can skip part of the level on your way back in a Super Mario Bros. kind of way. Let's just say that was intentional, okay? *coughs*
| .love (Linux, Win, Mac, Source; requires Love2D > 0.9.1) | http://www.base13.de/ld32-rnlf-cooper32.love |
| Windows (includes Love2D 0.9.2) | http://www.base13.de/ld32-rnlf-cooper32.zip |
| MacOS X (thanks Tijn!) | http://www.base13.de/ld32-rnlf-cooper32.app.zip |
| Post Compo Version | http://www.base13.de/cooper32-postcompo.html |
| Postmortem (Long!) | http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/04/22/cooper-32-vs-doctor-dynamo-postmortem/ |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=30930 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 75% | 2 |
| Overall | 3.45 | 305 |
| Audio | 3.24 | 248 |
| Fun | 3.40 | 270 |
| Graphics | 3.77 | 173 |
| Humor | 2.79 | 494 |
| Innovation | 2.40 | 983 |
| Mood | 3.35 | 234 |
| Theme | 2.40 | 1041 |
The only gameplay issue I ran into is the camera; often you can't see what's behind you unless you wait for several seconds, which can be deadly in a game like this. I also wasn't able to see below me beyond the default camera setting, which is something that really would've helped out (is there ground below here or lava?).
The first half music wasn't very interesting, but aside from that the audio was solid. Graphics were likewise solid and clear.
I felt the relation to the theme was rather weak, and the game isn't really doing anything that hasn't been done plenty of times before, but otherwise it's an excellent game.
I've placed the bomb and I'm on my way back. But how the hell do I pass that solid laser beam? I'm trying to go up, but the jump seems impossible. How do I do this?
PS. It's possible to sequence break the game somewhat by jumping up into the escape route inside the base before you've set the bomb, and this can pose a problem if it then triggers the checkpoint beyond that point and you try to go back the right way.
- loved the game!
- collisions were really good
- movement was really good
- the story was good, i liked the way the text came up, and I just want to thank you for not making a sound effect for each letter, and the intro at the beginning made me laugh
- speaking of sound, the music and sound effects were perfect
- it was challenging but not impossible, great balance
- great job on all the different elements: guards, lava, lazers, and just platform difficulty
The Bad:
- the view triangle for the guards looked pretty wonky
- it would be great to be able to skip the death "cutscene" by pressing enter or something
The Ugly:
- nothing, everything worked great on my Mac
Way to go! This is probably one of the better put-together games I've played so far. GO LD32!
I unfortunately didn't make it very far, I think the frequent deaths combined with the long pause of unskippable text was the main factor to it becoming more frustrating than fun quite quickly.
I do appreciate the game had a lot more to it than what I saw (I was following your posts during the compo); I'll likely revisit it or try the post-compo version later on.
Beat the compo version. Lots of fun! I did get a bit frustrated with the difficulty of some of those jumps.
A lot of my criticisms of the game look like they're being addressed in the post-compo version. Keep up the good work!
One simple way to improve the game would be to have some in-game instrucion on the controls. It's not that they weren't easy to guess, but still :)
I know you were looking a lot into music and trying to do better this LD. One thing I notice about your melody is that its pretty similar to ones I come up when I'm sitting at a piano and they just feel like a dead end to me. One way to get around this is to take one note in your melody, an then when leaving it go a different direction. So taking your main melody for example. It goes something like do-re-do-ti-la-ti-sol [...] (probably not perfect), if you don't know solfege just match the notes. Instead of going down from the ti I might go up instead. So do-re-do-ti-re-sol [...], just play around with it until you get something you like. Even if you don't like what you have, just keep playing around with it. Dunno if this helps or was coherent, but hopefully it will help give you ideas.
Sound effects were bfxr so I won't comment on them. They matched the game so thats a plus. If you want tips on pther things to do with the sound effects feel free to ask in IRC.
Very well done :)
Most of the time, I got the warning messages when it was already too late. Gotta go fast.
It's got a cozy style overall, I had a bit of a DOS game flashback. The best part was the way the stealth style changed into speedrunning during the escape. But I was hoping for some twist to really tie this into the theme, it's quite vanilla for a platformer.