Chroma Watcher by Drauthius

[raw]
made by Drauthius for LD32 (JAM)
= Game =

Chroma Watcher is a game about neutralizing a radioactive threat with a special-purpose gun. The aim is to match colours while trying to stay alive.

*WARNING* The game is very hard until you've memorized the jump distance, and the location and combination of colours, so don't give up too early! :)

= Tips =

1. If you have time, try the game as it's meant to be played. You will die a lot at the beginning, but after a while it will get easier. If you don't have a lot of time, keep reading.
2. Jumping needs to be timed quite carefully, since the snail doesn't float a lot. Every jump is possible, it just has to be pretty late and not early. Also, when falling from a high cliff, DON'T jump. The randomiser will only generate one hole and then a platform, so just trust the randomiser and free-fall to safety.
3. Don't like jumping? That's fine! Just try to get to a "step" going upwards and get stuck there and focus on shooting and getting the colours right. There is (currently) no penalty or repercussion of doing this.

Most of all, we want to thank you for playing our game, and hope you enjoy it. :)

= Background =

My girlfriend and I made this game together, and like many others, this is our first Ludum Dare. We had a bit of a problem thinking of a good game to match the theme, since we didn't want to do anything overly violent. This is the result.

= Tools =
Code: Lua & LÖVE 0.9.1
Graphics: Adobe Photoshop

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.15 574
Fun(Jam) 2.83 661
Graphics(Jam) 3.31 514
Humor(Jam) 2.69 590
Innovation(Jam) 3.46 282
Mood(Jam) 2.91 627
Theme(Jam) 3.45 443

Feedback

frosty
21. Apr 2015 · 05:50 UTC
Neat concept. I like the snail design and the colorful death explosion. =) It's pretty unforgiving, though... I don't think I lasted more than a few seconds at a time. Congrats on finishing!
thecord
21. Apr 2015 · 11:39 UTC
Cool game, but extremely hard
manabreak
21. Apr 2015 · 15:27 UTC
Congrats on your first LD game, both of you! A nice concept and neat graphics, but really difficult to play. :p
Glitchy Pixel
21. Apr 2015 · 16:14 UTC
Its really cool, I liked it :). But its very difficult to play.

Having to think in platforming, forming colors and shooting, all at the same time is really complex.

Maybe getting rid of one of the mechanis would help out a lot (I think maybe the platforming might not be necessary).

Nice game though, cheers!
🎤 Drauthius
21. Apr 2015 · 16:28 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! I have a really big problem balancing games, especially after I've played it a few hundred times trying to get it to feel and look right - I could probably play it in my sleep by now. I should probably get some more play testers before submitting next time. :) Also, it doesn't help that I like games with a high "skill cap". Not very suitable for LD when people only have a few minutes for each game.
boateye
21. Apr 2015 · 18:05 UTC
not sure why, but when i tried jumping, my character flew off the top of the screen and never came back down. I couldn't play the game because of it.
nihilaleph
21. Apr 2015 · 18:41 UTC
Very cool game! I loved the art and the concept!
Like everyone else, the game feels very difficult xp I die by jumping wrong even when there is nothing to shoot at.... maybe I just suck at it kkkk
Congrats!
wilsk
21. Apr 2015 · 19:08 UTC
Wow... fun but as others say quite hard!
plams
21. Apr 2015 · 19:43 UTC
It's really hard and confusing to begin with, but then you get the hang of it and it gets really fun. Nice touch that it saves your highscore :) 213 points is the best I could do.
commodoreKid
21. Apr 2015 · 20:03 UTC
It's a good mechanic but too damn hard :D I would have to play quite long to get used to the combinations. You can get over this by making it only primary colors at the beginning and gradually increasing the difficulty.
🎤 Drauthius
21. Apr 2015 · 21:14 UTC
It takes a while to get used to the jump distance and timing, and thinking about a colour and jumping at the same time is the kind of challenge I liked to include! :) Good suggestion to build up the colour variation gradually, though!

boateye: never seen that happen. Shouldn't be possible, unless your computer experiences a serious lag spike at the exact time of the jump!
Fabraz
21. Apr 2015 · 21:19 UTC
Wowza. the difficulty seems unbalanced here. Cool concept!
HotBoxGames
21. Apr 2015 · 22:37 UTC
Woah that's hard. Just how I like it! XD

Good job, looks great.
lochmann-apps
22. Apr 2015 · 14:10 UTC
Nice Idea!
It is just a liitle bit to hard to handle jump and shoot both with the mouse and at the same time choosing the correct colors for all the elements flying around.
jk5000
22. Apr 2015 · 17:40 UTC
Simplify the concept and you'll have a great game. But still great idea.
Windmill Games
22. Apr 2015 · 20:02 UTC
I just wanted to let you know that your game made it into my list of top 10 games for LD32!

https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80063&p=183180#p183180
Sergi Montaner
22. Apr 2015 · 20:31 UTC
The color combination weapon is a lovely mechanic.
I think it would work well with the xbox controller and the 4 color buttons.
about the difficulty....I think its almost impossible to combine the colors, shoot and jump at the same time.
I made so little points that I wanted to skip the: "enter your name" screen.
Nice little detail of having two scores already set, soplayers have a target to defeat.
terpin
22. Apr 2015 · 20:48 UTC
Love this game, but you might want to add a tutorial level to help people figure out what they should be doing - and maybe grade the difficulty on a slope (seriously, this is one of the hardest LD games I've played today. good going!)
rjhelms
22. Apr 2015 · 20:52 UTC
I really like the idea here, and the sound and graphics are great - but it's just a bit too much to juggle at once, for me at least.

The biggest challenge for me is that the timing for the jumps is really unforgiving. If the jumps were a bit more "floaty" it would feel a lot easier.

All in all, great job. This is one of the more innovative games I've seen so far this LD.
🎤 Drauthius
22. Apr 2015 · 21:14 UTC
Thanks Windmill for including us. I'll give the other games there a try. I think your Valo/Varjo game should definitely be on that list though. :)

The difficulty is "sloped" a bit, but it does start too high, and the jump is a bit hard to get right, especially on the lower speeds. I do want to change this since everyone is having the same problems, but it's not really a bug, so I'll add a disclaimer, to warn those that are not prepared. :)
rzfmzn
22. Apr 2015 · 22:49 UTC
snail!!! :P
nice work :D
KaiseanGames
23. Apr 2015 · 06:02 UTC
The concept is great, I just think you should've focused more on the color than the platforms. I was almost completely unable to mind both the colors and avoiding holes in the ground. It was too difficult for me.

But, anyway, it's a great entry. I used color as an unconventional weapon too, you might wanna check it out and tell me what you think :)

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=44370
igoramendola
23. Apr 2015 · 06:20 UTC
Yeah, at the beginning is a little bit hard. As designer, one of the hardest things was make my brain to accept that red plus green is yellow haha xD But after a while I get used to the colour combinations and the controls. By best high score is 271, so far.
I don't mind if a game is hard, I do like challenges hehe. I think it's a very nice entry with an interesting gameplay concept, also a great first participation. Congrats to you both! :D
Embalaje
23. Apr 2015 · 07:31 UTC
Very nice concept, and graphs!
Like I read, it´s really difficult to play, it could help to take off the gaps of the floor, so you can focus only on the colour and the enemies.
The idea is really original and I think it´s an awesome mechanic to have a hand full of colours to pick against the enemies.
Nice job!
🎤 Drauthius
23. Apr 2015 · 16:46 UTC
I added a Tips section which might help out a few people. :)
josefnpat
24. Apr 2015 · 03:45 UTC
Solid mechanics, and the gameplay felt smooth! Perhaps it would be nice to have multiple levels to ease the player into the difficulty! Nice job! Love the top-score screen feature as well!
Os_Reboot
30. Apr 2015 · 04:30 UTC
Great job! The difficulty was a little intense, it would have been better with slightly less targets. Sometimes the jumps spawn far apart, and it is tough to focus on both shooting and jumping. I love the sound and graphics! This game had a mood like no other!
TyrusPeace
30. Apr 2015 · 04:51 UTC
Excellent music choice!

I was _very_ intimidated by the title screen, but the gameplay wasn't all that complicated, and I had a good time. Cool idea! The jump was pretty brutally short, though. The game may have been more pleasing if the jumps were less tough. Then the player could concentrate on your cool color mechanics!
Arche-san
02. May 2015 · 11:07 UTC
I love the concept! It's a bit hard at the beginning to focus on mixing up colors and move with the snail at the same time.

We've got the same idea to mix up colors as a weapon but with different gameplay (this is the "magic of Ludum Dare"). Good work! :)
Justin Mullin
02. May 2015 · 19:41 UTC
Very neat game - as seems to be consensus, it's extremely difficult, but fun to play. I think I prefer the color matching and shooting to the jumping game, but it's a unique challenge to try to do both at once.