the name of the game is grab by fserb

[raw]
made by fserb for LD32 (COMPO)
Instructions: Grab ghosts, avoid getting hit.

arrows/WASD/ZQSD/,AOE : Move around
mouse move/click: Grab

For a while, I've been trying to bring some League of Legends mechanics into smaller games, and Ludum Dare seemed like the ideal opportunity to do so. One of the funniest characters to play in LOL is Blitzcrank, so I knew the mechanics were solid: hooking things is fun. There's also the counter side of having to stand still while hooking which makes one vulnerable if the hook misses.

After the core mechanic was chosen, most of the work went on the enemies. Each enemy has a slightly different AI. Pink rotates its bullet around itself, so it tries to always stay the same distance from you; Yellow always tries to stay as far from you as possible, shooting from time to time; Purple throws a bullet in your direction, and moves there to grab it back; Blue just tries to dodge the hooks and counter-shoots you.

Another interesting part of the game is how every time you kill a ghost, you stay with the other three ghosts (and the BG changes), as if each set of 3 ghosts is kinda a different game. I think this could be explored further in other games.

Ratings

Coolness 66% 3
Overall 3.46 296
Audio 2.38 679
Fun 3.61 169
Graphics 3.20 452
Humor 2.34 753
Innovation 3.65 209
Mood 3.16 362
Theme 3.33 552

Feedback

bace1000
19. Apr 2015 · 20:49 UTC
Fun concept, and certainly an unconventional weapon! Feels a bit empty without background audio or particles, but has a good challenge and nice graphics.
TheBigShot
20. Apr 2015 · 02:56 UTC
One of My favorite entries so far. Its very simplistic but it has a very nice feel to it. I love the death animation and the screen shake. They are both very subtle. The only thing tats missing is perhaps a nice background soundtrack. Other than that veyr well done.
mcmahoniel
20. Apr 2015 · 03:01 UTC
It looks great. It would make a great mobile game.
Jezzamon
20. Apr 2015 · 03:02 UTC
Very nice game visually!

I think it needs something more to keep my attention, some extra mechanic or goal, or something that shows my progress across games.

Nice job!
tentabrobpy
20. Apr 2015 · 03:15 UTC
Nice game! The simple graphics aren't too impressive at first but the way you use colors here is pretty cool! Being bad at videogames, I only got a score of 7, but it was fun nonetheless!
davidcmcdonald
20. Apr 2015 · 03:16 UTC
very quick and responsive game, i love how you have coded this thing to work well online. the game was hard until i read the instructions and i realized i could move around hahhaha. good work
Cherrymochi
20. Apr 2015 · 03:16 UTC
It&s very simple but I had fun playing this. good job!
winmac32
20. Apr 2015 · 03:20 UTC
Simple and to the point, but lots of fun. Nifty graphics. A little more sound would be nice.
dalbinblue
20. Apr 2015 · 03:39 UTC
After over a dozen tries, I could still only get 6 points; I usually got hit the moment I miss a pull or on a successful pull it would move me just far enough to be in an enemy's line of sight. Perhaps a small grace period with movement would fix this case. Despite these issue, I did however enjoy the game.
Leandrus
20. Apr 2015 · 04:36 UTC
Nice game.
It needs something else, i quit it too fast.
Thanks for sharing.
From Smiling
20. Apr 2015 · 05:05 UTC
It's definitely interesting, with a nice graphical feel. It seems like it's trying to feel good, but the controls feel very constrained.
NuSan
20. Apr 2015 · 13:21 UTC
Realy fun to play. I like that you can traverse bullet from the color your grabing, and that enemy shoot when his bullet go offscreen, so you can predict that. The difficulty curve is hard though, passing by 7/8 kill is challenging. Keep up the good work!
Zielak
20. Apr 2015 · 16:25 UTC
Good game that requires good timing! Also, nice game over screen transition.
RokB
20. Apr 2015 · 19:49 UTC
Pretty fun. It's simple but in a very good way. I can see this being a really awesome mobile game.
RadStar
21. Apr 2015 · 08:48 UTC
Pretty good and simple game! I like it, can't stop for triing to top my score! Didn't know grabbing stuff could feel so good :p
frondeus
21. Apr 2015 · 11:29 UTC
Well done game!
Goutye
21. Apr 2015 · 23:34 UTC
Simply, but it works well. Maybe some variation? Or other idea to make this game more beautiful because the idea is really a good one!
drschizzo
22. Apr 2015 · 09:49 UTC
good simple game. I saw in your description that it is a choice but i think the gameplay might be smoother if we could catch while moving.
you seem to forget to post your source code
🎤 fserb
22. Apr 2015 · 14:25 UTC
@drschizzo, the source code link was on the game page. I'll add the link here.
Kahztein
24. Apr 2015 · 08:51 UTC
Very simple yet very fun!
dos
26. Apr 2015 · 20:36 UTC
Love the color feedback and different ghost mechanics. Looks really smooth!
SaintHeiser
27. Apr 2015 · 07:52 UTC
Very adictive game with strange rules...
ehtd
29. Apr 2015 · 02:40 UTC
Good, but felt it is missing something.
RockhopperGames
30. Apr 2015 · 13:01 UTC
Superb visual style, and surprisingly fun gameplay! I like how the ghosts seem to work on a similar system to the player, having to retrieve their attacks before firing again. Excellent work for the time available!
MrShoestore
02. May 2015 · 15:10 UTC
This is a pretty good little game and i had a lot of fun playing it.
FrozenCow
04. May 2015 · 21:43 UTC
I really like the style and concept of this game. Simple and effective. The animation when you die is a nice example, simple but really nice looking.
tvalentius
05. May 2015 · 10:59 UTC
Nice game and i really love the minimalist concept of the game!
Namide
06. May 2015 · 14:49 UTC
Very interesting concept, so addictive!
I like the sounds, the colors and the transitions!
01101101
06. May 2015 · 15:39 UTC
Very smooth, colourful and not that easy! Congrats on a polished and fun entry! :)
jmborden
07. May 2015 · 16:52 UTC
Well done leaderboard.
Jupiter_Hadley
11. May 2015 · 15:19 UTC
Colorful, addictive, and very fun. I included it in part 9 of my Ludum Dare 32 compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/eqkTJc6zIls