I just wanna go to work! by Xatulu

[raw]
made by Xatulu for LD32 (COMPO)
So, after almost a year of absence, i submit a game again.
This time, it's a simple walking simulator.

Your goal is to get to your workplace and get home again. On the way you might encounter bullies.

To protect yourself, you call upon the mightiest of weapons - the Pocketsand!
Throw it at the bullies to make em go away and let you advance to your working place.

Some features:
- Basic UI that tracks your Health, Sand and Karma
- Multiple (textual) Endings based on your Karma
- 4 Action-Packed Levels filled with NPCs
- Day and Night Cycle
- Graphics like WatchDogs (What you expect vs. What you get)
- Emotiondriven Story of Love and Betrayal
- Pocket Sand!
- 8 Minutes of completly original Soundtrack

Some of the above features may be hilariously overhyped.

Basic Controls:
Movement - WASD / Arrows
Attack - F
Jump - Space
Start the game / Skip Cutscene - Enter

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.49 1058
Audio 3.06 361
Fun 2.38 989
Graphics 2.35 943
Humor 2.78 504
Innovation 2.21 1035
Mood 2.69 755
Theme 3.08 769

Feedback

Bergara
24. Apr 2015 · 05:35 UTC
They gameplay is very linear and the movements felt very sluggish, but apart from that, I love it. I love the idea behind it. Something similar happened recently in my life, so your game really touched me, thank you.
BTW, it's funny how you can still jump and throw sand during the final texts =)
zorfmorf
25. Apr 2015 · 10:08 UTC
Made it to work and back home again. I had hoped for some kind of office romance between your guy and mary, but well what can you do.

Had some real lag issues at the beginning when jumping but I was able to fix that by making the browser window very very small. The sand mechanic is a little bit weird to be honest but it's definitely an usual weapon. The music really stood out!
steboots
03. May 2015 · 20:22 UTC
Didn't experience lag, experienced the ease of getting to work and back. I got hit a few times, but it wasn't a big deal once I figured out the timing of hitting people with sand and never stop moving. Best feature of this was the music, 5 star for that.
Jacic
03. May 2015 · 22:05 UTC
Fun idea, but the physics need work.
CiderPunk
03. May 2015 · 22:31 UTC
Easily the best sand-based combat platformer of the compo, well done! You're acceleration values could have been a bit higher to make the game feel a bit more responsive, those stairs were annoying!
L0N3 W0LF
03. May 2015 · 22:47 UTC
hahaha fun little game, damn bullies
alyphen
04. May 2015 · 02:31 UTC
It was pretty fun, I guess. The art needs work, but the mechanic is fine. The physics didn't seem all that bad compared to some of the others I've played. Would be nice to have to be more conservative with sand - felt too easy.
MrRoboman
04. May 2015 · 03:08 UTC
Oh man, I actually made it home! I was out of sand after blinding throwing it all out in the dark because who knows what kind of bullies are creepin in there. Nice game.
Controls felt sluggish and the camera could lead the player a little more.
Keep up the good work!
gnx
04. May 2015 · 04:35 UTC
Ah, slow movement combined with inertia of a small planet :D
Despite the "shortcomings", I think I got the spirit of the game. The standout is easily the score, which possesses just the right kind of dramatic banality to go with every scene of sand throwing -based carnage this game has to offer.
jhell
04. May 2015 · 08:56 UTC
Well, I enjoyed this x). I only understood at the very end that you could let the green guys live. Oh well, already started to kill them all, might as well finish.

Is the music from abundant-music ;) ?
🎤 Xatulu
04. May 2015 · 09:12 UTC
@All: Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Guess i'm gonna tweak the physics in the after-LD Branch!

@jhell: Well, you get different endings depending on how many of the green guys you kill ;) (3 different endings, Bad, Neutral and Good). And yes, Music was greated by abundant-music and then rendered with some high quality soundfont :P
cmayhem
04. May 2015 · 10:21 UTC
Felt pretty easy but it was fun!
MaesK
04. May 2015 · 12:58 UTC
Nice game. Player movement might be better if it weren't a simple acceleration, because at first it moves painfully slow until it gets normal. This is really annoying when going up stairs. Good work, nevertheless, I never thought sand could be so useful :P
Saker Games
04. May 2015 · 15:14 UTC
Nice job guys. The last mission is the best. The player control is little bit hard. But overall is ok.
Jajo
04. May 2015 · 16:03 UTC
Ok graphics, very good idea. Movement a bit weird. Not too hard or too difficult. A decent game.
Fabraz
04. May 2015 · 22:12 UTC
Wat.

@Bergara - Something similar happened recently in your life?

Like... you went to Sand Inc. and threw sand to get there?

I played the entire game. Not much to it but... I played through the whole thing!
Exeneva
05. May 2015 · 07:04 UTC
Pretty linear gameplay with sluggish physics, but the setting is interesting.
caryoscelus
05. May 2015 · 15:23 UTC
Too much (repetetive) gameplay to actually check out different endings, but good to hear they do exist.

Graphics+physics gives feeling that everybody using skateboards rather than walking, so i wouldn't call this walking sim.

Also games feels somewhat cruel with annihilating mere bullies and even occasionally innocent people :D