Parasite by alpha_rat

[raw]
made by alpha_rat for LD32 (JAM)
Team : alpha_rat(development) + -DEX- (sounds and music)
Engine : Construct2 / HTML5
Graphics : Photoshop

GOAL : Infest the Queen Ant
CONTROLS : use arrow keys to move your host, press space to change your host when in range
WARNING : change your host often, as it won't survive your infestation for long! and beware of the ant guards

Notes :
- the behavior of the guards is still buggy

Thanks for playing

Ratings

Coolness 69% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.10 615
Audio(Jam) 3.05 384
Fun(Jam) 3.16 449
Graphics(Jam) 3.21 552
Humor(Jam) 2.09 855
Innovation(Jam) 3.13 489
Mood(Jam) 3.00 549
Theme(Jam) 3.34 527

Feedback

Backlund
21. Apr 2015 路 11:22 UTC
Not bad at all
kyyrma
21. Apr 2015 路 11:26 UTC
If you miss infecting an ant in the beginning (press space without an ant in vicinity) the delay until the game restarts is a tad too long. I made it to the queen, but for whatever reason I was no able to infect her. Cool take on the theme!
馃帳 alpha_rat
21. Apr 2015 路 11:41 UTC
@kyyrma : It's true that at start when the parasite is dropped it should be possible to restart quickly without waiting. Thanks for reporting the problem with the queen as I didn't noticed anything similar so far, i'll try to fix it ;)
benbateman
21. Apr 2015 路 11:46 UTC
Nice idea and visuals. The cooldown felt a bit too fast, but maybe I just suck at games!
wg_phancock
21. Apr 2015 路 11:46 UTC
Seems to have a few bugs, and is kind of a little wonky. The concept is interesting, though.
BraindeadGeo
21. Apr 2015 路 11:47 UTC
Tricky to see what you're actually controlling at the start but when i got past that it was good, got into a nice rhythm of swapping ants! Green ones weren't much of a threat though.
Suvidriel
21. Apr 2015 路 11:48 UTC
Nice idea :D Really difficult though.
Mathieu Muller
21. Apr 2015 路 11:53 UTC
Fun game, good controls.
gene-z
21. Apr 2015 路 12:47 UTC
Very nice game,,, congrats
pkenney
21. Apr 2015 路 13:15 UTC
Cool idea and style. This was interesting to play around with.

One problem I had when playing is learning about how the meter works. I must move quickly. The effect on the ant that I control is visually subtle, so my eyes are busy constantly scanning, and because I move down they are looking on the bottom half of the screen. But the timer is a thin strip of pixels near the top of the screen. I really was unaware of the value of the timer while playing, and as a result it took me a while to learn that changing hosts only filled it a little. I originally assumed it was a host-death timer that fully reset each time I changed, and didn't know why I was dying.

A few ways to fix that would be moving the meter down, making it bigger, or even better having an effect on my character itself instead of a meter. There could also be a warning as I approach death such as a sound or visual effect. Also making the one ant I control more visually distinct from the rest would help me.

Overall this was fun, you have an interesting system to explore and the challenge level is right. Nice work!
馃帳 alpha_rat
21. Apr 2015 路 13:21 UTC
@pkenny : thank you for the feedback! I perfectly see your point, and your critic is very useful :) I'll correct this in the post-LD version of the game.
-DEX-
21. Apr 2015 路 15:08 UTC
Thanks for all the feedbacks , i'm glad our game is worth time :)
Yazara
21. Apr 2015 路 19:19 UTC
The concept is really clever, the gameplay has a great flow and is really addicting. The music and art fit the theme very well :)
I would make the radius in which you can infest other ants more clear though, the light emission gives a wrong feeling of that radius.
mikomic
21. Apr 2015 路 23:27 UTC
always cool, love your games (ici une amie de l'ombre ;-) )
MaesK
22. Apr 2015 路 10:36 UTC
Nice game, but a little too hard at the start. Maybe some previous levels to learn might help people to get the controls and mechanics. Fun game, good work.
Clavus
22. Apr 2015 路 11:09 UTC
Pretty hectic gameplay but interesting concept. Nice art!
mantis
22. Apr 2015 路 11:12 UTC
REALLY cool idea. loved it. Would love to see this expanded into a full game.
Sergi Montaner
22. Apr 2015 路 12:07 UTC
I like the balance of the difficulty in that game.
I couldn't keep track on the health and the game at the same time, so maybe the meter/health/whatever should be displayed over the infected ant?
retrophantom
22. Apr 2015 路 12:33 UTC
very interesting idea, i went all the way down but didn't find an entrance to the queen
馃帳 alpha_rat
22. Apr 2015 路 12:50 UTC
@retrophantom : If you go all the way down and see the queen room, then you have to take the passage on the right, then bottom again, and you're there ;)
ker0chan
23. Apr 2015 路 11:00 UTC
Great idea :) Good job on finishing a jam project !
Franklin's Ghost
27. Apr 2015 路 14:10 UTC
This was quite addictive. I think I died about 30 times before I finally got to the queen but I just couldn't stop playing until I completed it. The quick restarts really helped pull the player in for just one more game. Nice job.
PaperBlurt
06. May 2015 路 09:21 UTC
A nice game, but a bit hard to undertand what I should do, sounds and music added a lot to the game.
ohsqueezy
09. May 2015 路 05:57 UTC
skull burrower