'Hoff Time Shuffle by MurrayL

[raw]
made by MurrayL for LD31 (JAM)
By Murray Lewis (@GameDevIdeas) & David Blake (@GameDevDave)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This is the Jam build of the game, representing only a few hours work. It's very much unfinished, but we hope you enjoy playing what's available. The full game will be released as a post-Jam version within a few days, featuring a time-travelling storyline and 100% more David Hasselhoff.

For now, enjoy playing with the time machine, such as it is. You can pull up a list of dates using the '?' button on the right-hand side of the time machine interface.

I suggest you try to complete the 1648 scenario for a good taste of what's in store. Can you defeat the marauding (yet eloquent) Royalist soldier?

CLUE: Remember you have a time machine. Think laterally.

* * *

DESCRIPTION:

In this game, you play as Dorian - a scientist who has invented a time machine. The entire game is 'in one screen' as, due to technical restrictions and general time-travel weirdness, Dorian can never leave the confines of the room the time machine is in.

While he originally intended to use it for good, the machinations of his neighbour, the postman, and David Hasselhoff push him over the edge. He decides on a new plan to RULE THE WORLD.

Using the time machine, he will travel to 'temporal resonance points,' where his actions will have catastrophic and far-reaching effects on the space-time continuum. He might even miss lunch.

You start the game knowing four of these temporal resonance points, which are viewable by clicking the '?' button within the time machine control panel. Tap the number into the time circuits, and hit the big red button to go!

Ratings

Coolness 61% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.44 308
Fun(Jam) 3.48 192
Graphics(Jam) 3.73 276
Humor(Jam) 3.84 56
Innovation(Jam) 3.03 509
Mood(Jam) 3.55 173
Theme(Jam) 3.03 867

Feedback

馃帳 MurrayL
08. Dec 2014 路 22:54 UTC
Sorry we couldn't get this finished on time, but rest assured there will be a fully-featured post-jam version coming very soon if you want to play more!
aeveis
09. Dec 2014 路 09:21 UTC
I like the art and the writing! I was able to pick up things in the 1648 scenario, was there anymore than that? Looks good so far!
Pickens Inc.
09. Dec 2014 路 09:24 UTC
I like it! Alas, I'm terrible at point and clicks, so it took me a while to figure things out! I like the idea of being able to type in significant dates from history and having them appear with a mission to do, nice aspect for a game with constant updates! 'Twas a little annoying to be locked out of my inventory every time the Royalist spoke, though, and I would say you should Opt out of being voted for audio, as (correct me if I'm wrong) I'm pretty sure that's Mcleod's music? Like the game nonetheless!
馃帳 MurrayL
09. Dec 2014 路 11:20 UTC
Aeveis - Yes, you can 'complete' the 1648 scenario by getting rid of the Royalist soldier. Thoroughly examine the room - it requires a bit of lateral thinking, and remember you have a time machine...

Pickens Inc. - Yes, sorry about the Royalist interrupting gameplay. I'll fix that in the post-jam version.
The full game will also feature a tonne of historic dates as easter eggs - I'm rather looking forward to adding them all in!

Quite right, about the audio category, too; I missed that during submission! Opted out now.
Zimennik
09. Dec 2014 路 15:35 UTC
Wow. Very interesting and fun game.
rzuf
09. Dec 2014 路 15:45 UTC
Awesome, retro point & click! I just foolowed you on twitter to check for updates on this sweet project. :3
Oh, my only complaint is music - it's too.. loud and lively for a point & click. For my taste ofc. :)
Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
09. Dec 2014 路 18:47 UTC
Beautiful art, I like the writing too! Good job you guys!
puppetmaster
09. Dec 2014 路 18:55 UTC
Well done! Loved the music and the graphics style.
TriSquare
10. Dec 2014 路 02:46 UTC
I really, really, really like the point and click genre, this brought me back to my youth, playing with my fathers old dos machine. good memories
Submundo Games
10. Dec 2014 路 09:48 UTC
nice.
SinistraGames
10. Dec 2014 路 14:41 UTC
Nice! Another adventure game, I dig it! I see you've used AGS for this. Did you like using AGS? Check out my game! I also made an adventure game, but in Unity. Tell me what you think.

I think your artstyle is pretty neat. The critique I have is that you could probably make the characters in the game a tad small. They were quite big, but that's just my opinion. Nice game anyway, good luck with your post-ld "release"!
max_peabody
10. Dec 2014 路 14:57 UTC
I think I figured out a solution, but for whatever reason I couldn't use the costume once I had it... nonetheless, what there was seems pretty fun. I look forward to the finished product.
馃帳 MurrayL
10. Dec 2014 路 15:15 UTC
SinistraGames - Thanks! It's always good to see other people making adventure games. I've used AGS for lots of projects (including two previous Ludum Dares), so I'm very comfortable with it as a tool. It has a lot of idiosyncrasies and annoyances, but it's good at what it does and it makes it very quick to get a new project up and running.
I agree with you about the characters, too. I actually drew the backgrounds to the wrong scale, and had to tell the engine to draw the characters at 150% to compensate. If you look carefully, you can see the pixels on them are slightly bigger than the pixels in the backgrounds!

max_peabody - Yes, sorry we ran out of time before I could add scripting to the final parts of that puzzle! Glad you found it, though.
EquipeJAM
10. Dec 2014 路 20:15 UTC
Good Work ^^
Elemental Zeal Games Studios
10. Dec 2014 路 21:26 UTC
Haha, this was cute. Nice job!
hissssssssss
11. Dec 2014 路 09:03 UTC
Having to manually reenter dates every time I wanted to travel somewhere was really annoying, especially since I could only scroll through the numbers one way. I was also disappointed by how little I could use or interact with things. Some objects couldn't be tried at all, for whatever reason--the cannonball, crayons and bucket. Blank canvases? Why can't I try and use the crayons on them? I just saw too many "I don't think they want that"s and "Are you mad?"s on things that seemed totally reasonable, like using the tie on yourself (to wear it, of course!).

But I can see that a lot of work was put in here, and I enjoyed the concept of what you have so far. The graphics are adorable.
馃帳 MurrayL
11. Dec 2014 路 15:07 UTC
hissssssssss - Thanks for the feedback! I'll make sure to add a two-way scroll to the digits in the post-jam version.

The lack of interactions was just a consequence of running out of time, sadly. I like to make sure almost everything has a unique interaction in an adventure game, and I'll be doing the same thing here with the full version.
ViliX64
11. Dec 2014 路 15:11 UTC
Any chance of Linux build? (Contact me on Twitter @ViliX64 if yes)
skulioskarsson
11. Dec 2014 路 22:55 UTC
The artwork is fantastic :D good job
thopis
12. Dec 2014 路 17:16 UTC
Great graphics,great writing,great overall!Bravo!
pavel_insight
13. Dec 2014 路 22:04 UTC
Nice to see a point-n-click adventure on LD! Funny dialogues, pleasant music. I would like to play full version of this game))) Good luck with it!
Hell Byte
19. Dec 2014 路 15:05 UTC
Great Game. I like the Machine that stands in place every frame.
xaedes
19. Dec 2014 路 15:09 UTC
Looks like a solid game. Very SCUMM-ish, I like that! Nice music and writing.
It would be nice if you could click on the time points, so the date is entered automatically. Or the option to decrease a number in the time machine. Otherwise I do a lot of clicking that feels unnecessary.
How do I open the inventory?