Alpha Circuit by SecondDimension

[raw]
made by SecondDimension for LD31 (JAM)
Alpha Circuit is a light stealth game about being an anti-virus program. Thanks for playing!

This was made by a team of 2, all within the 72 hours. I did the gameplay and music, and my friend James did the graphics. I opted out of humour, but eligible for all other categories

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Disclaimers: Please use chrome if you can, that way performance will be better and you can use an Xbox 360 Controller. The initial loading screen sometimes freezes but it is loading I promise.
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Gameplay Tips:
I don't think anybody has beaten this yet, it seems it's a bit hard. The giant eyeballs are difficult to deal with, but if you take out all the red crystal enemies the eyeball will be destroyed, so concentrate on these first and then mop up the other enemies.
The best tactic for getting rid of enemies is to let them follow you, and lead them to a quiet area where you can loop round behind them and take them out.
The last boss is a timing challenge, so basically just good luck with that!
If anyone completes it let me know in the comments (I managed it twice, so it is possible)

Ratings

Coolness 96% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.85 80
Audio(Jam) 3.85 67
Fun(Jam) 3.62 134
Graphics(Jam) 4.13 127
Innovation(Jam) 3.35 308
Mood(Jam) 3.81 73
Theme(Jam) 3.09 844

Feedback

Kate Kligman
09. Dec 2014 路 02:32 UTC
This was fun! Enjoyed the concept, music, and sound design.

I liked the cloud visibility concept. It gets hard fairly quickly once the eye is introduced!
trenchgames
09. Dec 2014 路 02:54 UTC
Awesome game! Great graphics and music.
erik
09. Dec 2014 路 02:57 UTC
Nice job. It gets quite tricky once the eyeball things are introduced.
馃帳 SecondDimension
09. Dec 2014 路 03:12 UTC
Thanks guys! I think I did that classic thing of playing it all weekend so not realising how tough it is. The eyeballs are pretty hardcore, but you should always be able to use the purple node things to escape
plauk
09. Dec 2014 路 11:42 UTC
Really cool.
psychonull
09. Dec 2014 路 15:35 UTC
Solid and fun! Gameplay, graphics and audio are all nicely tied together
Alter
09. Dec 2014 路 17:43 UTC
Cool game. Looks very nice. Well done!
spacedoubt
09. Dec 2014 路 17:44 UTC
Oh man! Beautiful. My favourite thing about games is when they create atmosphere. Nailed it. Kinda reminds me of Bastion.
ainokaisa
09. Dec 2014 路 18:56 UTC
Very nice. I just don't like it how enemies can see trough walls.
Beerman
09. Dec 2014 路 22:08 UTC
I hate those eyeballs so much. Nice job, really atmospheric.
ehtd
11. Dec 2014 路 00:12 UTC
Very cool game, I liked the warping through purple nodes, just the level difficulty raised too fast with the eye
01rafael
11. Dec 2014 路 00:14 UTC
Great audio works! I really like this style!
Grindstorm
11. Dec 2014 路 00:19 UTC
Nice concept and mechanics! Good refreshner for the stealth games!
TheMeorch
11. Dec 2014 路 00:47 UTC
Fantastic game! The art and music are perfect for the setting and style. Once the all-seeing eye enemy appears, it spikes in difficulty a bit much, since it seems to be able to detect you even if it's not already looking in your direction. Enemies also like to clump up together, which makes it a bit tedious to separate them and take them out. All in all, though, fantastic stealth mechanics, and really impressive work overall!
pjimmy
11. Dec 2014 路 11:37 UTC
wow, visually stunning, well done
5k0d
11. Dec 2014 路 11:38 UTC
well done feels
really polished....
i like the concept
fil00dl
11. Dec 2014 路 13:49 UTC
the artistic style is very consistent, mind-blowing music, nice job
Threstle
11. Dec 2014 路 13:50 UTC
I really dig the visuals! Nice game.
SoulGame
11. Dec 2014 路 13:57 UTC
I like the global mood and artistic direction. I think you made a good job on setting up a pace on the game. Gameplay is a little sleepy though, might need some more punch !
Gungnir
11. Dec 2014 路 14:10 UTC
This is a very cool thing you've made. The fast travel mechanic is empowering without being overpowered, and lifts the stealth mechanics to a new level. Slick fun, with the theme woven into everything.
Technomancer Game Studio
11. Dec 2014 路 14:16 UTC
Wow, really nice game! It runs at 25fps here, though. It also seems kind of random when a virus is going to turn around or not, so it's always kind of a gamble. The "loading" animation also gets old kind of early, even if so well done. Music's really nice!
rainshapes
11. Dec 2014 路 17:29 UTC
Wow, awesome art!
headchant
11. Dec 2014 路 18:20 UTC
Awesome idea! I love the graphics and the concept. The audio fits the game idea well.
BoxedMeatRevolution
11. Dec 2014 路 18:27 UTC
Great artistic style! I couldn't get into the gameplay, but listening to the music build and looking at the stages made it a worthwhile experience.
Pat Kemp
11. Dec 2014 路 21:58 UTC
Nice! I like the teleportation mechanic to circumvent enemies. Very clever. Great ambience and polish, too. The Ui screen transition (with all the squares) is neat looking but really slow, especially when you're forced to watch it several times in a row. Great job!
colludium
12. Dec 2014 路 00:01 UTC
I really enjoyed that. Lovely graphics and great concept - well balanced.
kipelovets
12. Dec 2014 路 16:25 UTC
Nice gameplay, tutorial and interface, very old-school. It's so awesome that you did support for xbox gamepad in a html5 game!
FrozenCow
13. Dec 2014 路 00:03 UTC
Really good job on this one. It's a full polished fun game that looks good and stays engaging!
klianc09
13. Dec 2014 路 20:03 UTC
Really awesome game, I finally managed to beat it. The graphics and the overall atmoshpere are really great.
The loading animation takes a bit long though (I had to bring this up again, yes), and towards the end it's just: luring an enemy to a purple spot, phase away, enemy loses interest and tries to go back, phase in and kill him from behind... over and over again.
Still, I liked it, it was something different from what I've played the past couple of days.
AMS
14. Dec 2014 路 13:57 UTC
Really good game, very polished, well done!
Erkberg
14. Dec 2014 路 16:57 UTC
Pretty awesome game! I really liked the graphics, the audio and the gameplay. The concept of quick change of position by travelling as code is great. I got stuck in level 3 though, because one of the enemies spawned inside a wall and I could not target it. Apart from that, what bugged me a little was that enemies could see through walls, but the player can see their sight, so that's not a big problem. Great job overall!
joekinley
14. Dec 2014 路 18:26 UTC
TL;DR; ... then WTF is happening? What am I doing?
Then I figured it out, was quite fun. Pretty nice graphics and audio you did there.

Don't see the theme in here though, or am I missing something from not reading stuff?
Team Klappermann
14. Dec 2014 路 20:45 UTC
Very very well done!
No complaints from my side.
I beat the game on my first try.
zatyka
15. Dec 2014 路 02:43 UTC
Took a while for me to figure things out, but was quite fun once I did. I liked the stealth mechanics, and how much strategy was involved. It was very challenging without being frustrating... especially with that damn eye bal.

Excellent visuals and sound effects, which created a distinct atmosphere. A very nice LD entry, with plenty of potential to be expanded on.
馃帳 SecondDimension
15. Dec 2014 路 13:04 UTC
Thanks again all

The loading animation is way too long, that's actually a bug that I could fix very quickly, but I'm leaving it in because basically I messed it up so I need to live with the consequences!

@joekinley The theme didn't come through as I hoped, but the basic idea is that you're logged into a server getting rid of a virus, but seeing it graphically rather than though a command prompt. Hence the loading animation instead of just changing levels

@erkberg No idea how an enemy can spawn inside a wall. That should be impossible. Bugs.
shadow64
15. Dec 2014 路 19:26 UTC
First I just want to say thank you for taking the time to play and comment on my entry, Natquik. I really appreciate it.

Secondly, this game is extremely well done. I had a lot of fun playing it. Yes the giant eyeballs are tough, but they are possible to defeat! :)

I found the game challenging, fun, and really good to listen to. I like the aesthetic, I like the levels. This is a really great entry. Thank you for sharing and congrats! :)
JJEvil
15. Dec 2014 路 21:56 UTC
I'm kinda partial to gamepad support so I have to give you props for that. Also, a fellow C@ dev, I see. Kinda hard, but a fun game. Good job.
Lovelock
16. Dec 2014 路 08:10 UTC
This was a very solid and complete feeling game for a jam entry. Well done. Nice soothing music, impressive graphics, and a clever game concept.
Instant Noodles
16. Dec 2014 路 09:22 UTC
Nicely done, great music and great mood.
hexagore
18. Dec 2014 路 17:17 UTC
I didn't finish this, I'm afraid to say but I gave it a good go.

Normally you see a lot of stealth-em-ups in Ludum Dare but the additional mechanic of teleporting between hubs... that really helped make it feel different... and tactical.

I absolutely love the ultra-detailed high-res pixel art and the music is completely wonderful. Really enjoyed this :)
hexagore
18. Dec 2014 路 17:32 UTC
I got to the boss level btw!
Two Scoop Games
21. Dec 2014 路 21:45 UTC
I like the murder beams, I wish you could move faster. Where is the space hoarse?
Kyatric
22. Dec 2014 路 06:09 UTC
Nice graphics and music, but other than that, I got bored pretty quickly.
Stealth games aren't really my cup of tea for sure.
I found it pretty irritating that once being spotted, I couldn't zap the enemies.

Also, there was a big issue in the tutorial asking to press the "A" key which never worked, and instead I had to use the Space key.
It was pretty confusing, even though the rest of the tutorial presented the rest of the mechanics/gameplay but in an unclear manner contrary to what was expected.

Good polish and ambiance though.
Good job on making this game in 72 hours.
spacedoubt
23. Dec 2014 路 06:18 UTC
I just had this really weird epiphany where I realized I told you this reminded me of Bastion, and I really meant Transistor.. haha.
馃帳 SecondDimension
24. Dec 2014 路 14:25 UTC
Wow @spacedoubt that is commitment to accuracy right there
H-Bomb
29. Dec 2014 路 14:46 UTC
I really liked the game's mood! Good job!
I don't think it was hard, just a bit repetitive, and the overall stealth design wasn't perfect (like you say, the best method is to attract the viruses and then let them go away... not the most fascinating stealth approach :) ).
I still found it fun, and it was really polished for a jam game!