LudumData

Greeny GRUB by pht59x

[raw]
made by pht59x for LD31 (JAM)
Greeny GRUB is a soothing, relaxing web game experience.

Just grab (grub!) as many GREENS as you can while dodging REDS.

- arrow keys, WASD, ZQSD or IJKL to move around
- ENTER to start again
- F to retry the last F_ailed level
- R to get to a R_andom level in [1;20]
- M to start or mute the M_usic
- P for P_ause


You have nothing to win by rushing through the game. Controls are a bit like ice-skating! Be soft and gentle on knobs!

For techies: it's only 500 lines of pure CoffeeScript code, which tranlates to plain JavaScript. I haven't used any library. The game works equally well on Firefox, Chrome or Opera. With IE, the game mechanic is okay, too, but there seems to be sound issues.

The post-jam version includes music.
Web (jam version) http://pht59x.eu5.org/index_jam.html
Web (post-jam version) http://pht59x.olympe.in/
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=36239

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 2.73 878
Audio(Jam) 2.70 500
Fun(Jam) 2.77 710
Graphics(Jam) 2.04 937
Humor(Jam) 1.93 786
Innovation(Jam) 2.83 635
Mood(Jam) 2.30 912
Theme(Jam) 3.24 754

Feedback

pjimmy
08. Dec 2014 路 22:13 UTC
nice game, controls feel clunky, but I think it's on purpose due to the physics used correct? anyways, it should have a pause button.
馃帳 pht59x
09. Dec 2014 路 13:45 UTC
Sooner rather than later, there will be a post-mortem version with a pause button (as a test) as well as direct access to a given level. I'm planning to include gimmicks such as anti-red shields or allow to walk through the red items for brief periods of time (based on having touched some other colours on the way for instance)... I'm also working on a screen-touch version.
SivGoose
09. Dec 2014 路 15:09 UTC
Fantastic concept!
Tense and adrenaline pumping when trying to dodge and predict where the reds are going. If you had time would be cool to have some music to add to the pace and atmosphere of the game. The speed and controls are perfect as it feels fair and fun.
abdurrahmankh
09. Dec 2014 路 21:25 UTC
good fun. I wanted to play more but it was buggy ( I reached level 49 by dying)
I think controls need some improvements. and with that I think it can make a good mobile game
馃帳 pht59x
09. Dec 2014 路 21:38 UTC
How buggy? Did you really reach level 49 from scratch or did you press on R(andom) ?
xgeovanni
10. Dec 2014 路 13:30 UTC
The random level option is a really nice idea ofr the LD. It allows people to get a proper look at your game without being good at it, whereas otherwise they would only see the first few levels.
Liam :D
10. Dec 2014 路 17:28 UTC
Took a few tries to understand the controls, but they seem alright once you understand them. A fun little experience.
Nikteddy92
10. Dec 2014 路 18:43 UTC
Nice game. At the beginning was uber hard. After few tries it became easy.
BTW Well done!
Kim Sj枚berg
12. Dec 2014 路 14:10 UTC
Controls a bit weird. Simple and good concept, just jump in and play. I pressed R thinkin I would restart and got to like level 36 or something. Pretty intense :P Pretty cool game!
Cake&Code
12. Dec 2014 路 15:55 UTC
The slight momentum the ball always seems to have is deceptively big, trying to hide in a corner can be a challenge if you're trying to tap all-or-nothing accelerators :)
alyphen
14. Dec 2014 路 12:56 UTC
Interesting concept. I liked the difficulty - it was harder than a lot of entries. There isn't much variation, and the graphics could do with a little spicing up, although the music is pretty good. It's quite fun for a little while, though.
Tuism
14. Dec 2014 路 14:23 UTC
Not a bad effort, the fun is kinda there just very dry. The controls are.. weird. I got used to it, but it's per keystroke rather than holding it down, right? I kinda like that but it doesn't seem to be exploited or intentional in the game? Good to explore that - that's something new :)
JJEvil
14. Dec 2014 路 14:38 UTC
Interesting concepts. Controls need fine tuning.
Kimau
14. Dec 2014 路 18:15 UTC
Really like the concept. Simple fast and fun.

Minor niggle maybe avoid the outlines and used slightly different shades on the circles. OR use neutral outline colour.
Ping78
16. Dec 2014 路 13:26 UTC
Nice game. Controls are unusual, which could be a good thing.
Gins
16. Dec 2014 路 20:31 UTC
Fun time waster, I like how controlling the speed like this makes it an entirely different challenge to all the other "collect the stuff and dodge the other stuff" type of games. Also that there are more than 2 colors where the others can hide underneath differentiates it from other such games.
Scam
16. Dec 2014 路 22:14 UTC
Reminds a bit of my game in this LD: Avoid the red ones! For a simple game this is surprisingly hard.
Vladik Plays
17. Dec 2014 路 13:27 UTC
Nice easy game.. It's all just simple circles though
馃帳 pht59x
17. Dec 2014 路 13:40 UTC
Green is also on purpose! Yes, slow moving circles contribute to the calm atmosphere of the game until you meet a RED.
ElectricSeagull
18. Dec 2014 路 00:23 UTC
Nice game. It's a bit similar to mine.
I died at level 8 (12 on the post-jam version). For some reason, the SFX cut out half way through the game and the post version music didn't play (I'm using Firefox 34).
馃帳 pht59x
19. Dec 2014 路 05:28 UTC
@ElectricSeagull: your game is nice too, but your concept is more complicated. Anyway, thanks for your feedback. When I play Greeny GRUB, I regularly reach level 20. Beyond that, even though it's quite possible to go through something like level 45 (press R), I'm not sure one can go through several such high levels in a row.
Chaoseed
19. Dec 2014 路 06:58 UTC
Kinda cool! The controls are strange until you realize it sets different levels of acceleration. The gameplay is fine, though not all that innovative...I think the music's the best part, actually. Good work. ;)
Omiya Games
20. Dec 2014 路 02:34 UTC
Truth be told, I was more frustrated than relaxed by the game. The controls did not fit with the intended effect (I think).
馃帳 pht59x
20. Dec 2014 路 09:21 UTC
@Omiya Games: if you tried to rush through the levels, yes, you can get frustrated. However, with the sound on, if you're gentle on knobs and with a sense of anticipation, you may get a bit of fun out of it. It's all a matter of taking one's time. In another version (not submitted here), there is a gamer mode for people in a hurry. In that other version, I've introduced a damping factor on arrow keys to make it possible for the player to get points for faster actions.
Kitch
20. Dec 2014 路 17:54 UTC
Pretty fun game. The controls took a lot of getting used to, but I learned to work with them as I got used to them. Some alpha or additive blending on the circles would have been nice, especially on some of the later levels where green and red circles can hide.
Overall, good job though! Thanks!
barryrowe
21. Dec 2014 路 23:50 UTC
The controls are a little bit frustrating, but the idea is solid. The music is really good for the game. Good work.
dunin
22. Dec 2014 路 20:22 UTC
weird controls but I like it...
Madball
23. Dec 2014 路 14:04 UTC
I liked the originality, you have a lot of not bad unique stuff. But this game needs polishing. The difficulty curve is too steep, when circles start growing it becomes very hard and luck-based, especially with these controls. Music doesn't loop. Neutral circles are not chaotic, they always move parallel. And, overall, the game is not appealing and unrewarding. I'd prefer skipping to the last level instead of completing every one.
Well, you have a lot of interesting ideas. Actually, I don't dislike any of them. But it didn't hook me.
馃帳 pht59x
23. Dec 2014 路 15:10 UTC
@Madball: Regarding the difficulty curve, I've also been wondering whether decreasing the growth of rate of the REDs would be better (but that might become too easy!). True, the music doesn't loop: you simply have to press "M" if you want it to start again. In the game, everything is submitted to the principle of inertia. The idea of chaos as well as collision between disks are probably good ideas for more work. I did not want to introduce them in here because 1) that would have made programming more complicated (could a brouwser handle this?), 2) that would have increased the player's difficulty curve and frustration.
belstras
24. Dec 2014 路 16:26 UTC
Fun game idea and music sounds nice. Impressive that you used just "coffescript". Good work.
el-pepi
26. Dec 2014 路 22:19 UTC
Simple and nice game. Good music.
The controls are a bit weird tho. They behabe like when I hold a key on a text editor, the moment I press it it works, then it waits a little and keeps working.
SuperDisk
28. Dec 2014 路 07:47 UTC
Hey, I got to level 10! It's actually a pretty neat game. The controls were terribad, I'll admit, but it was still a good one in the end.

Love the crazy marquee.
ETHproductions
29. Dec 2014 路 16:18 UTC
Interesting idea! Here's what I thought about it:

The controls felt unusual, but it seemed to help with the floaty/bouncy style.

I like the life system, and really like how you can retry the level that you die on.

The credits scroll too fast to read; the pausing feature really helped with that, but it still might help to slow them down some.

Overall, a great 72 hour JavaScript game!
Geckoo1337
29. Dec 2014 路 19:09 UTC
Really nice physics. You have respected the rules - entire game in One screen. I like music. Well done ++
gallerdude
29. Dec 2014 路 19:35 UTC
Solid gameplay
okkolobr
29. Dec 2014 路 21:41 UTC
I liked the concept. Saw your screenshot more than once before to decide to give it a try, as it wasn't appealing me. But I'm pleased that I finally decided to test it, as it was good (and hard) to play !

I like the music but... it wasn't feeling quite good with the game.
Halleflux
29. Dec 2014 路 22:46 UTC
The controls are difficult, but I don't actually hate them too much. They just take some getting used to. The game might be better if you improved them, though.
Sometimes the red circles were nearly impossible to see, though, which was really annoying.
Well done!
rojo
29. Dec 2014 路 23:02 UTC
The core concept of the gameplay is sound, but it needs more juice. It felt like the controls were a bit off as well. Something to mix up the gameplay would be nice - powerups, bonus circles, etc. Also some more work on the graphics to add context would be a welcome addition. It's a good start, though! For future reference you should probably embed the Jam version until voting is over to avoid confusion.
elliottd
30. Dec 2014 路 00:53 UTC
nice accelerations on movement controls. I think ending the level immediately when i collect enough greens is a little jarring and also sets up some confusion when grabbing the first green the first time you need more than one (does scaling down mean something new?). you could have all the dots freeze while the collected green scales and while the sound plays. nice game, i like how it gets right to it!
orion_black
30. Dec 2014 路 01:26 UTC
It works for the kind of game it's trying to be. Controls felt kind of clunky, but I get the impression it was intended that way. More visual feedback would certainly improve the feel of the game.
lxd1
30. Dec 2014 路 02:02 UTC
Fun