LudumData

One New Message From Sam by jepster

[raw]
made by jepster for LD31 (COMPO)
"One New Message From Sam" puts you in the shoes of a young lover waiting for a train. While waiting for the train, a message arrives from a significant other: Sam.

Our protagonist is plagued by battery devouring bacteria. These bacteria prevent our hero from reading all the texts that Sam are sending. If the phone runs out of battery, then how will we know what Sam has to tell? Help the protagonist get through the wait, and tap away those pesky bacteria that show up on the screen!

CHANGELOG:
14th November 2014:
Attempted to fix lag issues by:
- Removing some Debug statements.
- Limiting amount of objects on screen without sacrificing difficulty

If you still experience lag like my other lovely playtesters/fellow jammers describe, then please give me the details!
Web http://jepster.dk/ludum_dare_31
Windows http://jepster.dk/ludum_dare_31/windows.zip
Linux http://jepster.dk/ludum_dare_31/linux.zip
Mac http://jepster.dk/ludum_dare_31/mac.zip
Source http://jepster.dk/ludum_dare_31/source/LD31.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=45916

Ratings

Coolness 47% 1461
Overall 3.00 749
Audio 2.91 435
Fun 2.30 1103
Graphics 3.63 238
Humor 2.55 508
Innovation 3.26 450
Mood 3.67 75
Theme 3.78 330

Feedback

Zolkren
07. Dec 2014 · 22:32 UTC
Wow, just from looking at the photos it seems like a good game.
lion123
08. Dec 2014 · 08:59 UTC
Fun game. The only problem is lag when there's too much stuff on the screen
wandersenus
08. Dec 2014 · 08:59 UTC
nice game!
seledorn
08. Dec 2014 · 09:02 UTC
The graphics are lovely and so are the sounds but I think it's lacking quite a bit in gameplay. Half the time I'm reading a text and half the time I'm waiting for a new one, maybe I'm missing something?
CustomPhase
08. Dec 2014 · 09:02 UTC
Cool idea, nice visuals, but gameplay is not that great tho. Plus the game starts to drop framerate like crazy after a minute or so. 3 minutes in, it went to like 4 fps for me.
Matthew Rayfield
08. Dec 2014 · 09:05 UTC
This was very cool. Love how the news story subtlety gave instructions.

Short and sweet.

Only complaint was that sometimes the thumb moved unpredictably. But it would probably be too easy otherwise.

I look forward to seeing more!
spacedoubt
08. Dec 2014 · 09:23 UTC
Pretty nice little game!
🎤 jepster
08. Dec 2014 · 09:56 UTC
I tried keeping the instructions as subtle as possible (which Matthew cleverly noticed). You have to mash the bacteria on your screen to prevent your battery from running out. This is also very likely the reason why you have issues with the framerate.
As you break the bacteria, the framerate stabilizes. But I'll still have to look into how to prevent that altogether.

Ah, and it might freeze up shortly after you go to the "Messages" screen. Just wait it out, it unfreezes after a couple of seconds.
The Pelranthean
08. Dec 2014 · 11:29 UTC
I love this game. The gameplay was simple and allowed the player to appreciate the narrative. Also, good job engaging with the theme in a different way.

The lag mentioned earlier was annoying and it would have been nice to see progress on an incoming text (e.g. 'typing' notification).

Also, the green button was a little distracting after the beginning. I'm not sure if it was useful for something, but I kept wanting to push it.

Good job with this
LittleThor
08. Dec 2014 · 13:00 UTC
Really strange and nice graphics. And quite funny mood. But I think this game deserve more gameplay.
caporaltito
08. Dec 2014 · 14:32 UTC
The graphics are really great!
BlackBulletIV
09. Dec 2014 · 02:14 UTC
Nice graphics and a great take on the theme, but the gameplay of mashing LMB got tiring.
🎤 jepster
09. Dec 2014 · 08:03 UTC
I'm getting so much great feedback! I really appreciate it! Keep it coming! :)
SirRicecake
09. Dec 2014 · 09:53 UTC
I generally don't like button/mouse-mashing games. But those messages kept on incoming. And they got my curiosity :)
RougeRogue
09. Dec 2014 · 16:15 UTC
This game was pretty emotional, if anything. I liked how you could choose to either close your phone or answer. The graphics style looked pretty nice and the idea was original.
Frozen Fractal
09. Dec 2014 · 18:46 UTC
Way to make a clickfest compelling! I'm so frustrated that I couldn't get to the end now... very moody and atmospheric, great job!

BTW, the "Linux" and "Mac" links seem to be reversed. I used the Mac link to download linux.zip and it worked on my Linux system :)
Elemental Zeal Games Studios
10. Dec 2014 · 01:40 UTC
Nice idea, shame about the laggyness
🎤 jepster
10. Dec 2014 · 04:29 UTC
I'm so glad to hear the narrative kept you intrigued despite it being a "clickfest" (great phrasing btw).
Oh, and Frozen Fractal, thanks for the heads up, the links are now fixed!
Alexandre Szybiak
10. Dec 2014 · 12:52 UTC
Made me laugh.
allurious
12. Dec 2014 · 09:27 UTC
Not really a game, it's more of a story being told. It does have a good mood and the story is nicely presented. The major problem though is that a a certain point it becomes unplayable due to FPS issues
Kim Sjöberg
12. Dec 2014 · 09:37 UTC
Soo much lag :/ great game otherwise. Compelling little story :P and nice visuals.
🎤 jepster
14. Dec 2014 · 09:13 UTC
I was unsure about the LD rules, but it seems I was allowed to fix lag issues, so I tried to do that.
If you still experience lag like my other lovely playtesters/fellow jammers, then please give me the details!

Thanks for all the nice comments! I am so happy that you enjoy the story, it was probably my biggest leap of faith in this game production.
Gins
16. Dec 2014 · 19:28 UTC
Hmm, I can't play the game because it tells me "bad file length" after it loaded (web version).
SuperDisk
21. Dec 2014 · 07:47 UTC
The graphics and idea were good, but it seemed to just boil down to mashing your thumb against the phone while Samuel blathers on about things that sure aren't sex.

Also, when the "r to reply" text shows up, hitting both Q and R just restart the game.
EquipeJAM
28. Dec 2014 · 14:41 UTC
Geat game loved ^^