10 seconds to Body Transfer by Kad

[raw]
made by Kad for LD27 (JAM)
Update: The controls have been changed, and an instructions screen have been added. I hope the game is a bit more fun to play now~

The goal of this game is to reach the other side alive. The idea is to have the game to run in two "dimensions":

While in the normal world, people will move around and no monsters will attack you. But your body will decay as you stay in the normal world. During your last 10 seconds, you will be able to "transfer body" to someone you have KOed (currently the person just disappears when your take their life, but we plan to add animations later ^^, ).

While on the monster dimension, your time doesn't run out, but monsters bite. There is no way to regain your health, so it wold be a good idea to switch between dimensions here and there...

This is our first time participating in the ludum jam, thank you for checking our game!

Ratings

Coolness 48% 1156
Overall(Jam) 2.14 600
Audio(Jam) 2.20 444
Fun(Jam) 1.93 586
Graphics(Jam) 2.45 512
Humor(Jam) 2.17 354
Innovation(Jam) 2.62 425
Mood(Jam) 2.00 533
Theme(Jam) 2.97 340

Feedback

ravine
27. Aug 2013 路 20:18 UTC
Very difficult to control.
tigerj
28. Aug 2013 路 00:04 UTC
Very interesting concept and I like your story.

The controls are difficult. What did you use to make the game with?

I like the art and sprites you made too including the ghost animations, they were my favorite.
asc3nsion
28. Aug 2013 路 00:31 UTC
Not sure how to play but the concept seems interesting. Made me want to know more about the characters. :)
murilo
28. Aug 2013 路 01:32 UTC
Interesting! But I couldn't figure out how to transfer my body. I tried it on different people on different times. The art was unique even if there was no animation :)
馃帳 Kad
28. Aug 2013 路 02:56 UTC
A tip about how to play: stay mainly in the human dimension and KO and absorb as many people you see, but switch worlds constantly to gain a bit of extra seconds while moving to the next human. Also: The heart ghosts hurt a lot, avoid them the most.

>< Im sorry if the controls are a bit too difficult, we were struggling towards the deadline so testing time was a bit limited... What changed would you suggest to the controls? (maybe change the arrow keys to wasd? different keys for melee or transfer?)

We are a team of two: a graphic artist, also the writer of our story @AkitoGH , and a programmer (me) @Kobokoboshi.

I wrote the game in flash for easy web deployment and eventually, polishing the concept and launch it on android via AIR. We are glad you liked it!
Pinktreeleaf
28. Aug 2013 路 17:43 UTC
;_; the controls are not accurate for me. it says you move with the arrow keys but for me it will only move with wasd. I never figured out the other buttons.
LemmingSurvivor
28. Aug 2013 路 18:07 UTC
Alright. Controls. So the WASD+BNM layout is just too cramped. I don't know how it feels on a full-size keyboard, but to put it plainly, on a laptop it hurts to play. I'd suggest switching BNM for something like the arrow keys or IOP. (Numpad is bad though, not all keyboards have one.) Alternatively, arrow keys for movement and something like ZXC for actions.

The movement itself feels a bit slow and unresponsive. Not so much that the keys don't work, but the hitboxes are way too small. That and upping the player's speed a bit shouldn't be too hard to fix, and would improve the feel of the game quite a bit.

Take this last point mostly as a personal quirk, but I can't stand emotes in a game's dialogue. And right now we can only guess at who's talking. Adding some facial expressions or even simple emote bubbles directly on the characters would mostly solve both of these issues, and as a bonus add a bit of flair to the still images.

There's potential in here. With a bit of polish, it can become a pretty good game. Keep it up!
namuol
01. Sep 2013 路 05:10 UTC
It could definitely use some polish as far as game-feel goes, but the dimension-switching mechanic is pretty interesting.

PS. I think I've fixed my game for FireFox if you want to give it a try again. Thanks!
XaiZil
01. Sep 2013 路 13:00 UTC
Quite difficult to control and a bit story heavy, I spent more time spam clicking through story than I did in the game.
dkilford
01. Sep 2013 路 13:41 UTC
I beat the game without having to use the second dimension. The controls felt a bit stiff, and the key placement is a little awkward. It feels strange to not have flipped sprites when you move backwards. The art didn't feel cohesive too, things didn't have one unified style which helps a lot too.

Solid first entry, your first jam is nearly always your hardest and you always learn a lot going through it. Keep up the great work!
TeamFlare
01. Sep 2013 路 13:57 UTC
Very cool idea and awesome story. I had some problems with getting really far :) But great job!
TammiLion
15. Sep 2013 路 13:17 UTC
I'm not sure why people find this a hard game. I just slapped people and used body transfer and never even had to use the second dimension (I did on one play through because I wanted to try it out of course). Maybe you can combine the dimensions into one? Because now in the human dimension the only difficulty is time. There's no danger of losing health and you time is only restricted by your own movement. Not by the enemy. Liked that you implemented a story. Loved the 'aauw' sound XD
Jupiter_Hadley
16. Sep 2013 路 14:51 UTC
Nice story though found some of the graphics a bit... weird... also didnt understand the second dimension. I featured this game in my LD27 compilation video series, if you'd like to check it out :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvnhwc_j5Mo
UnorthodoxGames
16. Sep 2013 路 19:05 UTC
Could have done with some animations for movement and maybe some varying animations for attacking, but it was pretty fun