Chameleon by Helco

[raw]
made by Helco for LD26 (COMPO)
Description:
A little chameleon wakes up in a swamp, without memory about how he's got there.
Help him to his lovely lawn, kill monsters and eat flies.
There is a secret potato, a secret yoda and a surprise, I hope you can find them (should not be that difficult).
This was a game for Ludum Dare #26 with the Theme "Minimalistic".
Good luck
Helco

Controls:
Arrows Move
Spacebar Throw tongue
Enter Close message/Start game
Escape Escape at any time (from the game)

For troubleshooting read the readme.txt (why does I have to say this?)

BTW: Did you find the hidden potato (not really hidden...)
And what's about Yoda? Did you find him?
Also the pessimistic surprise to find you have!

Edit: Okay OpenAL runtime in the archive and the openGL extension "GL_EXT_framebuffer_object" (as well as any other openGL extensions) are no longer necessary to run this game.

A linux port is uploaded!

Ratings

Coolness 72% 3
Overall 2.92 825
Audio 2.83 475
Fun 2.81 711
Graphics 2.81 726
Humor 2.58 338
Innovation 2.61 932
Mood 2.76 668
Theme 2.68 1211

Feedback

Kinzata
29. Apr 2013 路 04:53 UTC
Crashes on my Windows 7 64-bit
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 12:33 UTC
did you read the readme and install oalinst.exe?
tiffi
29. Apr 2013 路 12:44 UTC
Crash... win 7 64 bit
nintendoeats
29. Apr 2013 路 12:46 UTC
It crashed even after I installed OAL. saddestoffaces.
Puffi
29. Apr 2013 路 12:47 UTC
Love the music!
Couldn't get past the poop demon, quite hard game in general.

(Btw you should be able just dynamically link to OpenAL and distribute the DLL's along with the exe, so people wouldn't have to install it, think some (very) old versions even permitted static linking, not a biggie tho)
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 13:16 UTC
Because of the OpenAL problems I copied the OpenAL runtime into the normal windows archive.
I hope it works now

@Puffi
Just try to run around it, this works pretty well :)
If you really can't get past around any enemy just try to avoid it, there is just one enemy in the game (the last) you actually have to kill (but it's more fun if you kill them all :) )
Holofire
29. Apr 2013 路 13:28 UTC
Nice game. Very simple and fun. Graphics could be slightly improved though.
Xgor
29. Apr 2013 路 14:14 UTC
Ahh dosn't work for me :(
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 14:16 UTC
what happens?
cmayhem
29. Apr 2013 路 14:23 UTC
I get an error when trying to run:
CFramework::InitFramebuffer: Missing OpenGL Extension "GL_EXT_framebuffer_object"!
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 14:30 UTC
Okay, I am sorry, I thought there wouldn't be anybody who doesn't have this extension, but maybe I can go without it, so I will go and try to upload another version without using it.
metadept
29. Apr 2013 路 14:36 UTC
Worked fine for me on win7 x64; I must have the proper libraries installed.

I really like the noisy pixel level style, and overall the graphics and audio are very effective. Eating flies is hard, though! Maybe you should increase the hitbox size a little and/or make them land for a moment? Well done in any case!
caranha
29. Apr 2013 路 14:42 UTC
Hmmm, can't download the game for some reason :-(
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 14:45 UTC
@caranha
that's right I'm uploading a new version right now, but I have a pretty bad uplink... Just wait a few minutes the download should be ready soon
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 15:44 UTC
UPDATE:
Okay sorry for the long pause, the download link for windows is again up with an update which doesn't use any openGL extensions anymore.

And the port for Linux is created and is currently uploaded.
loxo
29. Apr 2013 路 16:23 UTC
I like the chameleon! But why has it no camouflage power, maybe for a short time to sneak past hard enemies?
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 17:02 UTC
@Loxo
That's a great idea! If I make a post mortem version this feature will be in, promise :)
Michael Hall
29. Apr 2013 路 17:39 UTC
I just got a white screen on Windows 8 64-bit. I heard the music though. Did not leave rating.
lanz
29. Apr 2013 路 17:42 UTC
It displays white/black screen instead of the title screen and chameleon randomly rotates and doesn't shoot it's tongue(Win8/x64). Sad .( I really liked the music though.
TheSambassador
29. Apr 2013 路 17:43 UTC
Pros:
Very nice music! I really liked it. Sounds were good too.
Very simple graphics, but they worked really well and looked nice.
I love the animation of him walking! I actually enjoyed him rotating around instead of just being a sprite with a fixed pivot point.

Cons:
I didn't like only being able to walk up/down/left/right, but I got used to it.
Potion at the beginning is odd... you're already at full health?
In the first cave level, it's unclear on where you go to advance to the next level, since the colors used seem to be the same as the wall. I figured it out, but it was confusing.
The flies are really hard/annoying to eat, and I just ended up ignoring them.

Overall: Nice job!
phi
29. Apr 2013 路 17:43 UTC
Haha, I'm having a hard time catching these damn flies! Good job, enjoyed it!
Cirrial
29. Apr 2013 路 17:47 UTC
Can't see the graphics on my 64 bit Windows 7. Only a white screen. I heard the music.
馃帳 Helco
29. Apr 2013 路 18:11 UTC
The flies does not give much experience, so you don't need to catch them all, I just ignored them mostly myself in further levels. But they are just annoying as real ones, aren't they :)

@TheSambassador:
Actually you just have a half "heart" on the beginning, I ended up forgetting to write something like "My head hurts, I must have been hit, hey this potion could help" on the map, but this is noted for a post-mortem version (would be a "new feature" so I'll not add it in this version for the sake of fairness) as well as better marks for the exit.
The movement is a bit weird but I kept it like this to prevent the player to fight diagonally, this would have made the fights too easy...

@ For all who just get a white/black screen:
If you press enter does it show something different (or do you at least hear you something different) ?
Unfortunately I can not reproduce this bug, so I guess that this is a problem with the graphic card (to be precise incompability with non-power-of-two-textures) and not with the operating system, at least I hope this is it.
If my assumption is right, you should be able to get into the gameplay without seeing the menu (but of course I'll fix this)
Hertzila
29. Apr 2013 路 18:47 UTC
A nice game, fits the theme well. Good audio!

Works on my Win7-64.
hypp
01. May 2013 路 07:38 UTC
Like the idea!
TheAwesomeProgrammer
01. May 2013 路 11:55 UTC
I don't think, I ever lose life? Otherwise evrything works, althorugh, I think it is a little bit boring :/
HelkeGames
10. May 2013 路 18:59 UTC
Nice game, i like the concept and the art! :)
MegaBrutal
20. May 2013 路 23:31 UTC
I liked the theme & music. Although the game is too hard. It is incredibly hard to catch flies and shoot enemies. For now, the best tactic against enemies is to simply run past them. :P Otherwise, I really like the feel of this game - maybe if you could solve the previously listed issues, it would be quite fun. :)

Bonus points for Linux port! ;)