Scooter Magrew: Escape From Somewhere In Space! by AngerFork

made by AngerFork for LD35 (JAM)

This is the story of a young boy named Todd "Scooter" Magrew. While in space on one of his many adventures, he found himself lost on an abandoned space station with no one else around. He also is unable to walk on any tiles that are not white or turquoise, for some reason I have yet to determine.

But he is not alone. The great Princess Portia of the ancient Kingdom of Port is there with him, as are several of her loyal servants. While unable to be there in body, they are there in spirit. And if ever he needs their help, he just has to ask and any of them will happily shapeshift his body into their own for protection.

Scooter Magrew: Escape from Somewhere in Space is a 2D puzzle game that is meant largely for young children. Currently, there are only 5 levels in (all of which are quite simple), but far more are planned. This particular version is a short version for the Ludum Dare 35 Game Jam (#LDJAM), but this should hopefully be ported to mobile devices once a few bugs are fixed and more than 5 levels exist.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

EDIT: Special thanks to Jupiter Hadley (@Jupiter_Hadley) for the Altum font (https://jupiter_hadley.itch.io/) which this entry uses extensively.

Windows	http://gamejolt.com/games/scooter-magrew-escape-from-somewhere-in-space/141748
OS/X	http://gamejolt.com/games/scooter-magrew-escape-from-somewhere-in-space/141748
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=91156

Ratings

Coolness	100%	1
Overall(Jam)	2.52	1109

Audio(Jam)	2.98	478
Fun(Jam)	2.34	1056
Humor(Jam)	2.17	663
Innovation(Jam)	2.20	1062
Mood(Jam)	2.63	862
Theme(Jam)	2.73	920

Feedback

timeshapers

18. Apr 2016 · 06:24 UTC

Nothing interesting happens with the mechanic, all levels are essentially exactly the same.

Maybe if you needed to alternate based on timing or something.

pythong

18. Apr 2016 · 19:08 UTC

like timeshapers said. but you could also incorporate different skills (especially for the dark blue guy. he said he had muscles, right?)
the last level was a bit buggy, whenever i got to the white tiles, it showed the red avatar, even though i didn't get the soul yet
and the positioning of the buttons was kinda annoying. i accidentally quit once because my mouse hovered over a soul, but reaching the finish, my mouse was directly above the quit button :/

🎤 AngerFork

18. Apr 2016 · 23:11 UTC

Thanks guys! I don't disagree at all...moreso, I'm just trying to figure out what all I want to actually add into this game, as it's current target demographic is elementary school children. Probably a good first step to that would be removing words such as "Turquoise", but I definitely need to make better levels and/or give the characters some unique sort of abilities in order to make it just a better game overall.

HoldMeImScared

18. Apr 2016 · 23:22 UTC

You've got a foundation you can build on, as the others have said. Even for children more mechanics than just the character swapping for walking would be good. Items, skills, things like that.

My biggest suggestion would be to change that rainbow text. It is very difficult to read, especially with multiple options right next to each other.

Your music selection is quite nice!

FerraWare

18. Apr 2016 · 23:23 UTC

Kind of simple and a bit boring, but I love the graphics and the art style!

fin_nolimit

19. Apr 2016 · 04:41 UTC

The art is great and the music fits the game very well. I think this is a very cool game for young kids (as you said in your description) Nice work!

Paskal007r

19. Apr 2016 · 17:48 UTC

Nice puzzle you have there. If it's targeted to kids I'd suggest to use characters only for primary colors and have them walk on any tile where the character color is a component of the tile's one. Would make for a great edugame.
Also, I'd recommend to have a hold button= keep walking.

Saiodin

19. Apr 2016 · 20:53 UTC

A pretty simple mechanic, I think it should be fine for kids. But if it's for kids I would do the explanations a bit clearer and implement showing the helping dialogue again. Or put a question mark button there to help the player in case he doesn't get it. The color of the princess is not very good visible.

SoulBound

19. Apr 2016 · 23:30 UTC

I liked the Audio and Art, but the gameplay was a bit too simple.

Jupiter_Hadley

20. Apr 2016 · 15:09 UTC

Nice characters! I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/KyB-5ZqWXwk

Thirsty

21. Apr 2016 · 22:23 UTC

I had my 5 year old son play and I had to help him figure out what to do for the first three levels but then he got the hang of it and really enjoyed it. It was a little hard for him to see the different colors and when you transformed it seemed like you were always red which confused him and the text scrolled by way too fast for him to try to read it.

He really liked having to press the arrow keys a bunch to move him in the right direction it helped him control the characters but on touch controls I think it be a little more of a pain to control that way. I think making the levels like a colorful maze gradually getting bigger would keep him interested for a very long time.

denycetm

28. Apr 2016 · 02:51 UTC

Good concept, it can really grow from here. Add some sound effects and maybe some keyboard only controls. For your app, make the purple more discernible from the white for any colour blind ppl out there.

sP0CkEr2

28. Apr 2016 · 04:28 UTC

too simplistic - but spot on if made for kids - nice effort

dcolgan

28. Apr 2016 · 23:40 UTC

I played through the whole thing hoping something new and/or interesting would happen, but it didn't. However, you did get me to play through all of what you had, which is worth something. If there had been one more element to gameplay, I would have thought much better if it. The best thing about it is at least something kind of different, which again, is very good.

Alphish

29. Apr 2016 · 20:44 UTC

Well, the puzzles here were very underwhelming. As in, "I've got a single red character that can cross red tiles, I can switch anytime when on neutral tiles, and I just need to cross red tiles after passing neutral tiles... what to do, what to do..." sort of underwhelming. Each character having distinct abilities works way better in games with character-switching, while this game's premise feels just too simple to me. >.<
(then again, I'm not a 5-years old kid)

Aside from that, I'd prefer if the graphics used consistent style, rather than realistic backgrounds and cartoony foreground. Also, you might want to make the tiles more distinct (it's a little tricky to tell gray, turquoise and purple apart; I didn't really have much trouble, but people with worse colour recognition could get confused...?). I guess the rest works well enough (or at least didn't stand out to me too much?).

yuigoto

04. May 2016 · 04:22 UTC

It's a nice concept and it totally fits the target audience, but you have to add a bit more polish into it, specially controls and some of the base movement mechanic! ;)

I loved the graphics, the overall style of the game and the way you handled the shape shifting. :) As some said, the rainbow text might become difficult to read sometimes, so that's one thing I'd ask you to change, if possible. :P

Great work on the audio! It's brilliant, in my opinion, and it fits the style! :D

puppetmaster

07. May 2016 · 21:12 UTC

Like the mood in this game. You could add more player gameplay variations. Keep up the good work!

Przekop

07. May 2016 · 22:21 UTC

Good concept, but it was lacking in alternation later on, it became simply boring.

hazzahazzam

08. May 2016 · 02:21 UTC

The UI is nice except for the rainbow text. There is never a situation where rainbow text should be used.

Green Soda

08. May 2016 · 05:47 UTC

the graphics and audio complements the game well... good game :) a nice stuff u can work on to...

StrayCat

09. May 2016 · 22:40 UTC

I feel that continued walking would be better (current walking is tiring after a few levels). Instead of the clickable pad, you could make your constrols: tap the top/bottom/left/right of screen if you plan to target mobile/tablet audience.