Waldo by h.attila

[raw]
made by h.attila for LD25 (COMPO)
Waldo is a game about a contract killer.

At the beginning of each level you get to see your targets' appearance. After starting the stage, you have to find them in a crowd of people and shoot them. If you kill all of your targets, you get to the next level. The game is endless, the levels get progressively harder by introducing bigger crowds and more targets.
After you fire your first shot in a level, the police sets out to hunt you down. You have to finish the job before they find you, otherwise it's game over. Their progress is indicated by the progress bar on the top of the screen.

My goal this LD was to make the game as simple as possible, to make the coding easy, so that I can spend time on the graphics and sounds. I succeeded, I could practice my pixel skills a lot which means a lot to me, even if the time I wasted on drawing will lead to low scores due to the game's simplicity.
Fortunately - unlike last time - I had time to make some simple sound effects. I still can't make music, though.

To play this game, you will need a PC with Windows XP/Vista/7/8, a DirectX 9 GPU that supports Shader Model 2.0 and these frameworks:
- .NET 4.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851
- XNA 4.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914

Thanks for checking out my game!

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.21 246
Audio 1.87 512
Fun 3.32 145
Graphics 2.57 507
Humor 2.58 351
Innovation 3.12 247
Mood 2.67 426
Theme 3.61 186

Feedback

MrEvilGuy
17. Dec 2012 · 07:30 UTC
So wait... is this Waldo from Where's Waldo? That would explain a lot about his whereabouts in those books, actually.
The game is good fun. I only got to level 6 so I'll give it another go!
ddionisio
17. Dec 2012 · 07:36 UTC
The graphics gave me that windows 16 vibe, good times. Fun game.
Dr. Mo
17. Dec 2012 · 07:40 UTC
Wow, it really is Waldo. Find Waldo! At level 9, I finally forgot what one of my targets looked like, and I was done. Great game! Could have used better audio, for sure, but every other part of this is nice!
tumoxep
17. Dec 2012 · 07:45 UTC
Nice game.
aneeslol
17. Dec 2012 · 07:48 UTC
Very cool concept, and well designed! Reducing the accuracy after a shot balances it out nicely.
svenardo
17. Dec 2012 · 08:18 UTC
Very funny twist on the "find Waldo" theme. Could do with a more beefy gun pointer (it's a bit too easy to miss) and better SFX, but overall quite fun!
Gemberkoekje
17. Dec 2012 · 09:11 UTC
Hum, XNA games don't seem to work on my work computer. I'm gonna try this one out at home tonight~!
Faust
17. Dec 2012 · 10:33 UTC
Interesting game.
AtkinsSJ
17. Dec 2012 · 10:42 UTC
That awkward moment where you forget who your targets are...

Clever concept, and I like that you added some variety with the settings. :D
master4523
17. Dec 2012 · 11:35 UTC
I had fun playing Waldo. Got to level 12 or so, didn't find any bugs. Besides improved graphics and sounds, you could have added a scoring system (bonus points for headshots, kill while running, and penalty points for killing the wrong target). Overall it was a great little game.
AnnaGavaldaKedavra
17. Dec 2012 · 12:03 UTC
My favorite for the moment. Really great game, smart.
lando walters
18. Dec 2012 · 01:29 UTC
I really liked this entry, but the audio could have been better. nice job :D
Xavier
18. Dec 2012 · 18:01 UTC
Damn! I can't play it! doesn't work for me (Win7 + NET 4.0). Any clue?
🎤 h.attila
18. Dec 2012 · 19:08 UTC
@Xavier: It worked on both of my PCs, one of them is running Windows 7. Did you get any error message? Can you play any other XNA game? Maybe you can try reinstalling the frameworks (both .NET and XNA).
handCraftedRadio
18. Dec 2012 · 20:14 UTC
Cool game! I like the idea a lot.
sev_inf
18. Dec 2012 · 21:02 UTC
Cool idea and pretty good implmentation. Would be great game on mobile phones.
delpes
18. Dec 2012 · 21:34 UTC
Level 14 :) Forgot my targets a few levels earlier and just shot at everyone. Fun game!
HeXoT
18. Dec 2012 · 22:04 UTC
Despite forgetting targets is easy I guess that is the difficulty of the game.


Nice game :)
Saisaith
19. Dec 2012 · 01:58 UTC
lol such an interestingly enjoyable game!

Great work!
Toadpud
19. Dec 2012 · 03:30 UTC
The simplicity worked out fine.
dalbinblue
19. Dec 2012 · 04:14 UTC
Definately has a Ski free vibe to it. As a note, I found it possible to sit at the targets screen and wait for the targets to walk into view and identify them while still seeing my target. You may be better off if you hid the crowd until after the targets list has been closed and the level starts.
nathanj439
19. Dec 2012 · 04:20 UTC
Simple but lots of fun. Good idea and gameplay.
csanyk
19. Dec 2012 · 04:54 UTC
Pretty good. I liked the shooting mechanics, and the way the people on the street would scatter after a shot is fired. Some screaming sound effects might have helped sell the action a little bit, but overall this is pretty good!
Rex Peppers
19. Dec 2012 · 17:23 UTC
Can't play games on windows :-(
calzoneman
19. Dec 2012 · 20:05 UTC
I really like the idea of being a hitman. I like how the crowd scatters when you shoot. Very cool game.
Amoaeba Junior
19. Dec 2012 · 20:45 UTC
liked it, was challenging and well thought
Gazok
20. Dec 2012 · 03:26 UTC
Very cool, it's really satisfying in a very sick way. I like the various clothing designs.
metadept
20. Dec 2012 · 04:03 UTC
Nice game, I really like the concept. Three suggestions: hide the playing field while the targets are showing so that the player has to memorize them beforehand, add a severe penalty for shooting people who aren't the target, and give some kind of bonus for headshots.
jmaasing
20. Dec 2012 · 18:33 UTC
Sorry, can't rate since I don't have windows.
DeathBySnail
20. Dec 2012 · 18:36 UTC
Cute game. Quite fun to make civs "dance" by shooting either side of them :D
Jeremias
20. Dec 2012 · 22:29 UTC
Very solid game! The things I like:

- People turn and it gets difficult to find them if you only see them from the side.
- People run if you miss them.
- Remembering the multiple accessoirs.
- The well balanced time for searching them.

What you could make better:

- Improve the graphics and audio (music).
- Make a penalty for spamming shots.
char68
21. Dec 2012 · 02:38 UTC
The name really fits the game, it was tough to remember who I was supposed to get (not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing).
FrederickK
22. Dec 2012 · 04:13 UTC
Very well executed!
Nice job!
naufr4g0
23. Dec 2012 · 22:45 UTC
Interesting concept. I thought more than once to create a game which resembles this. :)
WiseGAMER
24. Dec 2012 · 12:34 UTC
very good game ,fortunately too many innocent people had died
;)
lotusgame
25. Dec 2012 · 18:02 UTC
Cool game ! I had fun ! Congrats :)
BlackBulletIV
26. Dec 2012 · 03:19 UTC
The gameplay got a little boring for me personally, but the concept is nice. Well done.
AyCe
28. Dec 2012 · 00:13 UTC
Nice game from a simple idea. Got to level 9 :)
Spelchan
28. Dec 2012 · 03:15 UTC
Nice random people generator. Love the way people start fleeing when you start shooting. Would be nice to be able to bring up list of targets again, but I suppose memory is a factor to playing this game. Granted, one could always take a screenshot of the target screen and have that in another window while playing the game.
Dir3kt
29. Dec 2012 · 18:21 UTC
Overall a nice game. Got a bit repetitive after few levels but that's normal given the time constraint.

Like the fact that sometime you are not sure about the target because characters are similar.
tripleVisionGames
06. Jan 2013 · 12:52 UTC
This is really good fun! Although on one playthrough the targets never turned to face me, although probably because they were the only ones left alive.....
Niavlys
07. Jan 2013 · 19:06 UTC
I have to admit I didn't expected this to be really entertaining. The graphics are simple but the procedural generation (I suppose) of the people and targets works great! I love the fact that people are running around when there's a shot. There are great ideas in this game. Even though there doesn't seem to be a great mood here, I felt somehow dirty while playing this, as is I were a real villain.