LudumData

Maelstrom Mayhem by OttersDen

[raw]
made by OttersDen for LD35 (JAM)
The elementals continue their endless war for the Maelstrom! Enter the skirmish and battle it out against other elementals. Elementals are volatile and will shapeshift into other forms randomly. This is a difficult battle, are you up for the challenge?

-----Controls-----
Attack: Click (or hold) right mouse button.
Move: Hold left mouse button, guide with cursor.


Our third Ludum Dare entry!
This game turned into a sort of actiony rock paper scissors, with a level of challenge so high I doubt you'll break double digits for your best score, cupcake. Good luck!

[Update]
We have added a little post-jam update that keeps track of the top 15 scores worldwide. Just for funsies.
Web (Post-Jam) https://heytherediego.com/show/maelstrom
Web https://heytherediego.com/show/maelstromLD
Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/phf0g8jxwj4wy8g/maelstrom_mayhem.zip?dl=0
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=46754

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.18 610
Audio(Jam) 3.19 372
Fun(Jam) 3.08 575
Graphics(Jam) 3.34 537
Humor(Jam) 2.15 675
Innovation(Jam) 3.25 382
Mood(Jam) 2.86 726
Theme(Jam) 3.42 483

Feedback

jcmonkey
19. Apr 2016 · 05:09 UTC
this is a pretty interesting game. but i was having problems getting attacks to work right.
luvShape
19. Apr 2016 · 12:04 UTC
I like the sound effects they really boost the game, cool little creatures too :)
Weeping Rupee
20. Apr 2016 · 05:20 UTC
took me a while to realize there was a rock, paper, scissors thing going on between the elements. Cool!
starpixie
20. Apr 2016 · 05:20 UTC
Good tutorial. Very colourful. Cool music. It would have been more fun if I could have ever tracked down the element I was supposed to kill before I could shape change. My high score was 2 :P
wg_phancock
20. Apr 2016 · 05:37 UTC
Wow, the three way war with changing sides is phenomenal gameplay. Even if the controls feel a bit clunky, the core idea is awesome, and I kind of wish we would have used something like that.
Redpillgamedev
20. Apr 2016 · 06:14 UTC
I really liked it! I spent about 10 min on it! Congratz!
Ghust1995
20. Apr 2016 · 06:26 UTC
Cool idea, but the game falls flat after a couple minutes. Also, grass seems seriously underpowered and the seemingly random shapeshifts make the game a bit harsh, especially after a bunch of NPC's start showing up.

Maybe if you make it into a agar.io style of game it could work. But as a single player experience, it needs more content, something to spice it up.

I really liked you let us play around with the attacks in the tutorial. Kudos.
2Bit
20. Apr 2016 · 07:44 UTC
Cool game, I like the concept.
unit684
20. Apr 2016 · 20:53 UTC
It took a few tries but I managed to get 10 :D Really fun when you get used to the controls and watching out for all the other elementals. Lovely art style with nice animations too!
glaze_96
20. Apr 2016 · 20:55 UTC
Great take on the theme! Love the rock-paper-scissors mechanic.

Too hard for me though! Only got a score of 3 after several plays :c

Hope you guys had a fun jamming =)
KappaIX
20. Apr 2016 · 20:55 UTC
Made it to 11 after much cursing! Very interesting idea, really liked the fight going on around you while playing.

Well done!
Dreschler
21. Apr 2016 · 19:03 UTC
Good looking game
jakass
22. Apr 2016 · 17:28 UTC
Great!
Digitaldude555
27. Apr 2016 · 20:49 UTC
Played the jam submission(not post), Good game, I found it difficult but fair, like the design of the creatures. Got boring fairly quickly though, maybe have low number of enemies at the start so people can get the hang of it first and then gradually increase it, seems it gets very hectic from the first second.
medidog
27. Apr 2016 · 23:31 UTC
I love your art and music!
ryjcio
27. Apr 2016 · 23:36 UTC
Great game! Really great idea! I love whole look 'n feel!

But I have to say it's very hard. I barerly get 9 points D:
blob
28. Apr 2016 · 00:20 UTC
That was cool, got 4 points. Too bad the screen ends with a sad black border, that kinda kills the cool maelstrom vibe of the background.
blob
28. Apr 2016 · 00:25 UTC
The high score post jam made me want to play more :p
Got to 10 points. Its fun jumping from attacking to running away. Overall Water feels OP and fire is the worst.
Jacksendary
28. Apr 2016 · 18:11 UTC
I actually have some online co-op potential
The Walking Kiwi
28. Apr 2016 · 18:50 UTC
It gets pretty hard. A bit of a stretch to call it shapeshift though. Still fun!
Hectigo
28. Apr 2016 · 20:35 UTC
I like the concept, and it's cool that all the different shapes have clearly different attacks. It's very clearly presented as well. I think it might be better if the player had some kind of an edge over the computer controlled opponents though, now the match is often over too soon, you don't feel like you have a huge effect on the outcome and the excitement doesn't have time to build up.

I'd also easily give you a high score for the graphics if it wasn't for the level suddenly ending at the edges. Maybe the maelstrom in the background could also have some kind of an effect on gameplay?
Rock Eaters
28. Apr 2016 · 23:41 UTC
nice and cool, i really like the characters and background and its fun to play
Aaranos
29. Apr 2016 · 00:49 UTC
Really enjoyed it after getting used to it. I managed to get on the high score board but probably won't stay for long. I think some balancing needs done on it overall as fire wasn't nearly as good as the other two, but it's pretty good.
dcolgan
29. Apr 2016 · 00:53 UTC
The attacks were pretty difficult to get to work. Movement was not very fluid and enemies were too hard to defend against. It did not really work for me.
phoenix1987
29. Apr 2016 · 22:54 UTC
A little difficulty with the attacks. but I enjoyed it very much
Almax27
29. Apr 2016 · 23:15 UTC
I liked the creatures, thought the graphics were cool and funky, dislikes the black boxed boarder showing through.
A-Flat Miner Studios
02. May 2016 · 16:40 UTC
I really enjoyed that you are "teammates" with some of the enemies, but you change your "team" periodically. That made it a neat sort of challenge to make sure you watch how close you get to them.
HuvaaKoodia
05. May 2016 · 15:24 UTC
Absolutely amazing stuff this one, I'm hooked.

Can't find anything to complain about the gameplay. About the only bit of criticism I can think of is the use of the default fuzzy particle texture. It doesn't really fit the otherwise sharp and distinct art style.

Now excuse me, I'll be going for that highscore...
HuvaaKoodia
07. May 2016 · 16:02 UTC
Finally did it! And loved every round.

I did find one rather serious bug though. If you're green and happen to attack just as you're going to turn blue, you will end up killing yourself. This happened accidentally rather often, even after noticing it.
Gamepopper
09. May 2016 · 12:39 UTC
Game definitely looks nice, although it's a bit too difficult to get into. No idea why you chose to use the left mouse button to move and the right mouse button to fire, you can get the buttons mixed up easily.