Darwinicide aka Charles Darwin versus the Catholic Church by Skulls

[raw]
made by Skulls for LD24 (JAM)
This is my 'video game' although I prefer the term 'interactive experience' or simply 'interactive art'. It explores the philosophical conflict in our society between rationality and irrationality or according to other between our spiritual side and materialism. I refer of course to the conflict between science and religion.

I warn you now this game will be confronting, it will take you on a journey through the oppression of a brilliant mind as it is forced to conform to the Church's orthodoxy and rebels against the boundaries imposed upon it. So please sit back and prepare yourself for the emotional roller coaster ride that is Charles Darwin versus the Catholic Church (also known as Darwinicide).

Controls:

Player 1
wasd- move
space- shoot

Player 2
arrows- move
ctrl- shoot

Credits:
Game design and coding: Robert Reed
Graphics: Colin Capurso
Music: Joshua Douglass

A jamalaide production for more games and info on jams in Adelaide go to http://www.jamalaide.org.au/

Edit: I fixed a bug where your beard gets caught and added a loading screen post jam, yell at me in the comments if you feel this was too much editing.

Ratings

Coolness 78% 2
Overall(Jam) 2.68 197
Audio(Jam) 3.03 98
Fun(Jam) 2.57 181
Graphics(Jam) 2.97 160
Humor(Jam) 3.42 30
Innovation(Jam) 2.27 211
Mood(Jam) 2.47 177
Theme(Jam) 2.97 100

Feedback

colincapurso
26. Aug 2012 路 10:13 UTC
That was a deeply moving experience, i'm going to get my kids to play it
Dietrich Epp
27. Aug 2012 路 08:25 UTC
That was a pleasant surprise.
dvdking
27. Aug 2012 路 08:26 UTC
Graphics are well drawn.
It has a high difficulty. There are a lot of enemies and they shoot really fast, so i can't dodge or kill them before loose health
馃帳 Skulls
27. Aug 2012 路 08:38 UTC
I lowered the damage bullets deal and their speed, thanks for the feedback dvdking
Misericorde
27. Aug 2012 路 08:50 UTC
Yeah we had the same idea.
But you did it better, I still have a lot to learn
in programmation.
The voice is a great addition too !
madpew
27. Aug 2012 路 09:01 UTC
Could need more sfx, graphics are awesome. Gameplay is ok. Enjoyed it. Well done.
Zoomyzoom
28. Aug 2012 路 18:03 UTC
That was a pleasant surprise indeed!
K1NET1K
29. Aug 2012 路 10:22 UTC
I love the characters of dawkins and darwin
AuxiliumGames
29. Aug 2012 路 22:11 UTC
So awesome that the nuns shoot the face of disapproval lol! The audio and graphics in the actual game were pretty good. Overall, very funny, and fun to play!
Robotic
30. Aug 2012 路 06:48 UTC
Very surprising and funny !
amodo
30. Aug 2012 路 09:13 UTC
The music and speech go very well together and create an air of profundity.
Kayelgee
30. Aug 2012 路 10:43 UTC
the audio was nice
Norgg
30. Aug 2012 路 11:51 UTC
I didn't find this emotionally affective at all. It's simplistic gameplay to tell an over-simplified and one-sided story and your description over-sells it.

The graphics and sound are decent though.
dengzo
30. Aug 2012 路 12:17 UTC
Good job! Overall good ;)
Deykoweec
30. Aug 2012 路 12:42 UTC
i guess that thing about "interactive art" and "emotional rolercoaster" is a joke, right?
DaveDobson
31. Aug 2012 路 05:20 UTC
Stylish and funny - I really liked the art and the humor. The voiceover quotes were fun and well-done also. Really good work. Those nuns with the dirty looks are scary. Ironically, the Catholic church hasn't been as down on evolution as others, but I think that's not so relevant. I couldn't quite tell what the Logic powerup was doing for me - more powerful shots? Nice work.
Pierrec
06. Sep 2012 路 06:22 UTC
the game itself isn't very fun (pretty basic to me and I don't like shoot'em up much) but you did an awesome work with the graphics and sounds so it becomes really enjoyable for 5 minutes. shooting nuns is fun.
_AM_
06. Sep 2012 路 10:12 UTC
Interesting sound bits. I think the game is a bit too minimal... this passes for a game, despite what your description might say. There are clear win and fail conditions in place.
demonpants
06. Sep 2012 路 17:42 UTC
Mac version?
馃帳 Skulls
07. Sep 2012 路 07:26 UTC
I think it says something about indie games that some people took my introduction to this game seriously.
Maple
07. Sep 2012 路 08:20 UTC
At first I couldn't get this to play. I opened it, and I could see the main menu where it has 1 Player and 2 Player, but I couldn't click on them or anything. I tried a few times, then somehow the game started. Played it through. It's interesting. These isn't much to comment on, really. Any potential meaning didn't really grasp me, and other than that it isn't much more than a basic sidescrolling shooter. Everything was smooth, which was good. Would have been good to have some sort of end screen rather than just go back to the main menu, though. Solid enough. I'm interested to see what you come up with next Ludum Dare.
Gama11
07. Sep 2012 路 10:18 UTC
Polished art and nice music.
There's no reason not to fire all the time, so you might as well get rid of the shoot keys. It's more of an annoyance than anything that you have to keep them pressed, just add autofire. Plus, WASD combined with space doesn't work so well.

Gameplay itself was not too innovative. It basically a reskinned, horizontal-scrolling space shooter. It doesn't fit the theme all that well either.
Feel like a score counter or something is needed that keeps track of your progress.
triliyn
07. Sep 2012 路 11:25 UTC
That was certainly amusing. As a game it wasn't great, but I certainly don't regret having played it.
I had a problem where occasionally, if I was firing continuously, Darwin would get stuck and fall toward the back of the screen. Dawkins did not appear to suffer from this.
馃帳 Skulls
08. Sep 2012 路 08:50 UTC
@triliyn
That's probably because his beard gets caught, I'd fix it but I don't care enough.
michax
08. Sep 2012 路 20:45 UTC
Go darwing go! Nice idea and graphics. Gameplay could be a little varied but anyway, nothing beats slaping priests with a book. God as a final boss would be nice addition.
馃帳 Skulls
09. Sep 2012 路 14:59 UTC
Fixed the bug anyways.