Monkey Bowling by olav_st

[raw]
made by olav_st for LD24 (COMPO)
This is my third LD game. I had a lot of fun making it. If you are going to participate in a future LD I would highly recommend livestreaming.
I had a nice chat with people watching my livestream and they helped me with playtesting and kept me motivated.

Tools i used:
Haxe with the HaxePunk Library
Gimp
Raptor's SpriteEditor
As3 SFXR
Sublime Text 2

About the game:

Help the monkey evolve into a more advanced species that can hit a strike on those bowling pins!

Controls:
WASD: Move
Space: Read signs
1-4: Select evolution level (if unlocked)

Ratings

Coolness 48% 582
Overall 3.54 100
Audio 2.13 465
Fun 3.50 79
Graphics 3.00 344
Humor 3.45 54
Innovation 2.75 417
Mood 2.95 218
Theme 3.42 179

Feedback

whilefun
27. Aug 2012 · 01:38 UTC
AMAZING job. Love it :D
aschearer
27. Aug 2012 · 01:46 UTC
Pretty fun game. Really impressed with how much content you were able to get in there in 48 hours. My favorite thing is probably the fact that the bananas give you a boost while in the air. I would explore that some more.
whilefun
27. Aug 2012 · 16:38 UTC
Revisiting now that I can officially rate it. Great game, I really like the use of the theme. I found myself laughing while playing, and actually wanting to play more if I died or had to restart. The banana boost mechanic is cool, and is introduced well, i think. One bit I think could be better is the crate movements. I got stuck 2 or 3 times trying to move the same one (it got pushed against the wall when I jumped). A "pull" ability would solve this. Maybe something to work in later if you keep working on the game (which you totally should!) :)
Kuulog
27. Aug 2012 · 16:47 UTC
Fun game. I loved getting to the fourth evolution.
TheSheep
27. Aug 2012 · 17:33 UTC
Very nice take on the classic block puzzles.
frcouceiro
28. Aug 2012 · 02:44 UTC
Funny game. Some minor bugs but the mechanics are pretty nice.
it's addictive!
Lactor
28. Aug 2012 · 03:05 UTC
Really liked the game. A very simple plataformer, but done right. Visually is nice, and in terms of gameplay is really cool. Keep up the good work
Zed
28. Aug 2012 · 12:03 UTC
Very cute! I would've liked to have seen more done with the 'intermediate' evolutions, but I think that was probably just a time limit thing. Also, although there isn't particularly a penalty for dying (or even a way to die), it felt a bit cheap that there were certain parts you had to get through via trial-and-error, but nothing massively aggravating.

Very cool!
jellycubestudio
28. Aug 2012 · 14:47 UTC
Fun game! :D
Suffolk and Clever
30. Aug 2012 · 00:13 UTC
Audio was horrible (sorry!), but the rest of the game was fantastic! Some of the puzzle design frustrated me a little (like having to choose between one of two holes to drop down without being able to look down!), but overall it was very well crafted. The evolutions escalated quickly, but I imagine you probably ran out of time considering the amount of content. The final evolution was hilarious too!
Bender
30. Aug 2012 · 14:14 UTC
Cool last evolution and ending
zachstronaut
31. Aug 2012 · 02:26 UTC
Ok, that was kind of awesome. I think you did great in 48 hours. With a little more time you could fix some of the annoyances in the levels and flesh out the differences/benefits of playing as the different evolutions.
CappaGames
31. Aug 2012 · 13:29 UTC
This game was fun and the ending was funny, good work.
dector
31. Aug 2012 · 18:59 UTC
Haha. Funny story about little monkey!
rxi
31. Aug 2012 · 21:32 UTC
I found your game excellent. The world felt large and the levels seemed clever, the monkey sprites were cute and the platforming felt solid (I'm amazed how many other entries have got this so devastatingly wrong). I got an almost "Jill of The Jungle" (Epic Games, 1992) vibe from the game, mainly, I think, from the level design.

I liked the fact that irreversibly messing up a level was implemented into the gameplay. The restart key becoming an essential component of the game, as opposed to a fail safe. I felt it gave the game an extra layer of depth, almost as if you were using it to transverse back through time with a gained asset: The knowledge of a tangent future.

The game felt as if it ended sooner than it should have, and the three evolutions happening so rapidly in succession gave a feeling of rushed incompleteness in the game. Saying this, I appreciate this was a 48 hour game, and the difficulties that brings with it. If you continued to develop this game any further I'd no doubt play the "extended edition".

I liked the commentary implied by the forth evolutionary stage. When I first saw the pins I certainly wasn't expecting to be knocking them down like that.


On a side note, I think I may have found a bug where you can fall off the side of the world on the right edge of this screen:

http://i.imgur.com/cCWxh.png
🎤 olav_st
31. Aug 2012 · 22:17 UTC
Thans for all the great feedback guys!

Yes, you should not be able to fall off that level, but it's not really a bug so I'll only fix it if I do a post-compo version.
Jamin
01. Sep 2012 · 00:45 UTC
Camera jitters. Otherwise a very fun, very playable game.

+1 falling off the edge of the world. : D
jfroco
08. Sep 2012 · 03:19 UTC
Nice game.. a lot of content.. It really need a catchy bgm. Interesting banana mechanic. Kudos for using Haxe.
pjchardt
11. Sep 2012 · 04:05 UTC
Awesome. Is this the new standard model for human evolution? I always new there was something unsettling about bowling...