Influenza by Miltage
I originally intended this game to be part of the 48 hour compo, but I wasted the first 20 hours on an idea that didn't work before turning to this one, so I failed to meet the deadline.
Someone on the site suggested I enter it into the Jam, so I did.
I fear the game might be too confusing for first-time players, so I wrote a detailed guide under the game.
I don't expect many to finish the game, as it does require a great amount of time and patience, given the game's random nature.
Thanks to anyone who does give it a try. Enjoy, and do let me know if you complete it.
Hints:
- Start by spending your points in the evolution screen (DNA strand in the bottom left corner), then use Z, X, C buttons to spread your disease.
- Vomiting is the best way to defeat the first two levels.
Tools:
IDE: FlashDevelop
Engine: FlashPunk
Art: Photoshop
Music: FL Studio
Someone on the site suggested I enter it into the Jam, so I did.
I fear the game might be too confusing for first-time players, so I wrote a detailed guide under the game.
I don't expect many to finish the game, as it does require a great amount of time and patience, given the game's random nature.
Thanks to anyone who does give it a try. Enjoy, and do let me know if you complete it.
Hints:
- Start by spending your points in the evolution screen (DNA strand in the bottom left corner), then use Z, X, C buttons to spread your disease.
- Vomiting is the best way to defeat the first two levels.
Tools:
IDE: FlashDevelop
Engine: FlashPunk
Art: Photoshop
Music: FL Studio
Ratings
| Coolness | 71% | 3 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.90 | 10 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.14 | 91 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.49 | 42 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.64 | 83 |
| Humor(Jam) | 3.41 | 32 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.90 | 11 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.45 | 37 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.25 | 64 |
@Pierrec I had trouble finding ways to explain it.
My brother suggested I start on the Evolution screen.
@Pierrec Just to clarify on what I said earlier, my brother suggested I make the game start on the Evolution screen, so you know to buy stuff before you start.
I guess I just love games with little people wandering around on floors ;)
The idea of spreading the 'flu using three powers is brilliant, and it's executed pretty well here. As you noted, the random nature can make the game quite tedious at times, but I still enjoyed playing 'the waiting game'.
This could perhaps be alleviated by limiting employees to certain floors, or giving them visible tasks (i.e. a phone rings and you see a thought bubble above the head of whoever is going to go and answer it, or someone is thirsty so you know they are heading towards a water cooler). This would allow you to better target your efforts.
I had a problem wherein the manager and the doctor both routinely spawned on top of the roof of the building. This made the game a hell of a lot easier, but I don't think it was intended ;)
It would also really benefit from some variety in the floor appearances (different colour walls etc), music and sounds. Even just adding sound effects for sneezing etc would make a world of difference!
I'm glad you enjoyed the game, thanks for your great feedback.
Oh nice little game. It can't be so hard...
...Yes, yes sneeze on that bastard, now enter that door.
ten minutes later:
ENTER THE FUCKING DOOR DAMN YOU.
And yes I finished it. Nice game. I've seen disease-spreading games before but never like this. Some soundeffects would've been fantastic though.
Thanks for your feedback. Next time I'll add more focus on sound effects. And I apologise for the amount of frustration the game induces in anyone.
Great personality in the game, and the variation you've added makes for some strategy. I noticed that the employees tended to stay on the bottom two floors cycling between them a lot... once the infection had spread to the 3rd floor it was usually over quite quickly. So I mostly carpet-bombed the bottom two floors in vomit, with the occasional sneeze on a manager to get rid of them. Then it was a case of nabbing whoever went up a floor and using them to wreak havoc ;)
I would love to see this developed more - things like spreading disease via the water cooler, or more defined paths for (some) individual employees, to add to the strategy element: you could easily build this on the current by removing the breaks between 'levels', and having it as a evolving system with an eventual goal - e.g. getting to the CEO locked in a room on the top floor - over a larger building.
Anyway, this was great fun! Thanks for making it.
Great game, I've got to level 4 with biosuit guys!
@zx81 That's level 5! You did better than you think.
Unfortunately I didn't manage to make it all the way through, quitting on level four. Though I did like the laid back and patient approach to the game, I found the slow slow camera control frustrating, as well as the fact that the entire office building wasn't in a single view despite the pixels being as big as my face.
I quite liked the graphics, the walking animation on the legs seemed quite exaggerated and comical. Overall, nice work @Miltage
Overall great work!
I felt like there was a bit too much time waiting for the energy bar to recharge.
@dector That's amazing to hear, thanks. Music is not my strongest suite but I'll work on it for next time.
Thanks everyone else for their amazing comments and feedback! :D
It resembles the way viruses are, all they can do is sit and wait while their agents do the leg work.
Cool game!
I didn't actually find the game hard as such, I didn't feel like I was at risk of losing by running out of men at any point. Managers were easy to deal with by infecting and doctors only temporarily cured someone.
I found the last level to be pretty frustrating sitting in a save position with plenty of infected people, but having to wait for several minutes for someone to finally go to the top floor.
Seems like it touches a very interesting subject after a moral panic occurred when Influenza stuck.
Awesome game! less randomness and sound effect would have been nice though