{"author_link":"\/author\/mamick\/","author_name":"Mamick","author_uid":"15144","comments":[{"author_name":"Sgt Squirrelly","author_uid":"14165","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 4:07am","epoch":1346040120,"text":"I'm not totally sure what's going on, but I really like it. I love the concept, I'm just not sure what everything means. Cats are a plus."},{"author_name":"Mamick","author_uid":"15144","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 4:13am","epoch":1346040480,"text":"Do you have any advice on what isn't clear? I had a lot of trouble writing the instructions because it's a pretty complicated game."},{"author_name":"moonmagic","author_uid":"4706","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 4:47am","epoch":1346042520,"text":"I really enjoyed the music; it felt science-y and meditative. I like the idea of the fighting adding tones to it, as well, although sometimes it played the same tone at the same time and it was twice as loud (that's a minor thing, though, really). \r<br\/>\r<br\/>I found myself really wanting DNA cats. I didn't know at all what to do but enjoyed trying to figure out where to put monoliths. I think my suggestion is just to make the first screen a lot less cluttered. Too many clicks are required to get into the game and I feel like I'm adjusting settings in a control panel. Watching the evolution battle unfold is fun."},{"author_name":"LogGiant","author_uid":"14749","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 4:54am","epoch":1346042940,"text":"I loved the concept of the game, and when I saw cats in the title I had to try it! The only thing I found is that sometimes it gets a little tedious killing off your inferior cats. Luckily I realized that their appearance changes based on their stats! This is definitely a good one."},{"author_name":"Filth","author_uid":"4809","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:01am","epoch":1346043360,"text":"Really cool concept. I didn't quite understand what some of the items on the cats meant but I think I got the concept after playing a few rounds and reading the instructions. I would recommend having a &quot;tutorial&quot; level where you tell the player exactly what to do and then show them the instructions. The instructions don't make any sense without having played it at least once."},{"author_name":"darkstarmatryx","author_uid":"15538","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 5:28am","epoch":1346044980,"text":"This game was a lot of fun. I got lost as far as the evolving mechanics dealing with the monoliths, but I didn't find it all to hard to figure out good placement of them to be the most effective. Nice strategy game."},{"author_name":"Nick Knowlson","author_uid":"15084","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 6:20am","epoch":1346048100,"text":"Fantastic entry, good job!"},{"author_name":"robcozzens","author_uid":"10944","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 6:28am","epoch":1346048580,"text":"That is crazy difficult! But really cool!"},{"author_name":"Gareth001","author_uid":"14268","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 6:49am","epoch":1346049840,"text":"That is the best game ive ever played"},{"author_name":"Andrei Barsan","author_uid":"4218","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 8:29am","epoch":1346055840,"text":"Hey, it's pretty nice, and fun to play, once you get the hang of it! I beat it pretty easily.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>A thing that I believe would improve the game, requiring more thought on the player's side would be allowing the re-positioning of player owned monoliths between rounds.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I really liked the small touches to the interface, like mapping the monoliths to asdf...; also, is it intentional that once you place a monolith you can't move it? (I mean even before actually starting the round) I tend to misclick a lot :P\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I liked the ending story, it was pretty nice.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Also, you might want to fix the typos in the game (you're cats and they're cats). :P"},{"author_name":"Mamick","author_uid":"15144","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 8:39am","epoch":1346056440,"text":"Yeah, I didn't really have time to check for typos, check the difficulty, or refine monolith placement. I'll probably have a post-compo build within the next few days though."},{"author_name":"aeveis","author_uid":"8854","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 10:42am","epoch":1346063820,"text":"took a while to get used to, but fun. much harder at lvl 9"},{"author_name":"thewiseguy99","author_uid":"14421","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 7:03pm","epoch":1346093880,"text":"Kittens, ahhh!!!  I was innovative but tricky to master, which  I couldn't. Good job."},{"author_name":"Benjamin","author_uid":"2952","time":"Aug 27, 2012 @ 11:33pm","epoch":1346110080,"text":"I had some hard time trying to understand the game, but it's definitevly worth the cost. I think you should explain mainly the &quot;kill the weak&quot; gattaca rules instead of trying to give to the player a complete view of your gameplay."},{"author_name":"defiantburrito","author_uid":"7829","time":"Aug 28, 2012 @ 5:57am","epoch":1346133120,"text":"It's a bit hard to get into, but I figured it out and beat the whole thing.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I like the idea of killing individual cats, but I never wanted to do it.  First of all, I hate the idea of killing my own cats, even in a silly game.  If they were worms or beetles, it might work better.  Second, the gameplay is just too slow and tedious if you are trying to individually pick off cats.  If you want killing weak individuals to be part of the gameplay, maybe each level needs to be smaller\/shorter and the mechanic needs to be easier to read.\r<br\/>\r<br\/>I think the ideas in here are pretty good though, and I love this take on the Evolution theme.  Good work!"},{"author_name":"Mach60KAS","author_uid":"5788","time":"Aug 28, 2012 @ 12:14pm","epoch":1346155740,"text":"I really quite liked this game, the backstory gave me a chuckle too. :) The mechanics behind this game are pretty great, and the monoliths make for some interesting tactical options."},{"author_name":"Zabot","author_uid":"14146","time":"Sep 3, 2012 @ 2:30am","epoch":1346639100,"text":"Read description, rate 5 in innovation, download game."},{"author_name":"Pacifist Games","author_uid":"10510","time":"Sep 3, 2012 @ 6:06am","epoch":1346652060,"text":"VERY cool game!\r<br\/>The more particular you are in picking out the weak cats, the stronger your army gets!  Loved the procedural music and funny graphics.  Great idea giving the cats visual differences based on their stats.  I enjoyed it and played for around an hour.  Only beat the 3rd level though...  This game could be great if you keep developing it!\r<br\/>\r<br\/>Also, am I doing it right?\r<br\/>http:\/\/www.pacifistgames.com\/files\/screen.png"},{"author_name":"Pacifist Games","author_uid":"10510","time":"Sep 3, 2012 @ 8:28am","epoch":1346660580,"text":"I actually just beat it, my favorite game of the Dare!"},{"author_name":"harusame","author_uid":"7308","time":"Sep 4, 2012 @ 8:10pm","epoch":1346789100,"text":"I like your concept, good game :)  A bit hard ^^"},{"author_name":"pythong","author_uid":"717","time":"Sep 7, 2012 @ 4:42pm","epoch":1347035820,"text":"it's nice to have a instruction page, but no-one is going to read a page with so much info :\/ (tl;dr!!). the more complicated your game is, the easier you have to create tutorial\/intro levels"}],"images":["ld24\/15144-6c8439d37010c0184aa569351eb57d9b.jpg","ld24\/15144-6712050103be3ff84403501cf4d7442d.jpg","ld24\/15144-8d8c1ef1bdd92ce4f24ba53b5df2b713.jpg","ld24\/15144-88df1307290605dc1c026dfc2755f2a8.jpg"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/dl.dropbox.com\/u\/20329150\/catevolution.exe","text":"Windows"},{"url":"https:\/\/dl.dropbox.com\/u\/20329150\/evolution.gmk","text":"Source"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"29810","g_author":"15144","g_event":"LD24","g_eventkey":"12","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"29840","g_title":"Cat Evolution!","g_status":"UCHK1","g_place":"324","g_commentcount":"21","g_site2_node_id":"0","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":[],"node":null,"orig_images":["http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15144-shot0.png-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15144-shot1.png-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15144-shot2.png-eq-900-500.jpg","http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/compo2\/\/163678\/15144-shot3.png-eq-900-500.jpg"],"text":"Cat Evolution! A Cellular Automaton War Evolution God Strategy Game\r\n\r\nMy first LD Game!\r\n\r\nFeatures!\r\n-Procedural Music\r\n-Natural selection decides which cats survive and which traits evolve\r\n-Crisp, high fidelity graphics\r\n-A plot! (technically)\r\n-Monoliths which guide evolution and empower cats\r\n-Death ray to cull the weak cats of your tribe\r\n-Enough power to act as a (very) minor god\r\n-Leveling system with 6 monoliths and higher stats\r\n\r\nInstructions are in game.\r\n\r\nOnly your level is saved and it may or may not work.\r\n\r\n\r\n----------------This Part is Added Post Compo----------------\r\nIMPORTANT NOTE: Though the game is hopefully fun to play even without instructions, it's hard to understand. Some things I've noticed are confusing from the comments are examined below.\r\n\r\nAppearence changes according to stats. Images can be found in the instructions\r\nMonoliths give bonuses which can be found in the instructions\r\nPlaying the game once before reading instructions might be a good idea\r\nKilling inferior cats (to stop them from making weak children) is necessary for optimal play and it helps quite a bit, but you can get pretty far just from grinding.<\/p>","title":"Cat Evolution!"}