LudumData

Balance by hadesfury

[raw]
made by hadesfury for LD23 (JAM)
As the 37th reincarnation of the ball god of Balance, thou shalt herd the little fellas to safety in their tiny cute home...
To do so, use the arrow keys to move around!

Controls : Arrow keys or joystick to move the ball (tested with Xbox controller)

[EDIT]
Once you beat a level, click NEXT and then PLAY again, there are several different 'worlds' and the objective keeps getting higher !
Good luck !

[EDIT2]
We found some time to build an Android version !
Move the ball by tilting your device! This version is also a bit easier, as the tiny people weight less on the world.
There's even a fancy QR Code in the screenshots down there to download the install straight to your phone/tablet with Google Goggles or whatever you're using!

Web - Original Jam Entry http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43674973/LD23/2012-04-24.03-43/WebPlayer.html
Source http://www.assembla.com/code/ludum-dare-23/subversion/nodes/trunk/Assets
Android - Post Compo http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43674973/LD23/2012-05-11.23-26/Android/BalanceAndroid.apk
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=10263

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.28 86
Audio(Jam) 3.09 97
Fun(Jam) 2.85 109
Graphics(Jam) 4.07 43
Humor(Jam) 3.21 43
Innovation(Jam) 3.42 62
Mood(Jam) 2.83 124
Theme(Jam) 3.77 23

Feedback

johnfn
24. Apr 2012 路 01:12 UTC
Nice game - very pretty, good work on the graphics. Would like to see more levels!
Sodaware
24. Apr 2012 路 01:18 UTC
Took me a few tries to realise how things worked, but a clever concept. At first I thought you had to push people off the edges, but then I figured out you have to guide them to the center. Having the population tilt the world added a nice challenge, although it gets a little tough. Looks great too!
馃帳 hadesfury
24. Apr 2012 路 01:44 UTC
We've added some more levels in submission time, enjoy !
free_napalm
24. Apr 2012 路 10:36 UTC
Nice to play and nice to look at.
Law
24. Apr 2012 路 10:38 UTC
This was quite an interesting game, though it was quite tough after a while when the people were crowding all over the edge... Good job!
Zamando
24. Apr 2012 路 10:41 UTC
Neat game!
callidus
24. Apr 2012 路 10:43 UTC
good looking game, though it got quite hard as more people popped up. Nice idea and sfx as well :-)
Chinchilla
24. Apr 2012 路 11:04 UTC
Wow, love the landscape the game looks awesome! I kept getting stuck around the corners when trying to go uphill, but otherwise very cool.

Also, looks like great minds think (slightly) alike:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=5017

;)
quill18
24. Apr 2012 路 18:42 UTC
My only complaint about this game is that I want MORE OF IT! Nice to see good use of sound too!
Pixelulsar
24. Apr 2012 路 23:44 UTC
Cool concept of having all the little guys tilt the world with their weight. The floating island looked cool too. I though it was kinda short, after I beat the first level and clicked next I just went back to the title screen. I would be cool to see you expand on this mechanic.
nihilocrat
24. Apr 2012 路 23:48 UTC
Deceptively hard! I really like it, I found that to keep the world more balanced you need to kill / push off clumps of the little dudes. Their animations are pretty cool and so are their sound effects, nicely done.
Chtulhu
24. Apr 2012 路 23:54 UTC
Nice game and gameplay. So hard sometimes.
LegacyCrono
25. Apr 2012 路 00:16 UTC
The graphics are gorgeous!
nilstastic
25. Apr 2012 路 19:25 UTC
Pretty, and fun to roll over the tiny people. =)
PabloAM
26. Apr 2012 路 13:53 UTC
Good game! The only thing that maybe should be changed is the controllers. I think is a bit imprecise.
natpat
26. Apr 2012 路 22:42 UTC
I found the controls really frustrating. I'm not sure if I wasn't getting how to control it, but ah well. The graphics were gorgeous though, and running over little people was very fun.
Square Particle
27. Apr 2012 路 15:51 UTC
Fun Game, I love all the little people and the graphics.
AlwaysGeeky
27. Apr 2012 路 18:31 UTC
Really pretty to look at and play! I enjoyed playing this. :)
Codexus
27. Apr 2012 路 21:40 UTC
Cool game. It's more fun to crush and push the little guys off the map than herding them to safety. Great graphics especially the tiny people. Nice sound effects too.
lorancou
27. Apr 2012 路 21:58 UTC
Same as Codexus, I can't really concentrate on scoring as it's so much fun to bring them to death :)
NefariousZhen
29. Apr 2012 路 15:39 UTC
It would've been nice if the slope never prevented me from being able to move the ball (i.e. like the slope was never worked against the motion of the ball by like 80%). It was fun but a little hard to control because of that. Good idea though!
Sanguine
29. Apr 2012 路 15:51 UTC
I liked the fact that you were supposed not to kill the villagers :)
gritfish
30. Apr 2012 路 12:03 UTC
Great graphics and a good concept, but I kept feeling like I was struggling to roll against the tilting world, when it may have been more natural to control the tilting of the land, and let the ball roll on its own.
matthias_zarzecki
30. Apr 2012 路 16:21 UTC
Great idea! Although it doesn't really become apparent what you're supposed to do.
Monkey Armada
01. May 2012 路 22:10 UTC
good idea!
Datamosh
03. May 2012 路 21:33 UTC
Reminded me a little to "Black & White"! Good job. I'm pretty sure that this on an iPhone/iPod would kick ass. The arrow keys didn't feel that good as a controller, It would've been nice if I could use the mouse maybe! Anyway, as I said, really good job.
johanp
04. May 2012 路 06:09 UTC
Looks and plays nice. Would like to see some more interesting mechanics, at the moment the only strategy I had was to move around the edges of the world.
Gremlin
04. May 2012 路 14:28 UTC
This is harder than it looks. So many little squishes and screams as the little guys get herded...
Pierrec
04. May 2012 路 18:13 UTC
I hate when they go on the top of the mountains...but I love this game
SidetrackGames
05. May 2012 路 01:48 UTC
Cool! Classic concept in nice wrappings :)
dr_soda
05. May 2012 路 22:44 UTC
Nice take on the balancing mechanic. I would love to have seen this as a mobile phone game with accelerometer controls.

I felt like the sloping of the world was a bit unforgiving at times, and that it wasn't readily apparent that you needed to scare the people into moving to the center or that the world's tilt was in response to the position of the little people. I thought at first that my boulder could keep the world more level by running to the opposite side of the board but it apparently lacks any weight against the world?

Anyhow, the game is fun. I made it up to the one where you need to save 18 people.
robcozzens
06. May 2012 路 00:21 UTC
Really awesome, but WAY too hard!
tequibo
09. May 2012 路 22:24 UTC
Funny and innovative enough, but too hard to control the ball.
And it was very confusing and frustrating at first - it's was not clear that I'm controlling the ball so I thought that I control all land.
Thotep
11. May 2012 路 07:01 UTC
Looks good, but the gameplay is rather frustrating. I ended up killing the small guys, it was more fun than herding them. ;)
saint11
12. May 2012 路 02:53 UTC
Cute idea :D I like it!
tcstyle
12. May 2012 路 08:49 UTC
Neat idea, but is extremly difficult to not let the ball or the small guys fall down at the edges of the world.
summaky
12. May 2012 路 11:07 UTC
It is way too hard to control the ball on Android; can't even finish level 1...
Angerus
13. May 2012 路 10:02 UTC
A good idea ! The control are simple but the impact on the world is quite difficult to handle. Maybe if you propose a first world much esier than the one you proposed, The player may learn more efficiently how to have more control, step by step, on the physic.
ghRibacki
13. May 2012 路 15:09 UTC
Nice graphics, funny sounds from the tiny people, haha! I found it too hard, though, to control the ball on the tilting landscape. Menus were confusing, but I understand the lack of time to work it out better. Good work! =)
omaha
13. May 2012 路 18:00 UTC
Extremely fun, even though I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.
BenW
13. May 2012 路 18:22 UTC
It's like a sadistic sheep herding operation.
tomhunt
13. May 2012 路 20:44 UTC
I had a hard time figuring out the gameplay, but I have to say that it is pretty clever and innovative.
SonnyBone
14. May 2012 路 00:51 UTC
Great use of theme! Rad and unique gameplay... I really dig this one. Good job!