GERMS: A Ghost Story by matt

[raw]
made by matt for LD23 (COMPO)
Control a germ as you try to kill a person.

To win, kill the big red square in the guy's stomach.

Controls:
WASD - Move
Mouse - Aim and shoot germs. Hold down to charge up.

Notes:
1) Parts of the game sometimes break, like germs disappearing when they shouldn't and the germs you shoot not doing damage when they should.
2) The purple square that follows you doesn't do anything. The idea was that this is medicine that kills you if it catches up to you. It gives you a sort of time limit that's more than just a clock on the screen. It also keeps you from just collecting germs in the beginning where white blood cells can't hit you. I thought that this was a cool idea, but I didn't implement it because I didn't feel like it.
3) I haven't really tested the difficulty of the game so it might be very hard(or easy) to beat.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.89 477
Audio 2.27 511
Fun 2.57 572
Graphics 2.38 691
Humor 3.09 112
Innovation 2.98 407
Mood 2.74 387
Theme 3.74 90

Feedback

SidetrackGames
23. Apr 2012 路 04:32 UTC
Link is dead ? :(
馃帳 matt
23. Apr 2012 路 04:40 UTC
it works for me...
MagnesiumNinja
23. Apr 2012 路 05:00 UTC
I loved the idea of going in through someone's mouth and entering their body, well done there :)
j_peeba
23. Apr 2012 路 05:09 UTC
The intro cinematic cracked me up and I liked the idea but I found the gameplay mechanic of collecting germs to be a little grindy.
Tulrath
23. Apr 2012 路 05:13 UTC
Nice original idea. Seemed like there was a few bugs - I think when the turrets got to 0 Health, they didn't explode or turn off. Made it to the large room with all the turrets around the center and brought all those turrets down to 0, but couldn't figure out how to progress the game further. Had to turn the audio off after a few minutes :)
Daniel
23. Apr 2012 路 06:09 UTC
I like the idea and the opening cinematic. As for the gameplay, I agree with j_peeba, it's a little grindy.
aaronsnoswell
23. Apr 2012 路 07:13 UTC
The controls were a bit to finicky to master (too much inertia). Nice idea for the theme though. Seems a little too difficult, also :)
mikolalysenko
23. Apr 2012 路 21:20 UTC
Seems like the website only works intermittently. Intro was cool.
piterlouis
23. Apr 2012 路 21:31 UTC
Nice intro. gameplay slightly bored, but the idea is very original.
馃帳 matt
23. Apr 2012 路 21:53 UTC
If the Web link doesn't work, try Web 2.
Toast
23. Apr 2012 路 22:22 UTC
Loving the original gameplay. This was strangely eerie and disturbing. =S
eburn184
24. Apr 2012 路 01:11 UTC
A fellow germ game! Fun idea, though it was a bit tough on a laptop
Truce
24. Apr 2012 路 01:35 UTC
So, was the first guy immune to me? I seemed pretty deadly.
fprawn
24. Apr 2012 路 01:52 UTC
The first link didn't load for me, but the second worked. Cool cinematic in the beginning. The gameplay is repetitive, but I played it through to the end. I think different controls could have made this more fun, aiming with the mouse is too easy.
fatSquirrel
24. Apr 2012 路 04:23 UTC
Good intro into the gameplay. It would be nice to have objects flash when hit for visual confirmation. I really enjoyed the pixel graphics.
馃帳 matt
24. Apr 2012 路 04:24 UTC
lol enemies were supposed to flash when hit, I think I commented that line of code out for some reason when debugging and forgot to uncomment it
johanp
24. Apr 2012 路 06:05 UTC
Loved the cutscene. :) Found it a bit too hard to control the germ, but it works!
Transmit
24. Apr 2012 路 17:20 UTC
Awesome introduction.
Ben
24. Apr 2012 路 18:22 UTC
I LOVE IT!!!!
Evgis
24. Apr 2012 路 18:33 UTC
The movement had a little bit low friction imo, like you were walking on ice, but otherwise, good job.
robcozzens
24. Apr 2012 路 20:10 UTC
It wasn't really clear how to kill those turrets (if it is even possible).
lanoiadimuu
25. Apr 2012 路 16:30 UTC
The intro was beautiful!
I didn't like the controls, more acceleration would make them easier.
armornick
25. Apr 2012 路 19:12 UTC
Very original! I find the 'story' a bit disgusting, but that's more of a personal problem ;)
Pretty fun game that fits the theme.
castor
25. Apr 2012 路 19:14 UTC
One of my favorites so far.
wademcgillis
26. Apr 2012 路 22:26 UTC
Are you allowed to use the vader breathing in the compo?

Is it a bit grindy, like other players said.

I also couldn't kill the white blood cells. Was I supposed to hurl germs at them?
馃帳 matt
27. Apr 2012 路 00:27 UTC
Umm...I wasn't sure about the Vader breathing. I used some online sound generator to make it. I could just take it out.

And yeah, you're supposed to shoot germs at the white blood cell cannons. It's pretty buggy though and sometimes doesn't work.

As for the grind, I just didn't feel like fine-tuning things on Sunday because I'm lazy. I think it could be fixed in a few ways, like adding germs and making the player move faster.
evilseanbot
27. Apr 2012 路 01:50 UTC
I enjoyed the intro a lot.

I thought the difficulty spiked really hard at the big red square.

What is the big red square? Is it his self-doubt? Pancreas?
馃帳 matt
27. Apr 2012 路 02:09 UTC
I made the big red square to represent a sort of central base of his immune system, but it can be self-doubt too.
MaximSchoemaker
27. Apr 2012 路 16:21 UTC
I really liked the intro movie ^^
JaJ
29. Apr 2012 路 16:09 UTC
The controls wern't amazing. Too little friction, but the idea is very cool.
free_napalm
29. Apr 2012 路 20:00 UTC
Nice and challenging game!
Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
03. May 2012 路 21:14 UTC
I love how getting more germs is both armor *and* weaponry! You should totally expand this concept into something!
馃帳 matt
03. May 2012 路 21:20 UTC
Thanks, I think that the germs being armor and weapons is the most interesting thing I came up with. I wish that I made the rest of the game(level design, enemies, etc.) take better advantage of that concept. I have a few better ideas now though!
elvis75k
03. May 2012 路 21:40 UTC
Simple and funny concept!
ratboy2713
06. May 2012 路 04:51 UTC
The bottom of the screen doesn't scroll fast enough. I liked the idea of a germ battle.
mneubrand
06. May 2012 路 23:09 UTC
Cool idea with the nose. Took me a while to figure out that I need to charge (should have read the damn instructions). The breathing background noise creeped me out after a while though :)
azurenimbus
10. May 2012 路 03:14 UTC
Absolutely loved the opening cinematic :D