Mozi Life by Kimau

[raw]
made by Kimau for LD23 (COMPO)
Currently only tested in Chrome!!!

I struggled with an idea and hit on the life cycle of a Mosquito. I wanted to add a blood sucking and mating scene but ran out of time. The "fun" is kinda lost in the awkwardness of a disgusting little life cycle and it resisted gamification rather nicely... I found the result quite interesting.

On a technical side it was all written from scratch on just Javascript and Chrome. I'm rather proud of the little debugging interface and quick turn around on playing around on the systems. Though I didn't get time to use it the adult has a full 2D rig with simple constraints built in.

Overall I'm happy with the project but the resulting game is slightly creepy and not very fun but has a certain... something :P

=================================

*Egg Laying Trouble*
Don't want to alter the game post compo till the voting is done but the egg laying is meant to start at the head and to the tail. If you hesitate or go off on the gesture the egg cracks (black square)

Missing Bits: Finding a Target, Blooding Sucking, Finding a Mate, Sex. Was going through it linearly but when running out of time I jumped to egg laying o help reinforce the cycle aspect

Ratings

Coolness 47% 670
Overall 2.52 709
Audio 1.00 794
Fun 2.00 797
Graphics 3.17 295
Humor 1.62 715
Innovation 3.55 145
Mood 2.32 650
Theme 2.89 506

Feedback

MadGnomeGamer
22. Apr 2012 · 23:25 UTC
That's weird...I tried it in Firefox and I got a tileset and some text tabs that didn't do anything, with a blank space in the middle of the page. It's like it took the resources and didn't compile them.

Cool idea for a game, though!
callidus
23. Apr 2012 · 11:58 UTC
Nice original idea :-) took a while to figure out how to do each part but I couldn't get the egg laying to happen :-/ clicking just made a black square show, mouse waggling didn't see to do much. Enjoyed the algae eating part best I think.
Evgis
23. Apr 2012 · 13:56 UTC
Wierd game, but fun. I like the simple art style!
whitetigle
23. Apr 2012 · 14:03 UTC
I feel also that it has a certain something :)
The gfx and the concept are quite original
MarekkPie
23. Apr 2012 · 14:09 UTC
Nice little distraction. Not too fun to play on a touchpad, though. I also didn't quite know what to do on the fourth level.
Julian Spillane
23. Apr 2012 · 14:12 UTC
Very unique idea! I like the staging though I couldn't get past the egg-laying section.
EricTheCoolDude
23. Apr 2012 · 14:18 UTC
I liked it! I like the children's book-style graphics and the Simple mouse-based gameplay. I would've loved to see a slightly longer game, though. And a bit of audio. You should make a full game out of this concept with these graphics!
artefon
23. Apr 2012 · 15:09 UTC
I like the idea and the mechanics. I had the same problem as @callidus in the egg laying step.

Thanks for the game!
johanp
23. Apr 2012 · 17:43 UTC
Very nice and different. Enjoyed the cycle aspect in particular.
🎤 Kimau
24. Apr 2012 · 09:39 UTC
*Egg Laying Trouble*
Don't want to alter the game post compo till the voting is done but the egg laying is meant to start at the head and to the tail. If you hesitate or go off on the gesture the egg cracks (black square)

Missing Bits: Finding a Target, Blooding Sucking, Finding a Mate, Sex. Was going through it linearly but when running out of time I jumped to egg laying o help reinforce the cycle aspect
piterlouis
24. Apr 2012 · 14:10 UTC
Very original and completely different, very artistic. I see it more than a visual work of art than a video game but is ok :D
smvilar
24. Apr 2012 · 21:46 UTC
Nice art. Controls needs more polishing!
orgarus
24. Apr 2012 · 21:51 UTC
First time I play as a mosquito.
The first screen... O_o
Suese
24. Apr 2012 · 22:35 UTC
It's a bit weird and abstract.
gingerbeast
26. Apr 2012 · 10:58 UTC
I like it - was a cool idea. Would definitely have liked the blood sucking part in there :D
The egg part was quite hard - but I got it eventually.
caranha
26. Apr 2012 · 17:30 UTC
That was a pretty neat game, I liked it a lot! Didn't find it weird at all, and it could even be educative. Kinda reminds me of the interactive encyclopedias of old.

The game seriously begs for music, though. Just a simple, calm tone to complete the mood would have been perfect.

Also, in the second hatching stage, some of the rectangles can be seen.
Lacutis
28. Apr 2012 · 19:19 UTC
Interesting idea. Didn't really feel like a game to me though as much as a museum exhibit. It was different though.
namuol
30. Apr 2012 · 02:00 UTC
Very original in all regards (graphics, concept, and gameplay). I especially like the movement mechanic in the "eat algae" mode. It feels very organic -- excellent job. You should finish this -- if you want to continue working on it now, you can just post a "post-jam" version for people to try after they've rated your jam-version one. That's what I did. :)

Bonus browser-nerd points for doing all of this from scratch in HTML5/JS.
Thotep
04. May 2012 · 14:05 UTC
I liked the graphics and concept... Kinda unique!
Tom 7
06. May 2012 · 16:24 UTC
This is a neat idea. The controls are pretty hard to get the hang of (I didn't know what I was controlling in the first one) though the Nom stage was very smooth and natural. I wasn't able to lay any eggs, even with your hint. Do I just keep running the mouse up and down?
ChainedLupine
11. May 2012 · 18:02 UTC
You had me up until laying an egg. :)