Best Friend by TestSubject06

[raw]
made by TestSubject06 for LD22 (COMPO)
Move with the arrow keys, mute music with M.

*Source requires Flixel2.55 and Flixel Power Tools 1.9 to compile(FPT for the .mod player)

There are two endings! One ending is obvious the other, not so much...

Ratings

Coolness 35% 376
Overall 3.33 84
Audio 3.00 118
Community 3.03 127
Fun 2.85 159
Graphics 3.05 205
Humor 3.23 51
Innovation 2.63 270
Mood 3.16 119
Theme 3.65 57

Feedback

ChainedLupine
18. Dec 2011 路 22:19 UTC
Congrats on finishing it! And I like the tunes.

The doggy is so happy in that one ending...
馃帳 TestSubject06
18. Dec 2011 路 22:27 UTC
Such a happy goggy!
mk_rules1
19. Dec 2011 路 04:10 UTC
i dont know how to get this other ending :/
Jacic
19. Dec 2011 路 04:57 UTC
You monster :p ;)

I got both endings
Jigxor
19. Dec 2011 路 04:59 UTC
*Spoilers*

Great endings! They made me genuinely feel bad for whoever was left behind! Graphics are nice too.
馃帳 TestSubject06
19. Dec 2011 路 05:01 UTC
Thanks guys, also mk_rules1 the hint for the opposite ending is on the button at the end of the ending you get.
GreaseMonkey
19. Dec 2011 路 05:03 UTC
Ok, this is the first game I get to rank. Goody!

There's not much here that I haven't seen before, but this reminds me that I should resort to the "multiple endings" thing some time.

I quite like how the theme wasn't played completely straight, as that could potentially result in something *quite* boring.

Speaking of boring, those corridors could be a bit shorter.

The graphics look quite good and I've gone and given you 5 stars even though there's a few sloppy things you've done (that dirt sure stands out as a bunch of individual tiles, doesn't it? something to note for next time).

Audiowise, that second piece of music was a bit short to be quite honest. But the music sounded fairly good and you definitely made sound happen when it should have.

Humourwise, I was quite amused at the dog ending :D

On the other hand, you did capture the mood fairly well in terms of endings.

Communitywise, I would suggest more screenshots + beta posts, but yeah.
Aslai
19. Dec 2011 路 06:45 UTC
It's a quick platformer, and it's fairly generic. The audio was short and repetitive, which is a big no-no with chip tunes. The graphics were acceptable. The end messages were pretty funny, and no matter what, the endings always made me feel at least a little sad :(
馃帳 TestSubject06
19. Dec 2011 路 06:55 UTC
Aslai, the problem with that is, I SUCK at making music, period. That's the worst thing for me, which is why I added the mute music button.
binary_girl
19. Dec 2011 路 14:44 UTC
i quite liked the music actually.. think it was my fav bit :) goodstuff
Matt Rix
19. Dec 2011 路 18:56 UTC
Great little game. Got both endings pretty quickly.

I think this is a great use of the theme, most games I've seen seem to be just showing someone that's alone or lonely, but yours starts with multiple characters that *end up* alone, rather than starting alone.
Danik
19. Dec 2011 路 20:20 UTC
There is something about this game that makes me a bit nostalgic. The graphics could have been better, and the music is repetitive but I liked it a lot anyways. Didn't manage to get the other ending though, despite playing it through 4 times.
馃帳 TestSubject06
19. Dec 2011 路 20:21 UTC
Danik, don't insert the tablet.
Atomic
19. Dec 2011 路 22:30 UTC
Great idea! Gameplay could be more elaborated but overall this kicks ass as far as theme ideas go!
BlennosoftGames
20. Dec 2011 路 04:07 UTC
Got both endings! Nice use of the theme, and solid gameplay. Well done, sir.
marudziik
20. Dec 2011 路 10:06 UTC
Both endings are pretty depressing, but I liked the game.
Dark Acre Jack
20. Dec 2011 路 14:25 UTC
I got the "dog" ending. This was absolutely brilliant and a benchmark for about how long I can deal with platforming in my old age. Great work, thanks for making this. 5/5
馃帳 TestSubject06
20. Dec 2011 路 20:27 UTC
Thank you for playing Dark Acre
Gaeel
20. Dec 2011 路 22:34 UTC
I couldn't find the other ending, but I had fun
Kableado
20. Dec 2011 路 23:53 UTC
Brilliant!!
KunoNoOni
21. Dec 2011 路 02:33 UTC
I really like it :) Got both endings. Nice graphics, and good music. Great job Test!
ASOT
21. Dec 2011 路 02:46 UTC
Man, that was sad. I like how you put music in your game. Not too many people did that!
馃帳 TestSubject06
21. Dec 2011 路 03:22 UTC
I almost didn't :P
Chaoslab
21. Dec 2011 路 03:48 UTC
I enjoyed that, matched well to the theme.
Jeck
22. Dec 2011 路 13:23 UTC
Wow. Nice endings.
volando
22. Dec 2011 路 23:49 UTC
pretty cool loop
matthias_zarzecki
23. Dec 2011 路 19:45 UTC
Love the intro and the resulting "alone"-theme, where you get the motivation for the rest of the story. Good puzzles.

AND WHY DO THE BLOCKS LAUGH AT ME WHATS SO FUNNY

Ending is gut-wrenching (i.e. good). Reminds me of the things you have to do with the in my game :-)
Nibelung
24. Dec 2011 路 15:44 UTC
Nice game, I thought I ruined the game by locking the dog. Then the dog ending. LOL. Nice!
Okkwogg
26. Dec 2011 路 20:15 UTC
I hope that treacherous dog burns in hell.
IQpierce
02. Jan 2012 路 00:40 UTC
I haven't wanted to shoot a dog so much since Duck Hunt. :)

All right, a serious review. I got both endings btw, though it took me 3 tries. Spoilers below.
- The first music track was okay (definitely not great); the second track was quite poor IMO. However the fact that the music changes to a more somber track when you lose the dog, is a nice touch.
- It took me 3 tries because I didn't realize that putting the treasure/scroll onto the pedestal would mean letting the dog go free. The significance of this was unclear... obviously it's something I learned, and maybe that was your intention.
- My biggest criticism is that there really seems to be zero "gameplay" in the sense that the only interesting decisions are "do I go up, or right"? The one potentially interesting decision in the game is whether the dog lives or I do; but again, I'm not even aware of that decision until after the first playthrough. In other words it's just not very deep as a "game", it's just navigation of a maze and that's all.
- The fact that you had two endings was nice and not done enough. The emotional impact of them is well-done - the dog running away with the bone is pretty droll.
- One big flaw: at the start of the dungeon I had access to a button, but couldn't actually press it. The dog and I jumped on that button for a while. It's confusing and I'd imagine it could have been easily avoided (put another locked door in front of that button until the button can easily be used).
- One good thing you did was player teaching, making sure that they learned to use the button before proceeding; and the button themselves "afforded" pushing and being jumped on - good design choices, all.
- No bugs that I saw or anything like that - which is good for a game made on an LD timeframe. Keeping it simple was a good decision - better a game be too simple (but complete) than too ambitious (and buggy/incomplete).

Overall I give this a 3/5. Good effort - and probably better than I'll do whenever I finally dive into an LD attempt of my own...!
IQpierce
02. Jan 2012 路 00:47 UTC
Oh, so I am an idiot and didn't realize "real" voting is available only to people who made a game - I was unable to participate but thought I'd go around and randomly review people's games as my participation. Well I'll leave my review here but FYI you should know it's not contributing to your "real" score. Which is a fair system when I think about it - like I said, who knows whether I could do this well myself!
Ghostik
05. Jan 2012 路 15:23 UTC
I saved his life! dog traitor! :D

Great game :D
SonnyBone
05. Jan 2012 路 20:18 UTC
I love the way the dog AI works. Good stuff.
agersant
10. Jan 2012 路 01:54 UTC
Last minute rating. Good ending!