Escaparazzi by Felipe Budinich

[raw]
made by Felipe Budinich for LD21 (-)
Escape from the Paparazzi! Don't let them take too many pictures or you'll be lost! Avoid the cars and cross your fingers, let's hope you make it 'til the taxi arrives!

Controls:

WASD or Directional Arrows.

Software & Libraries:

Flixel <- old version, 2.3 (not sure) I think that the current version is suffering from feature creep. (Tho the allure of Flixel Power tools is strong)

Flash Develop <- Love this IDE.

Pixel Bender <- I made the camera flash with this. Really fast and powerful tool for simple shader work.

Aria Maestosa <- really simple midi sequencer (and Flight of the Bumblebee was one of the first songs I learnt on piano, so i tought, why not?)

GXSCC <- Pretty lame I know, but i wanted the oldschool sound without having to learn how to use a mod tracker during a 48hr compo :-p

Audacity <- Easiest way to record, remix and export sound.

ASEPRITE <- The oldschool feel, yet powerful feature set makes me all fuzzy inside.

SFXR <- I think we are all familiar with this piece of sheer brilliance.

Ratings

Coolness 14% 26
Overall 3.24 130
Audio 3.23 75
Community 2.36 269
Fun 3.15 110
Graphics 2.60 278
Humor 3.30 34
Innovation 3.10 166
Theme 3.80 39

Feedback

Gib
22. Aug 2011 · 19:36 UTC
An interesting take on the snake-like genre. Love the music !
KavuDX
22. Aug 2011 · 20:01 UTC
Really loved the game, especially the music. What SW did you use to make it?

Also, I took a while to realize the papz were following me in a snake-like pattern, so I shouldnt worry about them catching me.

My only complaint would be the money taking too much time to appear, maybe you should increase the requirement to 10 monies, while increasing the spawn rate of it.

Congrats!
Nizan
22. Aug 2011 · 21:41 UTC
I genuinely enjoyed that, nice idea and well executed :)
offwhitefox
22. Aug 2011 · 22:42 UTC
I love the way you've approached the snake game with this. Makes it much more challenging than the original :). Good job
Cosmologicon
22. Aug 2011 · 23:35 UTC
Nice. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this was basically Snake. I kept trying to get the paparazzi hit by cars until that point. I like the music! Flight of the Bumblebee makes everything better!
Basilios
23. Aug 2011 · 00:50 UTC
I really like the sprites and the music.

I only really have two criticisms: firstly, that the "Extra Extra!" screen never seems to stay up long enough to read it; and secondly that I can't lead the paparazzi into the path of a car. ;)
🎤 Felipe Budinich
23. Aug 2011 · 01:20 UTC
Thanks for the kind comments :-)

I planed on expanding the entry with more info, but since the LD webiste was having issues i thought that maybe it wasn't a good idea to overload the server with requests :-p

About the cars running over the paparazzi: I tought about that, but the function needed to remove one of them from the array, then moving the remaining ones one spot was too complicated for time i had remaining.

I'll add the softwares I used now ;-)
🎤 Felipe Budinich
23. Aug 2011 · 01:32 UTC
Anyway yeah. I'll polish this a little more, and paparazzi WILL be killed by cars hehe :-D
onefineline
23. Aug 2011 · 03:44 UTC
Very charming and clever snake "clone"! I agree that it takes forever for the $ to appear, however.
d_m
23. Aug 2011 · 04:12 UTC
This was a really original way to approach the theme. The frantic music was great, and even though the graphics were simple I thought they were cute and fun in a retro way. I'd say the biggest problem is that the gameplay isn't deep enough. I just ran around randomly, it didn't seem to matter if I got hit by cars or not. Maybe if you could get killed by cars, but could also lure paparazzi into them to thin out their ranks? Kind of grim but it might be fun. Overall I thought the game could use a bit more depth, but it was funny and original! :)
warman1001
23. Aug 2011 · 05:23 UTC
the game was a nice clone and i really liked the idea very much.
aukyr
23. Aug 2011 · 08:14 UTC
Hahah Winrar, had fun
Jorjon
23. Aug 2011 · 11:28 UTC
Excellent spin-off of Snake. Excellent work!
maxx
23. Aug 2011 · 11:37 UTC
Very good idea. Original and fun
kevglass
23. Aug 2011 · 11:39 UTC
Nice game, very enjoyable.
wonderwhy-er
23. Aug 2011 · 15:15 UTC
HHaha, nice use of theme, liked music :D Good work :)
BlueShaman
23. Aug 2011 · 16:37 UTC
Fun!
Milo
23. Aug 2011 · 18:51 UTC
It might make the game better if the sides didn't loop around - it's really easy if you always go right, except to go up/down to get money.
jonnopon3000
23. Aug 2011 · 19:39 UTC
Overall, I think it's a nice concept but I didn't like the implementation too much (except the audio - well done sir). I think it'd be a lot more fun if the paparazzi members were either slightly further back or the player was much easier to distinguish - my main problem was the wobbly motion and actually working out where I was.
🎤 Felipe Budinich
24. Aug 2011 · 03:27 UTC
Thanks for the feedback guys and gals, i'm taking note for the post compo version ;-) (I think the solution to the moneiz problem is to make paparazzi drop it when they are ran over by cars :-D)
PsySal
24. Aug 2011 · 03:32 UTC
Lots of fun, solid concept, good execution.

I do like the "jiggly" motion, but I also don't like it. I guess I wish there were better cues for collision, I couldn't tell if the positions were on a grid +/- a little bit or if they were just random offset.

I wish I could kill the paparazzi by running them into cars, of course that would change the game significantly.

Good job, quite challenging to get that last $ and cab!
Shadow
24. Aug 2011 · 03:43 UTC
Genius concept. I like your take on the good ol' snake and how it fits the whole escape theme. I second what jonnopon3000 said though; I didn't like the wobbly motion nor the fact that the character looked exactly the same as the enemies.
I loved the music by the way. Good Job dude.
pdyxs
24. Aug 2011 · 10:04 UTC
Nice addition! Would have been nice to be able to use the cars to shake the papparazi a bit (it seems you should be able to use them to your advantage as well as to your detriment), but overall awesome work!
Dark Acre Jack
24. Aug 2011 · 22:36 UTC
I was so disappointed that running the paparazzi in front of the cars didn't kill them.
speciesUnknown
25. Aug 2011 · 00:51 UTC
Can I just ask, honestly, did you remake "dance of the bumblebee"? Not accusing you of anything, just curious.
kavs
25. Aug 2011 · 06:24 UTC
Not bad, but the slow rate of the screen refresh made my eyes hurt. :D I found the player blended in a bit too much with the paparazzi and it might have been more helpful to have him flash colors, or have some kind of background or other stand out feature so it's easier to track.

Well done!
Rudy
25. Aug 2011 · 11:05 UTC
A very interesting/creative take on the subject. The music was spot on. Not a lot of game gameplay wise, as it is basically snake with a humorous twist.
Shigor
26. Aug 2011 · 02:03 UTC
At first I was like WTF? Then I realized I'm not controlling the car but that one guy who doesn't have a camera pixel and realized I play snake... Not bad idea, but I was really annoyed I can't let the paparazzis die in pain under the cars :)
🎤 Felipe Budinich
26. Aug 2011 · 14:12 UTC
@speciesUnknown:

Download the source, go to the assets folder, search for the *.aria file. From there I exported to midi, and then I used GXSCC to make a WAV, then I used Audacity to make the MP3.

I even made some mistakes (it does not sound exactly like the original song), and as far as I know, Flight of the Bumbleebee does not loop :-p

http://soundcloud.com/fbudinichd/evilot-turkey-town
http://soundcloud.com/fbudinichd/03-the-end-wet-bread

I used a song I knew because:

a) Theres no time to compose something really good. I'm a better performer than composer.
b) I'm not yet familiar with the software, I learnt to play piano, on an actual piano.
Andrew
26. Aug 2011 · 16:15 UTC
I played this before voting stated. It's really fun but paparazzi and cars seem to teleport around rather than move.
foobaz
26. Aug 2011 · 21:06 UTC
Interesting take on snake. It was quite enjoyable. I think there should always be money on screen (with possibly higher requirement) so the player doesn't have to wait.
SusanTheCat
27. Aug 2011 · 02:30 UTC
I had trouble figuring out which one was me.
barigorokarl
27. Aug 2011 · 15:05 UTC
LIKE !!11oneelven The music fits like steelcap boot to the teeth of some sh*thead :-P
ToxicLogic
27. Aug 2011 · 21:06 UTC
A fun little game and an excellent interpretation of the theme! Not a fan of the "low framerate" effect - it was hard to find the character after getting hit by a car.
Orz
28. Aug 2011 · 16:39 UTC
I like the way the difficulty escalates over time as a consequence of more paparazzi and more cars. It would have been nice to have some kind of score that you can play for after beating the game.
dogbomb
28. Aug 2011 · 17:08 UTC
This was fun and I liked the idea behind it. That flight of the bumblebee mix worked really well with the fast pacedness of it all. Loving the ideas suggested here about the paps being run over... never even thought about that while playing. Great work.
🎤 Felipe Budinich
28. Aug 2011 · 22:20 UTC
@Dogbomb you are the bomb! I loved your review, congrats too you too! (If you ever come to Santiago de Chile, the beer is on me).

Play the post compo version, I already added the dead paps mechanic ;-)
TaslemGuy
30. Aug 2011 · 00:16 UTC
Simple, funny game. I liked it.
kirbytails7
30. Aug 2011 · 04:02 UTC
Ha! Super fun! I love the take on the old Snake sort of game.
johanp
30. Aug 2011 · 11:24 UTC
Nice one! It would have been cool if cars would hit the paparazzi too.
Chaoslab
31. Aug 2011 · 01:03 UTC
I liked it! Well done! :-)
tcstyle
31. Aug 2011 · 19:39 UTC
At first I thought I would control one of the cars and the controls were totally wrong.
Anyway, like the music but gameplay needs improvent to be more interesting.
Make A Game
31. Aug 2011 · 22:50 UTC
Although the title made me skeptical, I sure had fun with this submission! An interesting take on snake that surprisingly works well.
Regarding gameplay, controls were basic, yet functional and did their job really well. Same can be said to graphics and audio (gawd, that soundtrack really got into my nerves, in a good way!). However, all things together with this interesting approach to old school snake made a really nice cake to enjoy!
siebharinn
04. Sep 2011 · 02:45 UTC
The graphics take me back to the Atari 2600. Nostalgia points! Plus, anyone that can play FOTBB on the piano gets a bonus vote from me.

Good entry. I didn't realize it was "snake" until I read some of the comments. I was getting frustrated because I was lapping the paparazzi. Like everyone else, I kept trying to maneuver them into the path of cars.
🎤 Felipe Budinich
04. Sep 2011 · 16:51 UTC
@siebharinn:

The trick is to play it slow then change the tempo :-p (Tho I must agree that being able to read musical notation is sooo helpful)

You should try the post compo version, I made te graphics even more retro, and added the "run over the papz" mechanic.

I already finished the save system, now i've got to put that data to use with achievements and highscores, should be done today. After that I'll post my post mortem.
Tulrath
05. Sep 2011 · 01:33 UTC
Great game, I ended up playing this one for a long time -- it really proves that any game can be made "new again" with the right game mechanic. Really impressive, nicely done!
summaky
10. Sep 2011 · 14:18 UTC
If you didn't made the music, that game wouldn't be that much fun as it is now. It is surprisingly addictive, even more than snake. I still couldn't take a cab, though....
wademcgillis
13. Sep 2011 · 01:53 UTC
I was sad that I couldn't make the paparazzi get run over. :(
🎤 Felipe Budinich
05. Nov 2013 · 04:26 UTC
@Wademcgillis

If you happen to pass by, test the post compo version. Your idea was *the* killer feature.