LudumData

Droplet by ManBeardGames

[raw]
made by ManBeardGames for LD 40 (JAM)

Game Trailer

https://youtu.be/UmCM3mFo3XA

Description

You are a small, tiny, insignificant droplet. Small as you may be, this doesn't discourage you from dreaming to be a bigger droplet. As you consume those that stand in your way, you watch your self grow. But don't let your ego blind you, as there are always others out there, bigger and better than you, waiting to grow by consuming you.

How To Play

Controls

  • Movement: The player follows the mouse courser. Just move the mouse to get the player to move.
  • Change Colors: Left clicking will change the player color to white, and right clicking will change the player color to black.

Mechanics
Players consume other circles that are smaller than themselves. If the circle is the same color as the player circle, then the player will grow slightly. If they are opposite colors, then they will shrink slightly.

Consuming a circle, regardless of color, will add progress to the level bar at the bottom of the screen. The higher the level you reach, the more enemy circles that will spawn

Download and Install

The download link is below, but I'll include it here as well

https://github.com/manbeardgames/Droplet/releases/download/v1.0/Droplet.zip

It's hosted on my github page. Just download the Droplet.zip and unzip anywhere on your computer. After extracting, simply run the Droplet.exe application located in the Droplet folder. No installation required.

The source code is also available to view.

Application/Tools Used

  • Game Engine/Framework: Monogame
  • Sound Effects: Sfxr
  • Textures/Sprites: Piskel, GIMP
  • IDE: Visual Studio 2017 Community

Additional Credits

Music in the game was not made by me. The music is "Water Lily" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Ludum Conclusion

This was incredibly exciting for me. I'm so proud to have finished this and be able to be apart of Ludum Dare. I choose to use MonoGame to develop this, which I have only just recently in the past week started learning and working with.

This is not only my first Ludum but my first game jam. I had no idea, even with a simple idea, if I'd be able to finish in the time allowed. I was incredibly nervous about this since I was also learning a new framework.

I streamed development and it was really great having people come in, giving suggestions, even some sending me early builds of their projects to try and and give feedback. I hope to do this again for each time Ludum Dare comes around.

Thanks for checking out the game

Windows https://github.com/manbeardgames/Droplet/releases/download/v1.0/Droplet.zip
Source code https://github.com/manbeardgames/Droplet
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/droplet

Ratings

Overall 214th 3.806⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 162th 3.792⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 695th 3.042⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Theme 384th 3.653⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 668th 3.329⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Humor 603th 2.855⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Mood 115th 3.931⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 54🗨️

Feedback

04. Dec 2017 · 08:11 UTC
Hey man. Your twitter link on your profile is invalid: "http://www.twitter.com/mangbeardgames"
Thought I'd just let you know ;)
🎤 ManBeardGames
04. Dec 2017 · 08:16 UTC
Hey, thanks, I'll get that updated
uvwar
05. Dec 2017 · 00:49 UTC
Awesome game. Reminded of something like Agar.io but with the music you had it was way more relaxing, I didn't really feel like I could die at any moment, which was nice, haha.
Brimz
05. Dec 2017 · 04:04 UTC
I really, really enjoyed this game. The color change mechanic and also the lag time of moving your droplet made it interesting to play through. The music was top notch and the graphics matched the theme really well.

Fantastic game.
Nammflow
05. Dec 2017 · 06:06 UTC
This is a fun easy-going game. I used to be a huge fan of old flash aquarium games and this really hits the spot there. The piano tune you are using just sets the perfect mood. It is sad but also re-assuring that there's always someone bigger in the food chain.
Ashtrail
05. Dec 2017 · 07:14 UTC
Nice game ! Also it's cool you managed to fit in a tutorial !

In my opinion a few tweaks could improve the gameplay quite a bit :

* first drops bonus should scale with their size : big drop big -> score, small drop -> small score, it would feel more rewarding and add a risk/reward when unsure if you are bigger than another drop and going in anyway because you might hit jackpot
* It feels like the drops are scaled on your level (as you get bigger, you actually get smaller on screen and so do all the previously big drops), instead the camera should dezoom as you grow up to reveal more map, this way would be more rewarding and you'd get more feedback to know you are a big fish now.

I don't know how easy this would be to implement with your framework but I think it would add a lot to the game.

Anyway good job !
TheCrittersCove
05. Dec 2017 · 16:21 UTC
I thought this was a soothing, but fun game. The movement felt just right. The visuals while simple fulfilled their purpose. I wonder if a lighter background would help the black droplets stand out a tad more.

I liked the mood the writing set, but it did seem a little lengthy. Visual instructions could be an improvement.

I got up to lvl 16. Very enjoyable game for being so simple!
UnlikelyNomad
06. Dec 2017 · 04:06 UTC
Enjoyed the addition of the color changing over other similar games!
realryanrogers
06. Dec 2017 · 04:33 UTC
I enjoyed this quite a bit. Great entry!
MoeShan
06. Dec 2017 · 04:48 UTC
Remind me of Agar.io but this one is a single version, less antagonistic makes more intelligent.
instantnoedel
06. Dec 2017 · 04:59 UTC
Playing this feels nice and smooth, the progression is very well balanced and the game is challenging and fun, it reminded me of Osmos quite a bit! Everything looks very polished and finalized, including a tutorial and options... but I have to say I do not like your outlook on life! What's this about being unimportant, consuming those smaller and weaker than you and life bringing you down!? Enjoyed the game anyway, very good job!
Shaolin Dave
06. Dec 2017 · 05:31 UTC
Awww, no Mac or HTML version :(

I'll have to try this later, I'll pass it onto my PC-using teammates.
Gnarly Narwhal
06. Dec 2017 · 05:51 UTC
This game was incredibly relaxing. The sound effects and music set the perfect feel for the game and the graphics also fit it very well. Altogether nice job on this, it's a very different feel from any ludum dare game I've seen so far.
sleepystrix
06. Dec 2017 · 07:08 UTC
Good stuff:
* The music, the atmosphere, all very calming and peaceful even when the game gets more hectic
* The writing, dropping some somber life truths at the the beginning.
* Fleshed out menus
* Can skip the intro after the first time.

Stuff that could be improved:
* Graphics don't scale well to full-screen 1080p
* Maybe do infinite travel in any direction rather than staying within a fixed box? Could make the game playable for longer periods.
awerar
06. Dec 2017 · 16:39 UTC
I liked the io feel to the game and i also enjoyed getting larger. I liked that you had a fledged out tutorial and i also liked the calm moving. Great game!
🎤 ManBeardGames
06. Dec 2017 · 21:45 UTC
@ashtrail Thanks for the feedback, I'll see what i can do to adjust the scaling. It does scale a bit slowly at the moment. Your growth is based on the radius of the droplet you eat, not tied to the level. However, the radius of the drop you eat does affect how much progress you get toward the level counter. The level going up just spawns more droplets, so the higher you level gets, the more droplets on the screen at a time.

I like the camera dezoom idea, I played around with that for a bit, but couldn't get it to work in a way that seemed smooth enough within the time frame I had to work on the game. It's something i definitely want to add.

Thanks for the feedback
🎤 ManBeardGames
06. Dec 2017 · 21:46 UTC
@thecritterscove I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the info about the background, it's something I was concerned with. I think it comes from the monitor I use when I'm developing being a bit to bright, so it looked fine for me, but have had others mention it was dark as well, so some calibration is needed on my end.
🎤 ManBeardGames
06. Dec 2017 · 21:48 UTC
@instantnoedel I promise, I have a pretty decent outlook on life.....I think...maybe? I wanted to add a tutorial that was more than just "move mouse, click this, etc", and I've always thought games that criticize the player were hilarious like in portal. So I went with that.

Glad you enjoyed the game
🎤 ManBeardGames
06. Dec 2017 · 21:50 UTC
@shaolin-dave No sorry, no Mac or HTML5 version. I did this in MonoGame, which at the time of making was a completely new framework for me. I know it can export to a Mac version, but couldn't find much in the way of HTML5 or WebGL.
🎤 ManBeardGames
06. Dec 2017 · 21:53 UTC
@sleepystrix Thanks for the feedback. When you say the graphics didn't scale well, did you mean due to the size of the textures, they just become more pixelated/look bad at 1080p, or that the scaling causes an issue at 1080p? I'm still learning a bit in MonoGame framework, and set the virtual size to be 1280x720 and it scales up from there at larger resolution sizes, but I could have done something wrong in the code if it caused an issue.
Fluffi
07. Dec 2017 · 03:31 UTC
i loved the placid feel of it :) good work
Acr515
07. Dec 2017 · 03:38 UTC
Nice job! I don't have a whole lot to say; I liked the game, except it got really annoying when I tried eating someone who appeared to be slightly smaller than me, but then they ended up eating me. Also, the player grows rather slowly, making the game a little boring in drawn-out rounds. But otherwise, I like the game!
videojames
07. Dec 2017 · 04:40 UTC
Dude @manbeardgames, this is beautiful! I really really loved the music and the tutorial/intro and the tone of the whole game, it was very relaxing and kind of somber. 5/5 mood for sure.
MarkoPoloDev
07. Dec 2017 · 05:44 UTC
Lvl 16, 3046 score. This game nails the zen game concept.

Pros:
- The movement feels very satisfying. That's neat how it gets more sluggish as you grow
- the growing mechanic is very fluid
- clicking mechanic takes things to the right level of required concentration
- music fits the mood very well, reminds me of an orisinal game
- a tutorial?! in the game?! Nice!

I don't have any major cons, but I do have suggestions for taking things further:

This thing screams 'water on a windshield' vibes, but the background reminds me a bit of tron. Maybe some out of focus tail lights/dark clouds/umbrella background parallax layers and sort of a textured clear plastic/glass surface for the gameplay layer? I do like the variability in the darkness of the squares, just not sure it fits the water theme.

Similar idea for the bubbles themselves, adding highlights that wobbled a bit with the physics would be amazing. I'm picturing something like [this](https://images.designtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/26185408/Clean-Water-Droplets-Vector.jpg). Imagine if they squash/stretched when they absorbed each other!

The audio for when you absorb another drop feels a little "sharp" with the raw (sawtooth?) wave. I think some sort of "softer" sound might go better with the piano. Maybe a high pitched bell ding run through a lo-pass filter or something? or maybe just the sound you used, but with echoes and reverb.

I'll shut up about ways to improve it now because it's definitely one of my favorite games in the jam. Well done!
gassasin
07. Dec 2017 · 18:14 UTC
I love the Mood in this game<3 I like the simple and fun gameplay. Nothing to complain about imo no bugs etc:) One of nicest game in LD. Great work!
MiltonNH25
08. Dec 2017 · 00:40 UTC
I really enjoyed the game. Its simplicity in art and game play in addition to fluid movement gave the game a really relaxing feel. This is definitely a game I would play again whenever i just need to chill for a bit. I would like seeing you update the game in the future. Things like a score leader board and having more area to move around in when you get bigger might be things you could consider adding. Overall nicely done.
BoltKey
08. Dec 2017 · 17:02 UTC
Concept is not very new or innovative.

It really bothered me that I couldn't tell which drops I could eat and which not when they had similar size to mine.

Really nice chill mood, good flow of the game. Some graphic effects to make the drop eating juicier could improve the experience even further.
Swen
08. Dec 2017 · 19:08 UTC
Really enjoyed the zen in this game.
Although sometimes I died while it seemed I was bigger then the droplet eating me.

Amazing first entry :)
jasperarmstrong
09. Dec 2017 · 00:26 UTC
I had a lot of fun playing this. Sort of similar to agar.io. The look was simple, but nice, and the music was relaxing. I think I would've preferred for left click to toggle your color instead of having to left or right click depending on which color you wanted. Maybe the player could grow faster. Overall a solid little game.
jebouin
09. Dec 2017 · 06:00 UTC
Not the most innovating game I've played, but really relaxing and it kept me playing for a while. As the circles get bigger, it gets harder to tell if the ones you want to eat are actually smaller or bigger than yours (and that's a good thing). I think the left/right click is a bit confusing because you tend to forget which click corresponds to which color. I would have just inverted the color when the player clicks.

Good job on your first entry!
🎤 ManBeardGames
09. Dec 2017 · 20:53 UTC
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far. I'll be adding more to the game post jam based on feedback. Some updates planned are

* Animations for the circles instead of just static circles.
* Animation on player circle so that the outer edge seems to wobble if getting to close to something that will eat the player. This should help in instances where the player and the other circle are similar size, but you can't tell exactly if it's safe.
* Single click for color change instead of separate left/right clicking.
* Adjusting color for background and/or dark circles since it's hard to see them for some people.
* Faster growth rate, or at minimum more visually to show growth since.
* Spelling errors (thanks @Zivix_)
Wheffle
12. Dec 2017 · 03:40 UTC
Really nice simple well-polished game. It is very relaxing. The light/dark mechanic turned out to be a bit of a brain-teaser that I didn't expect, which is pretty cool. Nice work!