RQ5: backup-dancer rampage! by Adrien Dittrick

made by Adrien Dittrick for LD 40 (COMPO)

If you are a gamejolt user, I would appreciate it very much if you can leave a comment on the game's gamejolt page :) Comments are my salary.

This is Backup Dancer rampage, a puzzle game influenced by pop music and zombie games.

You play as a crew of zombie dancers who wish to take over the world.

Features: - 10 playable levels - 4 different enemies - various environments - DANCING

The thought process I underwent to make this game:

The theme is: "The more you have, the worse it gets"

Having more player characters makes it harder to move

Q: why would all the players move together synchronously?

A: because they are dancers

Q: what is the goal of those dancers?

A: to recruit more dancers

Q: what is an easy gameplay mechanic to recruit more dancers?

A: to touch people

Q: what is a good X that converts people to X on contact?

A: ZOMBIES

Source code	https://www.dropbox.com/s/aw5f0coznnn52ec/RQ5_backup_dancer_rampage.gmx.zip?dl=0
Windows	https://gamejolt.com/games/rulesquest5/301189
HTML5 (web)	https://gamejolt.com/games/rulesquest5/301189
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/rq5-backup-dancer-rampage

Ratings

Overall	111^th	3.782⭐	73🧑‍⚖️
Fun	164^th	3.629⭐	72🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	61^th	3.852⭐	73🧑‍⚖️
Theme	69^th	4.113⭐	73🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	440^th	3.049⭐	74🧑‍⚖️
Audio	137^th	3.515⭐	69🧑‍⚖️
Humor	171^th	3.268⭐	71🧑‍⚖️
Mood	217^th	3.333⭐	71🧑‍⚖️
Given		88🗳️	44🗨️

Feedback

notApollogising

04. Dec 2017 · 00:26 UTC

...why does this have the rulesquest banner?

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 00:30 UTC

RulesQuest is basically just my series of game jam games :)

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 00:34 UTC

But you're right I'll change it, it can confuse players.

grostonton

04. Dec 2017 · 10:44 UTC

Excellent, i really appreciate the idea ^^

meursault

04. Dec 2017 · 10:52 UTC

Wow, what a great game. You do a really good job teaching the new mechanics through the level design.

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 11:48 UTC

I watched a bunch of videos from Game Maker's Toolkit (Mark Brown) and it really inspired me on the whole "form follows function" aspect, and on the "safe-space" tutorial :)

marekkpie

04. Dec 2017 · 13:23 UTC

Neat concept. Controls felt unresponsive (at least on HTML5 version), which is rough when you need to be very meticulous with creating your configuration. It felt like the polling was timed with the movement.

Crock

04. Dec 2017 · 13:25 UTC

I like the game, mouvement system remember me crypt of necrodancer, but game is harder than it seems ^^ GG to you :)

ImportantCreations

04. Dec 2017 · 13:29 UTC

Great Game with great level-design.
But it is possible to cheat: If you walk towards a zombi and he walks towards you, the zombi disappears under your current dancers, so the game becomes easier to play as your group is smaller

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 13:32 UTC

Yeah, I didn't have enough time to polish everything!

kezhaar

04. Dec 2017 · 14:26 UTC

Nice idea with a good realisation on level design, well done

Matthias Schedel

04. Dec 2017 · 14:34 UTC

The game doesn't load in my browser (firefox). Do I may have to disable my adblocker?

mess110

04. Dec 2017 · 14:35 UTC

Quite challenging! The mechanics are great, love the fact that they dance

sgadrat

04. Dec 2017 · 15:05 UTC

I love the zombie dancers idea, and your take on it! The difficulty goes to "too hard for me" a little too rapidly, but de concept is definitely good.

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 15:08 UTC

I love your avatar :)

makiki99

04. Dec 2017 · 17:23 UTC

Quite nice puzzle game. It's not without problems though. The graphics could be more readable, maybe by using more contrasting colors. Currently background slightly blends with foreground. Also, the controls feel wonky. I understand that you wanted to make zombie dancers move every beat, but it slightly confused me at start - I first tried to press arrows to rhythm, then I realized that holding them down is easier. That caused me to slightly drop the Fun rating because of controls.

This game deserves a polished post-jam version though. This idea is too nice to just let it go.

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 17:35 UTC

I'll try polishing it later :)

David Greene

04. Dec 2017 · 19:55 UTC

I love the game! I really echo the call for a post-jam polished version. This could be a great mobile time killer type game. The music is super catchy and sounds really familiar. Is it a reference to something specific? I'm thinking SNL or something like that... but I can't quite place it.

mgadrat

04. Dec 2017 · 21:07 UTC

Your game makes me think about the Michal Jackson "Thriller" :D Music, dance movements and.. zombies ! Original concept, I had fun. I agree with others about the confusing key pressing. Nice game !

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2017 · 21:47 UTC

Yes, the music was made in reference to thriller :p

fashionbatman

04. Dec 2017 · 22:21 UTC

Nice game! we did make kind of similar games. I really like the puzzle aspect in yours.

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

05. Dec 2017 · 08:37 UTC

I have added a faster version with improved movement and bug fixes.

Erik Brendel

05. Dec 2017 · 14:01 UTC

I really like how you get to know the controls while playing the game without much of an explicit tutorial required. The movement is a bit weird: Instead of ignoring keyStrokes off-beat, queueing them (and executing them in the fitting moment) would probably feel better.

------------------------
Bugreport: When moving right, and a person is moving left, the new zombie dancer sometimes glitches into the dancer-group. This makes it easier to play.

SelfTitled

05. Dec 2017 · 14:04 UTC

Feel like I want to dance now. Good idea and use of the theme and I like how the music changes when your moving. Feels a little slow sometimes but guess thats due to having to stick to the tempo of the music.

360

05. Dec 2017 · 14:04 UTC

What an awesome idea! Hahah, this game is humorous. Pixel art is pleasant for the most part. The theme fits nicely. Good job

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

05. Dec 2017 · 14:08 UTC

For those who feel like the tempo is too slow, you can try the advanced version of the game :)

Racso

05. Dec 2017 · 14:18 UTC

This is one of my favorite games! Really, good job!

As others have said: responsive controls are a must here. Also, sometimes, the movement doesn't feel in sync with the music. I'm not really sure on how will you leave everyone happy at the same time (responsive controls + sync with music), but it's worth your time as the game is quite good!

EDIT: By the way, I stopped playing in The City, not because I wasn't having fun, but because I want to try other entries. I loved the "other invasion", haha.

gilborn

05. Dec 2017 · 14:18 UTC

Great and round game. The idea and fitting to the theme is amazing and as well perfectly executed.
The best game I played so far in this LD!

hadesfury

05. Dec 2017 · 14:18 UTC

What a gread idea ... I'm not a puzzle man but it is really a good idea ..

It became quickly challenging ..

Well done ..

seano

05. Dec 2017 · 14:22 UTC

It was a great idea, really fit the theme. The dancing made it slower to move around though.

xoidberg

05. Dec 2017 · 14:40 UTC

Nice idea! Fun to play and not so easy to solve :D

xclementx

05. Dec 2017 · 14:42 UTC

Great idea, mechanics and level design are parfect. Nothing much to say, good job !

Rixium

05. Dec 2017 · 14:49 UTC

Pretty cool puzzle game. I also feel like the tempo is low, so I understand you have fixed that, but nice game.

shrapx

05. Dec 2017 · 17:30 UTC

Challenging and frustrating at times, as these kinds of games should be. These zombies know how to moonwalk! I like the rhythm / timing side of this game also. I enjoyed playing it through!

Blobinet

05. Dec 2017 · 18:44 UTC

Great concept and level design !

HDtv

05. Dec 2017 · 19:02 UTC

Great game! These puzzles are very well designed. Some levels introduce new mechanics in a very intuitive way (no reading required). I did not beat this, there are a lot of levels and they start to get hard. I may return to complete the game though. Well done.

profan

05. Dec 2017 · 21:17 UTC

Move with the beat! Great fun! :D

MrLeePerry

05. Dec 2017 · 21:17 UTC

Really slick concept for puzzle based gameplay. Definitely works for the theme really well, and super massive kudos for creating a puzzle game on a time limit like this. That's serious pressure ;)

Honest Dan

05. Dec 2017 · 21:18 UTC

Nice game concept indeed. Good work, and despite the moving in rythm thing not being too obvious to the user and making them think it may be missing input - I think it adds to the game :) Good job!

Steel_Dev

05. Dec 2017 · 21:18 UTC

Very nice job! Love the puzzles and level design

Technomancy Studios

05. Dec 2017 · 22:57 UTC

Don't know why but it reminds me of Crash Bandicoot.

SphinxFr

05. Dec 2017 · 23:01 UTC

What a great game ! Needed to use my brain to go over the level 4 ! Nice game xx

gamesplusjames

06. Dec 2017 · 01:32 UTC

I had a lot of fun playing this on stream! Really great idea and the implementation of it was great! I loved the way you handled the tutorialising in the game. I'd love to see what else you could do with it too! Great job :)

Priom

06. Dec 2017 · 11:13 UTC

Well this is the 2nd unique taking on the theme I've seen so far. Good job.

Knowledge

06. Dec 2017 · 19:47 UTC

Awesome game. I've seen similar mechanic but you used it uniquely. Only bad thing I noticed is bad response time, it seems that game ignores some keys pressed.

Mathiouza

06. Dec 2017 · 21:56 UTC

Really cool game dude ! I particularly enjoy (after the gameplay, of course ^^') that our moves add an instrument to the music ! That is a nice touch ! Nothing particular to say so, your game is really well done ! ^^

Keep coding :)

RIBOUT Horace

06. Dec 2017 · 23:28 UTC

Really cool concept, well use in term of level design ! The visual make sense (and it seems that the animation differ in fonction of what direction your going, it's making the game ... groovy ! ) and the audio really push the idea of dancing espacially when the blue ennemies come in game and start to impose a rythm to the game !
Put together, your game just work perfectly !

yancharkin

07. Dec 2017 · 12:57 UTC

Fun and challenging game. Nice tribute to Michael Jackson's Thriller :)

Things I don't like:
- Controls in UPDATED version. While in the original version movement a bit slow and makes game harder, updated version ruined the idea of the game (in my opinion).
- Audio clipping (background track in particular)

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

07. Dec 2017 · 13:57 UTC

yeah the updated version is just with doubled speed, the best solution would be to simply fix the controls so that one keypress causes one movement.

Jupiter_Hadley

07. Dec 2017 · 17:30 UTC

Nice dancers! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsp8m-rrtCY

jasperarmstrong

08. Dec 2017 · 22:15 UTC

I really like what you did with this game. The puzzles were well done, and I actually really liked the music. The only think that wasn't great was that the input felt a little janky, sometimes the game would miss my input if I just tapped a button.

jenninexus

09. Dec 2017 · 07:57 UTC

I couldn't even get through the 2nd level :-( But super fun anyway! :-)

1Gary

09. Dec 2017 · 08:48 UTC

Haha that was really nice! :D
I don't think I've seen this kind of game mechanic before but it was really cool! I mean it was frustrating at times but It's still a pretty fun game! The graphics and the music aren't outstanding but it was good enough to provide what was needed. Overall, Good job! :D

Zambini

09. Dec 2017 · 21:31 UTC

Fantastic puzzle(?) game! A very solid application of the theme :D Great dancers too! 💃🕺

zenkerdus

10. Dec 2017 · 00:56 UTC

Couldn't stop playing for awhile. Difficulty is a bit too varied sometimes (or maybe its just me). Nice touch with the music

SVR_Audio

10. Dec 2017 · 13:04 UTC

Pretty interesting puzzle, I really loved the concept, I can definetely see this becoming a full game in the future, the art and animation are pretty cool, the music is really good, but what I loved was the concept and level design really great stuff, congratulations great job !

Popey73

10. Dec 2017 · 17:26 UTC

Nice puzzle game, I like it.

japes

16. Dec 2017 · 21:47 UTC

What really stands out for me is the level design - you've done a great job of making the game explain itself, without needing a separate tutorial. Good job!

Mars

19. Dec 2017 · 12:29 UTC

Very interesting puzzle mechanics, I don't think I've seen a puzzle like this before so I enjoyed the breath of fresh air. I liked how intuitive figuring out what the puzzle part of the game was as well. Great thing restarting levels was an option as well, or else this could've been very frustrating.

The only drawback I came across was that I didn't immediately figure out that holding down the movement button was the best option, so I tried doing single presses for some time, which was really slow as the dancers would only move some times.

FireBug

03. Dec 2018 · 22:59 UTC

I loved it! Although at times the speed of the dancers was challenging (until like the commenter above I figured out resting my finger on the movement keys made unlife easier) I played it til the end! Took me a while to figure out what I was supposed to do in the last level, haha. Very satisfying!

One little bug I noticed, sometimes when the cops shot me, I didn't freeze. Didn't happen very often though.

The dance moves were adorable and the music is very catchy. It kept me playing!

🎤 Adrien Dittrick

04. Dec 2018 · 08:55 UTC

Woah, this is a super old game X) @firebug
Thanks for taking the care of going back in time to review it :D

FireBug

05. Dec 2018 · 00:13 UTC

@adrien-dittrick You're welcome! ^_^ You had it linked in your profile, so I got curious.