LudumData

Bumper Buddies by JavaSaurus

[raw]
made by JavaSaurus for LD 41 (COMPO)

Bumper Buddies

Bumper Buddies is a prototype that was completed in under 48 hours for Ludum Dare 41 ~ Combine 2 Incompatible Genres.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my first LD-submission page !

Update - a WebGL build is available at https://javasaurus.itch.io/bumper-buddies

Cover.png

Description

I decided to mix two digital games that were big in my youth. How I remember playing the silver ball, challenging the continuous action packed gameplay that is typical for a pinball machine... Blended with the ever so relaxing gameplay a digital pet simulator provides. I still remember feeding my little pocket dinosaur friend as if it were yesterday...

Bring back the nostalgia ! Use your pinball skills to nurse and entertain your Bumper Buddy, but don't forget... Buddies poop and it is still up to you to clean up after them by repeatedly hitting any excrement with well aimed shots!

For your pleasure, I present ...

Bumper Buddies !

Manual

Tutorial_640x512.png

1) Bumper Buddy This is your creature ! In its initial stage, the egg will receive a random color, but increase your score and you will see it grow !

2) Mode Button The mode button allows you to change your ball into a toy or food, to respectively reduce boredom and hunger for your buddy.

3) Virtual Pet Console (VPC) This is where you interact with your pet. Aim the ball for the VPC with the appropriate mode selected (see 2.)

4) Oopsie Poopsies It is usually not the best idea to have poop laying around everywhere... Hit the poop 3 times to make it dissappear. CAUTION when too many poops are on the playing field, the game will end...

5) Current Score The current score and multiplier. You can activate multipliers by knocking down the purple multiplication gates at the top of the table.

6) Evolution Meter This meter indicates how close your pet is to evolving to the next stage

7) Balls The amount of balls you have left to play. Note that you receive an additional ball every 100,000 points ! When you run out of balls, the game ends...

8) Health The health bar indicates how healthy your creature is. When your creature has maxed out hunger or boredom, its health will start declining. When it reaches 0, game over !

9) Poop The poop meter, indicating how close your buddy is to pooping on the field

10) Hunger The hunger bar indicates the hunger level of your buddy. Be careful not to let it max out and keep it under control by hitting the VPC when in FEED mode.

11) Boredom The boredom bar indicates the boredom level of your buddy. Be careful not to let it max out and keep it under control by hitting the VPC when in PLAYmode.

* LOSE CONDITIONS * f0491977cca59a4cf5fa5b8bfd28d880.png

Development

Sometimes the hardest part of a game jam is coming up with a concept that works with the theme. I spent the first 14 hours of the jam in conversations with myself trying to come up with something original, something smooth, something fun, something replayable...Something doable ! Admittedly, I was about to give up and fight another day...

As per heroic story cliché, right as I was about to close my design document, I figured out it would be nice to play old games. The spark was set, I suddenly remembered the pinball machine I played over 20 years ago in the arcade, whilst having a Tamagotchi toy in my back pocket... Boy those were fun afternoons !

It was decided... The remaining time would be spend in setting up a pinball machine and blend it with a virtual pet. After about 12 hours of wrestling with Unity's physics to come up with a pinball machine that felt good, I tried to come up with a table design that worked. Mostly because it needed to provide a challenge, but also give many options to increase the player's score....

All in all, my first LD jam was quite the challenge, but I am proud I made it AND was able to submit a compo prototype.

Tools

Task|Software | Version --- | --- | --- IDE | Unity | 2017.3.1 (personal) Graphics | Pyxel Edit | 0.4.5 SFX| Chiptone (http://sfbgames.com/chiptone) | v0.4.1 Music| WolframTones(tones.wolfram.com/generate) | 2005

Features

Included

  • Smooth pinball mechanics
  • Very basic virtual pet mechanics
  • Online leaderboards
  • Creature evolution
  • Control customization keybinding
  • Full audio/video configuration settings

Dropped/Planned

  • Full Bumper Buddy randomizer (with varying body parts selectable in an "evolution bonus mode")
  • Multiple pinball tables
  • More modes (illness, sleep, etc) according to difficulty
  • Better graphics

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed a bug where the collider of the plunger let a ball slide by
  • Fixed the pause menu sliders (the game over screen was on top of it, blocking raycasts, sorry for RIP ears ! :( )
  • Fixed a bug where the bars were increasing rather than decreasing
  • Fixed the leaderboard (it did not show up post submitting)
  • Fixed a bug in the input manager that prevented a WEBGL build from working properly
Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/ieg7iqjbudww7mm/BumperBuddies_Game_LD41.zip?dl=0
Windows https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3roi7etv5lzmuo/Bumper_Buddies_Source.zip?dl=0
HTML5 (web) https://javasaurus.itch.io/bumper-buddies
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/bumper-buddies

Ratings

Overall 338th 3.393⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 277th 3.393⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 302th 3.452⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 119th 4.036⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 442th 3.024⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Audio 375th 2.725⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Humor 185th 3.15⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Mood 273th 3.171⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Given 57🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Baski
23. Apr 2018 · 10:56 UTC
Like the idea and the game at all :-) GJ
Memel06
23. Apr 2018 · 11:06 UTC
The game idea itself is good, also the game structure and the stability, that's ok for your first jam!
Graphics surely need a boost, but in the overall it's an ok product.

Thanks!
Horow
23. Apr 2018 · 11:08 UTC
Hey ! The idea is really funny & original ! The pinball feeling is really good, I've really taken a good time, thank's to you and good job !
Aterlamia
23. Apr 2018 · 11:11 UTC
Simple but good pinball game i think the concept of "pocket pet"and a pinball machine go good together. Only think i can return as a improvement point is that it feels to me sizing is a bit off the ball feels small compared to other things for example.
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2018 · 13:38 UTC
Thank you for the feedback ! :)
vilix64
23. Apr 2018 · 15:18 UTC
You have a very pessimistic versioning (starting from 0.0.1) :slight_smile:

Great job, keep it up!
DarkAnice
23. Apr 2018 · 15:24 UTC
It's a fun game, giving nostalgia vibes of my youth. I found that the hitbox of the poop was bigger than it looked also I couldn't see if i hit it or not, so would be nice to see. Overall it's a well made game, good job dude!
jharler
23. Apr 2018 · 15:33 UTC
Congrats on completing your first Ludum Dare! Definitely something to be proud of.

I like the idea of combining a digital pet with pinball. Though the thought of a pinball spreading virtual poop behind it as it goes is kinda gross. :) The idea was executed well. Nicely done.

The background music was a big repetitive and pretty quickly became overwhelming. I tried adjusting the volume in the settings, but they seemed to be fiddly and it was either everything was on full volume or it was all muted.

Overall, a solid entry, particularly for your first go. If you get a chance, please check out my entry as well. Thanks!
Vasco Freitas
23. Apr 2018 · 15:47 UTC
Interesting idea! The general table layout is good and everything seemed to work well. The physics seemed to be just a little "floaty", although I'm not sure why. As @aterlamia said, the ball should be a bit bigger. Also, the sound effects should feel more powerful, with stronger bass, that's important for a pinball machine. The difficulty seemed too easy, I played for a while without ever losing. Anyway well done for not giving up and finishing the game! :)
Potondo
23. Apr 2018 · 15:48 UTC
Hey, nice game!

Fun combination of two ideas, and I'm always a sucker for pinball games.

Minor point, but I thought the camera was a bit too zoomed into the screen, which made it hard to imagine the overall structure of the pinball machine.

Anyway, thumbs up on a job well done!
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2018 · 16:00 UTC
Thank you for the comments @Potondo @Vasco Freitas @jharler , minor fixes I can change when LD41 ends ! :)
StarzzDrak
23. Apr 2018 · 17:13 UTC
I love tetris and this is nearly tetris mainly because of the level so i enjoyed it a lot :joy:
morphine
23. Apr 2018 · 17:24 UTC
Hey there! Congratulations on finishing and submitting your game. I had a lot of problems with the audio for some reason, the intro screen played fine and then it went almost full muted. I really like the idea of combining those two genres but in the future I would suggest possibly making it fit all on one screen, it was really difficult to grasp what was going on with all the movement of the camera.

Oh and you have to be a software developer with documentation like you have above!
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2018 · 17:35 UTC
@morphine Hey ! I indeed love my documentation ;) Thank you for the feedback. Audio really is something weird, I medled with it trying to make a webGL build but failed and ever since I introduced bugs etc... But yeah... The camera was a design choice but I see the problems it can cause :)
mintarcade
23. Apr 2018 · 17:37 UTC
Good game actually. Fun combo - very original
Yanek
23. Apr 2018 · 17:41 UTC
I haven't played a pinpall game in years. That game remembered me a lot of good memories! The graphics could have benefited a little more polishing but the concept is great and well executed. Thank you!
🎤 JavaSaurus
23. Apr 2018 · 19:53 UTC
@mintarcade @Yanek thanks a lot for the kind feedback! :) The graphics were scheduled for an overhaul, but I ran out of time and wanted to deliver a game that was as enjoyable as I could provide !
Angelbait
24. Apr 2018 · 00:35 UTC
The nostalgia machine is REAL! I'm sorry I dont have any real commentary but I just really had fun. Thank you for the game!
megamasterx
24. Apr 2018 · 03:05 UTC
Congratulations on your first Dare entry! My first game as a child was Epic MegaGames Pinball for DOS. I remember it vividly and this invoked those same feelings. Interesting blend of genres - though I think audio would have done really well (I do understand the constraints around it though.) I hope to see more of your work in the future!
EkkoEkko
24. Apr 2018 · 06:21 UTC
Good Job! I love to play it. Thank you for this game
🎤 JavaSaurus
24. Apr 2018 · 07:25 UTC
Thank you @Angelbait @megamasterx @EkkoEkko for playing !
Random Thoughts
24. Apr 2018 · 09:20 UTC
Really cool idea! Feels a bit more stressful than the usual pet games because I have to try to hit things on purpose (which I never do while playing pinball, hehe), but its a really interesting concept that I never would have thought of :)
waterytart
24. Apr 2018 · 19:40 UTC
This is really fun, dude. Well done!
Honest Dan
24. Apr 2018 · 19:50 UTC
I really liked this combination of genres! Quite a clever combination indeed, and nostalgic - as both seem a "thing" of the past these days. I found design of having to change your ball into a different tool to allow you to interact with you buddy was a good design choice. To improve, I think just a more varied pinball tabled would help a lot, to make it a little less easy to repeat the same shot consecutively. Awesome effort, especial for compo!
Steel_Dev
25. Apr 2018 · 01:22 UTC
Love it! Never thought these two genres would go so well together! Great job!
E-rvin
25. Apr 2018 · 13:14 UTC
Awesome! It was initially hard to understand, which way the infobars worked (is less or more better), but after i figured the game out, the gameplay was really nice.
gamesplusjames
26. Apr 2018 · 00:57 UTC
Such a fun combo of genres! I wasn't very good at keeping my little creature alive but that just reminded me even more of the tamagotchi days of my youth! :D I'd love to see where else you would have taken this with a little more time :)
🎤 JavaSaurus
26. Apr 2018 · 07:17 UTC
@gamesplusjames I would probably have made more tables , balance difficulwty and special events and better graphics! After a jam this list should be massive, it means you are on a nice idea and made the minimal playable prototype! I might go back and finish this, but until then I am enjoying th hundreds of jam entries to play! Thank you all for
playing!
bentglasstube
28. Apr 2018 · 02:04 UTC
A really strange mashup of genres but I enjoyed it. The instructions were way too much reading so I just jumped into the game and that was definitely a mistake because I was very confused by it all. Once I got the hang of it, it was much better but still pretty challenging to get the ball up into the play/feed toggle.
dob
29. Apr 2018 · 18:11 UTC
Cool idea! The flipper physics was a little rough (that is a very hard thing to model - I've tried many times), but the game was playable and shots went where you expected them to. Having the board be a little more open might help - there were really only a couple of shots to make, and if you'd had moving targets, that would be fun. I tried to help my Pin-agotchi, but it wasn't always clear from the gauges what he needed, and hitting the top target to change what I was giving was a tough shot, so it was hard for me to execute what I wanted to. Good, complete project, with lots to like. Good work.
Zukureneno
30. Apr 2018 · 14:41 UTC
Thanks for the memory trip. Really fun combination for the theme. I understand the feeling of this Jam not finding ideas (I had similar situation on the first day of the jam)
🎤 JavaSaurus
02. May 2018 · 13:13 UTC
Thank you for playing @bentglasstube , @dob and @Zukureneno :) Thank you for the kind words