Catrifices by MrPiedPiper
Edit 2
Removed my name for privacy. Username is still there, though! :thumbsup:
Edit 1
Just found a cheat-sheet for how to use this mysterious "Markdown" for Ludum Dare text formatting. This page now looks way better. Here it is for if anybody else was a bit lost: https://guides.github.com/pdfs/markdown-cheatsheet-online.pdf
Me
This is my game made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 43.
It's basically my first game ever :D
Theme: Sacrifices must be made
Story
One day, they came...
Not for our resources,
not for our planet,
but for our cats.
You must save as many cats as possible before you are overrun.
Along the way, there may be casualties. But, hey. Sometimes, Catrifices must be made.
How to play
Walk with "WASD" or the arrow keys
Stand on a Cat and don't move to pick it up
Stand in the "Drop Off" area to drop off a load of Cats
Drop off 3 or more Cats in one load to get a Cat Bomb (Not a real cat :P
Touch an item to pick it up
Left click the mouse to throw a Cat Bomb
Right click the mouse to throw a Catrifice (You monster.
Try not to touch the aliens!
Hey! Did you actually read this far? Thanks for that! :D I hope you enjoy my game!
Credits
Game and resources created by MrPiedPiper.
Base template of Title Screen music by StinkyKitty.
Play screen music by StinkyKitty.
Software used
- Affinity Designer
- Unity
- Audacity
- Bosca Ceoil
Screenshots
(Because you needed this header to realize these were screenshots)
Some things I'm planning on changing
Alot of this stuff is thanks to you guys in the comments. Thanks a ton! * Overall pace should be faster. * Player should be faster. * Player's horizontal movement should be faster. * A title on the main menu would be nice :P * The drop-off is not obvious from first spawning. Camera pan or spawning there would help. * Enemy spawners were meant not to fit in (aliens), and I succeeded. Which makes it confusing. Oops. * In-game instructions and maybe a "First time playing? Watch this!" * Changing the end screen text for certain amounts saved (e.g. "You saved 0. Nice job?") * Regaining health via 4 in 1 trip? * Sprint with regaining per delivered cat? * Actual score * Camera zoom and effects per amount of health * More feedback for actions. (Explosions, pick up, throw, hurt, ect.) * Make the Catrifice more enticing by boosting it's power (In some way)
| HTML5 (web) | https://mrpiedpiper.itch.io/catrifices |
| Windows | https://github.com/MrPiedPiper/Catrifices |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/catrifices |
Ratings
| Overall | 587th | 3.361⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 544th | 3.222⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 443th | 3.236⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 431th | 3.597⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 520th | 3.5⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 192th | 3.629⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 255th | 3.386⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 585th | 3.235⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 57🗨️ |
Now that ive come back to this page, i see that you have even shared a screenshot of the drop off here... Not sure how I missed that!
Fun game! Though!
Yeah, moving forward, some kind of in-game instructions would definitely help.
I'll keep that in mind for the next update :D
(Those poor kitties)
In general, I think this is a good game and a solid idea. I played until I saved a few cats and was being chased by 10+ monsters. Here is my feedback:
* horizontal movement is a bit too slow compared to vertical movement (maybe speed it all up too)
* picking up the cats might benefit from a progress bar to let you know how much longer to stand still
* music is really good
* art is good too... I liked the monsters and the sad cats
* drop off point was not obvious... maybe start the player next to it or have the camera focus on it first (use a cinemachine in unity and blend between two virtual cameras)
All in all I think you did a good job! You should be proud of what you made :)
Thank you for the great feedback, and kind words :D
however, the game was very confusing. as a rule, i play the game before i read its ludum dare entry page. i was so confused as to what the controls were, even after reading the instructions. it didnt help that the drop off zones were only on one side of the map, and they weren't the white circles (i dont even know what the white circles were). The white circles were easier to spot and easier to identify as an interactable game object
overall, not too bad for a first game!
@shieldgenerator7 Thanks for checking out my game! :D
I would love to see how the game would look like if you would have more time.
you should be proud
@johnnyginard Thanks! :D This game was worth all that time invested in making it c:
@alph Thank you! Spent quite a while trying to figure out what to make, so it's nice knowing the idea worked out in the end :sweat_smile:
Upping the speed seems to be coming up alot. I'll add that to the list for the next version. Thanks, guys!
Yes! I love cats!
Good job! The graphics are really quite good, especially for a first game.
@shubart No, thank *YOU* for playing my game! Upping the overall speed of the game is sure to improve things a bit. Maybe even upping the player speed itself to make things start easier. :thumbsup:
@donitz Thank you! Really happy with how the graphics turned out. Nice score, btw :D
@morris-beardbarian Might have made it a bit too difficult starting out. I'll fix that up post-jam. Glad you enjoyed! c:
The gameplay was an interesting and compelling start, but it was SLOW. I mean, sure, slowness is often necessary, but it would have been quite easy to speed EVERYTHING in the game up by like 3 or 4 times, and it would be so much more fun! My rating: 4 stars.
Heck, I suppose it's somewhat innovative. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's somewhat original, and even somewhat is *great* when the theme is so **painfully** polarizing. My rating: 4.5 stars.
It fit the theme. Just like every other game that requires you to sacrifice the things you're saving. It's not your fault: this theme is making everyone do this! However, it still isn't a new interpretation of the theme. My rating: 4.5 stars.
The graphics were decent, but lacked polish, and the animations were lacking. The player seemed very floaty when walking, and you could've at least made it so that he actually LOOKS up when he WALKS up. My rating: 4 stars.
Ah yes. Bosca Ceoil music. I know the program well. I also know that it almost always sounds terrible. I myself am no different: My Ceoil music is absolute trash. Anyway, I know from experience that programmers aren't musicians, but do yourself a favor and go download a better program. I just yesterday learned that the guy who made SFXR also made a music software, although as to the usefulness of that program, I can't say anything, since I've never tried it. On a lighter note, your sound effects were pretty good, and you made music that sounds really good for Bosca Ceoil. My rating: 3.5 stars.
The concept is quite funny, although the actual game doesn't do much to help the funny factor. My rating: 4 stars.
The mood *sorta* works, but much of the game seems to be all over the map. Each piece works somewhat well on its own, but the pieces don't work that well in unison, and thus hurt the overall mood. It felt like the game couldn't decide if it wanted to be dark and depressing, cute and happy, or a satisfying blend of both. My rating: 3.5 stars.
Overall, it's a good start, but it needs a lot of polish to get it up and running, and needs some more overhead to ensure that the final game works with all of the parts working as expected. And for crying out loud, dump bosca ceoil already! My rating: 4 stars.
I've seen alot of this mentioned, and will most definitely be trying a bit of a speed-up. The slow "They're coming" thing just isn't working.
Really appreciate it! :D
Yeah, I'll take that. "Sacrifices must be made" lends itself to this kind of thing. :sweat_smile:
This is pretty spot on. Graphics were a bit rushed, and my animations -while I'm rather happy with they ended up- were not as I had planned them to be. I originally was going to follow Brackeys' skeletal animation tutorial. Knees, elbows, and all. But, that didn't end up working out. So I had to improvise. In the end, I decided to go "Scribblenauts" with the animation. It worked, but could definitely be improved. Though, the style I ended up with *is* pretty nice. Not sure I'll end up changing it in the long run. Maybe more joints.
Bosca Ceoil worked pretty well for this, but something else *would* be nice. I should definitely look around and see what's available for more music. More options = more fitting for whatever I happen to be working on. I'll go take a look at that one you mentioned! Thanks! :D
Sound effects, I was pretty happy with. Nothing like meowing into a microphone at 2am and making odd noises for aliens. Flicking drink glasses, rubbing sleeves together, that stuff was fun to make.
(Side note: Funny enough, while I've never really tried *making* music (Until now), I actually *am* a musician XP
Well said.
In my design document I wrote "Feel: Cartoony dystopia. Fun, yet dark and disturbing."
I feel like I didn't *quite* get this right. Just about right, but still. Work must be done. But, hey. At least you got the general gist of it :P
Partial success!
This, is some real quality feedback. Thanks for the honest review! I feel a great need to go and fix some of this stuff. Hooray, game development!
:Edit: Changed wordings and added stuff on paragraphs about graphics, audio, and mood.
The gamefeel was good, no bugs, great animations and reward (explosions, sounds). Keep it up, I can't wait for next year, where you'll do even better !
Thanks! :D
I'm glad you enjoyed my game. Really means alot! ^-^
I most definitely intend on keeping up game development whenever I can, too. (Somewhat of a dream of mine :sweat_smile:)
Can't wait for next Ludum Dare!
The only bit of feedback I have is that on the first couple of playthroughs I expected the guy to pickup the cats faster. So I couldn't save any cats. As soon as I figured it out it all went well.
I should probably up that speed a bit- Thanks for the feedback on that! :thumbsup:
Also, the audio in the game is very good overall, and the animations for the characters was very good for a game jam. Overall there is a surprisingly high level of polish for someone's first game, as well as the theme being fit very well overall.
To conclude i enjoyed the game, and would like to see what you can produce in the next ludum dare in four months.
Speeding up that is something I should probably do. I've seen alot of people saying my game's pacing was a bit too slow, and that'd definitely up the speed. Thanks! :thumbsup:
Thank you! Means quite a bit, as I spent alot of time polishing stuff. Day 3 had *so much polishing* XP
Again, love hearing my game was enjoyed! Can't wait for the next Ludum Dare ^-^
Very cool game. I liked the mood and the responsive feel of the controls. And the music is very catchy. And your game art is very cute!
Great work! :)
Thanks for the kind words! Really makes me happy to hear ^^
- Needs a tutorial, when the players start the game, they don't have any clue about what they need to do.
- Add more feedback about: main character damage, game over, take the cats, drop the cats, state of the cats...
- The characters movement are slow... this game is not a Silent Hill PT xD, maybe you can increase the speed at main characters and monsters... or add a dash mechanic at main character... I think with this feature is more nice to play. Take the reference games like Bastion.
Keep it doing games! :left_facing_fist_tone3: Congrats!
I most definitely will. :right_facing_fist: Thanks!
I actually REALLY liked your usage of a diagetic UI to show the drop off. It's a small touch but putting the UI as a part of the world instead of just an overlay is a nice touch I always appreciate. Overall, I think people already covered some of the core changes to help the future version of this game so I think you're on a good start.
Diagetic UI is something I quite like. Though, I never had a word for it 'till now :eyes: (I'll have to remember that one)
Thanks for the quality comment! :D