DinoGrow by Conroy

This was our first Ludum Dare and we dreamed BIG! DinoGrow is a fully functioning online dinosaur survival simulator! You can choose to be either a Raptor or a Triceratops, up to 4 players per match!
HOW TO PLAY When you enter the game create a lobby, or see if others have been created. Create your name and ready up!
Spawn your Dinosaur, Run around, try and survive, attack other players!
CONTROLS
Attack : Left CLick
Keyboard/Mouse Move : WASD
Move Camera : Mouse
HOW WE DID IT Game Engine - Unity Sound - Audacity All Art assets purchased from asset store.
WHO WE ARE
Cody Conroy & Patrick Coridan, Web developers by day, aspiring Game developers.
| Windows | https://pcoridan.itch.io/dinogrow |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/a-title-for-a-game |
Ratings
| Overall | 384th | 3.625⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 526th | 3.357⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 570th | 3.368⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1040th | 2.85⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 231th | 3.559⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 153th | 3.861⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 15🗳️ | 9🗨️ |
After successfully killing a triceratops, I proceeded to climb out of the map. All in all it was fun! Don't quite get what 2 genres it combines but I loved the models and the animations were great. I didn't like the rainforest noises blasting into my left ear the whole time though.
I tried joining the games I saw, but it failed the numerous times I attempted, even after letting the game access my internet. Eventually the servers went down and I was left alone ;( Also, when pressing escape while in the game, the mouse is freed but remains hidden, and returning to the main menu holds no avail, as the mouse is still invisible. Also, while playing, sometimes the mouse remains hidden but is unlocked, so moving to the right or left caused the mouse to leave the window sometimes.
Also, I added 2 players to the game for whatever reason, and after clicking on carnivore, the game froze. Idk
Now onto the review:
First thing I noticed was the camera was angled a bit to low for my taste, and therefore it was hard to see everything. In addition, moving the mouse to move the player, which in turn moved the camera was a bit different from the traditional move camera to move player, but it works
Eventually I saw three herbivores, who magically walked into the air and all started floating in one spot xD It was a sight to behold.
Also, the carnivore attack animation fit, but because the herbivore animation required it to stand still, it looked kinda strange sliding across the ground xd A fix for this is to use animation masks or something, and have the legs in its own separate continuum, so when the attack animation is played the legs stay in the walk animation. I did something like that a year ago, so I've forgotten how to fix it but you could probably find a guide somewhere.
Aside from a few collision bugs, I was able to romp around the island freely, yet without any prey to hunt :( I'll probably hop back on later with some friends to check out the pvp though xd
It was a neat little "battle royale" game, but currently without any friends online, it seemed like walking simulator. Don't get me wrong the pvp seems fun, but I'll have to try it much later xd.
Well done you two!
@kataware Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. Everything you said we agree with 100%, just ran out of time to fix/tweak those things. We plan to work on the game more and get it to where wanted for LD, which is more of a survival game.
I also don't really think there are two really incompatible genres here. But on the innovation side, really cool to see a multiplayer game, it looks really hard to do something like that. Would be better if it had some kind of AI too, though, but that's really hard for a short project I guess.
Still there are some bugs and problems about the camera and moving (sometimes stuck in corner). Keep your ambition and make a more polished one!
Good job in your first LD, next will be better!
Please, take a look at my game too: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/confessional
Would you rate my game? https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/the-game-that-bad-that-it-is-actually-good
Thx a lot! :)