Kritter Keeper by Archimagus

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

kritter<em>keeper</em>4.png Congratulations! You’re the new Kritter Keeper of an alien zoo! You’re tasked with caring for the needs of the various alien Kritters that inhabit the Kritter exhibit. Over time, more and more Kritters will be dropped into the exhibit and you’ll have to take care of all of them. As you meet the needs of the Kritters, you will gain points that increase your overall score. Your supervisor, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that the higher your score, the faster he’ll drop in new Kritters for you to take care of. Every time you fail to meet a Kritter’s need, they'll become sad and change colors! If you fail to meet a Kritter’s needs 3 times, they'll die! If three Kritters die… you’re fired!

Can you become the top Kritter Keeper in the world? Only time (and the leaderboard) will tell.

The game starts pretty slow, keep going if you think it's too easy.

Controls - Use Q or click on the 1st button to change your cursor to the Food icon. - Use W or click on the 2nd button to change your cursor to the Water icon. - Use E or click on the 3rd button to change your cursor to the Care icon. - Use R or click on the 4th button to change your cursor to the Heal icon. - Use T, click your right mouse button, or click on the 5th button to change your cursor to the Grab icon.

To care for Kritters, watch them closely and a need bubble will appear on them. Change your cursor to the matching icon and click on the Kritter to fulfill that need. Kritters needs must be met quickly, so act fast! You can also pick Kritters up with the Grab icon and move them around the exhibit to make them easier to manage. Lastly, the Heal icon is special. A Kritter won’t ask to be healed, but at any time a Kritter is sad and has changed colors you can click them with the Heal icon to restore them by one level. You cannot heal a Kritter beyond their initial health.

Good luck Kritter Keeper!

Post Jam Update - Lowered the volume of the achievement sound.

* Update 2 * - Pushed Leader Boards to the live Game Sparks service. Required a re-upload of the game to target the new leaderboard location. No Gameplay changes were made so this plays identical to the original upload with the exception of the above achievement sound volume change.

Ratings

Overall 290th 3.716⭐ 69🧑‍⚖️
Fun 469th 3.425⭐ 69🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 621th 3.112⭐ 69🧑‍⚖️
Theme 24th 4.313⭐ 69🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 489th 3.619⭐ 69🧑‍⚖️
Humor 446th 3.182⭐ 68🧑‍⚖️
Mood 464th 3.424⭐ 68🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

AfroAnt
05. Dec 2017 · 04:43 UTC
I settled in for a what I thought was going to be a nice, relaxing game, but then the critters kept coming! I was hood-winked, I tells ya!

;) Nice job. Keep up the good work!
ZombieFredrik
05. Dec 2017 · 07:55 UTC
Tamagotchi on speed. Kept tripping me up to have to change back to the "tool" for every critter-click. But it's a design decision I guess. Well done!
Thorneto
05. Dec 2017 · 07:57 UTC
This was really well put together overall great job. The music transitions made all the difference, it made me look forward to going further.
SiCzech
05. Dec 2017 · 07:58 UTC
Not bad :)
Escape
05. Dec 2017 · 08:07 UTC
Cute and fun game that starts out slow and ramps up quickly. Every now and then I felt like I had to either click directly on a monster to apply the selected option or click on them multiple times. That aside, this was a fun game with nice graphics, animations, sound and music. Great job! :)
05. Dec 2017 · 08:34 UTC
Very nice job on the game! Looks really smooth. It was really slow to get going tho :( Got much faster once there were 7 or so monsters, but it felt like it took a long time to get there.
krammetje
05. Dec 2017 · 13:39 UTC
Great game.
Started out quite boring in my opinion, but after the 20k points, it started getting challenging and really fun.
Luther
05. Dec 2017 · 15:03 UTC
This game definitely becomes harder the more you have! The artstyle is really nice and the sounds are very fitting. one little critique: the achievement sound is very loud.
Reality Blind
05. Dec 2017 · 16:44 UTC
Nice concept :D
wdelvi
05. Dec 2017 · 20:17 UTC
Aww very cute. I wish there was more to it. But solid entry :D
SimonTheCase
05. Dec 2017 · 20:24 UTC
Started a bit slow, but really intense when it begun to ramp up! Great entry!
ArturasD
05. Dec 2017 · 20:28 UTC
What a nice little gem! An indicator showing how many times you can fail to look after an alien would be nice, but everything else top notch!
RubixAlchemist
05. Dec 2017 · 20:33 UTC
The ramp up in music is great as you frantically try and take care of your kritters. Nice work!
gwolf86
05. Dec 2017 · 20:36 UTC
Great work. It's like a turbo charged Tamagotchi! I really like the art and the theme is brilliant.
Sun-Wukong
05. Dec 2017 · 23:10 UTC
This looks pretty neat. And becomes really overwhelming the further you play it.

Feels really solid, good job overall.
Pablo Abraham
06. Dec 2017 · 19:08 UTC
Art was very cool, and you can see that you gave a good attention to the details of the game, congratulations.
Criggles
06. Dec 2017 · 19:20 UTC
Hot dam that gets hectic real quick. Fun game! lovely art too. The music ramping up with a game was a real nice touch.

Nice to see a high-score system too.
Eraleis
06. Dec 2017 · 19:23 UTC
Pretty fun game, but take a long time to get started !
Lintfordpickle
06. Dec 2017 · 19:33 UTC
Really enjoyed it, it took a little long to get started (during which time I was wondering if it would be worth the wait). it sure was though :) - the leaderboards were a good idea too
Togimaro
06. Dec 2017 · 19:58 UTC
Fun! Maybe the beginning is too slow but very challenging at the end!
The leaderboard is a great idea! I tried the game several times to have a good score x)

Congrats :D
nekoballs
06. Dec 2017 · 20:25 UTC
Fun game and cute monsters! A bit boring in the beginning but I really enjoyed it when it became more hectic.

Great take on the theme and nice to see a leaderbord!
drazil100
07. Dec 2017 · 07:53 UTC
Was a good game. Started off a little too slow but it grew out of control eventually! Out group almost made a pet game xD
Gruhh
07. Dec 2017 · 13:02 UTC
An interesting mechanic and a strong concept. With more feedbacks the game could have more feeling, but it's interesting. Congratulations.

Uma mecânica interessante e um conceito forte. Com mais feedbacks o jogo poderia ter mais feeling, mas está interessante. Parabéns. :flag_br:
broccoli
07. Dec 2017 · 20:52 UTC
Not a novel idea, but still a lot of fun. Definitely captures the idea well. I like that you made the aliens move around. The whole thing becomes chaotic and stressful after the 20K mark. Good job!
pcmxms
07. Dec 2017 · 20:58 UTC
Interesting concept. It's one of those game that one may spend one afternoon playing it without even notice.
GistNoesis
07. Dec 2017 · 21:02 UTC
They are really cute. Well done. Reminded me of the tamagochis. The game is rather slow but ramps up. You should add interactions between the kritters.
Tempii
07. Dec 2017 · 21:04 UTC
Fun game, highscores and/or achievements always get me. Healing would be more usable, if every monter had the same comor, when damaged, but I guess this is a deliberate decision.
icxon
07. Dec 2017 · 21:42 UTC
I think it should have some "relief" moments when number of creatures will decrease (e.g. zookeeper sells a bunch of them or they just become adult and move to another zoo section). Something like levels or just a non-linear difficulty. I like the game appearance and sound effects.

Here is my playtest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6zy5JCkitU
jynspielt
09. Dec 2017 · 09:58 UTC
Great audio work. Supporting the moode very well with the ramp of the music. Cute Graphics and bouncy animations and fun to play.
SerpentWorks Games
09. Dec 2017 · 09:58 UTC
Handles the theme really well! It's a little slow to start but quickly becomes overwhelming. I didn't quite realize I could heal mobs until late, given that there was no indication, like their needs, to do so. The color change was a little lost on me at first. I do really like you have keybindings as well as usable UI buttons.

Cute game though a little more frustrating at the higher scores than fun, per say.
tangiblegames
09. Dec 2017 · 10:16 UTC
Hey) At first I thought the balance wasn't perfect, as the game starts slow, and then difficulty goes up waaay too fast. But then I understood that you were right, because here at LD people usually get to play each game once, and for this single session you made a good balance. Player will have plenty of time to understand how the game plays, and then - chaos!
Also, it pays to learn the keyboard controls from the start.

Nice entry.
Likirus
12. Dec 2017 · 15:01 UTC
really nice and cute game, very relaxing at the beginning and appropriately difficult later. There could have been a "smartcast" option ( e.g. just hover the mouse over the kritter and press q instead of pressing q and then having to click ), which would have made things a little easier I feel.
lexi
12. Dec 2017 · 16:56 UTC
Great entry, fun to play. I agree with @likirus on the "smartcast" option, that would have been a great addition.
I personally would have made the icons on the kritters a bit more visible by giving it a more contrasting colour or animation or something along the line.
KabalaTrance
12. Dec 2017 · 21:00 UTC
Very fun game!
Maybe it should be harder at the beginning, but its not big deal.
Hydro_Games
12. Dec 2017 · 21:04 UTC
Incredible game! I absolutely love the game and the art style! The art is incredible and the gameplay is amazing!
Yohoho Games 2
14. Dec 2017 · 05:55 UTC
the concept is pretty good and semi cartoon style is also in the topic as I believe)
Jonasz999
18. Dec 2017 · 18:46 UTC
Very nice entry!

The game fits the theme perfectly :slight_smile:

I loved the fact, that you can throw these creatures outside the screen and they would come back every time! :smile:

I was also impressed by the level of refinement of this project.
Ohmi
18. Dec 2017 · 20:44 UTC
Graphics and animations are really neat. Also the fact that they all mace different sounds, so adorable! As others already stated, the pacing of the game needs to be worked on. It just gets harder and harder.
Tsukiouji
19. Dec 2017 · 21:55 UTC
Sooo cute~ :3
CallumLTurner
19. Dec 2017 · 22:50 UTC
Great concept that suited the theme well. The art is great and the gameplay is fairly simple but soon became real hectic & fun. Congrats!