GarbageForm by ElusiveMilestone

made by ElusiveMilestone for LD 42 (JAM)

My initial idea was for trash to spawn indefinitely until the play area was full, so you had to throw it into a machine to get disposed. The game was boring: picking up the items and them throwing them was repetitive and there wasn't a sense of urgency. Unfortunately I only realized this in the last day! Trying to fix this situation, I created a monster who ate trash to grow and then followed the player (the bigger the monster, less space you had to run) - but it was boring still.

Later I had another idea which I deemed good enough to try. The platform where the player stands is made of trash (or cubes, you get the idea) and it moves to get disposed, so the player has to recycle the trash-platform to maintain the playable area. I had only four hours to program this gameplay mechanic and I succeeded (I hope so!). My game is bare bones, but I managed to create something a little interesting to play.

How to play:

WASD - move character Left Mouse Button - pick up boxes/throw boxes

Don't fall or you'll lose. Throw the boxes into the machine to extend the playable area.

Windows	https://deepbluejeer.itch.io/garbageform
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/garbageform

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Feedback

Michael Coppeta

16. Aug 2018 · 03:57 UTC

The ideas that you have written in the description sound like it would be a good game. The main problem is that it is incredibly difficult to get the cubes into the garbage collector. It would've been better if you made it more clear that it was the cubes you needed to pick up, because for the first four times I played I was trying to jump/walk around the moving cubes in order to find the garbage that you were talking about. The mechanics of the game do work well though, it is just incredibly difficult.

Random-storykeeper

16. Aug 2018 · 06:27 UTC

The concept is a great basis for a game. Unfortunately, the execution of this game is too finicky and unbalanced that it really hinders how fun it is. The controls are super slippery (a single press of the key sometimes causes you to move several squares forward) and it doesn't help that you have to be pretty precise where you throw your box to rebuild the platforms. Even so, when the boxes push you forward, you usually only have a bit of time to move them out of the way so you don't get pushed over. To have that one block thrown away rebuilding one part of the path while like, three rows get pushed towards you each time does seem quite unfair, especially for a casual, first time player.

By the way, when your path finally clears out and there's only one row of blocks left, nothing else spawns and you're just left standing there. I guess it's pretty easy to just fall off the path, but I dunno, might have made it more consistent if that last row up and left rather than forcing the player to kill off their character.

![GarbageForm-Stuck on a single platform.png](///raw/360/1/z/19f44.png)

I think the basis of this game is good and for what you managed to do in four hours, it's decently playable at the very least. It certainly needs tighter controls and more leeway in regards to the throwing distance of the blocks and when the trash collector catches them. That would at least make it more generous with the current balancing as the player would be able to toss the blocks more easily.

While the graphics were quite simplistic and the player sprite didn't really mesh with them, I did like how the protagonist crouches and puts their hands over their head when they fall off the platform. The player character doesn't even fall all the way down despite there being empty space. How interesting. :thinking: