Flovala by larzan
G'day, this is the first group entry by @Larzan and @Foya.
Audio was made by the internet and the music by "Circus Marcus - La tapa del jueves" (for which the author kindly granted permission), so obviously we opt out of the acoustic category.
All the gfx and code were created during the time of the Jam, we didn't use any previously existing assets (not counting the Phaser JavaScript library).
:warning:note on tuesday i fixed two things in the code, the idle animations would stop once an action animation had been played (this incidentally also fixed the bigger nutrients not using the right image), and the black sprites orientation wasn't in the swimming direction. As i understand it those minor fixes are allowed within the rules, if you do not agree with that you can still find the original code with those bugs here: http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/index_orig.html
Description
You are the just reborn being Flovala, trying to find your way in your :earofrice:beautiful:herb: suroundings which harbour less beautiful things:fish:. Explore the world, look for nourishment where you can find it, to live is to survive is to eat, only the good die young, so don't:dromedary_camel:.
Controls
Just cursor keys.
Voting category opt-out
- Audio
- Music
Links
There are WebGL and Canvas versions for both, the Compo and the PostCompo versions, as some people had speed problems with the WebGL version, so feel free to switch whenever you experience lag (the links are at the top of the screen when you are playing)
Compo - HTML5 (Phaser)
:earth_africa: WebGL : http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/
:earth_africa: Canvas : http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/canvas.html
PostCompo - HTML5 (Phaser)
- Fixes to gfx and playability
- three different difficulty settings
- restart current Level (not just from the beginning)
- a smoother and nicer experience overall
:cake: WebGL : http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/post_compo/
:cake: Canvas : http://spielwiese.ermert.es/LD38/post_compo/canvas.html
More Music
:headphones: by Circus Marcus
Images
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/flovala |
Ratings
| Overall | 100th | 3.912⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 233th | 3.456⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 503th | 2.895⭐ | 59🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 238th | 3.707⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 29th | 4.621⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 388th | 2.578⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 32th | 4.207⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 38🗳️ | 49🗨️ |
I'm also as ucker for this type of game, tough a big part of that is based on enemy variety, I'd have loved to see many more bizarre creatures, even if they weren't fully animated.
Anyways, the game looks amazing, and the music is spot on. Controls feel a bit too floaty for my taste, but nothing major. huge props!
The gameplay reminded me to agar.io, which is cool.
Congrats!
On the criticism, the controls in the smaller states felt a bit floaty. And maybe you could also think about supporting touch/mouse, I think it would work well with that. There was also a bug for me, that if I grew maximum size, the game sort of froze. The character switched back to a smaller costume and I couldn't steer anymore.
All in all a really great game with beautiful art and great atmosphere!!
I really enjoyed this, there was some serious game chug and framerate dips, but the game itself kept drawing me back into it as it unfolded and I hope you move forward with it!
I'm really glad you like the art! I love to create small creatures and ecosystems, so this theme was perfect for me...and I managed to do everything I wanted within the deadline, so it was a good challenge!
It seems that on some computers, the movements are too floaty and slow, Lars is still working on the game so I hope we'll fix that soon!
Best,
@occultone ; @la-mecanique-du-plastique ; @tommyflower ; @boltkey ; @twinghosts ; @tinyworlds ; @camilo ; @reinhold-strodel ; @heini ; @firewill ; @ghostandshell
I think when you play as the black guy with the lamp the scaling should be inverted: When you float left the character looks to the right. Or maybe this ist by intension?
The music is good, but the visuals are, for me, the key point in this work.
Great job, guys!
overall very cool game!
Solid game overall.
on the bad side the controls are a bit stiff though, I suppose it simulates water conditions, but it was really difficult to move the little fellow
I only wish that I could have moved the little fish a bit better and that I wasn't that slow.
Really good game!
I really like the graphics that are really really really cute. I was surprised to switch to "the dark side" but.. meh it had to be the way to get stronger ;)
The sounds are simple but effective the loop is really relaxing.
The controls are a bit hard to manage at first but well every LD entry has problems so great work !
Though I gotta say, the first time I accidentally ran into one of the dark enemy creatures it scared the hell out of me. The combination of a LOUD and harsh sound (especially compared to the rest of the soundtrack and noises) coupled with an unexpectedly nightmarish eating animation (in a good way, very smooth looking!) took me by surprise. I was a little confused as to why I started playing as the dark creature near the end though...
Regardless, this was a very charming little game. :)
It seems some of you need an explanation concerning the evolution of the creatures. Well, sometimes evolutions turn into something different and unexpected... So we just wanted to show there was no 'good guy' or 'bad guy' in this ecosystem, everyone is just trying to survive!
@coleslaughter ; @fiote ; @aeveis ; @spinaljack
Do you have any ideas how to expand this gameplay process? (e.g: evolution tree, special abilities, grouping with allies, some ultimate end-game goal?)
Difficulty curve is slightly sloping even for me (I'm not a hardcore gamer), but works well with this type of a control.
Thank you for this game! It was short, familiar, but fun to play.
Amazing graphics.
I feel like I did not really get what was the point in getting bigger / stronger by eating the enemies, as in the end I got back to the "cell" stage all the time.
Switching teams with the dark ones was an interesting change, although the gameplay felt slow and almost tedious (player controls did not help) at this point.
The music loop is too short - I tired of it too fast. I loved the art and the control are pretty smooth, it was a real joy to play your game because of that!
Its a really good game. Good Job ^^
Overall: I thought the game was really good, the gameplay was fun and the difficulty was not too high, and the art was excellent. I would have liked to see an ending sequence instead of slam cutting back to the beginning, though, and the plants did hide some of the enemies (which makes for some very stressful reveals).
Fun: I found the game extremely fun to play. The relaxing atmosphere lets you sit back and wonder what the next evolution will be. The controls were a little floaty, which made it hard to avoid those that want to eat you.
Innovation: Unfortunately, there's a lot of 'eat to evolve' games out there, so there aren't that many points to be given for innovation.
Theme: Fairly unique interpretation of the theme (it's a small world but look, I grow!), but nothing too original. I'm extremely harsh in this category though, so don't listen to me...
Graphics: I liked the art style a lot, the characters were cute, and the animations were good.
Audio: I know you opted out of this one, but I just want to say the music choice was superb, though the dark creature eating sound effect was a little harsh.
Good job!
EDIT: The post jam game updates are awesome!
Overall awesome concept and fun little game!
A point for improvement: At some point, when I got big enough, there was a nice swap. Where I played as the enemy like creatures and got to eat the nicer creatures. I felt like this was some sort of allegory on how enemies see eachother. If it **wasn't**, then I dont feel like the swap made a lot of sense and needs to explain what happened and why. If it **was** then I feel it could of been easily missed, again needs a bit of work to make it read a tiny bit better.
All in all though it's a very charming little game. Well done!