Spindulum by yuigoto

[raw]
made by yuigoto for LD34 (JAM)
**CLICK ON THE GAME FRAME AFTER LOADING TO PLAY!!**

Spindulum is a minimalistic action game.

• You’re a red dot attached to a collector.
• Orange dots makes you grow, Blue makes you shrink.
• Rotate your collector left and right to gobble the orange dots, avoiding the blue ones.
• Gobble as much as orange dots needed to grow and fill the gray area.
• When you’re big enough, press LEFT AND RIGHT to explode and advance to the next level.
• If you shrink to less than half the initial size, it’s game over.

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CONTROLS:
• LEFT/RIGHT ARROWS - Turn Left/Right

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Dedicated to my fiancée, Glauce. Because of her I got the inspiration and energy to write this game. :)

Thank You for playing the game, or even just visiting this page! :)

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Edit:
14/Dec/2015 | 23h52 | SOUND BREAKING BUG-FIX
There was a sound breaking bug on the Windows build, due to the fact that in Windows, instead of miliseconds, OpenFL uses seconds. This caused the song loop to be broken.
Thanks to @ruerob for pointing this to me on Twitter! :)

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.47 369
Audio(Jam) 4.00 66
Fun(Jam) 3.37 349
Graphics(Jam) 3.27 607
Humor(Jam) 2.35 672
Innovation(Jam) 3.61 187
Mood(Jam) 3.37 385
Theme(Jam) 4.14 127

Feedback

ruerob
15. Dec 2015 · 01:02 UTC
Your game is so awesome. I can't stop to dance with my feet to the beat! I reached level 5 this time! The graphics are simple and fit completely to the game! The old "simple to lean but hard to master" is a good description for your game! I'm addicted!
Modoc73
15. Dec 2015 · 02:21 UTC
Nice game. Controls very touchy, but suited game play. Music got repetitive, but was good too. Well done. Similar look, different game play to my game. Made good use of both themes.
blubberquark
17. Dec 2015 · 18:21 UTC
Very interesting game design, good fit to the theme. I think this has potential if the controls were made to feel better. Its too difficult to make small and precice movements, and the bigger movements don't feel special. For this kind of game I think controls are essential. If you experiment with cool controls (acceleration etc) and control difficulty by level design (how dots spawn etc) you might have an awesome game :). Also, if you are truly minimalist, maybe you can make all oranges and the red the same color? -@OhHelloTilman (using bobs account)
FrederickK
19. Dec 2015 · 02:48 UTC
The only thing that I didn't liked it is that it is very hard! :(
Other than that, very amazing and great use of the themes!
phi
24. Dec 2015 · 10:12 UTC
Like the music and sound effects! The two themes perfectly involved. I reached level 4, your game is actually very catchy :)
akirassasin
24. Dec 2015 · 10:14 UTC
Audio not working for me on Safari, OSX. Other than that, it was fun :D
Lythom
24. Dec 2015 · 10:18 UTC
Hi !

What I liked :
- sounds and music !
- simple addicting gameplay

What imo could be improved :
- Spindulum control, the acceleration make it very hard to play, a fixed speed would have allow the player to be more in control I think
- graphics are... well not themed at all and doesn't help understand how the game works
- growth in the game could have been progress bar or a percent sarting at 50%. What I mean is that it has no special meaning. A background theme or a gameplay really impacted by the "growing" feeling would have helped the game to achieve more clarity.

Overall a game I enjoyed with a good realisation, well done =)
dlowe
26. Dec 2015 · 19:18 UTC
Thanks for the game!
foolmoron
26. Dec 2015 · 21:11 UTC
Love it. Reminds me a ton of classic arcadey flash games like Squares 2. You nailed the feel of the gameplay and the graphics and especially the funky background music. Gameplay was too shallow though and the level progression didn't add much, so it didn't keep me coming back.
🎤 yuigoto
30. Dec 2015 · 00:44 UTC
Hey, y'all! Thanks for playing this game!

I didn't have time to properly work on it the way I wanted during the jam (even the post-jam version might suffer a bit :/), but I'm kind of proud of how the game came out.

I know the gameplay is way too shallow and the level progression/design isn't the best one (gotta work on this the next LD).

About what Lythom said, about speed, the collector actually has the same rotating speed every level, the pendulum's tangential speed, though, changes according to the radius of the gray marker. This is actually part of the game's design. :P The idea is to have it like a pendulum, but I'm totally shit at thinking about it so the acceleration/deceleration is pretty badly thought. :/

The main point of the game was to have it very simple, with no fussing too much with a background history/concept: you're a dot with another dot attached by a string and you have to collect orange dots to grow and explode. In a kind of way that Super Hexagon or Waves does.

I'm gonna work on this further, I hope to have the post-jam version as a link between the jam prototype and the final product. But, first, there are some projects in the oven. :P

Thanks and Cheers to you all! :)
gelisam
30. Dec 2015 · 03:57 UTC
The collector moves *way* too fast. I didn't feel like I had any control over the outcome of the game: I can steer away from a blue dot, but only at the cost of crashing into tons of other random stuff on the other side of the level, so it felt like the outcome of the game was quite random, only depending on what color the things I crashed into were.
justinooncx
30. Dec 2015 · 04:55 UTC
Definitely feels like a nice mobile game. Controls would probably be improved if it simply followed the mouse instead, as the arrow key movements were incredibly hard to control. Otherwise, it's an interesting idea, executed well with polish!
radmars
30. Dec 2015 · 07:59 UTC
I think going for a "pendulum" feel is a very cool idea, but could use work on its execution. If you want to keep the sort of fast, frenetic feeling, I would increase the size of dots and decrease their spawn rate to allow you to focus on less stuff at a time.

However, I still had fun getting to level 5! Loved the robot voice and the music!
ALobker
31. Dec 2015 · 11:37 UTC
Wow, this game is hard. In my case, getting orange and avoiding blue is mostly due to luck.
Aurel Bílý
31. Dec 2015 · 11:37 UTC
Nice. I think the controls were a bit too sensitive. Also you could maybe indicate on screen whenever you're ready to 'burst'. But I liked the idea, as well as the way you had to look out for the dots twice, once when coming in, once when coming out.
_benhumphries
03. Jan 2016 · 15:15 UTC
This is probably the best all around game that I've seen so far. The game was great and addicting, and the audio really sold the deal. Amazing job!
swipefaststudios
04. Jan 2016 · 05:25 UTC
Good job on the theme but wish there was a status display to see when you may die and the progress you were making! good music!
BunchaSapsGames
04. Jan 2016 · 14:29 UTC
Controls are a bit too touchy, but other than that it's a great arcadeish, bullet-hellish game. I think the more minimalistic graphics are a point in your favor.
Haokarlos
04. Jan 2016 · 15:34 UTC
Cool game there ! Great game design, it's really addictive and fits the theme nicely. Like other people said, the level progression lacks a little bit of fun, you don't have something new or interesting each time you reach a new level, just some attributes change, that would have been a great and not that much time consuming feature (maybe some power-ups like slow motion, blue particles deflector etc., thought I don't know how you could pick them up xD). Also the pendule motion is not very optimal. The arrow keys sometimes make it even more difficult and the acceleration is clearly adding a feeling of no control.

Great work anyways ;)
RevelBase
04. Jan 2016 · 17:45 UTC
Cool idea. I agree that the controls are a bit touchy. If you develop it further did you think about not spawning everything random but maybe in patterns where correctly done a fluid left to right movement allow you to collect many dots. Don´t know if this makes sense but maybe it is worth a try. Great entry and awesome voice-over.
johntherobot
04. Jan 2016 · 18:16 UTC
Fun game! Simple mechanic with good difficulty scaling!
OccamsRazor
04. Jan 2016 · 18:20 UTC
Oh man, this is the exact type of game, like Super Hexagon, that can keep me playing for hours! It's really cool, and takes a good amount of concentration. I especially liked how you added the sound cues when you grabbed a dot.

My only complaint was that the actual movement and controls felt a bit too...sticky, a little unresponsive I guess. But overall, great work!
amYk777
04. Jan 2016 · 20:28 UTC
Really nice. Maybe it's just because I suck, but I couldn't progress beyond the first level.
ChuiGum
04. Jan 2016 · 23:51 UTC
Loved the originality! Very innovative, and awesome music. Very simple too, and that's what I like about it. Could definitely see this on mobile devices! c:
gBouckaert
05. Jan 2016 · 00:57 UTC
Cool, very nice. I felt a little awkward with the controls when trying to do a full circle, but then I always do in games like that ... . It's a nice use of the themes, I like it!
nihilaleph
05. Jan 2016 · 01:51 UTC
Pro:
+ Great concept and mechanics
+ Nice graphics and music
Obs:
o Hard to master, but fun!

Great job!
Tanton-H2X
05. Jan 2016 · 03:06 UTC
Played and Voted ,but forget to comment!(so sorry!!was out for some temporary that day ToT)
in a scene,the feel of basic spirit/atmosphere and art-style are a true disciple of the previous entry~ but all of these were reached a breakthrough and build a new wonderful feeling!!(Zen+Synthetic-Voice+Minimalism) I this is really cool and so genius combination~!
little advice:
* if the tutorial-text set up a corresponding relationship with key-word and the color,may be more intuitive understanding?(for example ,buleball---> blue color text) , but this maybe also not necessary~XD because although i not remember clearly after i read the tutorial~ but when i paly it, i got the key-rules naturally~~XD
* in graphic, the shape's edge,seem little bit more sharpen,and when the circle getbig,it seem some pixelate,i feel it may influence the feeling, i think maybe some image-effect and get some bloom effect may let this style more great?(more soft less sharpen?) i am not sure ,and current is really great enough.
oh,just forgot,besides the Synthetic-voice,that design that hold left-key and right-key together to boom is really Cool!Love this very much!!!> <
Happy New Year
Cheers~