LudumData

Tama-Gotcha! by JasonD

[raw]
made by JasonD for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

You sneak out late at night to go play in the snow-blanketed fields of a neighboring farmstead. A streak of light fills the sky, impacting the ground some distance ahead. In the center of the crater there is a glowing shape.

After a time the light fades, revealing a strange, grub-like creature.

Naturally, you take it home.​ Better not let mom find out...

Grooble<em>2</em>Gobble_GIF.gif

A virtual pet / narrative adventure game about being a kid raising a mysterious alien creature in your bedroom. But don't draw too much attention from your parents, the local cops, or those shady guys in the Flowers By Irene van which has been parked down the street for the last couple of days...

Tama Gotcha Screenshots (small).png

Created by:

  • Andrew Trahan: https://twitter.com/andrewrtrahan
  • Briarwick: https://twitter.com/BriarwickArt
  • Fen Evetts: https://twitter.com/Fen_Evetts
  • Jason Davey: https://twitter.com/StrayBasilisk
  • Paul Sim: https://twitter.com/PaulSim_
  • PixelBradii: https://twitter.com/PixelBradii
  • Ryan "Syndicat" Holmes: https://soundcloud.com/syndicatdnb

If you enjoy this, you might also want to check out our main project, Steamhounds!

Youtube https://jasondavey.itch.io/tamagotcha
Youtube https://jasondavey.itch.io/tamagotcha
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/tama-gotcha

Ratings

Overall 910th 3.618⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1442th 3.221⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1147th 3.324⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1199th 3.676⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 446th 4.162⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Audio 452th 3.712⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 503th 3.5⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 354th 3.894⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 44🗨️

Feedback

pulkit garg
21. Apr 2020 · 04:05 UTC
The art style is amazing and the game looks absolutely beautiful.
Limabean0421
21. Apr 2020 · 04:06 UTC
My screen was very tiny but other than that I liked the graphics a lot and the sound effects were very fun!
WhatNameGames
21. Apr 2020 · 04:14 UTC
Art is great and the game has a nice sense of humour.
B. Golda
21. Apr 2020 · 04:25 UTC
Art is amazing, good sense of humor. Hard to know what to do, felt like I kept feeding and poking him till another dialog window came up which didn't seem to change anything. Felt like Squishy shoulda been called out way earlier than that! Hah, good fun though.
Nodlehs
21. Apr 2020 · 04:33 UTC
Love the amount of effort put into the sounds and art. The dialog was funny and entertaining. Felt like I was idling quite often just waiting for the next event though, so would have been fun to have a few more things to interact with our little friend.
welby
21. Apr 2020 · 04:38 UTC
I liked the story and the monster animations were really fun, but I think it was a little slow waiting for each story segment.
Courtmac
21. Apr 2020 · 04:52 UTC
I loved this! I very much enjoy the effort you guys put into this, the heat balancing system was very well thought out. I just wish i could drag the cherry over to the little guy instead of simply clicking it is all O.O
mehrdadsh
21. Apr 2020 · 14:33 UTC
this is a beautiful game. be proud of yourselfs. and the idea is amazing. reminded me of George r r Martin Short Story "SandKings".
ArcticMattekar
21. Apr 2020 · 14:40 UTC
Very cool game! I love the vibe :alien: I think I poke Edgar to much, but he is so cute :heart_eyes:

Good job :thumbsup:
🎤 JasonD
21. Apr 2020 · 15:06 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
LeoMartinez
21. Apr 2020 · 16:26 UTC
when the game was over it felt like a part of me was gone. Miss you Edgar
Welliton
21. Apr 2020 · 16:49 UTC
"You always loved your hamster!" haahah cool narrative/ pet game. It would be cooler if you had more things to do with the alien while waiting for the narrative ( I could only feed and pet him. Did i lost something here?). Art is awesome, and the narrative is cool. I was thinking about the narrative, and I saw that I can't trully do a role play answer, as I know that they are going to get my pet away from me.
It made me think about narratives. Great work!
🎤 JasonD
21. Apr 2020 · 17:49 UTC
@leomartinez Seems like "Edgar" is the most popular name choice so far =D

@welliton Agreed. There was definitely more stuff we would have added with more time. There are actually quite a few possible endings, depending on your choices.
sndr
21. Apr 2020 · 18:15 UTC
So charming! Pet games always win my heart, specially if they are dark! Hehehe

I love that on top of things you added some narrative. Just would've loved to be able to do a lot more with it while I was waiting for the days to pass. It was well fed, so wanted to do more things!

Oh, and the assets are gorgeous! Everything works very well together.
-banzi
21. Apr 2020 · 20:30 UTC
I love the main menu -> game transition. I liked the Stranger Things vibes. I think that having more things to interact with inside the cage would help to bridge the gaps between choices.

I also named him Edgar ;)
noirdrive
21. Apr 2020 · 21:24 UTC
I agree with the Stranger Things vibe. Nice artstyle. Love the way that the idea of Tamagotchi/pet game implemented in an alien narrative. Thank you! Steamhounds look pretty solid btw.
svdvorak
22. Apr 2020 · 14:38 UTC
Grooble is the way to go! Loved the game even though I wished there was more to do. Still, it had me hooked until the very end. I guess it's a good thing that I'll be first to be assimilated?
Excellent work!
darkfrost
22. Apr 2020 · 21:11 UTC
Absolutely loved this! Wasn't immediately obvious what the 3 categories were so it took 3 attempts before I finished it, but it was great! :heart:

Absolutely LOVED the mood in this, little grooble was adorable!

Only minor complaint was the lack of (unless I missed it) full screen button on the web player! which was really not a big issue, I ended up zooming the webpage in :)
DaltonLeavey
22. Apr 2020 · 22:13 UTC
Story is great. Music is creepy and helps set the tone. I found it a little loud but that's not a big deal. Art looks awesome too. Edgar's cage felt sort of empty. It'd be cool to have a few more things for him to play with. Awesome stuff!
vulgaris
23. Apr 2020 · 00:27 UTC
i struggled to keep grooble safe on my first attempts but i kept trying because i wanted to see all evolutions :D
loved the atmosphere and new take on tamagotchi mechanics, pretty cool!
niceden
23. Apr 2020 · 02:33 UTC
Art is great ! Congrats for making a pretty game like that in such a short amount of time :)
TolMera
23. Apr 2020 · 04:24 UTC
Damn now that's a polished looking game wow! Nice work @paulzz @cornilious @briarwick @pixelbradii @fen-evetts @syndicat @jasond I would love the hear a podcast or a youtube about how you managed to do so much together, it looks like your team was really well made and the game is great. I look forward to playing it to the end - I think I only got to lvl 2 on this round :)
🎤 JasonD
23. Apr 2020 · 11:38 UTC
Thanks for the feedback y'all!

And @tolmera, that would be really cool. Not sure if we have the time/resources to put something like that together, but will see if something can be done! Would also be interesting to have a few different teams do a little postmortem on their games...
Alex_ADEdge
23. Apr 2020 · 13:03 UTC
Love seeing a good narrative game. This one certainly kept my interest right to the end. Stupid FBI got me tho! Definetly going on that tamagotchi nostaliga. And the backdrops and pixel art were 5/5 easily.
Convg
23. Apr 2020 · 14:59 UTC
I love this game. The storytelling was great, as were the visuals. I had loads of fun playing it. Nice job!
Lyje
11. May 2020 · 13:14 UTC
Lovely writing, art and sound. Watching Edgar (the only correct name) develop is great!