Pacman's Dream by Danielcmcg

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

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Welcome to one of Pacman's adventure in his own dream land, while kept alive, as a legend it is, in the collective consciousness.

Unfortunate I didn't implement any in game instructions, so I kindly ask you to read the instructions so you can try to minimally explore the Pacman's Dream.

LD46-KeepItAlive5.gif

LD46-KeepItAlive3.gif

Thank you all in advance and I would love to know your thoughts and interpretations on it.

INSTRUCTIONS: This is a symbolical short game that explores the dreaming world of a digital game kept alive by the collective consciousness.

Objective: - To keep alive and gain experience.

Rules: - Walking through the Red enemies will make you lose health; - Collect the Orange leafs to gain health and a dash bubble; - Dashing trough the Red enemies to gain experience.

Mechanic: - Movement is continuous and player changes direction based on the arrows; - You can change the arrow direction when it is Yellow by swiping the left mouse button clicked (or one finger) to the desired direction; - You can dash by swiinge with right mouse button clicked (or two fingers).

Log: - too big for mobile - Quality seems pretty bad in the WebGL build. - [postmortem] Small adjustments to make the game playable: Reduced the amount of arrows and changed some corridors - [postmortem] Fixed not detecting arrow in front when another object was between the player and the arrow - [postmortem] Fixed life going over the maximum

Comments:

spoilers

  • It's possible to beat the game
  • Om in the middle turn Red indicating experience
  • Yellow bubles indicate possibility of using dash
  • Pinkish background indicates life
  • There are seven levels/difficulties

Postmortem: Had some great learning in this Jam, not only about managing time, but also managing ideas. I decided to pivot from the initial idea in the middle of the Jam and had nothing in mind. But well, it’s a Jam, have fun, so I kept going until something playable came up. In the end, Pacman’s Dream is the result of keeping the Jam alive and coding without a clear goal. Even though I’m not really happy with it, I’m thankful at least have something to share that has some meaningful symbols.

Ratings

Overall 2180th 3⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 2254th 2.696⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1762th 3⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 2505th 2.326⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 10🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

Sanjana
22. Apr 2020 · 00:03 UTC
This is really fun! I would love it if there was a mobile version of it to play.
angelina
22. Apr 2020 · 00:35 UTC
Fun game. Really like the changing direction with arrows.
Defenestration
22. Apr 2020 · 00:47 UTC
i don't understand it
mungobulge
22. Apr 2020 · 00:49 UTC
Some honest work. Would be nice if it was more colorful. Maybe pickup a palette on a generator. Nice game overall
Heho
22. Apr 2020 · 00:55 UTC
well done, the controls seem to be a bit off at times, but the general art direction is really nice
KeepingHimAlive
22. Apr 2020 · 00:57 UTC
nice take on a classic, it was not to clear what was going on without reading the instructions, though.
David Knox
22. Apr 2020 · 00:58 UTC
Interesting control scheme! I think there's a cool foundation here for something which could grow into much more.
🎤 Danielcmcg
22. Apr 2020 · 12:23 UTC
Thank you all for the comments so far, really appreciate the feedback.
Every one of them is a great tip and I'll try my best to incorporate them later.

For the jam time it was what happened to be ^^
gamepopper
22. Apr 2020 · 15:19 UTC
Interesting control scheme.
RedDashGames
22. Apr 2020 · 18:25 UTC
Its a good take on a classic game only probblem is it kinda feels quite simplistic everything kinda simplistic and lacks depth. also could do with a good tutorial at the start of the game.

With a bit more polish and a fresh coat of paint this could be a pritty fun little arcadey maze game. good job.
gonutz
22. Apr 2020 · 19:27 UTC
Why did you not opt out of the Audio category? You only have a bell at the beginning or is there more that I am missing?

The graphics are nice and the dashing animation is well done.

The biggest problem is that I don't know what to do. I read your text eventually but still found it a bit confusing. I eventually was able to gain one bell ring and a 1 appeared on the left. Then the screen started turning red from the bottom up. I am lost as to what all this means. The mechanics are very unclear and that usually hurts gameplay.

The controls are strange, I figured out at the end that you swipe right to dash, I was just clicking. You should have made that clear in your text.

Overall a good start for a game but it feels unfinished to me. Which is of course totally fine, it's LD and you don't have that much time :-)

Keep up the good work, I am excited to see what you will be able to do in your next LD! :-)
🎤 Danielcmcg
22. Apr 2020 · 19:44 UTC
Thank you for the feedback, @gonutz. And about the Audio, Fuuuuuuuck!!! It was unintentional, I opted out the wrong category, I was frustrated and tired at the end and didn't see it.
PonyPen
22. Apr 2020 · 20:01 UTC
An interesting take on a classic, I like it but I would like to see more colour. :)
gonutz
22. Apr 2020 · 20:36 UTC
Oh I see, no problem - we all know the feeling. 2 minutes to upload your game, servers taking long, you being over your boiling point sleep-wise. Don't we know it all! :-D
Starlight Glimmer is best poney
22. Apr 2020 · 20:40 UTC
Something other commenters haven't addressed yet is that if you flip the button while the character is on top of it, it will still move in the old direction.
kjscott
29. Apr 2020 · 09:07 UTC
Sometimes game over felt sudden and arbitrary, I wasn't able to discern the rules for that based off visual cues or in game actions so I was left a little confused. I was eventually able to figure out the dashing mechanics based on your description and playing around in game. I think I got to like level 4 before I finally succumbed to whatever made me lose.

Not a bad little game, quite enjoyable but definitely some extra in game explanation of what's going on would help but I managed to piece together most of what I needed to in order to play.
JoaoG
09. May 2020 · 10:57 UTC
I liked the mechanics of this game, the graphics are very good. I just missed some audio background. The game can get a little tiring. I admit it was a little confusing for me, but it's a really fun game.
AstrosBoy15
12. May 2020 · 02:01 UTC
I like the concept and mechanics of the game. I think toward the end it became too difficult to avoid the enemies and collect orange leaves, but otherwise it was a fun game. Nice job!
JUSTCAMH
12. May 2020 · 09:38 UTC
It was a cool game, but it was tough to understand what was going on. I think you could've made the score go up for every enemy you kill rather than for every ~5, that way you'd get immediate feedback that what you did was good. I don't think there was any indicator for player health, and it wasn't obvious that enemies killed you. The leaves were obviously important, but without reading the description, you couldn't know why they were important or what they did. Otherwise though, once I had some grasp over what was happening, the game was pretty great, I like the method of movement and it was challenging in later levels. From your post mortem, it sounds like its been a hectic experience, and I'd say you've done great to pull this together. With better indicators and/or tutorialisation, I could see this game going somewhere! :heart: