Comedy Crusade by Gnarly Narwhal

[raw]
made by Gnarly Narwhal for Ludum Dare 45 (COMPO)

WARNING! THIS GAME IS NOT ACTUALLY COMEDIC OR HUMOROUS!

Play as the comedy mask and save the tragedy mask. Navigate through some super easy levels and reach the end at your leisure. There's really no challenge here.

Notes on the Theme: Yeah I know it doesn't really follow the theme. My thinking was you start in an empty platform world and you have to build up something. But I wasn't really sure how that was gonna work so it turned into this. Anyway rate me low on theme.

Alright a bit on the controls. It's kinda simple, but also kinda not.

Movement:
AD - Left/Right
W/Space - Jump

Block launching:
Left Click to launch a block in the direction of the mouse relative to the player. The velocity of the block at launch is affected by the velocity of the player. Once it's launched left click again to solidify the block.

Detonating blocks:
Right click on any block you've created to detonate it. You can even detonate the block you've currently launched without solidifying it first. When they blow up they launch the player and the currently launched block (assuming the block being detonated isn't the currently launched block) away from itself based on proximity. The closer to the center the farther you are launched.

Ratings

Given 6🗳️ 2🗨️

Feedback

gasgiant
08. Oct 2019 · 12:58 UTC
I like the idea! I would like to have the ability to solidify and explode the latest block without the nessesity to catch it with my mouse!
BarracudaDisaster
08. Oct 2019 · 13:05 UTC
A very nice take on the theme! The minimalistic grahics are coherent so that's nice. Sometimes I went through the blocks after solifying them, don't know if that's on purpose. Nevertheless it was fun to create your own path :D
Cfdj43
08. Oct 2019 · 13:14 UTC
Really nice looking game with interesting mechanics, the jump maybe feels a little stubby but I think that's mostly an animation thing?
🎤 Gnarly Narwhal
08. Oct 2019 · 14:14 UTC
@gasgiant yeah I wanted to include that but I listed that as a nice to have in the feature list, so unfortunately I didn't get around to adding it (even thought it would probably be pretty trivial).
🎤 Gnarly Narwhal
08. Oct 2019 · 14:16 UTC
@cfdj43 getting platformer controls to feel good is something I always struggle with, but am trying to get better at. Could you elaborate a little on what you meant by the jump feeling stubby? Sorry, I'm just a little confused by what this means.
🎤 Gnarly Narwhal
08. Oct 2019 · 14:17 UTC
@barracuda Hmm I'll have to look into that
Cfdj43
10. Oct 2019 · 14:52 UTC
@gnarly-narwhal so I think stubby was probably the wrong word to use, having looked again its maybe more to do with the animation than the jump arc/controls themselves? in this case there's no anticipation before the jump and no cool down after, which leads to the jump having a floaty feel, like the character isn't putting much effort into it?
WFMG
20. Oct 2019 · 00:37 UTC
It's a nice concept, though as you said, it needs to be worked on some more to be proper fun. It took me a while to figure out how to get to the next level, and I actually got to level 3, then I got tired of playing, honestly. There are some issues:

*The hitboxes of the boxes can be rather inconsistent.

The way their physics work, when they stop, why, and how they'll get launched, are all a bit unclear. To be clear, I put the boxes in the pit in the first level in order to get across, building an incomplete bridge. I don't know if that was intended or not, but the blocks stop, seemingly randomly, at various points in this pit.

There wasn't any direction inside the game to tell me what to do. For a full game, of course, the first level at the very least, must really hold the player's hand in most games.*

**END OF ISSUES**

I really like the kinds of games where you construct your own path, create things yourself to move forward, and don't just jump. I like the visuals. It's very simply, and the high contrast can hurt your eyes when you're playing at 2:30 AM like I was, but on the whole, the graphics are nice and could definitely be something iconic to you if you so desire. I don't know if you're a really talented artist when it comes to detailed work or not, so maybe this style is too simple for you to associate yourself with.

Conclusion: Have more confidence in yourself, your abilities, and your games! Not only is it appropriate, but it is the only way of progressing and getting somewhere in your career, your skills, your life in general. This is a good game, or at the very least, a good base of one. Good night, gamer!