Poltergeist for Hire by JudJudson
Being a good butler comes with a certain code of conduct. Get jobs done quickly, to the letter, and before your physical form dissolves into the realm from which you came. Never complain, and above all always come when summoned. Only an amateur would let dimensional barriers or a "conventional understanding of physics" stop them from upholding this noble creed. And you are anything but an amateur.
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/$386339 |
EDIT: I have the assets and a build is in the works! Loyal fans, stay tuned! O7
SECOND EDIT: The build I uploaded this morning has the new sounds! I just forgor to update this comment again lol
I know this is always the hard part with jams, but I wish there were a couple more tasks, or maybe a second or third list with a few tasks on it!
Was able to block the butter behind the bowl but I put some poison instead. Worked well...
The animation are greats and the sound is cool.
*grabs jar and chucks it* "Check"
- Remove cookies
*grabs tray and leaves all the cookies in the oven.. then struggles pulling them out one at a time until realizing there's a hidden banana inside the oven* ".. check"
Fun stuff! :P
I really think the joke landed well! First couple of second I started picking items of the kitchen counter and looking around for a trashcan. Then I saw the "quest" picking cookies out of the oven, accidentally flung them everywhere and then realised poltergeist is in the title and this is what I'm meant to be doing :D As noted above it makes a quite short experience. It would have been nice to wreak havoc over to whole kitchen and then get some sort of before and after view before being sent to the credits.
That said, well done getting it to they state it is in. Not the easiest game to make in three days, you did well just getting it to work! The game is polished enough that the player understands the idea of the game!
I was amused by the idea)
I like kinectetic vibe by grabing some stuff and throwing it away )
Like the tasks, wanna more )
So many little details for 72 hours, you did great lob )
I think the FOV could be reduced a bit, I felt very far away from things I was grabbing, otherwise everything felt tight and satisfying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvw31U45lSg
With a nice potential of exploitation and a small improvement of the gameplay (some objects can block or disappear), it would be cool!
Still, you've done a great job!
You have a cool sandbox and as other said there is potential for more gameplay !
I'd love to see more content in this little world. It feels like the beginning of something deeper.
The task list was short but over the course of the jam we realized we were having fun just ruining the environment so we emphasized the environment. I still get distracted when I come back to play the game, lol. If I had to change something, I honestly think I'd obfuscate the tasks *more*. I want people to have to respond to the game's systems with flippancy and mischief - making the objectives clear cut seems to have lead a lot of people to beeline the objectives and go "oh game's over that was short."
We're likely going to expand this game in the future, since we built it to be scalable. My priorities are probably more interactive objectives (responses to using poison in the mixing bowl, needing to put the full mixing bowl in the oven, laying the table with a very loose definition of cutlery and plates, etc.) and more natural controls (the ability to push and pull objects while holding them, rotating them, things breaking far less when you're just pulling them off of shelves). I'm not sure a long list of objectives is what makes this kind of game good, so much as active and responsive objectives.
Tl;Dr - I want the objectives to be hidden so people are experimental in trying to find them.
There is still pre-spawned poison, though. What can I say, some people stock marmite in their home.
It seemed you have implemented quite a deep system (with the spawning of different items), and the goal didn't require you to utilize part of it as much. It's a jam with a deadline, so that's completely fair. But it shows you have something to expand upon, as the system is already there.
Great job!
There were a couple of issues with the mouse leaving the main game window, for example when opened the summoning wheel. I guess these are more related to Unity web-app.
I initially had some trouble getting ingredients to land in the bowl (it felt like the objects i threw at the bowl wanted to get stuck behind it instead of go into it). Eventually I found that standing on the open oven door greatly increased the chances of things going into the bowl though -- maybe it was the angle from above.
I think my second ingredient was the jar of pickles? My third ingredient shattered the pickle jar which i can only guess caused the individual pickles to come out and count as the 4th and 5th items because that suddenly checked off the "put ingredients in the bowl" task. It also checked off the "open the pickle jar" task and seemed to trigger a win. Felt like a fun bit of emergent consequence lol.
I liked the music ramping up as goals were met, as well, that was a nice touch!