The Circles of Purrgatory by sevkron

[raw]
made by sevkron for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

All dogs go to heaven, does that mean all cats go to...? :scream_cat:

Anyways welcome to your first day as a desk-worker in Purrgatory, the bad place for bad cats :cryingcatface:. Over the course of a couple of levels learn how to fill the forms of new arrivals and identify quickly what circle of purrgatory shall await them.

Did they ask for too much wet food? Did they not appreciate their owners enough? You decide!

CaptureGame.JPG

This is a very silly physics-based game, the type I like to play. I was very much inspired by a mix of Dante's Inferno and Death and Taxes. It's pretty short and the controls are meant to make things feel hectic, not frustrating. In the game you'll have plenty of time to get used to the controls though.

Plus this is my first true solo game jam. See you all very soon!

Tools Used: Unity, Photoshop, Maya, MusicMaker, Audacity

Ratings

Overall 161th 3.821⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 271th 3.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 262th 3.571⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 645th 3.232⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 140th 4⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 98th 3.857⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 20th 4.179⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 229th 3.648⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 42🗨️

Feedback

iorena
26. Apr 2021 · 13:02 UTC
Wow this looks and sounds great! Love the "meow meow" dialog sounds, very funny. Concept is also great. Gameplay was just too hard, papers came in too fast, I could barely read the old ones before another dropped on top. The checkboxes were also hard to hit, which didn't help my speed. I'd really like to play this through with a slighty slower pace, now it was just frustrating!
GarethTheDestro
26. Apr 2021 · 13:07 UTC
Lol, this is great and made me laugh. Having the paper work pile up was a really great spin on the theme. The sound is ammmaazzing, I loved it so much. Great stuff :smiley_cat:
Hruhf
26. Apr 2021 · 13:14 UTC
Hahaha, this was good fun to play.
Day 2 was very hectic, you really nailed that chaotic feel. Managed to beat it after a few attempts though, the reward was good.
almgru
26. Apr 2021 · 13:20 UTC
Fun concept! I thought the difficulty was just right, took me about 3 tries to complete the second day. I liked that you got overwhelmed by work, I think it fit the setting of the game well. Loved the "meow" sounds!
🎤 sevkron
26. Apr 2021 · 13:30 UTC
@iorena I definetly had some trouble getting the difficulty just right. Spawn values, canvas sizes and all that :dizzy_face:. Thanks for the feedback!
🎤 sevkron
26. Apr 2021 · 13:32 UTC
@pohko Thanks, I was worried my idea for the theme would get lost in the sauce. I see that it wasn't :smile_cat:!
🎤 sevkron
26. Apr 2021 · 13:34 UTC
@hruhf That reward is how I know who the completionists are. Thanks and conscratches for completing the game!
🎤 sevkron
26. Apr 2021 · 13:37 UTC
@almgru I worked hard on those meows. Well done for the completing that second day!
vegmuffin
26. Apr 2021 · 14:02 UTC
Oh this reminds me of papers please from some other gamejam :D I was getting distracted, jamming to the music
🎤 sevkron
26. Apr 2021 · 14:09 UTC
@vegmuffin What can I say? I'm a big fan of Lucas Pope ^^. Thanks, I had a fun time making the music, all 3 minutes of it.
tomz_best
26. Apr 2021 · 17:41 UTC
fun game!!!
Douwe_Ravers
26. Apr 2021 · 20:46 UTC
I like the theme you set. It's very clever.
mrnyarlathotep
27. Apr 2021 · 14:07 UTC
Very complete for a Compo entry - some minor bugs, and I wasn't really sure what the criteria for anything other than limbo meant, so I ended up just ignoring any cats that had owners which seems like a successful strat?
Remus Rain
27. Apr 2021 · 14:12 UTC
Hey there! Thanks for playing our game and for the nice feedback. I really enjoyed playing your game. Great music, great atmosphere and now I'm really good at labelling cats :D I felt like I had a really good go on day two but then I still got fired :O The grabbing mechanic is really satisfying. Great work
LDJam user 237913
27. Apr 2021 · 14:24 UTC
Meow meow. Meow. Meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow MEOW! Meow me'ow meow meow, meow meow meow. MOL
(So awesome. Hilarious. Really enjoyed it. Sound and music were AMAZING! People don't leave jobs, they leave bosses. Meow Out Loud. )
Thanks for making this!
AfroAnt
27. Apr 2021 · 14:38 UTC
Great world-building, and awesome music! It was sometimes difficult to drop the papers off the table. The difficulty of the second level made me not look forward to the rest of the game, but I was relieved when I saw the next part! :cat:
🎤 sevkron
27. Apr 2021 · 15:19 UTC
@mrnyarlathotep The idea is that you have to read the other information on the form (likes, dislikes and cause of death) to find out if they were too needy or obsessed with food. But hey, glad you found a strat that worked, thanks for playing!
🎤 sevkron
27. Apr 2021 · 15:21 UTC
@afroant I would definitely rebalance that last level before adding all 9 circles of purrgatory into the game like I originally intended. Conscratches for completing it!
🎤 sevkron
27. Apr 2021 · 15:23 UTC
@doc-kaos Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow! (Thanks for playing and for the kind words! )
🎤 sevkron
27. Apr 2021 · 15:29 UTC
@remus-rain Hello, glad you enjoyed my game as much as I enjoyed yours ^^.
Eugenik
27. Apr 2021 · 19:49 UTC
That's amazing!.
CrocodileTuesday
28. Apr 2021 · 02:41 UTC
I'm a sucker for UIs that are integrated into the gameplay itself, so I already knew I was going to love this game, but I didn't expect all of the other fun touches that made this game better! I especially love that you push your paperwork off your desk, in typical cat fashion. Great job!
pnkvrt
29. Apr 2021 · 16:36 UTC
I keep getting fired :D. I'm too slow at this type of game. The music is fun, the concept is interesting. I would maybe make the tutorial a bit shorter and possibly the check boxes slightly bigger. Sometimes when I click it doesn't leave a signature. Fun game! Overall well done!
🎤 sevkron
01. May 2021 · 16:34 UTC
@pnkvrt I think I might try implementing a more progressive difficulty system, to try to balance things out. Thanks for playing!
Wolfier
04. May 2021 · 18:48 UTC
First off, you need to take a lesson in cat pawns, you can't have a cat focused game and NOT have cat pawns. I'd definitely recommending checking out cat's quest for that.

and now that i've gotten the important matter out of the way...

My main issue I was having was that the text didn't make it obvious which circle the cat was supposed to go to. Like there were several cats that didn't really qualify for any of the categories by their description. So the most obvious thing would be to put them in limbo except they have owners which lands them in needy even though they weren't.

The only other criticism I had was that your arm was 2d while everything else was 3d.

And I'm all out of critiques, the game is really good except that one problem. Get cat puns, its the most important thing here!
Pikatchum
04. May 2021 · 22:27 UTC
It is really cool that we can choose to play the game in english or in french, I really like your puns, it feels natural! Each cat file is really fun too.
Great concept, I totally love it. I wish we could play longer!
🎤 sevkron
06. May 2021 · 09:15 UTC
@wolfier I've never played Cat's Quest, I'll check it out sometime !

I take it you didn't get to try the second day ? The logic for which circle a cat needs to go to is pretty much :
- No owner = Limbo
- Wanting too much affection or claiming to not have enough = Needy
- Eating/Drinking excessively or being fussy over food = Gourmand
- Liking and paticipating in violence or being agressive = Mean
- Wanting to leave owner or not appreciating owner = Disloyal

The idea of having the arm in 2D was to use it as the player's mouse since it interacts with UI elements. Plus my 3D modeling skills are pretty basic. Thanks for playing !
🎤 sevkron
06. May 2021 · 09:22 UTC
@pikatchum I'd love to have even more fellow French-speakers try the game ^^. Thanks for the kind words. While reworking on it I got ideas for adding more levels, circles, difficulties and an economy system. Perhaps there will be more to play at a later date ?
Conscratches on finishing the game !
Wolfier
06. May 2021 · 16:22 UTC
@sevkron

I did do the second day, its just a few of them felt kinda like they fit no category because of that no owner thing.
Chillen
06. May 2021 · 21:25 UTC
Playing the LD version. All right, so just putting it out there, I haven't started playing yet because I just keep bobbing the paw around and dancing to the music. Quite fun! I'd say in something like this, the core interaction should feel pretty good because everything else is intentionally clunky. Maybe snap the pencil to a box when it gets near it? Another usability angle would be to add some acceleration drift when the player is throwing a paper upwards/downwards so that it flies off the desk (maybe not when it's unfilled out). That way they don't get stuck swiping upward over and over again to make it fall of the ledge, but it's a bit more "saying yes" to the player's interaction and just throwing it off. I'd say the tippytappy works for the metaphor, but with so much going on that's one fewer thing worth paying attention to.

I think the only real design feedback I could give is to maybe have a screen that showcases which applications were correct and which weren't (I played pretty hastily, so I'm not sure if this was detailed in any other way). One issue that can come up in these kinds of games is that you aren't *totally* positive if you misclicked, misread, or misinterpretted. Having something to make it clear (even just between days) if it was a misclick, hasty click, or you misunderstood that a description implied an option would be great (eg. in Papers Please, each incorrect filing immediately pops up telling you that it was incorrect).

Quite fun, well implemented!
fueelin
07. May 2021 · 21:29 UTC
Great idea, audio, and mood, but too fast-paced and hectic to get very far. Would recommend a little tuning, but the idea is really good and it has a lot of nice aspects. Good job!
Dan McAlister
08. May 2021 · 22:30 UTC
I love it! I thought the physics stuff would make the sorting feel diluted, but instead it just emphasized the clutter and chaos of the office. Great work!
🎤 sevkron
09. May 2021 · 18:44 UTC
@chillen Glad you enjoyed the music, it was my first try at making my own music for a game.

I didn't have time to iterate much on the kinetic feel of the physics in this version. Having the objects really inherit the force of the player's hand is a cool idea. I'm a bit less sure about having the pen snap onto the checkboxes, I did at least make them about 2x larger in the Post LD version.

I can tell you that there is a counter on the top right of the screen which shows you the amount you have gotten correct. It probably should be accompanied with another type of feedback saying when you got one right. You do receive a Demerit message when you get one wrong, it appears on your desk, but actually mentioning what exactly you got wrong would eliminate a lot of guess work for the players.

Thanks for the more in depth feedback and for playing !
🎤 sevkron
09. May 2021 · 18:46 UTC
@fueelin I hope you got to try the Post LD version afterwards, where I tried to rebalance the levels a bit better ^^. Thanks for playing !
🎤 sevkron
09. May 2021 · 18:50 UTC
@dan-mcalister Thanks ! I appreciate you getting the general "vibe" of my game.
Shigor
09. May 2021 · 18:57 UTC
Lovely weird :D
I gave up after a while during the second day - a bit too annoying to deal with that falling stuff while I'm trying to guess what does this kitty deserve, but it fits the game.
I had a lot of trouble at first with throwing cards from the table because I was trying the bottom edge before I realized I can do it more easily by pushing it up.
icefallgames
10. May 2021 · 22:18 UTC
What an unusual game! Very different. I found it pretty difficult after the first day. I think the way my brain works makes it very difficult to consider what judgement to use while all the distractions are happening. If you meant it to be stressful, it worked :-). Also, love the music and sound effects.
Suchista
15. May 2021 · 11:25 UTC
It's a very well made game :) A bit too difficult for me, I got stuck in the second level. I like the whole execution, the art, music, story and the little decorations like cups or fish. Clicking on stuff doesn't always work, but I suppose it's within the concept. Good job overall!
🎤 sevkron
15. May 2021 · 15:37 UTC
@suchista Thanks ^^, it was my first try at the LD compo so I'm already glad to have a end result that's complete enough, ignoring the difficulty balance. I think the problem with clicking on stuff is due to the fact that it only takes into account where the "true" position of the mouse cursor is, the hand you control is much larger thant that so it maybe what is causing confusion.
conrad123
15. May 2021 · 22:34 UTC
Love this idea! A little difficult to be fair, but I got a good laugh for sure. It took me a while to get a hang of the controls; I should pay attention to the text on the itch.io page, but you might want to change the font color so it's a little more enticing as well! I struggled to grab some of the papers when they fell on objects but once I got them flat, the marking controls felt really great. Definitely one of the better Compo entries I've played so far, good work!