HOMUNCULUS by headchant

[raw]
made by headchant for LD33 (COMPO)
profound transmute homunculus chain change

Ratings

Coolness 81% 2
Overall 3.79 85
Audio 4.00 29
Fun 3.57 141
Graphics 3.81 156
Humor 2.13 710
Innovation 4.22 18
Mood 3.95 42
Theme 2.80 779

Feedback

HolyBlackCat
24. Aug 2015 · 09:54 UTC
Looks nice, but I can't understand what's going on. :D A tutorial would be nice.
bodsey
24. Aug 2015 · 10:03 UTC
I've no idea what I'm doing, but I love the graphics and the ambiance
uthamon
24. Aug 2015 · 10:07 UTC
Aesthetically pleasing experimental art game. I don't understand yet what exactly is happenening in front my eyes, but I don't want to stop looking.
madmaw
24. Aug 2015 · 10:11 UTC
OK, I still can't hurt the warden, but here's some things I worked out

1. You reveal elements by clicking on the blocks
2. You can chain elements *-**-* to collect arum
3. Once you close a chain, you can buy spells (bottom right) with the arum
Dasginger
24. Aug 2015 · 10:15 UTC
Absolutely fantastic entry! It took me a bit of time to get my head around what I was doing, but it's really clever! The deforming portraits were a great touch too, really creepy.
K1llercake
24. Aug 2015 · 11:03 UTC
I actually understood the game, but tutorial would help and also triangles don't spawn enough
colozz
24. Aug 2015 · 11:15 UTC
I wrote "sudo apt-get install love"
Thank you for that.
Your game is extraordinary, a very good mood from it, good audio also
GhostBomb
24. Aug 2015 · 11:20 UTC
I love the exceptionally odd little games like this that come up every Ludum Dare. Managed to figure it out pretty quick actually.
Insality
24. Aug 2015 · 11:28 UTC
Absolutely fantastic entry! [2]
First impressions: WTF? what im doing here?
after 2-3 times im understanding rules (by reading comments) and lost sense of time
great entry!
DesignerNap
24. Aug 2015 · 11:32 UTC
Love the style and tone of this. Also great audio. Impressed
LewisChaplin
24. Aug 2015 · 11:38 UTC
That is a awesome game!!! all seemed to come together just brilliant!
NikinCZ
24. Aug 2015 · 11:39 UTC
You. You are first person I gave 5* rating this year. Overall, innovation, gfx, sfx and mood. 4* in fun and theme. N/a in humor.

It took me about 10 minutes to understand mechanics. Tutorial would be really great.
- You are 'My' on the right and 'Warden' on the left is your enemy (NPC). It might be a little bit confusing, but you have to deal with it.
- On the bottom, there is your transmutation circle. Top ('chips') are your lifes, bottom-left (triangles) are attack and bottom-right are money. On the left under name of enemy is count of his own lifes and attacks.
- When you click on tiles on top, they will reveal something. Chips and triangles are simply collected by clicking on them, while chains are more difficult.
- To collect chains (•) aka money, click first on •- tile. Then collect -••- and -•••- tiles for extra money and end chain by collecting -• tile.
- To attack, collect triangle tiles and then click on bottom-left circle of transmutation circle (one of the 3 smaller circles). This will decrease Warden's lifes.
- When all tiles are deprived, tiles will regain and give big amount of triangles to player who collected the last tile.
NikinCZ
24. Aug 2015 · 11:59 UTC
Managed to defeat second enemy (Dorben). Seems like developer wasn't ready for fact that someone may finish the game. After defeating of Dorben, his name is kept and health stays at 0 (-1, -2... for each next time you defeat him). But again, it's really great! This needs post-compo version with multiplayer!
ccglp
24. Aug 2015 · 13:25 UTC
So weird, but in fact, this is a clever game
EmanP
24. Aug 2015 · 16:43 UTC
Sometimes the random lines of the faces would cover up the entire screen until I clicked on a random keystone. Not a very nice glitch :/
kingpirux
24. Aug 2015 · 17:08 UTC
intresting, it take a little time to understand what is going on, at the end the game is a "find the triangle" race. Maybe with more "effects" could become a very cool board game.
conormn
24. Aug 2015 · 18:16 UTC
No clue what's going on or how it relates to the theme, but I loved every second trying to figure it out.
t4u
24. Aug 2015 · 19:07 UTC
I don't understnad it. Cool logo at the begining though. And nice music.
Andrew
25. Aug 2015 · 13:54 UTC
This was a ton of fun to play through. One thing I didn't figure out is if the color of the squares at the top is relevant.
Caspila
25. Aug 2015 · 20:23 UTC
I bet I'd have lot's of fun if I could only get what's happening there!
Mood, gfx and audio are spot on. I see some people have deciphered your game but it would be nice to have instructions. At least here in the description.

Good job nonetheless!
Lancelot Gao
26. Aug 2015 · 02:20 UTC
Need to add teaching better, but like visual style!
Geckoo1337
26. Aug 2015 · 04:59 UTC
I've no idea what I'm doing, but I love the aesthetic and mood. Need a tutorial or some explanation ++
nassi
26. Aug 2015 · 17:06 UTC
The obscure gameplay really added to the mood of the game. Would've loved to play more but ran into the problem mentioned by @NikinCZ.

My only complaint is that once you figure out the mechanics it gets too easy. Just wait for enough triangles until you can kill the enemy in one turn. Maybe using triangles and "spells" should also count as an action, or at least part of an action?

Solid entry though, good job!
bloomingbuds
26. Aug 2015 · 17:09 UTC
I really like the concept and how it induces you in a kind of relax state...I dont't know. Simply, a really good game. As a negativa point...it's unclear why the color of squares.
TackoramaLtd
28. Aug 2015 · 19:14 UTC
Very atmospheric and intense. The disorting portraits are good and the music is great. A tutorial wouldn't go a miss.
Mach60KAS
28. Aug 2015 · 23:34 UTC
Confusing and odd at first, after messing around I slowly gained a feel for the mechanics. I love discovering things on my own - and that the mechanics stand so strongly made it so much sweeter when it all clicked. I don't see how it relates to the theme, but I love the title music, the ambiance, the graphical style. Very innovative - great work!
guoboism
01. Sep 2015 · 08:54 UTC
Nice strategy board game! Had to read comment below to play. But worth the while! Great game!
Erkberg
02. Sep 2015 · 14:27 UTC
Really interesting game. It took me quite some time to figure it out, but I guess that's part of its appeal. The mood created through the strange visuals and mysterious soundscape is great. Gameplay-wise it could be really interesting against another player, the AI was pretty easy to beat. Figuring out what is actually going on was fun though.
Overall, a very strange, but somehow beautiful and definitely interesting game.
wooltech
04. Sep 2015 · 22:01 UTC
Looks and sounds wonderful. The main gamplay seems to be figuring out what the rules are. Once you understand it's mainly luck in revealing triangles and making sure you dont end by revealing a new tile as that may give the enemy a triangle staight away.

Odd bug though - the first enemy had 5 life, the next 10, and then the third enemy had 0 life, the next three had -1, the next had -2.
Drauthius
04. Sep 2015 · 22:47 UTC
NikinCZ explanation helped a lot. Visual and audio was very nice.
BUNN1E5
04. Sep 2015 · 23:13 UTC
Absolutely loved it! Though i couldn't really understand the story behind it.
spotco
05. Sep 2015 · 01:49 UTC
Interesting game. Played for a while and still not 100% understanding everything (not sure when/why your turn ends). Something about it compelled me to keep playing though, and eventually ended up facing 0-health enemies.
Shaun LeBron
05. Sep 2015 · 03:39 UTC
beautiful experience. really great music at the title. audio throughout is great. gameplay was fun to learn.

I read the source code to answer some questions...

1. The warden doesn't earn money. He earns a triangle for every dot in his completed chain. (no wonder he was killing me!)
2. mutation of the heads doesn't seem to indicate anything (just a random fraction of game duration)
JackDegree
05. Sep 2015 · 07:30 UTC
Wow.
abcdef65g
08. Sep 2015 · 22:23 UTC
Easily one of the best games in this Ludum, this is a completely new design, hard to believe it was done in time for the Compo. Awesome design, with some information on how to play frankly this could grow to a rather awesome commercial game. I would definitely be in the line to buy it myself.
freaknarf
09. Sep 2015 · 11:29 UTC
Ouch, that was weird :) i had to launch the game several times before i understood how to play, even after reading comments it was somehow hard to get...
I guess this is part of the game to let the player understand what to do, but it was really bit abrupt. Otherwise it was pleasant to discover mechanics, visual and atmosphere make it look quite occult. Cool and bizare experiment.
Dining Philosopher
13. Sep 2015 · 18:23 UTC
Very good entry! As others said, figuring out to do took a while. Once I got stuck at Dorben, there wouldn't appear any new tiles after I clicked the last one.
Nice audio and graphics. Well done. :)
Jupiter_Hadley
14. Sep 2015 · 15:36 UTC
Interesting entry! I included it in part 31 of my Ludum Dare 33 Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/rsAmrwtnu-0
Kerdelos
14. Sep 2015 · 20:23 UTC
Thanks the comments I was able to grasp the game concept and see that it was much deeper than what I thought at first. Once you know the rules I do have to say that the audio feedback is well done. Maybe some way to buy triangles would be a great add to the game.