LudumData

KindergARTen by benskca

[raw]
made by benskca for Ludum Dare 51 (COMPO)

Play in browser now:

https://benskca.itch.io/kindergarten

demo2small.gif

It's your first day at a prestigious kindergarten for gifted toddlers who've shown exceptional talent in art. The pressure's on, and your teacher has some unconventional methods...

In KindergARTen you are presented with a painting every 10 seconds. You have to do your best to copy the painting you've been shown before time runs out and the next painting arrives. Nothing less than perfection is expected - do you have what it takes?

The game is controlled entirely with the mouse. There is an in-game tutorial that plays on start-up to help you get the hang of the controls. Enjoy!

demo1edited.gif

Tools used: - Unity - Paint.net - Audacity - Beepbox

Bugfix 3/10/22: Game-over screen try again message has been corrected.

Web build https://benskca.itch.io/kindergarten
Source code https://www.dropbox.com/s/qt4v95s62j1a9t5/LD51.zip?dl=0
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/kindergarten

Ratings

Overall 50th 3.987⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 40th 3.987⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 24th 4.079⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 61th 4.105⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 115th 3.842⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 101th 3.635⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 28th 3.868⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 103th 3.639⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 33🗨️

Feedback

AnxiousGameDev
03. Oct 2022 · 08:55 UTC
This is a really great use of the theme. I enjoyed being a prestigious preschooler making finger paintings and the visuals come together perfectly for the game. Only thing I would change is to be more lenient with the scoring, but have harder drawings. I had the most fun trying to draw something like the crab, because the 10s timer is relevant. With a lot of the drawings, eg blue square, I found the timer to be irrelevant, even when I was being slow and careful. Also you shouldn't be able to get the same painting twice in a row. Overall great job on this!
🎤 benskca
03. Oct 2022 · 11:22 UTC
@anxiousgamedev thank you, glad you had fun! The paintings get more complex through the run, so I think what you're seeing with some of the drawings being too simple is that I made the early pools of paintings too easy. I really had no idea how hard people would find the drawing so this is extremely useful feedback :sweat_smile:. A check to prevent immediate repeats is a really good idea too, thanks!
greenphox
03. Oct 2022 · 13:40 UTC
nice game! I enjoyed it very much, simple but challenging. I tried to cheat by not making the whole painting or tried to make the same but with intentional small changes ;) but it didn't work :( Nice game, well done!
🎤 benskca
03. Oct 2022 · 15:35 UTC
@greenphox glad you enjoyed it! It's good to know the comparison algorithm's working as intended hahahaha
Developer On Trip
03. Oct 2022 · 16:29 UTC
Very Very Cool!!. I hope this video help you:
https://youtu.be/hfMk-kjRv4c
🎤 benskca
03. Oct 2022 · 16:39 UTC
@developer-on-trip I love Sebastian Lague, all his videos are so good! My first idea for the image recognition was going to be through machine learning but I didn't think there would be enough time in a game jam to get a well trained model working, so I went with a less flashy comparison algorithm in the end.
Xorel
03. Oct 2022 · 17:24 UTC
This is a super cute idea! Great visuals for it and 'story', I have to say I think I'm a better finger painter in your game than I am in real life, even then I felt fear for being expelled! Exquisite! (and top notch voice acting)
snesgaard
03. Oct 2022 · 18:14 UTC
Super creative concept! Loved it. Was pretty hard for me to pass the tutorial, but that's probably a me problem.
rolferm
03. Oct 2022 · 18:24 UTC
Really hard, but nice game!
Turquoise Moon
03. Oct 2022 · 19:28 UTC
It's really fun! It works well on an iPad. It seemed easier with a touch screen; I was never able to get that bridge one though.
Ani
03. Oct 2022 · 21:05 UTC
I've always liked a good drawing game :) This one's cute too!
yulotomorrow
04. Oct 2022 · 07:40 UTC
Very cool idea and fun game! Excellent!
RosyMaple
04. Oct 2022 · 07:41 UTC
amazing concept, also great sound design!

One downside is and this could easily just be a me problem but it felt very arbitrary what rating I got which I found frustrating and not in a fun way. I think this might be due to the underlying matching algorithm, moving forward like @developer-on-trip mentioned and it sounds like you already had plans for I think Ml would make this a really amazing game
LDJam user 5243
04. Oct 2022 · 07:41 UTC
Cool game! I made it until I had to switch colors, then everything went downhill :D Really solid entry! It would be fun to see a grade on all paintings you do as well. So that you could get a feel for how close you need to get to pass.
🎤 benskca
04. Oct 2022 · 07:54 UTC
@rosymaple that's totally fair! Having the comparison being a black box the player doesn't get to see into definitely leaves room for the judging to feel arbitrary. The current algorithm is decently sensitive to location, which is where I think most of the frustration can come from (if the paintings of a tree, and the player draws a similar shaped tree but further to the right of the canvas, a lot of players will feel like they should still get the point). Thanks for the feedback, if I get round to making the comparison ML-based I'll add a post-jam version to the page :smile:
LDJam user 268934
04. Oct 2022 · 07:55 UTC
Impressive detection you got There!
Real good job in a short time. Also the drawings are fun to make in 10 sec and doable .
Jazkottaja
04. Oct 2022 · 08:03 UTC
really cool implementation of the theme! music and graphics fit the mood well and gameplay was surprisingly hectic, which was fun
cassowary
04. Oct 2022 · 08:08 UTC
I played this on my phone for the real finger painting experience. It works really well! Super fun, I loved the variety of the drawings and the challenge in trying to recreate them. I also liked how it seemed to gradually increase in difficulty as it went on - right as I felt like I got what the game was about it hit me with the multicolored drawings which was very cool!
Rodrigo Sousa
04. Oct 2022 · 08:16 UTC
music and theme spot on, really enjoyed it!
Reyansh
04. Oct 2022 · 08:22 UTC
Cool game! It gets really hard at the end especially with a mouse. I'll try again on mobile if it works to get the true experience
LDJam user 237261
04. Oct 2022 · 09:10 UTC
pretty fun game, the difficulty is nice and i like the premise
CodeRaurus
04. Oct 2022 · 12:52 UTC
A solid, fun entry. It would be interesting to know how the comparison works.

Good job!
🎤 benskca
04. Oct 2022 · 13:11 UTC
@coderaurus skipping over some of the gory details, it breaks the images up into chunks and compares the frequency of colours in each one. I found that its pretty nice for a game because you have parameters you can vary to control how sensitive it is to different things, e.g. changing how many chunks there are controls how precisely it cares about location.
CodeRaurus
04. Oct 2022 · 13:24 UTC
@benskca Interesting. Thanks!
She Wrote
04. Oct 2022 · 16:40 UTC
Simple, but a lot of fun! I love it!
Ilari
04. Oct 2022 · 19:06 UTC
This is so much fun! Nice idea and very well executed! Good job!
LDJam user 278146
05. Oct 2022 · 13:26 UTC
How dare you call my brick wall unacceptable it was perfect >:(

(jk, fun game, love the variety of little doodles)
relick
05. Oct 2022 · 21:06 UTC
Neat use of theme and overall well made and polished. The "copy the image" minigame concept is a pretty common one but it's always good fun.
bradleypollard
06. Oct 2022 · 20:56 UTC
Love the way this game looks, the aesthetic really fits the gameplay mechanics. Very cool idea, I was just rubbish at it 😅
jennyy
06. Oct 2022 · 23:31 UTC
i have a drawing tablet but i will not use it out of Respect
jennyy
06. Oct 2022 · 23:42 UTC
finally my 1.5 years of practicing drawing is vindicated.... am i a god or what
[Illustration.jpg](///raw/90f/94/z/529d8.jpg)

![Illustration.jpg](///raw/90f/94/z/529e6.jpg)
jennyy
06. Oct 2022 · 23:44 UTC
i am holding myself back from pulling out my tablet to totally school the rest of those infants
stmatn
09. Oct 2022 · 17:37 UTC
This is such a nice idea :D The graphics and sound are really fitting and the gameplay is fun. Great job!
Molpe
19. Oct 2022 · 22:58 UTC
Such a fun idea! I have to admit, I failed in kirdergarten...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_24AJjlQLM
Firesplash Entertainment
20. Oct 2022 · 20:43 UTC
Very funny idea and damn even the simplest drawings can be tricky in the short amount of time!

I wonder how you implemented the comparison of the drawings?
PhilStrahl
20. Oct 2022 · 21:44 UTC
Haha omg, that was brutal! I made it through 9 paintings max and don't think I'll ever be accepted in that kindergarten. Loved the idea and execution!

I felt very sure of myself at first, but then the next painting introduced the countdown and suddenly it became much more of a challenge! How many doodles are there anyway? 😅
yopox
20. Oct 2022 · 21:48 UTC
I loved it, congratulations! :art: :heart: It is very cute and well made, and it is nice to see more or less difficult drawings. The 10 seconds duration feels perfect for this challenge. :runner:

I did 12 using the trackpad:

![art.jpg](///raw/741/8/z/534fa.jpg)
vidarn
21. Oct 2022 · 06:15 UTC
What a fun idea. Your take on the theme was great, and I love how you've embraced the awkwardness of painting with a mouse by turning it into finger painting. I really liked the humor and style and overall the game felt polished and fun to play.
On a technical level, I'm impressed you pulled this off, the judging of the paintings worked really well.
Solah
21. Oct 2022 · 17:41 UTC
That is great! I love everything in your game, from gameplay to graphics and music, well done!