Ludum Dare 33: Monster by Valicitor

[raw]
made by Valicitor for LD33 (JAM)
Play as a hungry monster who just wants to survive, but with humans slowly encroaching upon your territory, resources are coming in short supply. This little monster will need to adapt to a new diet.

Ratings

Coolness 47% 1314
Overall(Jam) 3.03 694
Audio(Jam) 3.03 427
Fun(Jam) 2.50 920
Graphics(Jam) 4.03 211
Humor(Jam) 1.81 926
Innovation(Jam) 2.54 864
Mood(Jam) 3.14 507
Theme(Jam) 3.32 624

Feedback

Jani Nykänen
24. Aug 2015 · 17:53 UTC
I love the graphics, although the gameplay is a bit awkward.
whalebot
24. Aug 2015 · 17:56 UTC
Not bad. I really like the style. It didn't seem like there was anything to accomplish other than just surviving which was relatively trivial. All in all, good entry.
baykush_figtree
24. Aug 2015 · 18:12 UTC
- Looks great
- Even tough the grafics are minimalistic, the animations made quite clear i'm playing an ape-like monster
- Lacks objective :(
Yamzho
24. Aug 2015 · 18:13 UTC
Graphics are really good, music is nice too.
Clurect
24. Aug 2015 · 19:49 UTC
I really like the graphics and the way the game feels. The parallax is an especially nice feature to have
frokes
25. Aug 2015 · 18:02 UTC
Cool graphics and animations. The gameplay is fluid and smooth and i did not encounter any obvious bugs. An overall great game but it lacks a little bit of content to really get there.
DuzDuz
25. Aug 2015 · 19:02 UTC
The graphics are really good! I love it
Gamepopper
25. Aug 2015 · 21:02 UTC
I like the minimalistic art style, I just wish there was more to do and explore.
ceosol
26. Aug 2015 · 17:03 UTC
I really want to play this, but new grounds isn't loading games for some people (including me). Could you put this up somewhere else?
randomhuman
26. Aug 2015 · 21:33 UTC
Beautiful art style and animation! It's a shame there isn't a bit more to do.
ZNCatlaw
26. Aug 2015 · 23:13 UTC
Really nice graphics. The gameplay is simple, but I appreciate the dynamic you are creating.

The first time I played it, I was not drawn in enough. I didn't play long enough to feel like anything was "scarce". After reading the game's description I realized that there was a further mechanic; that of scarcity. When I played a second time, I resolved to play without eating humans until I felt compelled to do so by scarcity. That was much more interesting, because of course I was eventually eating primarily humans.

So my comment for future improvement would be:

- there should perhaps be something compelling me to want to continue playing, like a high-score or something that I am growing/building (a tech tree, a family, a garden: anything permanent). Maybe evolutions or customizations?

- there should be some initial barrier to prevent me from eating humans. Right now, eating humans is about as hard as eating fruit, so the transition doesn't feel scary. My first game I ate fruit, and then humans, without really noticing the difference. If lower health affected my ability to move, or jump, or just slowed me down somehow, that might be enough to encourage me to eat fruit as long as possible.

With that stuff, and the stealth and human encroachment that you mentioned, I feel this would be a very compelling experience.

I rate this game pretty highly, and I hope you go forward with it post jam.
Dianouille
27. Aug 2015 · 09:48 UTC
Good graphics even if I didn't realized at first that the "jumping cubes" were food x)
Hamsternator
27. Aug 2015 · 17:34 UTC
You got some really solid platforming going on here. Shame that the game doesn't really take advantage of that in any way =(

Would be more interesting if the humans were an actual threat in some way.
n8b
01. Sep 2015 · 10:58 UTC
The diet change is your thematic, so why not make it the mechanics of a post-compo version?

The monster only effectively digests one or two food, changing diet demeande time or evolution dots ... This would allow a strategic reasoning.

"First, I ate fruit, but woodcutters steal the trees, so I ate grass, but the cattle cames and ate it, so I ate sheep, but the dogs hunted me and men plowed the fields, so I ate wheat ...

Today there any in such small quantities that the only thing available in abundance that I can eat, it is the human being, but they made weapons, then I attack me as weak, but they created a militia ...

...maybe one day I have to learn how to eat steel!"
ceosol
01. Sep 2015 · 14:45 UTC
This would have been my favorite game. All you needed was some point. As others have said, just surviving was too easy. The entire aesthetic was fantastic.
miotatsu
03. Sep 2015 · 07:51 UTC
beautiful, but needs a direction so to speak. Currently the gameplay is rather lacking
crafteverywhere
07. Sep 2015 · 19:08 UTC
Nice graphics.
ponywolf
14. Sep 2015 · 16:12 UTC
Graphics and color are top notch. I really like the idea of a four legged character.
careless
14. Sep 2015 · 23:55 UTC
Nice entry, smooth movement, nice simple but effective graphics.

The animations are really cool, would be good to see where you might take this.

Great work.