Ludum Dare 33: Monster by Valicitor
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.
| Newgrounds | http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/662597 |
| GameJolt | http://gamejolt.com/games/ludum-dare-33-monster/88896 |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=56076 |
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 |
- Even tough the grafics are minimalistic, the animations made quite clear i'm playing an ape-like monster
- Lacks objective :(
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.
Would be more interesting if the humans were an actual threat in some way.
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!"
The animations are really cool, would be good to see where you might take this.
Great work.