Children of the Combine by MilkWine

[raw]
made by MilkWine for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

You are a combine harvester. You harvest people. Why? Find out next on...Children of the Combine.

https://milkwine.itch.io/ld52

Note: You can re-read the comics here: https://imgur.com/a/dd0rywf


Screenshots

screenshot_006.png

screenshot_009.png

screenshot_007.png

screenshot_013.png

screenshot_018.png

screenshot_027.png


Credits


Changelog

There were some game-breaking bugs in the version we submitted for Ludum Dare, so the current version fixes those bugs. In keeping in line with the rules of LD, we haven't made any feature changes. Full changelog is below:

v1.1 (latest):

  • Fixed the vignettes/boss intros not showing sometimes when the game is fullscreened in WebGL.
  • Fixed the narration not playing sometimes on some levels.

Ratings

Overall 400th 3.517⭐ 61🧑‍⚖️
Fun 321th 3.517⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 529th 3.095⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Theme 531th 3.492⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 575th 3.2⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Audio 220th 3.583⭐ 62🧑‍⚖️
Humor 47th 4.042⭐ 61🧑‍⚖️
Mood 364th 3.517⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Given 63🗳️ 114🗨️

Feedback

eFrag
09. Jan 2023 · 21:19 UTC
Not sure to understand all the story, but it was pretty fun 😄
Also the "ribbit" never goes away (i don't mind though)
jackypark9852
09. Jan 2023 · 21:31 UTC
Pretty funny concept from the get go. Got stuck at the stonehenge. I like how the combine just grabs people. Nice animations.
Helen
09. Jan 2023 · 21:45 UTC
It's a pretty weird game :D - I had fun "harvesting" the people but the control of the player was hard.
Sometimes I couldn't see the rest of the people because they were in the dark or hidden by an object, so it took me some time to finish the level. I would appreciate a sound when the "door" is unlocked.
alterKochtopf
09. Jan 2023 · 21:50 UTC
Great game!
entertained me very much, very reactive!
+ blood, humor, the voices
- the display of the volume is a little bugggi.
ChuChuGeralt
09. Jan 2023 · 21:52 UTC
That the actual fuck of a feverdream did I just play? Like…I´m still laughing about the absurdity of that game.

Its awesome!

I really did like the mixture of the different artstyles and the absurdity of it all.
One small note: there are areas in your “boards/areas” (I guess it was the second one), where there is a shadow area where the people could hide, that was a little bit counterintuitive to find.

But overall, a really funny game.
Andreadbx
09. Jan 2023 · 23:34 UTC
Wow, just wow, to think you guys had the creativity to do something like this, very nice! graphics as i said on stream could have a little bit more or polish :D
LDJam user 299091
10. Jan 2023 · 02:59 UTC
Probably one of the weirdest games I've played in a long while, but it gave me a good few chuckles, and played fairly well. There were a few spots where the people were really hard to see, as mentioned above, and there's a few spots on edges that are really hard to reach, but other than those fairly minor issues, it was really good. One of the best I've played in this jam!
mtpw
10. Jan 2023 · 03:12 UTC
By his unholy laser-eyed pope! Really fun quirky game. Humurous voice over and fun gameplay. Now excuse me, the harvester needs to be fed!
poboy
10. Jan 2023 · 05:12 UTC
Thank you everyone for playing and for the wonderful comments :)

@eFrag: The ribbiting (and narration in general) is super bugged and seems to not be deterministic. Sometimes the voiceovers don't play, or they leak into different scenes. We'll have to fix that post-jam. Thanks for the feedback!

@Helen: Agreed, a door sound is a good idea. Thanks for playing!

@chuchugeralt: LOL our team loves your review. The shadows is a common point of feedback, and I think I know why now -- it seems the shadows came out darker in the WebGL build. Thanks for playing!

@Andreadbx: Thanks for your stream, our team really enjoyed it!
DeathBySnail
10. Jan 2023 · 08:59 UTC
Those comic cuts to boss intros are fantastic!
Kenguin
10. Jan 2023 · 09:19 UTC
Loved the voice acting that was my favourite part, though I think the kill sounds are a tiny bit too loud and makes it hard to make out what the voice is saying sometimes.
fallcresthero
10. Jan 2023 · 10:02 UTC
I liked the voices and artstyle of the comics inserts.
I wish that harvester would be a little bit faster to make the game more dynamic and fast (it is always much more fun for me)
I would also tweak loudness of some sounds and it is still pretty buggy but it was fun
pauljs
10. Jan 2023 · 10:47 UTC
What a great fun, a great mood, and some great voice over! A blast (no pun intended), congrats!
nyxkn
10. Jan 2023 · 12:29 UTC
What the actual fuck did I just experience :D

Loved how surreal this all was. Comics animation was a very nice touch. The ending made zero sense and I guess that's part of the aesthetic of this clusterfuck of a game. Gameplay itself though is kind of boring and I made use of the K helper quite a bit. I have no idea what I just played but I think I liked it.
ahintoflime
10. Jan 2023 · 16:25 UTC
The narrator was hilarious and well done, and the graphics are super charming. L-R seem to be incorrect/switched when backing up, at least if you think of it from a wheel-turning perspective like a car. I enjoyed the laid back wacky vibe of it all, yall did a great job.
TweekStudios
10. Jan 2023 · 22:47 UTC
Holy moly. I can't say I was expecting something like this! Amazing (if not creepy) concept!
Slush
11. Jan 2023 · 04:32 UTC
This is hilarious
bardicmischief
11. Jan 2023 · 08:14 UTC
What the hell :D I'm not sure what the goal or the story was (except for running over people, I guess :D) but the narrator is great. How many voice lines did you record?
JfeeefL
11. Jan 2023 · 08:39 UTC
weird but... COOL! Had fun playing your game!
fizzbark
11. Jan 2023 · 09:36 UTC
Oddly heartwarming little trip of a game with great art and some genuinely funny dialog. The harvester itself seemed to have a delay controlling the steering - if you were to improve one thing making the harvester feel more responsive would go along way to improving the game. The comics didn't load, but I was able to piece things together retrospectively.
Phillip Scott
11. Jan 2023 · 11:00 UTC
what......wait.......that game was......hmmmm.

I loved it, it was confusing and crashed twice when loading the comics. I just wandered about listening to the voice lines and I laughed out loud at the end panels....

Gameplay wise I could feel some of the level colliders and the combine should perhaps be able to turn whilst stationary. but overall I had a fun time, good job!
VictorRypl
11. Jan 2023 · 13:06 UTC
The crunchy sound when you harvest someone is addicting
Adam Burt
11. Jan 2023 · 13:21 UTC
I found this genuinely amusing, so top marks for humour! What a wonderful, absurd lore you have. The game ran pretty well for me too. Some sound issues where audio clips kept playing when they should have been cut short by me moving on. Still, great work.
breadstick
11. Jan 2023 · 16:32 UTC
@bardicmischief By the end of recording, we had something like 6 continuous minutes of audio for Presidente, and nearing 8 minutes for Popelord! I think just about everything recorded ended up in-game.

The frog's recording demands were just a little bit less
Alex de la Cour
11. Jan 2023 · 18:13 UTC
What the hell did I just experience?! Every time I thought this game couldn't get any more outrageously, ridiculously, hilariously surreal, you managed to outdo yourself. I loved every second of it.
LDJam user 251967
11. Jan 2023 · 18:34 UTC
Great game!
Jack Bingham
11. Jan 2023 · 20:35 UTC
Really really enjoy the concept and thought the game was super funny and enjoyable. The audio for the rock boss was really loud tho. Good game you all should be proud :)
mnocenti
11. Jan 2023 · 21:01 UTC
Weird to think that we aren't the only ones who did a game with a combine harvester filling its fuel gauge by killing people :D

I loved the incoherent ramblings of the characters. It feels weird to have such a build up for the bosses, only for them to die in 1 hit, but I guess that's part of the absurdity !

The comics were really well done, I'd like to see what you could do with a bit more time.
Marryvss
11. Jan 2023 · 21:13 UTC
I like that this game is original, graphics are nice too
caeonosphere
12. Jan 2023 · 09:52 UTC
Not one, not two, but THREE boss fights?! Great voiceovers, boys, I'm inspired. And the comic pages: divine. Is it just me, or is the reverse steering the reverse of the usual? All good, I was able to grind up those beans just fine anyway.
JamesBoink
12. Jan 2023 · 14:53 UTC
What. Tha. Hecc.
Beautifull XD

The voice lines were great, nice theme interpretation and got me laughing a lot XD
poboy
13. Jan 2023 · 07:34 UTC
Thanks again for all the great comments!

@Kenguin: You should have played the beta version, the kill sounds were deafening. Thanks! The voice acting was done by Breadstick in his closet.

@fallcresthero: Thank you! Comics were by our friend Fey. We're thinking of polishing this game up a bit and releasing it, improving the control of the harvester is definitely high-prio.

@nyxkn: "I have no idea what I just played but I think I liked it" is the best review we could have hoped for :D thanks for playing!

@ahintoflime: We're making a post-jam version and the wheel-turning thing was the first bug we fixed, it was driving us so mad (pun not intended). Thanks for playing!

@bardicmischief: The story... did not translate well into the actual game lol. Basically you beat up all the bosses to collect their limbs and give them to your daughter, who is extremely sick and needs them for a full-body transplant.

The fun part about the audio is @breadstick had recorded a long continuous stretch of voiceover expecting us to splice it up, but we ran out of time -- it's just playing the original recording on loop.

Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it.

@fizzbark: Sorry about the comics, we're not sure how we screwed that code up so bad. We're making a post-jam version and definitely going to target the steering cause it's pretty frustrating. Thanks for playing!

@victorrypl: Thanks for playing! The bone-crushing sound was Kelly L. crushing up a cabbage :)

@mnocenti: LOL we were wondering aloud in our Discord chats on whether anyone else would make a similar game, we'll have to check yours out. Our comic artist pulled their shoulder muscle mid-jam, so some of them are kind of incomplete, but I'll let you know you liked them! Thanks for the kind review and the play :)
infecsean
13. Jan 2023 · 17:50 UTC
The voice acting in this game is top-notch and the characters are so well written that you can't help but love them (or love to hate them). The gameplay is incredibly fun and fast-paced, making for a truly immersive experience. And let's not forget the satisfying feeling of a well-executed massacre.
deadgoodnik
13. Jan 2023 · 18:43 UTC
My type of game Funny and a bit Mental right up my street really enjoyed this one
schnodelfactory
13. Jan 2023 · 19:05 UTC
The narrator was hard to understand but hilarious. I loved the crunch sound when harvesting people!
The comic parts are very impressive. Great submission.<3
JormaRysky
13. Jan 2023 · 19:31 UTC
Let's face it, it is horrible game. It is just hodgepodge of ideas, styles, techniques. Nothing works, it looks horrible and there is constant rambling going on. Gameplay is slow, buggy and unexciting. There is even dedicated cheat button in case game breaks down. But damn I love this mess! One of the best in the jam. Make it real game post jam!
breadstick
13. Jan 2023 · 20:24 UTC
@jormarysky we're actually in the process of polishing and fixing things up to throw a "complete" version up somewhere online--maybe Steam! We've got plans to add actual texturing, fix the webGL build's abhorrent lighting, and we've already tightened the vehicle's controls and enemy AI to make things more interesting. Keep your eyes peeled for it!
JormaRysky
13. Jan 2023 · 20:26 UTC
@breadstick I will
Orhu
13. Jan 2023 · 23:39 UTC
Interesting game! Playing as a combine harvester is pretty unique. I think it'd be nice if the people didn't all cluster up on the sides of the stage, but it isn't a big deal. I thought the monologue from El Presidente was quite funny as well. Nice work.
pazzi
14. Jan 2023 · 00:46 UTC
This is a horror game if I ever saw one- one that spirals deeper into madness- a chaotic fever dream and the men are my braincells haha!
very interesting game ^~^
Killian0213
14. Jan 2023 · 12:18 UTC
Interesting game! you should be proud of the game!
kikiriki367
14. Jan 2023 · 20:57 UTC
I can imagine playing this game is as much fun as it was making it! By that i mean i cant imagine how much of a blast you had making this whacky stody, i love it! haahaha
BinaryPrinciple
15. Jan 2023 · 00:21 UTC
The style is awesome! The voice acting and comics gives it a cool feel that you need to explore.
I would say randomize the pich of the screams and skill colors to make it feel more variable and add ramps or the need to carry rocks to open places.
Love how the machine feeds moving it's arms.
swarrizard
17. Jan 2023 · 21:02 UTC
The gameplay could be more exciting and challenging, but I think what stood out the most here was the style! Loved the cutscenes, voiceovers, and overall vibe. Feels like a piece you could see at a modern art show.
HayriCakir
21. Jan 2023 · 00:35 UTC
Gameplay is fun, I wish we could move a little bit faster in time. Good job mate!
Shess
24. Jan 2023 · 09:14 UTC
Incredibly entertaining, everything from the comic pages to sounds and voices was absolutely hilarious :D
This game makes for the ultimate time-burner, and I can honestly see myself sinking minutes upon minutes into munching on people... therapeutically.