PigCulture by sami822

[raw]
made by sami822 for Ludum Dare 53 (COMPO)

Deliver something important.

This is small game with purpose which can be completed in 10 minutes. (You do not need to deliver all items in the game!)
To sell something you should drop an item into pit to the left of the hub(shop).

Controls:

A, D - thrust in forward direction or turn.
W, S - thrust vertically.
Up, Down arrows or J,N - rotate submarine
Space or right Control - use tool.
Mouse - to use shop.

Game Tools

You can equip Sucker or Claw. Sucker moves small items behind it to the submarine. If item is close and Sucker is on, item will stick to submarine. Also, Sucker can stick only small items. Pearl is small item.
Claw just sticks to anything it reach, except for, eh, "suckable" items.

About

So, I finally decided to get into LudumDare for the first time.
This game is kinda tribute to SubCulture game by Criterion Games. It is mostly unknown, but it was way ahead of time(tho there already was Freelancer etc). Well, yea, SubCulture is something like Freelancer but underwater, and in the microworld.
Well, right in first day I went into developer hell(code is ugly, I mean really), trying to adjust physics, joints and other stuff with which I never worked. At some point I was close to give up, but then things started to work at least somehow. Still, physics is clunky, turns are buggy as hell. But it's possible to complete the game and watch at pretty end-game screen.

Tools

Graphics: Paint.net, Tilemancer, Dither
Audio: Reaper, LabChirp

Ratings

Overall 291th 3.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 367th 2.658⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 321th 2.921⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 226th 3.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 316th 3.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 100th 3.639⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 117th 3.316⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 114th 3.632⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 277876
01. May 2023 · 11:53 UTC
Congrats on your first Ludum Dare! I found the game to be quite humorous and with an intuitive concept. The central set-back for me was that I was experience a ton of lag whilst playing, which was strange because while the world was having trouble, the music was playing just fine. But that aside, a more open-world game for a Jam quite the cool idea. Good job!
Buni
01. May 2023 · 12:01 UTC
Love the story, haha. The concept is nice, but Im not a big fan of searching for that long
Balgorode
01. May 2023 · 12:10 UTC
I don't if it was intentional, but that game was really creepy, even the end screen. Something about the music and the look that pig was giving me... It was a bit unnerving.

Jokes aside it was a nice game though a bit tedious at times, often to do with how buggy the sucker could be with turning. xD
neonlare
01. May 2023 · 12:15 UTC
Wonderfully atmospheric, slightly slow in gameplay but a damn solid project for the Compo. Cheers for creating this!
nekowei
01. May 2023 · 12:24 UTC
Good graphics and sound, bgm is very moody. The physics of claw and sucker is both cool and hard to control. I wish there could be a faster submarine or a boost upgrade would be fine. The death part is a bit buggy sometimes I just touch something and I died.
🎤 sami822
01. May 2023 · 12:31 UTC
@balgorode that's exactly how original game feels! But it had lights, ugly fishes, narrow caves and mines, which makes it a lot more creepy. All of that was really scaring when I played SubCulture when I was about 10.
candlesan
02. May 2023 · 04:31 UTC
Nice floating around. I like that the music track sounds great and fits perfectly for an underwater game. Did you compose the music early on knowing you were going to do an underwater game or did you compose it after the rest of the game is done? I'm always curious for soundtracks that match the mood well.
🎤 sami822
02. May 2023 · 09:33 UTC
@candlesan started to write soundtrack after recording some sounds(e.g. claw up sound which is tape measure sound) and right before polishing and stuff. So it was about 10 hours before jam end. Took about one hour, I guess.
theguy
02. May 2023 · 19:43 UTC
The music is so moody and unsettling. It is really good.
Also the physics/mechanics are really well made.

Nice creepy game!
Theg
03. May 2023 · 01:09 UTC
The bits I struggled with most was how slow it could be and how the graphics didn't really indicate gameplay, like what can be picked up with certain tools. Despite this I kept playing for about half an hour, I think the concept is pretty intriguing.
Game-mon
04. May 2023 · 15:21 UTC
Nice game! I liked the underwater exploration. A few things to imrpove might be: make the text brighter so it's easier to read, and make the controls a little more tight. Other than that, nice entry!
sillyman987
04. May 2023 · 16:04 UTC
Wow! I can see that a lot of work and thought went into this! Good job!
shimmerscale
04. May 2023 · 16:06 UTC
Interesting game! I enjoyed seeing what the shopkeeper would say about each item I brought. I didn't realize that I could die in the game (I think there's an air gauge?), so some instructions on that would help. Nice entry!
LDJam user 202408
04. May 2023 · 17:16 UTC
I never thought I'd finish this game giving how long it took, but the music and the mood of the game really kept me going, had an issue with a candy getting stuck on the ground but I was thankfully able to buy a bomb by selling more rocks instead, really nice game, and the music is just so darn moody it made me feel really relaxed, I love the ocean dude. beautiful entry!

by the way there way a violin instrument in the music I believe but it sounded natural, did you play violin or used some plugin? if so what plugin did you use if you don't mind, I really like it!

![6.PNG](///raw/8a6/13/z/5b499.png)
🎤 sami822
04. May 2023 · 18:58 UTC
@shimmerscale yea, you actually get damage by ramming items or terrain; but I had so little time that even didn't add sound for it or top right circle(which is hp bar) pulsation on damage.

@0x-void-x0 that's plugin, I play only keys and guitars heh. It's Spitfire Audio LABS - Frozen Strings. What is crazy - this one is free. It sounds really good.

Thank you all for kind reviews. I'll check your games too.
snesgaard
05. May 2023 · 06:04 UTC
Good atmosphere. Kinda creepy vibe. Wasn't really sure where I was suppose to go or what I was suppose to do, so didn't really get far.