LudumData

United Stamps by DecadeDecaf

[raw]
made by DecadeDecaf for Ludum Dare 58 (COMPO)

United Stamps is a platform shooter about collecting stamps from all over the Land of Liberty, the greatest nation on Earth. Using an America-themed gun, kill America-themed enemies, and try to collect all fifty America-themed stamps!

screenshot2.png

screenshot3.png

Notes

  • For every 5 stamps collected, gain an additional life
  • Many stamps can only be found by killing specific enemies
  • There's a boss fight at the end!
  • I was only able to draw 36 icons within the timeframe, so some of the stamps are blank
  • The character's name is Nephew Sam

All of this game's code, art, music, sound, etc. was made by one person in less than 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 58 compo in the great state of New Jersey. The theme was "collector." Thank you so much for playing!

Disclaimer: this game is not intended to exist as any kind of political statement. I've worked on games with political content in the past, but this is not one of them. I just thought a collectathon about The United States of America would be funny; it's not that deep.

engine: GameMaker
art: FireAlpaca SE, paint.NET
music: FL Studio 21

in-game font: Ari-W9500 Condensed Display
itch.io font: Rye
color palette: Cheerful-24 (https://lospec.com/palette-list/cheerful-24)

windows https://decadedecaf.itch.io/united-stamps
source code https://github.com/DecadeDecaf/united-stamps
soundtrack https://decadedecaf.bandcamp.com/track/united-stamps
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/united-stamps

Ratings

Overall 132th 3.237ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Fun 87th 3.447ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Innovation 163th 2.842ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Theme 39th 3.974ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Graphics 166th 2.947ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Audio 118th 3.079ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Humor 54th 3.395ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Mood 126th 3.158ā­ 21šŸ§‘ā€āš–ļø
Given 22šŸ—³ļø 3šŸ—Øļø

Feedback

kalasherr
Oct 06th Ā· 15:51 UTC
Silly flash style and 00-s vibe with "Rogue Soul" gameplay
LDJam user 303624
Oct 07th Ā· 00:34 UTC
Enjoyed this one, controls were tight and felt good. Clever use of the theme, and I liked the various enemies. Was cohesive to the setting!

Was very grateful to be given more lives the more stamps I got. Definitely needed more than 3 haha.
Nice one!
Gerrit
Oct 07th Ā· 12:33 UTC
Gotta collect them all! :D Nice well rounded game! I just wish there was a shortcut to skip the start!
Daniel123
Oct 10th Ā· 01:20 UTC
The guy who made this game must really hate breakfast.
Silas Reinagel
Oct 10th Ā· 02:57 UTC
This brought back a lot of memories. Love the 2d shooting action!

The America-themed objects are hilarious!
LDJam user 385997
Oct 10th Ā· 05:11 UTC
I think two of the most important aspects of jump ā€™nā€™ runs and platform shooters are the controls and physics, and both feel really good here. I also enjoy the consistent theming.
TopperVideoGames
Oct 11th Ā· 09:15 UTC
This is a very fun game! The run and gun was solid enough, but I was not expecting to have so much fun collecting the stamps! It gave an extra layer of tactical consideration in addition to the regular gameplay. Some of them were rather clever, and encouraged repeat playthroughs for a player like me that wanted to get them all.
![AllStamps.png](///raw/54e/02/z/6f3f1.png)

I am happy to have a full stamp collection! The enemies were quite humorous as well. Very well done!
blobo
Oct 11th Ā· 16:56 UTC
I mention it in the video I recorded, but *wow*, the South Dakota stamp is brutal. It's the first stamp introduced that moves away, so without prior knowledge of that happening combined with the difficult location due to all the enemies in that area, it's impossible to get on the first run. Possibly even the second through fifth depending on how long it takes the player to really figure out the corndog pattern there. I suggest making a stamp in a safe space that starts unreachably high, but then slowly moves down towards the player, informing them "Hey, some stamps can move now." Which can also make them intuitively figure out "Oh, that means some stamps can leave on their own! Better get these next two pretty quickly."

Other than that, I loved every part of this. The Ohio Stamp saying "Skibidi Rizz" was a fantastic touch.

And of course, the recorded video. Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyyAwFqyje0
šŸŽ¤ DecadeDecaf
Oct 11th Ā· 22:25 UTC
@toppervideogames and @100th-coin thank you for seeing it through to the bitter end! I'm glad that y'all still wanted to complete the game in spite of its unforgiving nature.

For some context, I was working up until the deadline on trying to fill out the game with stamps and enemies. I made sure certain sections felt good in a vacuum, but I barely had any time to actually test the game front-to-back. I was worried there'd be long stretches of the level without much action, so some of the enemy placement was pretty hastily done. The extra life mechanic was a last-minute addition when the game ended up being significantly longer than I expected it to be. I probably would've added some sort of checkpoint system if I had time.

The Dakotas are certainly mean, but I wanted them to be mean in a "haha, that was dumb, now I know for next time" way, not realizing that "next time" would be a full 3-5 minutes in the future, at least. Definitely would've changed this if I had a feel for it!

ALL THAT SAID, I'm proud of how the game feels, and I'm so glad the humor is landing. Thank you for your comments!
Ty Victorson
Oct 17th Ā· 05:40 UTC
You've got a great well-made side scroller here, I wasn't able to get all the stamps or make it to the boss but I had a blast trying to collect all the stamps! It's also really cool you added controller support as well I used it over keyboard!
darianifakina
Oct 23rd Ā· 14:40 UTC
The gameplay is fast-paced and fun, with each stamp offering a sense of accomplishment. I like it!
EagleZ
Oct 24th Ā· 16:21 UTC
Is it me or the shooting rate matches with the music? :open_mouth: Cool concept!
šŸŽ¤ DecadeDecaf
Oct 24th Ā· 16:26 UTC
@eaglez it does!! I'm so glad somebody noticed. Thank you!