Circus Puppet Theater by Diralf
Find the five. Spotlight them now.
Circus Puppet Theater
Circus Puppet Theater
Circus Puppet Theater
Let's show begin!
Under the faded big top, you must complete the act: search the yard for five "puppets" - four clowns of different colors and one stone - and bring them to the arena. The stone willingly lets itself be carried, but every clown must be stunned first. One clown is peaceful and won't attack, two will shoot at you, and the fourth behaves like you - picking up and carrying the others, scrambling your plans. You spawn in the arena while the "puppets" wander the yard; each time you return to the arena, the yard repopulates with puppets.
Objective:
- Find in the yard and deliver to the arena all 5 objects: 4 clowns (each a different color) and 1 stone.
- Place them at the marked spots in the arena to finish the act.
Carry and Throw Rules:
- You can pick up and throw any object.
- The stone can be picked up immediately.
- Clowns can only be picked up after being stunned.
Clown Types:
- Peaceful Clown: won't harm you, but still must be stunned before you can pick him up.
- Two Shooters: fire at you from range.
- Carrier Clown: behaves like the player - picks up and moves other clowns.
Space and Cycle:
- You start in the arena - this is where all objects must be delivered.
- "Puppets" initially roam the yard and periodically shift positions.
- Every time you return to the arena, the yard repopulates with puppets.
Stun the clown and carry him under the spotlight.
Find, collect, and place 5 circus puppets under their spotlights in the auditorium. You can pick them up and throw them. Stun the clown before picking him up.
Use WASD to move.
Left-click to throw.
| Link | https://diralf.itch.io/circus-puppets-ld58 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/circus-puppet-theater |
Ratings
| Overall | 397th | 3.5⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 333th | 3.442⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 386th | 3.267⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 247th | 3.895⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 260th | 3.977⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 340th | 3.128⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 512th | 3.36⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 59🗳️ | 75🗨️ |
My laptop screen has quite a high resolution while being relatively small, so it was not super easy for me to distinguish which clown colors I had already collected. I recommend making the UI not being affected by the lighting!
Your new out-of-game tutorial worked really well - I had a very clear idea of what to do, between that and the game page's description!
I loved the clown designs, and I really liked building my clown stack higher and higher with turret clowns, so that the game became increasingly quick as you became more capable - It was a really nice touch that you let each clown stay friendly after you had picked them up once, because it made returning them to the spotlight much smoother than I feared it was going to be!
I did run into one bug at the end of the game where I had filled all the spotlights, but didn't get the victory screen - I filled the top spotlight last, if that helps track it down. I spent a bit of time trying to puzzle out what I was missing, then I picked the rock in the bottom right up, and put it back down, and got the victory screen.
Overall, well done!
Thank you, everyone, for your valuable feedback - I really appreciate it!
Sorry I didn’t include a clear tutorial in the game, but I’ve added a small, stylized one on the page in the form of circus tickets - feel free to check it out ;) I’m afraid to promise further development. I do have ideas, and the original concept was more ambitious. Btw the current gameplay grew more out of a funny bug than the original plan :D I’ll see what kind of response this version gets.
About the spotlight - possibly something went wrong with the collider, at start it didn’t work at all. I also think it’s missing a small extra effect to show that the spotlight has accepted your offering. Right now, it doesn’t feel like anything happened when you place a clown in the slot. That might have helped resolve the issue faster. Thanks for pointing it out!
It's a nice little game, I had a lot of fun throwing people around ;)
Carrier Clown actually looks cool, he is my favorite
The gameplay was nice and intuitive enough to pick up and play (and complete) without reading any directions so kudos on that. The in game controls and the slight "sparkle" when you threw a thing to a spotlight (and dupes being rejected) were more than enough guidance to help me to victory.
Very cool art style and smooth animations too. A bit glitchy and confusing when "combat" is going on though. The different color clowns seemed a bit lazy. The kinda break and stand out the whole other art style as clear color tints on the main sprite. And even with just pure colors (which I usually loathe seeing unless in an art style fully leaning to mspaint look). Wouldn't have been such a huge job to color swap them on where ever you drew them, the end result would have been loads nicer! And of course some audio would have been a welcome addition.
The controls were pretty solid. The combat could kinda confusing when the clowns became unstunned and you couldn't quite tell which was an enemy and which was your "weapon". The friendly bullets looking the same as enemy bullets was also a bit of a annoyance. Nothing major of course as the game is so short and even the punishment of losing is so very minor.
The UI list of the things you had gathered seemed kinda unnecessary. And only now going back to play a second round I realized that the thing on the left hand corner was a full screen button. Even though that's the same symbol I always use for it too. 😅 I kept thinking first that it also was some sort of "inventory slot".
But yeah, that's all I've got. Good job! 👍
The core mechanic is unusual and fun — stunning clowns and collecting them on your head creates some hilarious moments. The auto-aim feature for targeting clowns is also a smart and convenient addition.
For future development, it could be interesting to see more clown types with different abilities to add variety.
Overall, this is a solid game that would benefit from adding audio, but the core concept is really enjoyable!
The art is incredibly nice and cute. I would have loved some music and sound effects, though, too bad you did not put them in. Some circus music would have been awesome to add to the atmosphere.
By the way, if you're looking for a slightly quirky experience, you can check out our game 🤪
The game is fun and short enough that you don't get bored.
Well done!