Hungry Creatures by tthe

[raw]
made by tthe for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

In this game, your task is to feed the creatures of a fantasy land.

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  • Use cars to transport the food of the creatures from production to consumer.
  • There are three species, you have to take care of. If any of the species go extinct, you lose the game!
  • If you bring too much food, and the creatures aren't hungry, new creatures will be born.
  • Extend your fleet of cars, or upgrade your existing cars so they become faster, and more manouverable.

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Controls:

  • Drag anywhere with your mouse to pan the camera around.
  • Move your mouse to the edge of the screen to also pan the camera around.
  • Click on a car to select it.
  • When a car is selected, click anywhere to issue a move command to the car.
  • Hold down Shift key while issueng move commands to create a route.
  • Press the P key to make the car repeat the assigned route.
  • Press Space to pause the game, to give yourself time to plan your routes.

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Mechanics:

  • There are production buildings around the map, that produce food. Each building has a maximum capacity of food it can hold, before it must close down. If this capacity is reached, the food cannot be transfered away, and the building will stop producing. You can see the stock of a building next to it.

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  • Creatures get hungry as time passes. As the creatures get more hungry, their hunger bar starts filling up. If you bring food to the creatures, then two things may occur:
    • Hungry creatures, whose hunger bar is at least 1/4 filled will be fed from the cargo. This will replenish their hunger completely.
    • New creatures are born from the remaining nutrients. If too many creatures were fed from the cargo, no new creatures are born.
  • If a creature is too hungry, they will start dying.
  • If the health of a creature goes below 50%, the creature becomes hostile. Hostile creatures will attack your trucks, that carry the food of the creature. If the creature strikes your car, your cargo is lost, but the creature is fed.

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Ratings

Overall 725th 3.452⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1067th 2.81⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 637th 3.286⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 448th 4.048⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 262th 4.167⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 462th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 806th 2.722⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 829th 3.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Wbertrand
02. May 2023 · 03:19 UTC
This game has unique mechanics and a really nice art style. The vehicile pathfinding and size of the map is really impressive for a jam game. Only thing was that it was a bit slow to get started.
Blueanoli
02. May 2023 · 07:41 UTC
I am in love with this art style! Awesome job!
Joe Cowman
02. May 2023 · 07:41 UTC
The visuals are really awesome! I like the concept of plotting routes around this fantasy land. I found it a little challenging to figure out where to go around the map, it would be cool to have some kind of visual indication. :)
LDJam user 359614
02. May 2023 · 07:44 UTC
your concept is cool.
art, graphic also the audio are totally fine..
but its so hard to control.. and im not feeling it ..
keep it up dude..
and my apologies..
i must be honest to give the answer..
good luck
benk
02. May 2023 · 08:00 UTC
i think there is something here, it's like "what if the witcher was a delivery guy" and i'm into that. it's too much for me in a jam though - the scope needs to be pared way down. the cars were getting stuck in the water, the map was beautiful but hard to use, and giving blood to the bats didn't feel significant. IMO, more time making it feel good to play, less time developing complexity.
lima victor
02. May 2023 · 08:06 UTC
Interesting game with interesting mechanics. First of all I really liked visuals and it's a shame the game doesn't have sounds (or I didn't hear for some reason?). Gameplay is clear and cool but it lacks quality of life features. For example, I was really tilted after building a huge route and destroying it with single mouse button without a return. Something like "Ctrl+z" то return to previous state of the route after making a new point would be really great. Guess the problem was a lack of time so it's fine. Also I wasn't able to start a cyclic route with P and actually maybe it's good because I have a feeling the game could be fully automized and would play itself. Overall great job, wish you a good jam

UPD: Found the sounds but there are not enough I believe. Cars are fine, location when camera close too, but the rest of the game feels silent which is not really good. Maybe some simple classic, adventerous or steampunk music on the background will do the trick for your game?
frelude
02. May 2023 · 08:26 UTC
I like the map graphics. At start all the popup are a bit overwhelming. The delivery system lack a bit of 'hurry' to be challenging, even if there is health bar on creatures. Overall games look good, the UI is nice. Sounds ok. It certainly a matter of tuning. Keep it up.
LittleMaow
02. May 2023 · 09:54 UTC
@lima-victor We have a beautiful background music too but there is a 10 sec delay. c:
lima victor
02. May 2023 · 10:04 UTC
@LittleMaow Strange that I didn't hear it. Played again and now the game feels much better, great job with the music!
Paul Avallone
04. May 2023 · 00:13 UTC
Neat concept but the controls need a rework in my opinion. I kept miss-clicking a lot. Having the tutorial be spread around the map in no particular order was a little confusing. Maybe look into numbering them. Being able to place routes was cool and seeing the car go slower on certain terrain or weave through trees was cool. Good job.
Poppy Entertainment
06. May 2023 · 10:15 UTC
Intriguing concept. Very wide map with a very nice style, it would be interesting to see the idea expanded. The music is coherent with the setting. Interaction sound needs to be added.
The controls are sometimes awkward and the tutorials scattered around the map are on one hand interesting, as they allow you to give an overview of the map, on the other hand they are a bit confusing.
YurisCat
07. May 2023 · 05:33 UTC
Great game mechanics and art style, I really like the hand-drawn map style. It makes the game world feel like a real map, and inspires a sense of exploration. You guys did a great job!
Locke8
07. May 2023 · 17:26 UTC
Really nice hand-drawn map style, and a pretty nice core gameplay loop. The game is a bit lacking in difficulty or options, it doesn't really feel like i can loose once i got a car going on each species, it would be interesting to see some form of challenge being introduces. But what is there is well made and fairly polished. Solid entry.