TAKE ME HOME by PlintusB

[raw]
made by PlintusB for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

You're the Hand of the Stars, and it's up to you to rescue the animals from planet Earth. Every day you summon new waves of animals, but not all of them are healthy and not all of them are animals...

You'll have to choose which animals you'll take with you.

Скриншот 16-04-2024 094118.jpg

Click on the animal and choose whether to take it or not.

Скриншот 16-04-2024 094202.jpg

Distribute the animals into the correct compartments. The first is herbivores, the second is predators, and the third is reptiles.

Скриншот 16-04-2024 094213.jpg

Unfortunately, exiting the game alt+tab

We planned to treat infected animals, but did not have time to implement it. We are thinking of introducing this a little later.

16.04 Fixed a bug with a click on animals in build 1_1

Ratings

Overall 769th 3.415⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Fun 901th 3.123⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 682th 3.262⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1141th 2.688⭐ 66🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 237th 4.215⭐ 67🧑‍⚖️
Audio 254th 3.754⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Humor 376th 3.403⭐ 64🧑‍⚖️
Mood 772th 3.389⭐ 65🧑‍⚖️
Given 47🗳️ 104🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 382819
16. Apr 2024 · 07:12 UTC
LMFAO
Gerolmed
16. Apr 2024 · 07:41 UTC
The cartoon look is awesome :smile:
Gulcar
16. Apr 2024 · 07:42 UTC
Nice art style and animal mutations. Clicking on animals was a little buggy for me. Maybe making the game faster would make it more intense.
BaggerSmurf
16. Apr 2024 · 07:46 UTC
Love your entry! Great graphics and sound. Clear goal (though the apple, meat and egg icons first looked like weirdly colored trash bags :P) and gradual introduction of mechanics. Really loved the mutations! Hope you had a great time making it!
CallMeTy
16. Apr 2024 · 07:47 UTC
Good job! Had some issues with animals getting stuck or unclickable but otherwise a neat experience :) I really like the art!
OlenIkimid
16. Apr 2024 · 07:52 UTC
I didn't push play in the beginning because I wanted to just keep listening to the music because it sets an interesting tone, and I expected it to loop :sweat_smile: . Thankfully the gameplay music also loops :wink:

The art and animations are nice too, nice to see what a crocodile/alligator looks like if you could pick them up by the scruff like a kitten :laughing:

A bug I found is that you can "pause" the animals indefinitely if you spam-click on them when they are first entering the scene (it opens the Load/Decline menu, and you can't select "Decline", only "Load") - in which case the animals will then just stop their walking animations and stay still.
![BugReport.JPG](///raw/de0/54/z/637da.jpg)
Sariiger
16. Apr 2024 · 08:43 UTC
I really love the visuals, they are very pleasant to look at. Around Sunday the mutants started looking really cursed, that was awesome.

There were some issues with animals registering clicks though. Sometimes I had to click literally over a dozen times for my click to be registered, and I tried clicking in different spots.
Aleksa_Al
16. Apr 2024 · 13:36 UTC
@baggersmurf Yes, we had a lot of fun, thank you) Unfortunately, we didn't have time to introduce a lot of jokes :D But then we think to finish it up to a good look
Aleksa_Al
16. Apr 2024 · 13:38 UTC
@olenikimid Thank you, our second developer is an artist at heart and therefore spends more time on animations than on tests. We have already fixed some minor bugs
Aleksa_Al
16. Apr 2024 · 13:40 UTC
@sariiger Thank you, the problem with clicks has been fixed)
blank_3D
16. Apr 2024 · 14:39 UTC
Instead of the load/decline menu popping up, you should just pick up the animal directly, and then have a rejects bin to put it, by letting go of mouse click. I also think this will remove the possibility of certain bugs occurring.
I also managed to break the game when I let a bear go into the ship on its own just to see what would happen, and as it went up I realized exactly where it was heading, clicked on it, the load/decline popup appeared and then the bear disappeared, gave me -25, but the pop up stayed, with its button not doing anything. then all other animals that came after I had the ability to pause. but not interact with, since the popup from the bear was still up.
While in general I was a little confused as to why I was suddenly sorting animals, your art is nice, the atmosphere is chill, and the "potato bear" was very funny.
Aleksa_Al
16. Apr 2024 · 18:02 UTC
@blank-3d

And this is my favorite)

![image-14.png](///raw/a95/e5/z/63c89.png)
lipr
16. Apr 2024 · 18:05 UTC
I'll start with what I liked more. Animations and music. Well done on this! It's almost the same story with art. He could have been more complete if the character had not been heavily developed. It's a little out of style. BUT! The atmosphere was good. I even started to think about what happened on the planet and what else people could use animals from there for. It’s amazing how they adapted to live on it when there was complete devastation around them!
I also didn’t quite understand what object was depicted after the meat, which is why I could mistakenly place a new animal there.
But overall, I still liked it)
Denetrios
16. Apr 2024 · 19:45 UTC
@olenikimid Hey, thanks for your kind words on music! Finishing the music from the game is on my To-Do list - it was very rushed and therefore there are a lot of things I would like to iron out.

The track you are talking about is actually something that I initially hated. As a matter of fact, I hated it SO MUCH that I deleted the project file (thankfully, only after rendering the somewhat-finished variant) :3
But, next morning, I realised that it's not THAT bad and that I should probably work on it some more. So yeah, be sure to follow our changelog - one day, the FINAL VERSION (and LOOPABLE) would be there :D

Oh, and I also release my music on all the platforms. There isn't much, but there's something... #ShamelessSelfPlug
blank_3D
16. Apr 2024 · 20:07 UTC
@aleksa-al :laughing:
Oznarox
16. Apr 2024 · 20:41 UTC
The graphics are very nice, and the music is good too, but it's very loud and I couldn't find where to adjust it. The controls could be more intuitive, and there wasn't a good flow to the gameplay. Once I figured out what to do, the game became a bit boring. The atmosphere is good, though, but personally, I find this type of gameplay, which involves a lot of mouse clicking, to be somewhat tedious.
NiceKot
16. Apr 2024 · 20:51 UTC
Idea and visuals are really nice, game is pleasant to look at. Background music is nice, but the screams of animals are a bit too loud (especially given that they are very frequent).

Some of the animal mutants are hilarious.

Why 'gator goes to eggs though? I mean... at first I thought meat = carnivores, apple = herbivores, but egg ??? I mean, yeah, 'gators are born from eggs, but other categories are based on consumed food, not on the reproduction type. So I was confused here.

Also not being able to abort picking up the animal needs to be fixed. If you clicked to early or by mistake on LOAD - that's it, you can't discard the animal. Sad.

Anyway, nice entry! Good work!
Aleksa_Al
16. Apr 2024 · 20:55 UTC
@nicekot

I don't like the fact that you can't interrupt the capture of an animal, but we didn't have time for a lot of things.

For example, the treatment of infected animals, the introduction of a second character and balance.

We'll post an edited version after the jam
dekara
16. Apr 2024 · 20:55 UTC
Hey, great looking and sounding game with a nice game loop. The animations, mutants, illnesses were really well made. Cool entry guys. Also for me it was to slow for the repitivness and no feeling of reaching anything.
AtzederSerbe
16. Apr 2024 · 20:55 UTC
Graphics are really good, but there was something wrong with the assets. There are noticable changes in resolution, which leads to a blurry ground. Music is 5/5, like the mood.Unfortunatelly, there is something wrong with the later levels since you only get a few animals and then the day is over without getting points
Aleksa_Al
16. Apr 2024 · 21:00 UTC
@atzederserbe

Oh, thank you. This is a bug when playing too fast. So you have a very good reaction

The developers are fixing it now
Fopie
16. Apr 2024 · 21:25 UTC
I like the graphics on this game ! The mood is pretty cool ! It's fun to play and looks all the "mutation" on animals xd
zablas
16. Apr 2024 · 21:55 UTC
Cool concept. Very nice art style! You could tie in a story that's happening in the beckground in the future (something like Papers Please did).
🎤 PlintusB
16. Apr 2024 · 22:00 UTC
@zablas Papers Please Yes Yes)) We planned more references to this game, but we didn’t have time to do everything :...)
vincenttt
16. Apr 2024 · 22:04 UTC
very cool concept, great implementation, but I got bored of the game pretty quickly.
LDJam user 248799
16. Apr 2024 · 22:07 UTC
I feel so bad for the animals I refuse :sweat:

But great game, clever idea, well done. I just wish it was more challenging, often I was waiting for animals to appear, none was able to reach the ship by itself.
Nomus
16. Apr 2024 · 22:09 UTC
That's an interesting game, pretty cool concept
I didn't like that you had to click on an animal then click on decline or accept rather than just grabbing it directly and either put it in the ship or an area designed to decline them.
Otherwise pretty fun, the goofy combinations are pretty nice, i had a bug where from thursday i couldn't even meet the quota because the day would end before even seeing 6 animals
Klemen
16. Apr 2024 · 22:11 UTC
I love the characters soo much, they are so lovely, I like the sound effects, and the textures are just prfect.
🎤 PlintusB
16. Apr 2024 · 22:11 UTC
@vincenttt@vincenttt this could be a special meditative gameplay and music experience ^_^
zablas
16. Apr 2024 · 22:20 UTC
@plintusb I see you even have the best profile pic. Glory to Arstotzka!
Capreola
16. Apr 2024 · 22:22 UTC
The artstyle is amazing, and super pleasing to the eye! The sound is nice and atmospheric too. Though gameplay is not very engaging, it can be quite relaxing. And I liked looking at funny animal mutants, too bad we can't bring them with us
fosf0
16. Apr 2024 · 23:10 UTC
This is a very interesting concept of summoning! Very good atmospheric game and nice graphs :)
brunoklipel
17. Apr 2024 · 04:16 UTC
Very fun game! The turtle sound increase the game's level :laughing: Awesome jog!
kaesterin
17. Apr 2024 · 08:00 UTC
Great graphics and cool concept! Loved the atmospheric background music, but the animal screams were sometimes loud and a bit scary. Not enough highlighting by outlining the highlighted animals, easy to get confused if there are a lot of them. But the overall impression is good, great approach to the topic
kuggenhoffen
17. Apr 2024 · 12:28 UTC
Nice looking game with great sound. Gameplay wise it is a bit simple and I wish there was more challenge. Good job!
P3ngui
17. Apr 2024 · 20:52 UTC
Really cool game, I really enjoy the game loop and Its great how you even slowly introduce the different varieties! Also I really love that you experimented with mixing body parts too :D
Babaorhum
17. Apr 2024 · 22:14 UTC
I'm obsessed with this game, I couldn't stop till the end ! A very funny and innovative, post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear catastrophe, the animals where so comical with different bodies and heads ! Very good game, it could be a little bit more complicated, thought. Good job guys !
MathieuSpooky
18. Apr 2024 · 09:00 UTC
A nice little sorting game!
Persepolis
18. Apr 2024 · 09:04 UTC
I love the combination of different animals! They are really making me laugh!
Re-Markable
18. Apr 2024 · 11:05 UTC
I really like this concept! You guys did a great job on making the animal limbs modular while still having them animate! I laughed my ass off when I saw a turtle with giraffe legs hahahaha.

I did think it was a bit sad that the mutated and sick animals weren't worth saving, what did they do wrong :(
At one point I think I saw a lion that was just shaven and I didnt take him just in case. I think that opens up a cool design point where you are teaching the player that "anything that is slightly different, isn't welcome". Could be a cool methaphor for xenophobia if you wanted to go that route.

Anyway, awesome entry, looking forward to see what you guys come up with next time! :)
Gwethelynn
18. Apr 2024 · 11:36 UTC
Nice work! The graphics were super duper nice, you made so many animal silhouettes work together! I loved looking at the trotting toward the spaceship while I tried sorting them.
JuicyBrucey
18. Apr 2024 · 22:01 UTC
Interesting premise and nice audio, i'm a fan of the graphics too. I think the feedback i would give is that I wish the loading/declining could be drag-drop, but I can see why that could affect the difficulty without changing anything else. I think it would benefit if overall the pacing was somewhat faster to give more tension to the choosing
Roman Dubrovin
19. Apr 2024 · 01:08 UTC
I like this graphics style!
Tetracold
19. Apr 2024 · 02:49 UTC
I like the artstyle it's quite well done, the aesthetic is pretty cool and I like how it gives a bot of context to the mutations. The combinations can get pretty wacky and some looked kinda funny

Gameplay wise I wish it would have gotten a bit more challenging and varied as it went on, but idea's still good!

good entry!
thetatautau
19. Apr 2024 · 20:41 UTC
Graphics and art style are great although a bit inconsistent (very different lines thickness). The randomized animals are amazing.

The gameplay felt repetitive. I would need more depth to be interesting (healing mecanic maybe). Also drag and drop would have been better for fluidity IMO (1 click instead of 3).
N3K0K33P3R
19. Apr 2024 · 21:32 UTC
Love art and sounds! Gameplay is interesting, reminds Papers, please.
Littulv
19. Apr 2024 · 21:35 UTC
A huge fan of the aesthetic, background art, and music. These worked in tandem with the theme to create a pretty interesting experience.

I definitely think that there should have been some sort of 'disposable' section like many of of the other commenters suggested as well.

Big fan of the mutation system and how the animals were effected.!
fabula_rasa
19. Apr 2024 · 21:36 UTC
The game is beautiful. Graphics are great and the music very fitting and a joy to listen to. The concept is unique and well-thought-out.

The gameplay is sadly buggy, which detracts from the experience. Bugs I met in my playthroughs:
- Clicking on the animal works inconsistently. Sometimes you have to click and click and click before it "catches".
- Clicking on the animal that is near the edge of the screen will result in it just bugging out: standing there, motionless and uniteractable, making you unable to finish the day.
- Once picked up, the animal can't be dropped. That's probably not really a bug, but intended behavior. However, I do think you should be able to drop a picked up animal (change your mind about loading it), especially that it's easy to misclick.

Still, it is a solid concept and a good piece of work!
Kiddy
19. Apr 2024 · 22:12 UTC
Really beautiful, the procedural animals are so well done
ThomasZane
20. Apr 2024 · 08:01 UTC
It's really easy to play but somehow very captivating, with exquisite artwork.
TheMoonrise
20. Apr 2024 · 10:02 UTC
I really like how the mutations work. That's a clever system. Also the grab animation is very satisfying. Well done.
konstantinreed
20. Apr 2024 · 12:01 UTC
Wow, I'm in love with the game's visual style, a thousand compliments to those responsible for the graphics. It looks fantastic. Good job!
Avi
20. Apr 2024 · 13:07 UTC
This is such a neat and unique take on the theme! I love your little creatures :)
digital bacon
20. Apr 2024 · 13:08 UTC
Love the graphical style! Straightforward, easy to learn gameplay, with excellent, gradual introduction to new animal types (mutants, sick). Very well done!
IRoRoI
21. Apr 2024 · 10:49 UTC
I like the graphics! Animal crossbreeding looks cool and fun :)
koboldskeep
23. Apr 2024 · 01:54 UTC
I don't know why it's so fun to sort the animals. I just know it is. Pretty great by all accounts. My only complaint is that there's a menu when you could just have a pen or a biohazard section to drag and drop them into. Good job coming up with something on-theme and still very unique.
JoeShanahan
27. Apr 2024 · 16:19 UTC
I appreciate with this game that there are no gotcha's - like it's not trying to trick you into thinking something might not be sick, or not be a mutant, it's just up to you to pay enough attention. I did at first send away the horse because I thought it looked sick, but I guess that's just how it looks :joy:

I also really love how you managed to build these animals in a modular way where you can fit giraffe legs on a turtle and it still animated properly. The turtle did appear to be making the noise it makes when it's getting a little too friendly with a shoe, which made me laugh.

On the final two levels, even though I didn't make any mistakes, the level ended before I got the full score. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not?
JoeShanahan
27. Apr 2024 · 20:25 UTC
I uploaded my playthrough to YouTube, I hope it's useful to you in some way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_7N6a2p5g
caeonosphere
28. Apr 2024 · 01:53 UTC
I ran into a little issue where sometimes a day would end in just a few seconds, but I didn't get punished, so it's all good! I sure liked the animations, the animalations... I've always wanted to pick up a giraffe by the scruff of its neck. Also... is that what turtles sound like? O_O
deadjolly
01. May 2024 · 00:02 UTC
Is the art inspired by Mobius at all? I really dig the pastel colors with the outlines. The music helped set the tone, which shifted dramatically as each day went along. Game seemed lighthearted at first but then it felt like it was gonna take a sinister tone, especially for all of the 'declined' animals.

This is a polish suggestion, but it would have been neat to see the astronaut guy shake his head or give a thumbs up/down when you loaded/declined an animal.

Effective animation and creative sound design helped with the presentation! Nice entry!