Summon Traffic Controller by Ben Albert

[raw]
made by Ben Albert for Ludum Dare 55 (COMPO)

You are the Summon Traffic Controller! Guide Creatures to their correct summoning home and Yeet out the ones that don't belong!! Attempt to beat all 5 levels and become a the ultimate summon traffic controller!Picture 1.PNGPicture 2.PNGPicture 3.PNG

Ratings

Overall 125th 3.647⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Fun 67th 3.818⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 122th 3.545⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Theme 132th 3.773⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 234th 3.167⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Audio 151th 3.273⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 77th 3.53⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 192th 3.242⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 388431
15. Apr 2024 · 02:16 UTC
The idea's really fun! The trash wasn't working super consistently for me, and it seemed like you could farm points from pulling guys in and out. I walked a little too far into the trash and fell off the world, not sure if that's intentional but it seems like I clipped out of the map lol. Still, it's a fun game and I hope you can build on it in the future!
LDJam user 386211
15. Apr 2024 · 02:55 UTC
"Please dispose of the creatures in the designated trashcans" hahaha! I like this game but the big issue I've had is that at least for me I could only use left shift and with my hand shape (I guess?) it was very difficult to do a dash. I would consider dashing in some other way, but apart from this the game is really cute and I'd absolutely keep playing :D
🎤 Ben Albert
15. Apr 2024 · 14:04 UTC
@warren-fisher Thanks! Yea the trash is a little finicky, you wont be able to retrigger getting points by moving the same monster in and out of the trash but it's still not perfect. Also yes falling off the map is not quite intentional lol
🎤 Ben Albert
15. Apr 2024 · 14:05 UTC
@myse Thanks!!! Yea I wanted to give the ability to rebind the dash key or an alternate dash input like right click but I ran out of time :(
LocksmithArmy
15. Apr 2024 · 15:32 UTC
This is super cute, great idea, great job.
SecretJuice
15. Apr 2024 · 15:46 UTC
A fun, hectic entry! Well done!

A couple notes:
- I found the throwing mechanic a bit inconsistent, i think usually it had to do with the distance feeling off from how far I was moving the mouse. I'm not exactly sure what it was.
- I thought the difficulty jump between level 3 and 4 was pretty high. Maybe that's just me though.

Great work!
cheesepencil
16. Apr 2024 · 03:31 UTC
Delightful! I dislike the keyboard + mouse controls but the cuteness more than compensates. IMHO a game like this should be playable with a controller. It's quite a bit of fun
RilleP
16. Apr 2024 · 11:22 UTC
Good job! This was a really fun game!

The drag to throw implementation was a bit inconsistent maybe. It was hard to control, for me atleast.
Camera angle maybe a bit to low, you couldn't really see what was behind you.
Restart button was not working for me, otherwise I think I would have played more.
🎤 Ben Albert
16. Apr 2024 · 12:57 UTC
@secretjuice Hey thanks! Yea The throw mechanic definitely gets a bit wonky with moving and the camera angle which I sadly never got back to :(
🎤 Ben Albert
16. Apr 2024 · 12:59 UTC
@cheesepencil I appreciate it! Yea I wanted to add in controller support and fling creatures with the right analog stick but sadly didnt get back to it
🎤 Ben Albert
16. Apr 2024 · 13:02 UTC
@rillep thanks!! Yea I realized near the end that having the camera that angled and placing more things behind the player like summoning rings felt bad since you couldnt see as much. Also I accidentally never wired up the restart button :face_palm:
josang1567
16. Apr 2024 · 16:12 UTC
Very fun, the models are very adorable and the gameplay is entertaining, the only problem is that sometimes the enemies were not caught or thrown well but other than that I have not seen any problems
Kseniya
16. Apr 2024 · 16:21 UTC
It's a fun game, sometimes time goes too fast
tykenn
16. Apr 2024 · 16:41 UTC
That was fun. It gets crazy in later levels with dozens of creatures bouncing around and trying to launch them through the crowd to the circle because there's not enough time to walk them there.
hamster cheeks
16. Apr 2024 · 20:21 UTC
Super fun game, it goes from cute to hectic fast haha, its awesome!
fabula_rasa
17. Apr 2024 · 14:15 UTC
I love how hectic it gets. The core gameplay loop is fun and there is a good variety of creatures.

With how fast the gameplay gets, I think it would be better to have sprint on by default and press shift to slow down. Or make it a toggle. You end up pressing shift constantly anyway.

What I didn't like is that the creatures can spawn directly on the summoning circles. With larger maps, you can't even see that it happened. So you think you have a perfect ritual composed, while there is a sneaky additional creature on your summoning circle and you fail. And you cannot run constantly back and forth to check your circles for invaders - there is no time for that. Maybe just some flashing of the circle in the UI to notify you that something is wrong would be enough to solve that issue.

Overall, it's a fun concept and a good jam job :smile:
🎤 Ben Albert
17. Apr 2024 · 16:46 UTC
@josang1567 @kseniya @tykenn @hamster-cheeks Thanks so much for playing!

@fabula-rasa I really appreciate the feedback. Yea I was going for an overcooked style feel but realized later you dont spend really anytime staying still in my game which would have made a toggle sprint way better. Also having enemies sneak into circles off screen was one of my biggest annoyance with the game. I have an arrow that turns from green to red in the UI but I definitely agree it should be more of an indication to tell the player. Thanks for playing!!
VortexB
17. Apr 2024 · 22:12 UTC
Fun little game! Felt like a great casual game and would be really fun to play with a friend. Add some more mechanics and with a bit of polish this game could be a blast. Reminded me of overcooked. I did have a few bug and physics issues. Great job
ellaris
19. Apr 2024 · 10:10 UTC
- The throwing was nice, but maybe the creatures shouldn't stop on the circles, especially when standing inside and trying to throw them out (maybe they could stop if there speed is slow)
- I think it would be cool if the creatures bounced off more, kinda like billard balls
- At the beginning I would forget about the run key, but then I needed it and it seemed to let me down sometimes, and I had to re tap it
🎤 Ben Albert
19. Apr 2024 · 12:24 UTC
@vortexb Thanks! Yea definitely went for an overcooked like feel!

@ellaris My only fear for that would be how precise you how have to be for throws, but I do agree that you should be able to throw them out of the circles. I really like the idea for more bounciness especially with levels being slightly harder and demanding for more shots that would bounce of a wall! Also the sprint is more of a dash instead of a sprint state, which I should have been more clear about.
ZackFrankMusic
19. Apr 2024 · 17:54 UTC
Such a fun game, Ben! The pacing was great and it really started to shine when things got more chaotic! I love that each lil guy had their own yeet sound haha
JojoPalambas
26. Apr 2024 · 21:22 UTC
Nice game! Really loved the mouth sound effects ^^
KrummSakura
26. Apr 2024 · 23:14 UTC
It is a really fun game which makes you want more. I like the simple capsule character with hat and staff, which is cute and well animated. Disposing the excess creatures is a nice addition to the main loop of the game. Good job!
Eric Schmiel
27. Apr 2024 · 01:31 UTC
I really enjoyed this! It's a nice escalation and the last level creates a lot of tension and helps illustrate where the concept can go. It wasn't clear to me that I had to be right on top of the guys though to pick them up at first, and there was some difficulty grabbing the exact one I wanted when a bunch were clustered together. I had a great time with the game though :) A+ for whee sounds
DaivyIsHere
27. Apr 2024 · 09:33 UTC
Simple gameplay but really well done! I wish there's more physic interaction involved like bouncing those cubes through walls. Great game!
Jvdwijk
28. Apr 2024 · 23:02 UTC
Fun little game, really polished for a compo entry as well!
It is a little bit frustrating if a random pawn walks onto the platform at the last moment, maybe being able to send the summon when its ready would've been nice! (would make it good for the last batch of summons as well)
digital bacon
30. Apr 2024 · 11:24 UTC
This is a fun little game. A bit frustrating at first, but nothing another 24 hours couldn't have buffed out :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Good work!
idan9000
08. May 2024 · 14:07 UTC
Hey, I saw your video "Just Make Games" on YouTube and had to check out your game! The combination of the dash and throw mechanic create a surprisingly skill expressive game, and the sound effects tie the game together well and create a fun game feel that I was not expecting from just watching the gameplay in your video.

The main critique I have is that the scoring system seems a little rough. If you break your combo and lose the multiplier you can kiss any chance of getting a star goodbye, and even in some runs when I played almost perfectly completing each request and throwing every other creature out for the extra points I ended up being 20ish points off of 3 stars on the third level.

I think a more quantized scoring system such as losing health (and a star) for each wrong request could work well, and to incentivize still throwing the extra creatures away you could make that cause more creatures to spawn or give you a speed boost.

Overall solid entry. I enjoyed playing it and I liked the sentiment of your video. Congrats on the game.
Nicolas Gonzalez
02. Jun 2024 · 23:49 UTC
I loved it, it was really fun, really well made and executed, there was a lot of care to make sure the player always had the necessary ingredients for the summoning and a lot of other details like that i noticed.

I liked the difficulty curve and how different levels managed to change things up.

It made me want to keep playing :smile: