Hello~! This was my + my team's first game jam ever! We wanted to make a party game that is cutesy but with deception mechanics inspired by games such as Hidden in Plain Sight.

We learned a lot as first-time jammers and first-time game developers! Multiplayer doesn't quite work, but you can still play solo and catch the NPCs :)

The team: four software developers and one 3D artist (who was so clutch in making the cutest tiny creatures)! Everything was made by us except for the audio/BGM!

Check out the itch.io for more details about the game as well as instructions: https://skonoms.itch.io/critter-catchers

==Details from the itch.io page==

Critter Catchers is an entry to the Ludum Dare 56 game jam (https://ldjam.com/).

Plot: you are a sentient critter among a crowd of NPC-critters. There are other sentient critter-players, but you have no idea who they are (nor do they know who you are). Discreetly collect energy to power the crane to take out your friends to become the last critter standing!

If the YouTube video claims to be private/unlisted, you can view it directly (YT clobbered the volume of the music and sounds 😭): youtube.com/watch?v=WhWs6idGC7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhWs6idGC7A

How To Play:

Controls: WASD or arrow keys to move. Left click on the mouse to deploy your crane when you have full energy (as indicated by the battery bar).

When you run the game, resize the window to be smaller. The battery sprite should be in the bottom left corner.

To play - press Host (Server + Client) in the top-left corner. If you use a relay service like Hamachi or port-forwarding, then you can play multiplayer (not guaranteed to be working)!

Once you're in (for real), try to figure out which character you are as subtly as you can!

Technical Details:

KNOWN BUG: You will need to start the host, stop it, and then start it again to get the game working properly. Not sure why!

Another bug: there's multiple cranes on the screen. I dunno why.

This project is built in Unity 2022.3.48f1 with networking backed by Mirror.

The game is buggy! - thank you for playing this game with an open mind!

The Team: This game was put together with love by Rodrigo (artist), Karl (dev), Shen (dev), Irwin (dev), and Liz (dev moonlighting as an artist's intern). This is our very first game jam, so thank you for your time!

Additional Credits: BGM - Pixel Playground from Uppbeat, license code: XEURHI7IZQHJ6NZ5 Royalty-free sounds from Pixabay.