Guard-Master by sonelliot

[raw]
made by sonelliot for LD33 (JAM)
Objective:

- Find the intruder and kill him within the minute!

Controls:

- Numbers 1, 2, 3 to select your guard.
- Click to move once guard is selected.
- Shift + Click to shoot in direction of cursor.
- Press 'm' to toggle music on and off!

Team:

- Peter (Design, Art, Levels, Sound)
- Elliot (Design, Code, Levels)

Tools:

- Phaser.JS + All the JS goodness (Node.JS, Babel, Browserify, Gulp!)
- Tiled Map Editor
- Asesprite
- http://www.bfxr.net/

Music:

- 'Come and Find Me' - Erik Skiff (http://ericskiff.com/music/)
- We opted out of Audio for this one.

Future:

- We're working on developing Guard-Master into a complete game. If you'd like keep track of it and play the 'in-development' version online, then you can checkout our developer blog here:

http://guardmaster.elliotbulmer.io/

Ratings

Coolness 40% 1627
Overall(Jam) 3.27 476
Fun(Jam) 3.12 478
Graphics(Jam) 3.48 485
Humor(Jam) 2.39 727
Innovation(Jam) 3.69 109
Mood(Jam) 3.18 479
Theme(Jam) 2.38 1039

Feedback

scambier
25. Aug 2015 · 11:45 UTC
Nice game, very cool art and simple gameplay. I'm just having a problem where 1 and 2 work great, but I must press Shift+3 to select the third guard (I'm on a mac)
Lane
25. Aug 2015 · 11:57 UTC
Cool idea, although I don't really see the connection to the theme. It's fairly hard at first but since the intruder starts in the same place its pretty predictable. Nice idea! Would love to see the idea extended.
TomOlivier
25. Aug 2015 · 11:57 UTC
I really like this kind of micro-management + action game. I had no bug, graphics are slick, music is great also. Do you plan to add some bonuses like better guns, lights... ?
peterkirk
25. Aug 2015 · 14:25 UTC
I really like this concept. Took me a while to realise I needed to look in crates and boxes.
gnuwilliam
25. Aug 2015 · 17:20 UTC
Nice game
🎤 sonelliot
26. Aug 2015 · 01:54 UTC
Hi guys. Thanks for the awesome feedback! :-)

@scambier: What browser do you use? We only tested on Chrome. Also, check if you have any extensions that mess with keyboard input. We both use Vimium and had to add exclusions for the number keys.

@Lane:

Glad you like our idea! We started off with monsters when we were brain storming and then got onto 'inverse' games. Like what would it be like if you took Mario and played as all of the enemies to try and stop him. The one we liked the most out of these inverse ideas was Metal Gear Solid.

You're right, the AI is very predictable, he just picks the hiding spot which is furthest from all of the guards. Since the guards all start bunched up, he always picks the same place. If we go further with this game then we'll definitely work on making the AI smarter!

@TomOlivier: Yeah definitely. We had a bunch of ideas that we didn't get into the game. Like:

- adding firefights (so the intruder has a chance to fight back)
- making it so that the FOV extended out in a cone in front of the guard and they could be taken out silently from behind
- adding security cameras
- giving the guards different weapons and abilities
- etc etc

If we decide to continue developing the game then we'll be working on all this stuff. :-)

@peterkirk: Thanks! I've add a little tip to the description just in-case.

@gnuwilliam: Thankyou. Glad you liked it! :)
mungoman1
26. Aug 2015 · 20:54 UTC
Nice game! Not sure how this matches up with the theme, but it was fun and fairly unique.
pkenney
27. Aug 2015 · 02:31 UTC
Cool, difficult puzzle game, great interface and it looked and sounded really nice. Well done!

If the pacing was slightly quicker I probably would have retried more, but I guess that might throw off the balance which is good right now.
KilledByAPixel
27. Aug 2015 · 02:57 UTC
Fun idea. I had trouble finding the intruder. At first I didn't realize that I was supposed to search inside stuff. Then I think I had him trapped in a crate but he wouldn't come out, maybe it was a bug. Mostly I had trouble searching. Having 3 guards didn't help all that much, like I want to be able to triangulate or trap him somehow. I finally won just by shooting randomly a lot and got lucky. ;)
t4u
27. Aug 2015 · 21:45 UTC
Graphics - above average(4), music - ok(3.5)

Gameplay:
Boring but with potential. Even thought you have 3 guards while you are searching you only have one. Let's face it in this game there are to phases:
- Searching
- Hunting (once you find prey)

In Searching I would preffer if it was mor etime managemnet thing, that you could give orders to your guards.
Guard 1- Check boxes in room
(Giving orders to guard 2)
Guard 1 done? Check other room!
(Giving orders to 3)
2 done? Shift+2 => Another room!

In hunting I wish it was more stlaking the prey, setting the guard so that if prey runs from one guard he meets another.

Overall: High on innovation but I feel weak connection to theme.
togie
29. Aug 2015 · 01:54 UTC
Loves the concept but im on the newest chrome browser and i was getting bad bugs.

If all crates were open in the first level he would hop in the right middle crate and i was unable to open it.

Second level he hoped in a locker and when opening it he would flash on the screen leaving a red "!"

fun though :)
CrazyMinnowStudio
29. Aug 2015 · 02:08 UTC
Perfect play on the theme! Great implementation. Love it.
NickMakesGames
29. Aug 2015 · 02:40 UTC
It's not bad, but I didn't really love it. I think my main gripe with this game is that it doesn't provide the player with much information as to where they should look for their target. Actually finding the intruder feels more like a game of luck than skill, since there's no real way of knowing what general area they're in.
I think that if there were objectives that the intruder was trying to complete, or extra disposable guards who the intruder could knock out, it would be much more enjoyable to try and read the field and get an idea of what areas the intruder might be in.
That would also help make it feel more rewarding when you uncover the intruder, because it was the result of your clever thinking and understanding, and less of you having lucked out and checking just the right crate.
BeardyBard
29. Aug 2015 · 05:10 UTC
The game is a difficult puzzle. Good Job!!!
HotBoxGames
30. Aug 2015 · 00:07 UTC
This game is awesome!

Love the concept, having to be tactical with the guards to corner off areas and search your surroundings. Really impressed that you've got pathfinding in there too, that's something we struggle with.

Was quite hard to get the thief first time, but as they're in the same place each time makes it easy to progress .. with more work spent on it I'd like to see the thief hiding in random locations each time, maybe with quicker movement from the guards allowing you to counter the thief more easily. Or perhaps allow the camera to view the whole room so it doesn't jump for each guard?

Overall, really liked this entry, would keep playing if there were more levels! Nice one! :D
Larzan
31. Aug 2015 · 15:18 UTC
Nice, great gfx and gameplay, pretty hard though.