I’m too awesome for this
So here’s our game:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=62808
This ludum dare’s been quite a bit different than the last time. You guys barely tried then, now you kinda did. No fair.
Actually it was the exact same with me. But it wasn’t enough, barely got any points where it mattered. Audio of course was stellar, which came as a huge personal tragedy. I promised our musical genius friend Snijboer I’d try and overtake his category, but it was all for naught, he’s too good and just ended up carrying us again. Oh well.
The real problem with the game wasn’t that any of us didn’t try hard enough, the problem was that I specifically tried too hard. The theme was, of course, terrible, and unlike the last time I had no idea what to do and ended up coming up with this idea of a destruction derby where you drive a shapeshifting car over various surfaces that I ended up not able to execute properly and losing sight of the goal many times along the way until it ended up somewhere on the “meh” side and having absolutely nothing to do with shapeshifting.
It was a game though, and it was too hard because I couldn’t think of a way to make it easy. Probably sounds kinda stupid but that’s how it is. People kept telling me that I should buff the armor or make the enemy cars slower, but when I do the former you just waste a bunch of time being really confused pushed around by the other cars until you run out of gas and die, and when I do the latter their presence disappears entirely.
Another thing that not many people appreciated was the controls and the general weirdness of the game. I’m awesome enough to think up all these crazy piece-o-lard features AND use them effectively, but to most people the game just feels alien. Where to start – it’s a top-down game, not a popular thing these days. It’s a top-down driving game, probably haven’t seen one of those since GTA 2, and besides, driving itself isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And worst of all, it’s a top-down driving game with a really weird mouse-controlled camera that I have literally never seen in any 2D top-down game. I made that up, and watching streamers play, it was not an easy-to-grasp concept. Doesn’t help that looking out for cars coming for you is a huge part of the game. The driving itself, I think, hope, was universally liked? A streamer grunted that it was kinda drifty, but eventually got into it, generally got positive feedback otherwise. I spent a ton of time on the physics and trying to nail that drifty feel, coupled with dynamic camera sway to drive it home a bit, but not to an excessive degree this time, learning from Turbo Tram Drift, my previous LDjam entry that made some people seasick (which I found super hilarious considering it’s a 2D game)(apologies to anyone who actually threw up).
One major flaw that I knew from the very beginning was the tacked-on shapeshifting part that was supposed to play a much more major role. The goal of the game is to gather enough fuel to be able to enter your car’s plane mode for long enough to fly over the canyon that you spawn next to and save yourself. It was supposed to be a little thing that you have to figure out, but as it turns out, unlike the Hollywood movies, figuring things out while in the middle of a hectic life or death situation can be quite difficult, especially if you don’t have any time for that stuff and have a lot more games to review.
Attempts were made to up the presentation from the last time. Now with a proper main menu, pause menu, actual buttons to click (including one to quit the game), sound effects and even a touch of dynamic lighting using normal maps, the game is officially ready to become the star of the 1998 Ludum Dare.
The game wasn’t too buggy, I can’t think of anything actually. It’s just a bit rough around the edges when it comes to dying, you can actually unpause the game after you die and the game still goes on in the background, even though you can’t see anything. Most likely nobody even noticed (kinda hard to see when you literally can’t see).
So the takeaways for the future endeavors are:
- The camera can work if I force it down your throat next time. I’ll make a shooter and laugh at your misery while your fingers curl in pain trying to grasp your mouse to aim and shoot. No more ignoring it out of comfort.
- Hard games aren’t for Ludum Dare, especially those without difficulty curves. It’s not your fault you’re not as awesome as I am.
- Either make an action game where you turn your brain off or a point’n’click adventure that you try to figure out, not both.
- I might need a new musician since I have no idea if Snijboer is fine with having his music in such shitty games anymore, I know I wouldn’t. Speaking of which, his Soundcloud.
Coolness 75%
