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Bun Alert's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| xkcd-ness (how well it matches/interprets the comic) | #4 | 4.600 | 4.600 |
| Audio | #16 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Overall | #26 | 3.450 | 3.450 |
| Innovation | #28 | 3.350 | 3.350 |
| Fun | #36 | 3.050 | 3.050 |
| Visuals | #37 | 3.150 | 3.150 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to xkcd comic / 'what if' article the game is based on
https://xkcd.com/1871/
Please list any pre-made art/music/other assets that you used.
Font: XKCD-script by iPython [ https://github.com/ipython/xkcd-font ]
Music: Lilac by YouFulca(ユーフルカ) [ https://wingless-seraph.net/en/index.html ]
Team size
2
Anything else you want players to know before they play?
Loved it that people responded "Bun alert!" to every screenshot I posted <3
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Comments
I'ma gonna get that bun! <3 Honestly though I'm more worried about the people. They cannot stand for literally 30 seconds without breaking down in tears if they are not running right on top of a bun in a field of buns. I just want to stop at all these sad souls and just ask "What hurt you? What hurt you? :'( "
:'( they long for the sweet company of a bun
True, but I do think, if you tried adding sound to the people, this game's backtrack would become a mix of hysterical laughter and uncontrollable sobbing. Just noting that. :-P
Super cute game!! Love the music and overall tone. I like how it feels like a lot of players are with you. (Are those actual human players or ai? Impressive either way). Very cool concept.
My only issue with it is you tend to do better at the game by doing nothing. It became a goal to see if we could hide from buns long enough to become sad. :P It was quite difficult. lol. My wife got 125 happiness just by staying in a bush. The buns do need to show up in case you are unhappy, but I feel as your happiness gets higher, they should become harder to spot or something?
^^ thanks! Cuteness was the main thing I was going for!
Yes, they other players are AI; I spent most of my time on the AIs.
Your last issue: yeah. The game is fundamentally flawed; didn't put much thought into it being a game until the end of the jam.
Adorable buns, and quite fun! Not much else to say, but I very much enjoyed it.
Neat idea and pretty nice flow! Good job! Anyway one thing I do want to mention is I'm doing a review of design on the games in this jam so here's a shameless plug to my channel if you want to be notified of the vid when released: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Vj46GGL9VMUvd4YTMtjXg
well, I've signed up for the Bun Alert alert ;)
My XKCD game jam analysis is out!
First off: beautiful music, it really helped the mood!
I was a little unclear on the mechanics for most of the game (seems like I needed to get close to a bun, but not too close, and I could never tell how close to get), but in the end I had fun chasing tiny buns around yelling "LOVE ME!"!
haha, that's pretty much what I did whenever I needed to test a change to the AI
This is certainly an interesting one. I hadn't read the xkcd comic it's based on, but when I did I howled with laughter and adorableness--that's a great comic to choose for a game. :)
The game itself is pretty fun, but has quite a few flaws. I love the mechanics as described in the "How to Play" screen, but some things are left to see only in play. For example, I thought you had to get pretty close to the buns in order to alert people and be happy, but that made me only startle them, which got me frustrated. It took quite a while to understand that I had to get kinda close, but not too close, in order to record the bun. It would also be great if a specific number was assigned to buns and flashed as you got the happiness; you say small ones are better, but as a player I can't really see the difference. I do love that, though, that small ones are better for your happiness/popularity (and that small ones are called "King Bun"). X)
The run speed is fine, but the animation that goes with it make it seem slow when it's not. I guess it does pair well with the music though, which I have mixed feelings about--on one hand, it's kind of over-the-top cheesy-happy piano, but on the other hand, it's perfect music for a person who lives to give other people alerts on their phone about rabbits, the kind of music that would play as that person gets an existential crisis about what they've done with their life, or when their ignorance consumes them as they happily chase buns for the rest of their days.
I like and hate the idea that there are other bun-searchers in the park with you. On one hand, that means there's competition and drive to succeed. On the other hand, it makes approaching buns really frustrating when someone else startles them away, and another person startles the startled bun, and another person--you get the idea. My biggest issue with this is that, because people startle buns in the middle, pretty much all the buns are found on the edges and walls of the park, making this game about "searching" for buns into "go to the edges and walls and be happy forever".
Though the upside of the multiple people that they can startle a bun right into you, and it will relax as it approaches and give you points. As I write this review, I've kept the game open in another window, and people have been running buns into me every so often and keeping me alive. It's weird and sad to say that my game has been nearly at its best with me just standing still--which I'm sure is not at all what you wanted.
There are a few bugs with the user screen--I've appeared multiple times on it when catching multiple buns. Also buns disappear sometimes if they hop on the wall too much--was that intentional?
The coordinates that tell you where a bun is is a nice touch, but not super helpful since the space is so big. By the time I reach it, the bun's probably gone. It's a good idea, though. Also, the sound design in this game could be much better than it is--perhaps have a sobbing sound when people collapse to the ground? Or a nice sound effect when you get happiness from buns, and a even more awesome one when you get a "king bun"? The sound could really elevate the design here.
Overall, this was a nice game! Great job with it. :) BUN SPOTTED.
Hey, thanks for your feedback! I'll try to respond paragraph to paragraph:
Thanks :) I was originally going to do a beret guy business tycoon game, but I saw this comic when doing my research
Yeah, I was going to add an indicator to the bun for when you are properly looking at it, but I ran out of time and figured that the heart over your own head would be enough. As for the happiness being dependent on the bun's size, I could probably rework the function to make it more apparent. And, yes, I love the King Buns <3
The running animation was one of the last things I put in the game, I ended up using the same time/frame I had used on the buns, but that wasn't fast enough (the humans have more frames). And, yep! that was pretty much my thought process when I picked the music!
Other people startling the bun away from you was an intended functionality; Whenever a bun report is pushed everyone will randomly decide whether or not they want to respond to it and go look at the bun (even more people in the case of a king bun). This naturally scares off the bun and they disperse to go find more. The issue of them being around the edge however.. that wasn't at all intended, and I honestly don't much know how to fix that..
Heh, probably shouldn't be the best strategy to sit around and do nothing. I could probably fix that by changing how prone buns are to getting bored, making it more likely for them to get up and leave.
Both of those are intentional. You appearing multiple times is because you are submitting separate bun reports for each individual bun. The buns are disappearing because touching the edge warps you to the other side of the map; I was going to make the drawing of the world wrap around so that it would be easier to see, but then I would have to make it so seeing buns works through the seam (otherwise that would get very frustrating). But that is something I have no idea how to do.
Yeah, the world size was one of the first things I coded in; makes sense it didn't quite map well the later features. Luckily I made the world size super easy to change, so I could fix that fairly easy. As for the sound design: again, time constraints. I was going to have sad music play when your happiness drops to zero, but I ran out of time for that. I didn't ever really expect to be able to get to the sound effects within the time limit of the game jam: the game has a lot going on under the hood that sapped away my time, but I would love to add those sound effects as you mentioned.
^^ Thank you!
[UPDATE] I have now fixed the running animation, the edge gathering (there is no edge), I upped how easily buns get bored (should at least help the do nothing to win), fixed the world edge, and lowered the world size.