The next version will have improved movement physics and mid-air control, which should prevent getting stuck in few places (tho if you still remember circumstances of that bug occurring, then let me know!). The new menu system will also warn players, should they pick the "Give up" option.
Sorry for the late response; thanks for playing btw!
It's a general purpose game engine, with good documentation online owing to its popularity (which means there is a lot of good quality tutorials out there about anything you need).
It can also work on weaker computers, if you're making a 2D game (or any game with simple graphics).
I mean, it really depends on why the guards are protecting these items in the first place. But since there's no story explaining that, them shooting you only after acquiring treasures, seems plausible.
While it might seem like the project has been completely forgotten and abandoned, it's not entirely the case.
I plan on posting a devlog explaining the whole situation in more detail, as well as the current state of the development soon. All I can say for now, is that over the past several months "life happened" for me, and I couldn't work on this project much (or at all).
Also, thank you, but please, do NOT make any donations! There's no need for them right now, and they won't really help the development.
Initially, I actually wanted to upload this as a WebGL game. But unfortunately, I could not do so, as the engine I used does not support HTML format (there are versions that support it however, but the one I own is not one of them).
Though, I do see how making it playable in browser could be beneficial not only for the game itself, but also regarding it's accessibility!
For a game created within 30 days for the jam, that's a one hell of an impressive feat!
Everything, from graphics, sound effects, the little details (such as seasonal changes, and bugs actually being there, moving), and the design of the entire game, has been done flawlessly! It almost feels like a full fledged game... I mean, it is, but it is not usually expected for game jam games to be of this quality and finish!
The gameplay is also good. It's surely unique, and seeing a strategy game is not common for game jams, let alone the ones with this type of unorthodox approach to the game mechanics. However I must admit, that the instructions could be a little bit clearer. There's quite a lot of mechanics here to learn and to keep mind of during playing, and that can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning. I eventually got the hang of them in my second attempt, but still had problems keeping all the variables in my mind and planning out my moves accordingly.
But still, this is probably one of the better entries on this jam, and it sure is the best one I've played as of writing this review!
I liked the artstyle, the music, and especially the special effects. Seeing bugs getting splattered from my punches and dashes, was hell lot of satisfying! The premise of the story was also good; huge fan of absurd stories like this!
But the gameplay could use some tweaking. The player gets thrown into action, and gets overwhelmed by the insects, a bit too quickly. My first few attempts lasted about less than 7 seconds or so, because I haven't had enough time to get use to the gameplay flow. Once I grabed the dash power up, and got to the platforms, I've sorta got the hang of it. Too bad that it seems to me, it is one of those games where the best strategy is to stand in one place and fight off the badies, as I did by standing on the low platforms, punching incoming foes until I'd get pushed off the platform.
The fighting mechanics could also use some improvement. It was hard for me to time out my attacks, because I couldn't tell their range, and I could not just get close to an enemy and start punching, as it didn't stun them or anything, and it also was hard to tell when they would attack you (they still could land a hit after getting pushed away). I found out that punching them and jumping away, was a good strategy, but the sheer amount of foes coming from the other side out of nowhere made that strategy less effective (dashing through the other side though was an improvement to my strategy, as dashing completely cleans anything in it's line. But after dashing, my character could still get hurt through means I could not notice).
Don't get me wrong; I don't mean by all of that, that the game is unfinished or unfun to play. On the contrary, after I got used to it's game mechanics, it was fun to play (albeit slightly clunky for reasons I've mentioned above), and as a whole, the game is rather good! I just thought that I might list out my feedback regarding the gameplay, so that it might get improved, or that you could use it in your other projects.
I don't know much about the tools you've used to create this game, but as soon as I've read "Ray marching" and "Signed distance fields in shaders", I assume you did some hefty software engineering with this small project, and I am impressed by that!
The game itself, looks pretty, the sounds are of good quality (especially the music tracks), and the gameplay was easy to learn, yet hard to master. The only minor issue I've had, is that sometimes the walls were generated in such way, that I could not evade them fast enough (tho, that might be because I haven't played this game long enough). I also think, that the "Perfect step" mode, should be the default moving scheme, with maybe some smooth transitions in between columns.
I'd say that's a pretty solid endless runner, and it's a great entry as a whole!
(On a side note, I could also say that this game made me feel oddly nostalgic for some reason. Perhaps it reminds me of the old flash games that used to have experimental 3D pseudo graphics or something...)
That was weird. The poor graphical design, combined with a goofy music, and an unorthodox approach to the gameplay, surprisingly created a weird aura around it. Playing this game felt like having a some sort of fever dream, which I found an interesting experience.
Unfortunately, the gameplay, wasn't nearly as good.
The camera was too much zoomed-in, and the inability to rotate it on the horizontal axis, made it very hard to see around the map. The instructions also weren't clear enough; I eventually got into the PC, have beaten the first hacking minigame, and started attacking PC components. It seems, there's not enough time to destroy all of the components in the first level (I was repeatedly clicking on them, but the time to destroy them was too slow). About 30 seconds before the end, I pressed E on the green cube inside PC (assuming it was the exit), but it froze my game.
Also, the UI seems to be cutoff in the WebGL version. Pro tip for making UI in Unity: use the anchors if you want to put images on either right or left side of the screen (this way, they will be stuck to these sides, no matter what the current resolution is)!
All in all, it was an interesting concept for a game, and the audiovisual side of it was pretty cool and unique. But you still need to work on gameplay design.
Any button on your keyboard will do. If you do that, the warning screen will fade to black, and you'll get the intro sequence. The game may still freeze during that, but should it happen, it'll happen just once during your first bootup.
I liked the pixelart graphics, especially with the unusual aspect ratio of the screen. But the best part, was the music! Sure the soundtrack on it's own, maybe is a bit too simplistic, but considering that it was created for a small game jam project, and also considering how hard it is to compose even a single music track (I'm talking from my experience), I am really impressed!
But unfortunately, the main game loop, isn't that great. The worst offender, is the pollen collecting section. I liked the overworld, and I thought that section had a lot of potential! I wasn't as optimistic when I realised that slowly crawling around the map, occasionally tapping E was the only function of the overworld section (and that it took ~75% of the game).
The dancing section... that was my first contact with a rythm-based game; I have absolutely zero experience in those types of games! Therefore, take this feedback with a grain of salt: the notes moved a bit too fast, and an option to change key bindings, or a control scheme, would also be nice. Other than these two, the dancing segment was alright (far better than the overwold section at least).
If the overworld section would get either improved or reduced/removed, that'd be great. But still, this game is rather good!
The part of the screen that is visible to the player, is a bit too zoomed-in. That, combined with the player's speed, has put me one too many times into scenarios where the time between wasp aggro range, and me getting... stabbed? ... was way shorter than human reaction time. Tho, eventually I became a bit more cautious; the fast walking speed perhaps made me a bit too confident.
I'd suggest increasing the margin of error, by either lowering player's speed, or by tweaking the wasp A.I (like, by making it patrol>warned>chase system, instead of patrol>chase).
Level design, could also use some tweaking. The designs themselves are fine, but the visual side of it is a real bummer. If you'd add some props, and would cut levels into segments, that would differ in walls and/or floor textures... I think, that combined with the increased margin of error, would make the screen being too zoomed-in not that big of a problem!
That's a feedback for you. I must say that I appreciate the fact that this game has it's own music, huge props for that! The story was so absurd and nonsensical, that I love it!
Strange... I ran this on both my main pc, and my college mid-range laptop, and it worked on both. Have you tried pressing any button while the warning screen is on ? (you have to press a button to skip the warning screen) Did it froze, or did it fade to black and then froze?
edit: Oh, and thank you for the report! Working on an outdated software, while trying to make something more ambitious than the engine was meant to be used for, is sure, something...
I've ran this game on few machines; it usually loads within a minute or less. However, if the Web version isn't working for you, there's also a Desktop version (although you should check the requirement listed at the bottom of game's description, if you want to download it).
No, by starting from scratch, I meant starting from the very beginning (I should have written "from scratch" not "from the scratch", sorry). The game has been made, and is still being worked on, in Unity engine.
I know, that would be a great addition. But unfortunately I cannot do that right now.
Making online games is different to making regular games. If I'd wanted to add multiplayer, I'd have to rewrite the entire code of this game, as if I started making it from the scratch.
From a technical point of view, health is stored in a floating point number. But when it's displayed, it is rounded down. So you probably had something like 0.5 hp.
Game balancing is not my strongest suit, tho I think I've got a tip for you. When the game starts, try to find a melee weapon (preferably crowbar). If you can't find food around, you could get it from breaking barrels. And also, try to keep some spare food you found when it's possible.
You can swim by holding the crouch button, while standing on water (This will not work on shallow waters of course). When swimming, you simply use WSAD keys to swim around, and space bar to swim up.
Unfortunately, making online games is completely different to making regular games. That being said, implementing online modes, to a game that was worked on without the intention of including such modes later, is almost impossible.
And also, I don't think how hazmat suits are supposed to protect you from people whose main job is to kill everyone who approaches their monument.
However, cool tip: you can go in monuments and not get shot, if you find a cardboard box!
That depends on difficulty level, and on which time you choose to run through a monument.
Since NPCs check for possible enemies every few seconds, you can run past them without getting noticed, though that is pretty risky and might not always work.
Originally, I meant to finish it somewhere in summer. But because of the reasons I've written at the end, I'm afraid it might be ready presumably somewhere in autumn.
I'm glad that Todd Howard himself enjoyed my game! Now, I don't entirely understand what you mean with proper free-roam mode. If by that you mean a mode where you don't need to worry about nukes, well, I was considering adding a custom game mode where you'd be able to customize a lot of gameplay aspects (including enabling/disabling nukes). I might add it, however I don't think I'll change the current inventory system. Having ~6 items at once in this game, is usually more than enough.
Strange, there was once problem with guards going through walls, however I thought I fixed that. Guess I'll have to inspect that issue, once I get back to the development. As for the guards difficulty (is that what you meant by making them worse?), well sorry but they were meant to be hard. If you're having trouble raiding a monument, try sneaking in, and/or find items that could potentially help you in your raid.
The hazmat suit does not protect you from the nuke. It only protects you from the radiation and from fire, by taking all of the damage on it's durability.
