Ludum Dare 24 - Evoluball

News & General Discussion
1

Hey, wanna check out the game I’ve submitted for the ludum dare?

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=11975

2

Just beat it. not a bad little game, but hard to tell when you’re hitting enemies imo.

3

This was somewhat entertaining. It was really lacking a lot of feedback, though. A player shouldn’t have to look for changes to the world, the changes should draw the players’ attention as soon as they happen. In this game, there were a few events that weren’t nearly obvious enough:

  • When you hit an enemy
  • When you’re hit by an enemy
  • When you evolve
  • When you clear an area and can move on to the next one
  • When you beat the game (defeat all enemies)

That second to last one in particular tripped me up for a few minutes. “Wait, was there always a skybox? I don’t remember seeing one earlier. Where are all the enemies?” drives around for a bit “Wait, how did I get back in a cave?”

In addition, it didn’t really feel like I was evolving and growing more powerful. I did notice that enemies were dying faster, but I wasn’t sure if it was because my shots were doing more damage, or because I wasn’t failing as much at aiming. Ideally, you would unlock new abilities during the game, but you probably didn’t have time for that. What might have worked instead is different types of enemies, clearly distinguishable. Certain enemies would be easyish, others would be fearsome in the early game. Later in the game, you could have had a swarm of those “hard” enemies, only for the player to realize that they’re really easy now.

A few other things help to sell the getting-more-powerful feeling - if the shots look different, for one, my mind might make the connection between damage and evolving more easily. Finally, the evolutions should be noticeably better. You’re not making a multiplayer game here, it doesn’t have to be balanced!

4

I’ve added sounds and damage-indicators (flying numbers).

Still no feedback for when you win though. I’ll be sleeping in a few and will be waking up the same hour that the dare ends. This game turned out better than the one I tried to do for Ludum Dare 23 though. I was spending more time on #23 screwing around with my voxel-terrain engine than making a game.