Ludum Dare Entry

rooster

Hi all, I finished an entry recently for Ludum Dare 48 hour game making compo. I'm a bit hesitant to post cos it's pretty rough around the edges from a technical standpoint, but on the other hand I'm pretty happy about what I got done in the tight deadline (remembering I had to code the game logic too). Anyway, for those that might be interested I'm presenting it here

I have to say even though I consider the gameplay kinda weak (maybe even an afterthought) I really enjoyed coming up with some kind of story and atmosphere to convey and not really telling the player anything about it, just letting it speak for itself. I think I'd love to work on more like these, maybe with better gameplay and little a bit longer- almost like you're playing a snapshot from the middle of a story. You're just thrust into the middle of things and left to figure out from what you see what's happening..


anyway, here's a link to the game (it's 4 megish, and very short!) and some screens:
http://www.redprodukt.com/GPC/Stratus.zip

murph

Just downloaded it and played it... Awesome!!!! Your description that it's a snapshot from a larger story is dead-on, I had that exact thought while playing it.

Really great work

Stinger88

Awesomeness. For a game made in 48 hours its bloody good man. I was hoping more of the objects would have other puzzle uses, but I expect that's what you intended if you had more time...right?

rooster

cheers! yeah definitely rick, I think this would be better as a week long project so I could add a bit more to the interactions and tasks you have to perform. I wanted to have stuff like a minigame to wrap bandages on your cut, and stuff like that so you're interacting more with objects in the scene. But, 48 hours is a cruel, cruel timeframe . yep, I'd love to have spent a week on it

what do you guys think about the idea of a series (maybe collection) of small short games, each a snippit from the middle of a story (maybe the action climax of the piece, or some quiet bit where not much happens but it's interesting to experience). Maybe each story has subtle references to the others in a way you can kind of piece together to get a vague picture of events

DietCoke

That was sooo awesome! Excellent, excellent work. The lack of context is so intriguing. When I got on the gun and started shooting I actually had a huge grin on my face. It was very exhilarating. And when I picked up the photo to toss in the engine I actually thought "aw, that's too bad." I'm so impressed, and also really inspired. I've been toying with the idea of making a small game, and seeing what you've accomplished in such a short time, and with such simplistic graphics is really impressive. GREAT WORK, and I hope you are pimping this all over the internet.

I think your idea of making more "scenes" is excellent, and I strongly encourage you to do it!

Hazardous

Man this is the kind of stuff I want to see more of on the front page. This is wicked dude hats off to you. I also really like your idea of a collection of small short games, if you do go through with that you could be onto like a... micro approach to game dev! Get on that man!

Stinger88

rooster wrote: »

what do you guys think about the idea of a series (maybe collection) of small short games, each a snippit from the middle of a story (maybe the action climax of the piece, or some quiet bit where not much happens but it's interesting to experience). Maybe each story has subtle references to the others in a way you can kind of piece together to get a vague picture of events

totally. Sounds like a great idea. Had a thought that maybe the story could follow and inanimate object. i.e a wrench. The wrench gets used as a puzzle element. complete the current scene. The wrench falls from the sky ship onto a boat, complete puzzle, wrench gets picked up by bird, dropped in a tower of some strange castle, etc, etc. Each scene you control a different person obviously. And in each scene you can see your previous scene outcome in the distance. Just an idea.

Stinger88

Yay...featured on IndieGames! congrats, keep it rolling.

Lol at minecraft comments.

http://indiegames.com/2011/08/freeware_game_pick_stratus_ric.html

DOG-GY

"This has a similar visual vibe to Minecraft"
I can't disagree more.

On a more positive note, I played it yesterday. It was a ton of fun! Great work.

Maph

That was totally awesome! Loved the entire flow of the game, art style and implied story!
On a side note, what engine did you use for this?

gilesruscoe

Played it, mind = blown, awesome man! Would also like to know what engine you used!

beancube

wow! can i have some more please sir? hehe

oobersli

awesome work man.

rooster

damn I really appreciate the comments, thanks guys . DietCoke yours in particular pleased me because that's exactly what I hoped people would think when I made the picture . I actually made it so that there's *just* enough objects to throw in that you don't have to use it . I wanted to put more sentimental items in there too like an instrument of some kind, but ran out of time.

the engine is quest3d, which is what I use for all my game stuff. To be honest if you can use unity, that's probably a better game engine to use.. but I just clicked so well with quests workflow that I put up with it's weaknesses..

for those that might be interested, here's the texture sheet.. you'll notice the laughable amount of wasted space!! that's because I knew I wanted one texture sheet but had no idea how much I would need to use/get done as I went along. I didn't want to have to re-arrange anything so I erred on the side of caution and went for a 512. I reasoned that anyone playing the game on a modern-ish pc could handle many times the texture space I was using anyway so flexibility ruled in this case.



edit: heh, I just realised I never used the blue tarp which was supposed to cover part of the engine. Ho well!

Minos

I love this, will give it a try later!!

hobodactyl

Holy shiiit this is awesome! I actually came across it from indiegames.com, then when I checked the website in the Readme I was like "ROOOOSTEEEEERR!"

Your stuff just keeps getting more and more awesome! This is honestly really inspiring. I thought the sound effects actually worked perfectly. Keep it up!

EDIT: Didn't realize there was a video up of Pineapple Smash Crew, it's looking awesome!

Minos

Just played it, it's short and sweet. The ending could be better, as it's just a black screen with a thank you message. Looking forward to seeing you take this to the next level!

IxenonI

Thats so cool. Love to see more of that.
The ending is a bit of a letdown as ppl mentioned

Callesw

Really awesome. Too bad it was that short!

rooster

thanks! I'm sorry about the ending, I'll have to ask you to forgive it due to the time constraints - as you can imagine I had something much nicer planned.. and there nearly wasn't anything! In case it's not clear, it's supposed to show you escaping and letting someone out who had been hiding for safety in the hold

ZacD

I thought I ran out of time the first time I beat the game, so I had to play through again just to make sure I got everything XD

Stinger88

rooster wrote: »

thanks! I'm sorry about the ending, I'll have to ask you to forgive it due to the time constraints - as you can imagine I had something much nicer planned.. and there nearly wasn't anything! In case it's not clear, it's supposed to show you escaping and letting someone out who had been hiding for safety in the hold

I was wondering who the 2nd figure was.

I think I noticed a tiny bug. I'll report it anyway. On my desktop (win7) the clouds when you hit the enemies are just red. But on the laptop (vista) the clouds are black and red. I only noticed because I was surprised it looked better on my laptop. Anyhoo, not a game breaker, so no big deal.

Ninjas

Whoa I have not played yet, but saw a screenshot up on RPS. Nice work! I will try to get a chance to play it -- been busy gettin ready for PAX.

Steve Schulze

In case you haven't yet noticed, you got a bit of a write-up on Rock Paper Shotgun.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/23/ludum-dare-21-ships-spikes-batpunching/#more-70750

EDIT: ...Which is what Ninjas just mentioned like the Ninja that he is. A link for your convenience anyway.

konstruct

fing cool man

cholden

That was fun, really dig the art too. Nice to see folks keeping the "game" in "game art"

Ninjas

yeah, I totally dug it. Nice work! I wish the bullets were affected by the velocity of the ship but I understand you were on a tight schedule. The art is great.

defco

Brilliant work, played it through couple times . I hope you make more in the future.

rooster

Heyooo

just a quick bump cos the results were announced!
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-21/

I came 9th overall, and 1st in graphics category!

definitely encouraging me to think about expanding the game/universe
soon as I get some down time from smash crew I'm on it!

gauss

congrats man. was proud to have seen it get coverage on RPS, that's a feather in your cap for you

jaalto

rooster wrote: »

definitely encouraging me to think about expanding the game/universe
soon as I get some down time from smash crew I'm on it!

You should! I played it through and enjoyed every second