Dinosaur Survival Bash!!

by orni
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.77
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.81
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.09
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.84
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.22
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.51
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.35
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.11
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★82%
story:
======
this is a game about natural selection!
(which is the prime force behind evolution as we all know)

you play one of many little creatures, hoping to evolve into a fullgrown badass, firebreathing dinosaur!

it's survival of the fittest! kill the other - evolve!

you have to evolve into the highest form and kill all other puny competitors to win the game.

have fun!

controls:
=========
wasd: move around
mouse1: attack
q: fireball (later on)
e: sprint (later on)

notes:
======
originally I planned a lot more but as you might have experienced yourself - time is rather short. I wanted to include random mutation as well (being the other important part of evolution) to have some actual evolution going on in the game. however - that system turned out much too complex and I had to scratch it :(
(same goes for music ... I suck at composing)

Comments73

zakchaos27 Aug 2012, 03:01
Enjoyed your game for a few minutes man, You have a great consistent art style, and a very cool control scheme there man. I think that adding Story text, as well as varying backgrounds could make your game engaging, and very fun!
thanks for makin this cool little game, def gives me lots of ideas!
-@Zakchaos
Ragzouken
Ragzouken27 Aug 2012, 08:14
Fun, pretty - It would have been nice if you could have had the map always spawning a mix of the creatures, so it doesn't seem like everyone is evolving exactly as you do, but rather that you are rising up :)
nosfer
nosfer27 Aug 2012, 08:19
it's like pokemon simulator, i like it :)
Lidfrid
Lidfrid27 Aug 2012, 08:29
Very cool graphics and gameplay, well done!
Twisted Devotion
Twisted Devotion27 Aug 2012, 08:34
I like it, The graphics are great and consistent and the game play is challenging.
Orni
Orniauthor27 Aug 2012, 08:42
thanks guys :)

I wanted to include other species, about a dozen, and different color variations and abilites - but there is only so much I can do in 48h
PohyCZ
PohyCZ27 Aug 2012, 09:03
Awesome, i love this one! :)
zapaman
zapaman27 Aug 2012, 09:04
Extremely cute and fun!
phren27 Aug 2012, 09:05
Wow, very cool graphics! The game was fun to play, but I seemed to get owned by dinosaurs spawning right next to me and shooting fireballs. Overall the game felt very complete. Great job!
Orni
Orniauthor27 Aug 2012, 09:12
yeah, you have to look out for those, that's what the trees are for, try staying in between them
games are supposed to get harder - especially game I make ;)
Thurig27 Aug 2012, 09:27
The graphics are really good! Plays fine. I enjoyed it.
Jamin
Jamin27 Aug 2012, 09:42
Fun little game! Straight-forward and has a very nice pace to it.

I did catch myself realizing a bit late that I had evolved. I guess the new icons on the screen should have been evidence enough, but I was naturally expecting more of a Mario-style grow/shrink sort of thing.

Oh, however, GAH, chording E+D to dash right. Maybe throw a key like that on shift instead? My fingers will love you for it.

I'll have to go back and play Asylum, and I look forward to playing more games built by you. Thanks for the awesome!
amidos2006
amidos200627 Aug 2012, 10:10
Amazing as usual as all ur ludumdare entries :) I like it :)
JokerDen
JokerDen27 Aug 2012, 11:00
Amazing visual work. I like style and gameplay very good. And he look like charmander :)
timtipgames
timtipgames27 Aug 2012, 13:30
Nice game! My absolute favorite feature: Enemies shooting at each other :)
Vennril
Vennril27 Aug 2012, 18:00
Fun game and cute art style =)
I also like how you can actually look around with the mouse.
savethejets127 Aug 2012, 19:11
Cool game. Love the Graphics.
pereubu27 Aug 2012, 19:48
maaaan, this game is insane, from all the guys that used the theme "evolution" this way, you're the one that added it to the gameplay the more professional way so far.

The game is absolutely clean from any bug and/or problem and the art is shiny.

the roguelike style fits prefectly and dying is absolutely not frustrating ( in the bad way i mean ). Great job, i'm now trying another time to go to the top of the food chain !
Orni
Orniauthor27 Aug 2012, 20:09
I'm very amazed you guys like it that much!

I had to scratch so many features I planned to do that I feared the "remaining" stuff wouldn't be enough for a fun game.

It's a shame I hadn't 2-3 more hours to invest ... I could've implemented more polishing effects (screen shakes and shadows and sound effects and such things) as well as more content (like more abilities) and improve the AI more. I think the AI turned out more or less decent, but being a long time Robocode coder I could improve it (much much) further

sadly I don't think I'll make a post-compo version, since the game concept has quite limited potential
Mach60KAS
Mach60KAS27 Aug 2012, 20:11
The graphics are really lovely, and there's quite a lot of fun to be had from marching around a fire breathing dinosaur, too. :) Good Job!
x3zinja1228 Aug 2012, 03:42
I love this, whole-heartedly! It takes a simple motive and adds a fantastic art style and intuitive gameplay without losing the sense of direction and purpose. Great Game!
kodguaxinim28 Aug 2012, 08:46
Very fun game and will be pretty neat to have a post-compo with that 2-3 plus hours. Add a childish anime short story to it, a couple of cute light-hearted companions to relief the loneliness of the main char. It's always good for a portifolio or just for fun haha

Really like it, and by the way, I feel like a charmander and thats pretty cool
Jeremias
Jeremias28 Aug 2012, 11:59
Nice and addictive game. Here is my feedback:

- If I got a levelup, there are spawning enemies on my level. That's a bit sad, because it makes no sense to try to be fast. Instead you can fight single enemies and then regenerate slowly. It would be funnier, if a lot of enemies spawn at once at the start and everybody tries to kill as much as possible to get on the higher levels.
- Sometimes enemies killed me instantly with 2 or more hearths. I'm not absolutely sure about this.
- An enemie spawned into me and killed me instantly. A spawnfree-radius would be nice.
Orni
Orniauthor28 Aug 2012, 12:10
@Jeremias:
thx for your feedback - all your points are good ideas which I somehow didn't think of during development (my head was buzing from all that coding anyway)

actually the enemies progress on their own - if you evolve too slow they will start spawning on higher stages than you (making your life considerably harder) but I agree - I didn't think this through
emveyh
emveyh28 Aug 2012, 16:58
Great graphics, great controls, great game! :D keep it up!
Zccc
Zccc28 Aug 2012, 17:00
Great graphics and very fun.
crockid528 Aug 2012, 17:04
Interesting concept, i like the way that the world is so free, and all of the lifeforms are againts each other not just you :)
IJoshayy28 Aug 2012, 17:31
Fun game, if a little to hard. Good job =)
FunByJohn
FunByJohn28 Aug 2012, 17:33
Very cool. I interpreted the theme being a fix of evolution and survival of the fittest :D It felt pretty cool walking around fighting my own species, and then realizing sometimes when a more developed race appears, it sorta scares you for a moment, sort of tells you how it would feel to be a real animal walking around in nature encountering a more dangerous and bigger animal :)
CappaGames28 Aug 2012, 18:29
Liked the graphics, gameplay and evolution system. Good job.
kirill
kirill28 Aug 2012, 19:14
Wow, nice one! Great gfx. I liked the tree so much, I had to have a go at my own tree, lol: http://styts.deviantart.com/#/d5cuwcw
What was annoying is when you were turned at a slightly wrong level you would not hit your enemy and get killed very quickly, so I never made it beyond the firebreathing level.
Also, nice particle effects on the fires.
I'm bookmarking this one ;)
Colisan
Colisan28 Aug 2012, 19:24
Never made it to the winged one... it hard ! But I really, reeeaaally enjoyed it ! Congrats :)
Bemmu28 Aug 2012, 19:44
Cursor position affecting the camera and the player turning to face the cursor were nice touches.
BrothersT
BrothersT28 Aug 2012, 19:56
great little game. It definitely gets a lot more fun when you throw in the long range attack. well done!
Pixelulsar
Pixelulsar28 Aug 2012, 21:00
Good game, it was very fun. Graphics are also cool.
nuria28 Aug 2012, 21:46
Very good graphics! The controls were not good though, I don't think using the mouse was all that necessary. In general a cool little game, well done!
renatopp
renatopp28 Aug 2012, 21:57
Cute and fun! And man, it's hard when comes the fire!
flyingbear28 Aug 2012, 22:00
The main character sprite enticed me to check this out. solid gameplay, looked forward to seeing what the upgrades were.
BenW29 Aug 2012, 04:10
Looks really good. I could never evolve past fireballs though, it just got too hard.
Maple
Maple29 Aug 2012, 12:12
Not bad at all. :)
Barry Abrams
Barry Abrams29 Aug 2012, 12:54
Game was pretty solid, though I think it could use a bit of backstory or something.
Chezzo29 Aug 2012, 13:33
This is a crazy good game, man! Difficult, addictive, AND you could tell you had no idea what you were going to do before you got the theme. Which is the point of LD, I think. Wonderful job. This should win.
kato9
kato929 Aug 2012, 21:29
Really nice! Simple concept but executed very well. The enemy AI is actually pretty good (especially for 48 hrs). Graphics are solid as well. But why F5 to restart?? Haha, not that it's a big deal, but kind of annoying on a mac keyboard.
Orni
Orniauthor29 Aug 2012, 22:10
@kato9:
because I initially didn't have the time to make a restart function and thought that the browser would simply reload the swf on F5 ... but I was wrong about that and had to change that but somehow kept the F5 key (well, it was late, I was tired ^^)

@barry abrams:
I can't really think of a backstory for this - but if you have some cool idea, please tell me :D

@BenW:
yeah - it is hard. but I've managed to beat it twice so it's doable although I have to say that some little tweaks (like a spawnfree radius around the player and a small delay before enemies could shoot fireballs) would improve balance a lot (funny, those are changes I could make in 5 minutes but somehow didn't saw during development)
matthias_zarzecki30 Aug 2012, 00:07
I was alone in the world. Discontent with my predicament, I went off in search of a partner, an equal, to share my company, and finally end my solitude.

After some time in the woods I indeed saw another! Oh blessed be the spirits, my loneliness was finally at an end. Eager, euphorically I approached my new friend-to-be, and

SO I MURDERED HIM AND ATE HIS HEART

Seriously. This is how the "story" of the game reads.

Enough about that, though: Graphics are beautiful, gameplay is punchy, and the evolution-aspect is well done. Also nice work on the crontrols, they work so flawlessly I wasn't inconvenienced at any point.

But still. Your enemies are "your kind"? Make them another color, it would be a first step towards defusing this
Jacic30 Aug 2012, 00:30
Nice game, but a bit simplistic (as you mentioned). What's here is fun though! :)
AndyBrown
AndyBrown30 Aug 2012, 05:39
Great entry! I found myself dying instantly a few times, but it was fun to level up and evolve!
Maxium
Maxium30 Aug 2012, 07:53
Fun game. Camera controls felt a bit loose, but the fighting was still good.
SiENcE30 Aug 2012, 09:24
Your pixel graphic is very nice! I would choose the mouse buttons as weapon controls instead of keyboard.
Kuulog
Kuulog30 Aug 2012, 14:37
Fun game. I liked the way you can move the camera with the mouse.
Starmen30 Aug 2012, 18:26
Really nice, fun game. I felt like I was a Pokemon, which was great. The art was really nice too, although I noticed some tiny mistakes. Stuff like just flipping the sprite to do left/right movement. That doesn't work because the lighting swaps sides and that looks a bit weird. Still, that tiny gripe aside it's a really nice game. Good job.
tripleVisionGames30 Aug 2012, 19:01
Great graphics and really fun! Hey if you need music for anything I'd be happy to help, I love making music! Love the extra abilities with E and Q, really felt like I could kick ass when I got them
someone
someone30 Aug 2012, 19:56
Excellent game, great fun.
Sometimes it felt like I was dying for no reason, but I think that is because the game over screen is so abrupt I didn't see what did kill me.
Also the monsters attacking the second they spawned right next to you was irritating.
AuxiliumGames
AuxiliumGames30 Aug 2012, 23:05
Pretty fun game :D Camera control was well done, and a great feature!
90sml
90sml31 Aug 2012, 12:19
I really loved the graphics and the idea. But too bad there is no music or any goal except destroy them all :p
Switchbreak
Switchbreak31 Aug 2012, 23:58
Really nice graphics. I got a bit frustrated, it would be nice if there were checkpoints at each stage of evolution. The combat seemed weird - sometimes I could fight, other times the attacks would randomly one-shot-kill me and I would have to start all the way back at the beginning.
Gib
Gib1 Sep 2012, 09:53
Loved the way you handled the camera. Great entry o/
Evil Cult3 Sep 2012, 08:09
At first I didn't like the way the camera moved but as I played more I really liked the frantic looking around feeling as if I was playing an FPS. Graphics are fantastic. Audio was good but could have used some music I think. Gameplay was also great but I found that a couple of my deaths seemed a bit unfair. Fantastic work for the 48 hours. Probably the highest rating I have given a game thus far.
mfitzp3 Sep 2012, 12:34
Great little game, would love to see this developed further. I think you could extend the game concept if you included multiple species, perhaps some that don't attack their own kind (swarm), and reproduction with mutation. Make it asexual, so after a certain time/when full health/enough space in the environment it splits into two (including the player) with some alteration in stats or random level-ups. That would give you both natural selection and evolution.

Anyway, it's great fun as it is! Thanks for making it.
shard123
shard1233 Sep 2012, 15:59
A really great entry! It was easy to learn and really addictive. The graphics and polish were really good!
juaxix3 Sep 2012, 17:16
The only thing I would like to change is the balance of the firepower and enemies generations.
What is the tree chopping stuff for?
Thanks for an awesome game!
free_napalm3 Sep 2012, 17:47
Great work, and nice consistent graphic style. Quite addictive, too, but I quit after the third failure in fireball age, because I did not want to play through the easy levels again.
zkenshin
zkenshin4 Sep 2012, 18:07
Nicely done, loved the art :)
Gornova
Gornova6 Sep 2012, 08:54
I liked you rgame, well done!
LoneStranger
LoneStranger7 Sep 2012, 04:30
I thought the idea was good, but the controls were a little difficult to get, especially when the camera changes, but the mouse cursor doesn't. I like the idea though, especially how the trees end up as casualties of the battles.
AaronYip
AaronYip10 Sep 2012, 19:31
Everybody else covered all the highlights I would have said, lol, so I'll try to give more feedback.

The fireball battles were definitely the sweet spot. :) I found myself hoping for more abilities and design centered around that mechanic (wind buffers, teleports, stuns?), maybe at the cost of skipping one of the earlier melee evolutions or somehow adopting procedurally generated sprites (ala Bubble Tanks). Deaths came pretty quickly though, and I seldom knew what hit me. :( Then again I may just be terrible at this, lol.

I disagree with you that "the game concept has quite limited potential" :P I can totally see a free-for-all DotA/LoL-esque battles with this system. Different evolution paths determined by how you play and earned by successfully killing other players and "farming" trees. Add in regenerating health, running away, stuns, and it'll still be an awesome gaming metaphor of natural selection. ;) Make it happen, man. :D
Fadobo10 Sep 2012, 22:18
Really awesome man, super addicting!

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