
Ludum Dare #25compo
Diabolical Genius
HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, 48 hours
Diabolical Genius is a simple RPG where you play a classic evil mastermind character. You make evil plans, commit crimes, and try to stay out of jail.
Look for some hidden references (a goat and the end of the world), and let me know of any bugs, gameplay flaws, or suggestions. Enjoy being diabolical!
For information on the development process, go to my tumblr: deathraygames.tumblr.com, or @deathraygames on twitter. If you might be interested in combining forces for a game jam sometime, feel free to contact me.
Diabolical Genius is a simple RPG where you play a classic evil mastermind character. You make evil plans, commit crimes, and try to stay out of jail.
Look for some hidden references (a goat and the end of the world), and let me know of any bugs, gameplay flaws, or suggestions. Enjoy being diabolical!
For information on the development process, go to my tumblr: deathraygames.tumblr.com, or @deathraygames on twitter. If you might be interested in combining forces for a game jam sometime, feel free to contact me.
Comments19


ethankennerly17 Dec 2012, 03:34
Looks sinister and the animations entertained me. Reminds me of super villain pencil and paper roleplaying games and Mafia Wars style social games. If you continue developing this, I'm curious what happens when I execute a few Diabolical Schemes, what other interactions get unlocked.

Cosmologicon17 Dec 2012, 04:18
Awesome theme, awesome graphics, great audio. Gameplay is pretty iffy. I felt like I was just spending all my time waiting for progress bars.
davidwparker17 Dec 2012, 06:09
I hate that I couldn't spend my Genius Points!
Neat game though... I agree with the comment on feeling like all I'm doing is waiting. But good graphics/animation/sounds.
Neat game though... I agree with the comment on feeling like all I'm doing is waiting. But good graphics/animation/sounds.

DustyStylus17 Dec 2012, 10:23
Interesting concept! I don't know if it's a Chrome thing, but I had to move the mouse in a kinda wierd in/out way to get that "activate scheme" button to work once it was planned out. I like the graphical style and the sounds were good. :]
Meep17 Dec 2012, 11:04
I really like the overall look and feel of this. :) I feel the idea could be further expanded on; it has a lot of potential!

Prelucid17 Dec 2012, 11:12
Nice one. Only thing I would change is making working parallel to something or make it its own mini game.
har_g17 Dec 2012, 14:54
damn.. this is my game, but better.. 5 stars for you.
Nik17 Dec 2012, 22:44
Addicting game, I can see this as one of those games on smart phones where people have to wait in real time for those schemes to be completed.
kewry17 Dec 2012, 23:31
That was fun
TheCze18 Dec 2012, 13:35
Nice game, love the "thought bubbles" that pop up while planning a scheme.
Btw. maybe you want to give my game another try, you need to press x and c quick alternatingly in the beginning to get started :)
Btw. maybe you want to give my game another try, you need to press x and c quick alternatingly in the beginning to get started :)

Pitoum19 Dec 2012, 21:44
Hey, that's funny! Like a lot the thought of the character :) Maybe it's a bit slow, but I let it run while I'm doing something else to earn money right now ^^

deathray20 Dec 2012, 04:24
Thanks for all the good, helpful and inspiring comments! I've already begun working on designing some updates to the gameplay to make it more interactive. I can't wait to have time to make some improvements.
However, as for the LD25 version, wally2069 made a post that made me realize that I shouldn't have included the sound files that I did because they were not made by me (albeit available for free to anyone on freesound.org). For some reason I thought small sound samples were okay, but I don't think so after re-reading the rules. I just updated the game at the links above -- all I changed was to comment out any sound-playing code, and removed the sound files completely. Please adjust your scores appropriately. So sorry about that! Next time I'll know better.
Of course, the most current version of the game on my site will still have the sound, but please do not rate me on that. Thanks!
Curious - Has anyone had the enduring patience to beat the game? I know I haven't! If you care to cheat, I'll give you this console hint: dg.character.money++; :)
However, as for the LD25 version, wally2069 made a post that made me realize that I shouldn't have included the sound files that I did because they were not made by me (albeit available for free to anyone on freesound.org). For some reason I thought small sound samples were okay, but I don't think so after re-reading the rules. I just updated the game at the links above -- all I changed was to comment out any sound-playing code, and removed the sound files completely. Please adjust your scores appropriately. So sorry about that! Next time I'll know better.
Of course, the most current version of the game on my site will still have the sound, but please do not rate me on that. Thanks!
Curious - Has anyone had the enduring patience to beat the game? I know I haven't! If you care to cheat, I'll give you this console hint: dg.character.money++; :)
bigbadwofl20 Dec 2012, 05:23
Thanks for rating Dig-Dug Dungeon. You asked: The GL stuff is an open source javascript game framework I'm working on.
Well done on Diabolical Genius. I enjoyed it and it's quite innovative. Would have loved some sounds but can obviously understand time constraints. Good luck!
Well done on Diabolical Genius. I enjoyed it and it's quite innovative. Would have loved some sounds but can obviously understand time constraints. Good luck!

fishbrain21 Dec 2012, 17:42
Quite an interesting concept, and well presented. Nice style with the thought bubbles and icons. (Although I was getting 'NaN' values for empty resources and some HTML format codes appearing).
Sestren2 Jan 2013, 13:01
Breaking out of jail seemed a painfully long process without decisions to make along the way, but overall I really liked this game. If you have a post-compo version, I will definitely play it!
donmilham5 Jan 2013, 03:31
There seems to be a lot of content here. I wasn't sure exactly what to do during the "action" phase. I could click on the icons, but didn't seem to affect my scores much. Graphics were good. Neat game, good job.

rvmook7 Jan 2013, 20:34
I liked the idea, but after a few turns it became a bit repetitive. On a side-note, when clicking the spawning icons in the browser (Chrome on Windows) it sometimes selected your canvas which was sometimes annoying.

deathray8 Jan 2013, 22:58
Thank you all for your votes! I'm honored that you put my game in the top 5% for Theme, and that you found the game funny. Next time I'm definitely going to work harder on making the game fun!
@ donmilham & rvmook -- unfortunately I never implemented a way to effecrively click the action icons and have them affect your scores. Maybe in a post-compo version...
@ donmilham & rvmook -- unfortunately I never implemented a way to effecrively click the action icons and have them affect your scores. Maybe in a post-compo version...






- Horned Star = Notoriety
- Dollar Coin = Money
- Green Clown = Insanity (100 -> madness)
- Red Eye = Suspicion (100 -> jail)
- Blue Brain = Genius Points (not used)
- Gray Cloud = Dud (nothing happens, no progress)
- Yellow Lightbulb = Scheme Innovation (not used)
- Bloody Dagger = Scheme Tactic Chance (gives a bonus during the execution phase)
As hard as the game is, there *is* an ending. ...Of course it'll require 10000 coins.