CONTROLS (READ THIS): One press of any key (WASD) and your character starts moving in that direction (same as snake). If you're holding a key down, you're doing it wrong. If the same key is pressed again, you stop. If another key is pressed you start going in that direction.
I know it's a bit weird, the alternative was to make you press a key for every single step (like H is used for fighting).
Story and other stuff: All was nice and well for the stickpeople, until the evil programmer decided that even though anything with ASCII graphics is definitely minimalistic, Roguelikes must be the way to go for LD 26 ("Yo Batch, one characterz so minimalistic!").
The world is collapsing, stickpeople transform into @'s, the walls can (and will) kill you! You should run (right) for your life.
Written in Batch, sweat and tears (Developing was truly a technical adventure). Download the file, unrar and run "main.bat"
I really want to play this but I'm on a mac and I can't get it to work in dosbox, will be coming back to this one when I get to the office (PC), pretty awesome effort to write this with bat files!
I imagine it was kind of a pain in the ass to write that in batch^^ I'm a fan of roguelikes so I liked the concept of your game. However, I wasn't able to control the character properly (don't know if that's my own fault or the game's) and it was kind of annoying to be forced to restart the game everytime you die. Great work though!
@Everybody Mentioning controls: I should have written it clearer. One press of any key and your character starts moving in that direction (same as snake). you should not hold the key down! If the same key is pressed again, you stop. If another key is pressed you start going in that direction.
I'll add this to the description. I'm aware this type of controlling is bad. Unfortunately it's the best thing I'm able to implement, and even though I tried quite a lot, I couldn't circumvent this. :(
@Everybody mentioning batch: Many thanks! However, you should think what you are actually saying when you post that :) The sad part is I kinda agree :)
@Pickehut: I know the quit and restart part sucks, I'm not sure if I could make some in-game restart option, and if it'd save time at all. I suppose I should have tried to implement this.
@cahman: It's an illusion, there are also many guys going to the right, but since you're at the same speed (and since you're gonna die) you'll never reach them. :)
Very clever idea to make a DOS game for the minimalism competition. Total style points. I think the game is a little too hard - I played several times and only barely got to the part where my fellow stickmen turned into at signs. Great concept, though. I love the audio track :-).
Sir, I hereby name you Duke of Ludum Dare and King of the Minimalistic Hill! The game, as a piece of software, gets the highest possible rating by being written in batch. The animations are hilarious, and do not get me started on "sound design". Pure genius!
On the other hand, gameplay seemed to boil down to basically get the character running in a straight line and mash the H key every time a stickguy got nearby. It almost became old, fast. Almost. The fighting animations kept me coming back for more XD
In more ways than one, this is the game against which every other entry should be judged. Congratulations! :)
Thanks for the pro tip! I'll try the game again, running by my fellow stickdudes and clenching my teeth, fighting the urge to go all ascii-fu on their asses XD And a post-mortem of this particular game's development would indeed be really interesting! :D
Why there is no rates for programming? Because this is amazing programming work with such limited abilities! Let's say this is innovation. Really cool!
The walking ASCII character interested me. If you continue to develop this, I'd be curious what other tropes of text or command line you might include.
Comments37
This is the craziest thing I have ever seen.
I really enjoyed !
Very nice graphics !
ps. check my game it is also in console :)
I'm a fan of roguelikes so I liked the concept of your game.
However, I wasn't able to control the character properly (don't know if that's my own fault or the game's) and it was kind of annoying to be forced to restart the game everytime you die.
Great work though!
I like the amount of work you've put into this, but controls are not very responsive:
sometimes after going right with D and then pressing W my character has stopped, then, all of a sudden, it started to go top and hit the wall.
I should have written it clearer. One press of any key and your character starts moving in that direction (same as snake). you should not hold the key down!
If the same key is pressed again, you stop. If another key is pressed you start going in that direction.
I'll add this to the description.
I'm aware this type of controlling is bad. Unfortunately it's the best thing I'm able to implement, and even though I tried quite a lot, I couldn't circumvent this. :(
@Everybody mentioning batch:
Many thanks! However, you should think what you are actually saying when you post that :)
The sad part is I kinda agree :)
@Pickehut:
I know the quit and restart part sucks, I'm not sure if I could make some in-game restart option, and if it'd save time at all. I suppose I should have tried to implement this.
Full for innovation ! But this is so long to move....... :(
On the other hand, gameplay seemed to boil down to basically get the character running in a straight line and mash the H key every time a stickguy got nearby. It almost became old, fast. Almost. The fighting animations kept me coming back for more XD
In more ways than one, this is the game against which every other entry should be judged.
Congratulations! :)
btw, gameplay-wise, it is usually better to bypass the stickguy, as you waste more time (and are more evil) if you beat it to death.
@Everybody: Thanks! I'm considering writing a post describing how the game works under the hood. It might be of interest to some.
And a post-mortem of this particular game's development would indeed be really interesting! :D