Five Seconds

by latcarf
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.90
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.08
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.85
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.52
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.12
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.12
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.28
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.37
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★93%
Here is my Lua/Love2d game, I hope you'll enjoy it!

The aim is to fill the timer by collecting clocks.
You can play either with the keyboard or a joystick/gamepad.
There are five levels.

Linux users:
Install love with your favorite package manager, then download FiveSeconds.love and run `love FiveSeconds.love' (or double click it in your file manager)

Windows users:
If you already have love installed, you should be able to run the .love file directly. You can also download FiveSeconds-windows.zip, unzip it, and run FiveSeconds.exe.

Mac users:
If you already have love installed, you should be able to run the .love file directly. You can also download FiveSeconds-macosx.zip and do whatever you need to do with it.

Web version:
If you have a WebGL enabled browser, you can try the web version. It may be slower than the native version, though.

Update: I converted the wav sounds to Ogg Vorbis. Hopefully the problems that some are experiencing after collecting a bullet are gone now.

Update: Web version uploaded (you need a WebGL enabled browser). I have rather low FPS on my netbook but it's still kind of playable (I finished the game). On my work computer, it works just as well as the native version. I don't know if gamepads work in the web version, because my Chromium doesn't like WebGL and my Firefox doesn't like the GamePad API.

screenshot

Comments42

vani77a26 Aug 2013, 10:11
I actually enjoyed that :)
josefnpat
josefnpat26 Aug 2013, 12:46
Very nice game, with a good learning curve. Nice joystick integration as well!
Dioiminik
Dioiminik26 Aug 2013, 15:29
Enjoyable game :) Though It hangs every time I try to collect a bullet and then it just says gives me the no time left message
Falcon26 Aug 2013, 15:30
Fun! Has a nice arcade-feel to it.
Xotraz26 Aug 2013, 15:36
Good idea but not really fun.
headchant
headchant26 Aug 2013, 16:57
Had a similar concept in mind when I first heard the LD theme. Your execution is quite good! A more deterministic way of telling what items come next and where they go could make the game more complex (maybe). Nonetheless a fun little game.
leafo
leafo26 Aug 2013, 17:29
Wow this game is really intense and high paced, or I suck, but I still enjoyed myself. Great job
mort96
mort9626 Aug 2013, 18:00
That was really frustrating with that ringing noise and extremely sensitive controls. A positive kind of frustrating though :P
Zuige
Zuige26 Aug 2013, 18:56
The game stutters every time you try to grab a bullet. :/ I didn't quite grasp the idea of the game either. You just have to survive?
Diogo Muller26 Aug 2013, 19:00
Good idea, but the execution is a bit strange. Sometimes I get unlucky and only enemies spawn.
apaneske26 Aug 2013, 19:01
Like the idea, but had a little problems with the controls. Was able to get the game to hang when the time was running out and either an action was taken or a clock was picked up.
Latcarfauthor26 Aug 2013, 19:46
@Dioiminik: You can't move after collecting a bullet? That's strange, I've never had this bug. Does it happen every time or only sometimes?

@Zuige: You have to collect clocks as quickly as possible. You win when you have more than 10 seconds left.

@Diogo Muller: Yes, the next item/enemy is determined randomly every second, so sometimes you have a lot of enemies and sometimes very few :(. You shouldn't get only enemies, though, if the time is low and there are only enemies, the game will spawn a clock or a bullet (and if there are only bullets, the game will spawn a clock or an enemy).

@apaneske: Ok, I'll try to see where those hangs come from.

Thanks for playing everyone!
wally2069
wally206926 Aug 2013, 21:50
The character moved a little too fast and was difficult to control and collecting things could have been better
Nights5726 Aug 2013, 22:05
Very fun game, was actually a bit hard to put it down to comment! Also loved all the mouth made sound effects, added a lot of humor to the game haha.
BlackBulletIV26 Aug 2013, 22:10
I like the concept. The controls were difficult to use, mainly because of the really fast moving player.
Gaeel27 Aug 2013, 08:03
Nice, but SOOOOO hard!

It was nice meeting you at the event, I'll make sure your brother is kept up to date with future events and he'll trickled the info down to you I hope ;)
frogcheese
frogcheese27 Aug 2013, 09:58
Mac user here, the Mac standalone works without a hitch. As for the game, I found it difficult to control (I'm using the keyboard). The character was so fast that it was easy to overshoot your target and waste time. Bullets were really hard to use on level 3, as well, which is where I stopped. But the first two levels were still pretty fun.
RobotParking
RobotParking27 Aug 2013, 12:35
This is very neat. I actually liked how tight/responsive the controls were!
Laelien
Laelien27 Aug 2013, 13:34
Damn, this must be easier with a pad, 'cause I can't get past level 5 with a keybaord >< Very good. The sound every second should be a little less loud, I think. By the way, is that the sound of a pen falling on a table ? :P
Niavlys27 Aug 2013, 17:12
Laelien, I finally beat it on keyboard! Yay!
alts28 Aug 2013, 03:45
I also had some technical issues with the game. When I would pick up a bullet, the game would momentarily stall. One time it hung the game completely. I was able to trace it to the `play_touc` function. Not sure why, but if I comment it out, the game runs perfectly.

Personally couldn't get beyond Level 3. I'm just not very good at this kind of game.

I think the game might be made a bit more interesting if there were a trade-off that the player had to make with respect to getting more time and killing enemies. Right now, killing enemies is the obvious best approach, since it makes it easier to survive, and will provide extra time. Might be interesting to mix that up a bit.
Latcarfauthor28 Aug 2013, 23:12
@alts: Thanks! The play_touc function plays a .wav sound whereas most other sounds are in .ogg, and I've seen in the doc of Love that playing .wav sounds is buggy, so maybe that's the reason. I wasn't expecting it to be that buggy, though... I'll post a fixed version tomorrow.
Diamonde
Diamonde29 Aug 2013, 09:48
Crazy hard game but very enjoyable :D
Pierrec29 Aug 2013, 18:43
It's amazing how fun this game is, without any need of good sounds or graphics (no offense). I'm glad I can play it at last. Level 5 is a real bitch (but also thefunniest)
Nick Cash30 Aug 2013, 00:36
Very good entry for the 48 hour compo. I like the idea of using time as both a resource to manage and a victory condition. The only real problem was that hat the controls felt pretty loose sometimes; I'd be trying to get a bullet but just end up dancing around it and lose. The RNG nature of some of the levels (that last one in particular) was also a little frustrating, but the levels are quick so restarting was never really painful.

Nice work!
Latcarfauthor30 Aug 2013, 16:54
I uploaded a new version where I converted the wav sounds to Ogg Vorbis. Hopefully the problems that some are experiencing after collecting a bullet are gone now.
supermaximo93
supermaximo9331 Aug 2013, 15:49
Nice game. I thought the movement was a bit too fast and hard to control though.
reheated31 Aug 2013, 16:38
Quite addictive. Nice one!
onzephyr31 Aug 2013, 16:41
nice concept, took me a death or two to figure out the limited bullets. but I got it. player moves almost too fast for me to control well. but I think that's my limitation not the games. Overall very well done. Also Nice whistle
Almax2731 Aug 2013, 17:49
Nice idea. I just find the movement a bit too much fast. :)
wbobeirne
wbobeirne31 Aug 2013, 17:55
Great game! Controls were a little frustrating due to your character moving so damn fast though.
loxo31 Aug 2013, 18:06
Nice game, with good sound effects! Only the character is a bit hard to control. I used the keyboard, maybe it's better with a gamepad.
wilbefast3 Sep 2013, 08:57
Really nice little game, with plenty of polish :) The keyboard movement needs to be adjust though: it's far to "fidgety". I'd recommend adding an artificial "gravity" (that's what Unity calls it anyway) to the keyboard inputs. That is rather than snapping immediately from -1 to 1 when you release LEFT and press RIGHT, have a linear interpolation of each axis towards the current input. You get this "by default" with a joystick so I can see how the game would work with a gamepad, but with a keyboard it's a bit tricky at the moment.
Latcarfauthor3 Sep 2013, 21:40
I uploaded a web version, in case anyone is interested (you need a WebGL enable browser, and it's slower than the native version).

@wilbefast (and others): Indeed, I should have done something like that, it didn't occur to me at the time. I'll remember it for the next Ludum Dare :-)
dekart4 Sep 2013, 17:35
Very good concept, I like its responsiveness and speed. Sometimes it was hard to collect the bonuses, but anyway I like it.
cobrajs
cobrajs6 Sep 2013, 21:25
Great fast twitchy action! Pretty challenging.
GFM
GFM10 Sep 2013, 21:58
Nice use of the theme. It's different from the majority of games I've played.

I played this on google chrome. FPS seemed normal, but controls were really troublesome. You move so fast that it's really difficulty to control precisely where you are going.
RawBits
RawBits16 Sep 2013, 18:55
Hey, this is very cool! At first I thought it will be sloppy to control it like that but the fast paced action made it work. Good job!
JaJ
JaJ16 Sep 2013, 19:55
Controls wern't great, but I love the "I'm only going to give you five seconds" concept!

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