Worm Simulator 2012

by hburd

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.58

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.39

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.86

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.79

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.06

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.33

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★45%

*Edit: added a mac version, though I can't test it so it likely won't work. Let me know if you try it.

Prepare yourself for the most realistic, state of the art worm simulator ever made!

Actually, we didn't get anywhere near to finishing this game. On Saturday, when loading the level for the first time the game was running at 5 fps, so Sunday was wasted rebuilding everything from scratch :(

The core mechanics:
You are a worm.
You can only move through peristalsis (google it).
Point your head with the arrow keys, press space to start inching forward from the back, one segment at a time.
You can't move through rocks.
You can eat dirt, and poop out clay.
You can also eat clay (eww).
For every 15 blocks of dirt you eat, you will grow longer.
You will fall if you don't have a solid block under you.

This was going to be a puzzle platformer, but sadly, because of the technical issues, there's no time to make a level editor (let alone design a level).

Why is it 2012 you ask? You'll see when we're done...
(spoiler: apocalypse)

Art by Hugh Rawling, coding by Hugo Burd.

Comments18

gene-z29 Apr 2014, 04:24

It was my first idea,,, cool game..

Magdev29 Apr 2014, 04:38

that worm sprite...

thenmal29 Apr 2014, 04:43

Too bad you didn't get the puzzle element done there could have been some interesting mechanics/levels.

MarsBar29 Apr 2014, 04:43

Your game name is pretty much an exact copy of my entry... what are the odds...

HBurdauthor29 Apr 2014, 05:08

@MarsBar: Heh, sorry about that, I guess I should have checked or something. Great work on yours by the way.

@thenmal: Yeah definitely, I'm planning on continuing to work on this for a bit until it's actually a game

Cambrian_Man29 Apr 2014, 05:55

So... it's like a metaphor for life? Eat and poop until eventually you die. Pretty bleak. Congrats on finishing, though. I bet you could build this into a puzzle game or even a worm RPG. Think about it.

HBurdauthor29 Apr 2014, 06:30

@Cambrian_Man: Thanks! My plans are to add a bunch more things to simulate so controlling the worm is as difficult and convoluted as possible, and then maybe make it some sort of sandbox rpg.

PaperBlurt29 Apr 2014, 06:43

Good to finally have a worm simulator.
Cool and unusual.

aelita199229 Apr 2014, 06:54

The game's not bad, the graphics could be a little better though

Wakka29 Apr 2014, 07:20

funny idea

Deozaan29 Apr 2014, 07:22

Game won't run for me. Here's the error I get:

java -Djava.library.path="natives/" -jar wormsim2012.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: ld48_gl/MainLoop : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:631)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:615)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
Could not find the main class: ld48_gl.MainLoop. Program will exit.

Diptoman29 Apr 2014, 07:24

Of all the simulators.... XD

Why is it Worm Simulator >>2012<< though?

HBurdauthor29 Apr 2014, 18:23

@Deozaan: Thanks for letting me know, I can probably fix this.

@Diptoman: Our end goal was to have the worm burst out in the middle of Manhatten, turning out to be gigantic and starting an apocalypse.

HBurdauthor29 Apr 2014, 22:31

You'll get that error if you have an older JDK version. I could recompile for an older version, but honestly I'm feeling kind of lazy, I'm about to restart the game in C anyway.

MarsBar30 Apr 2014, 04:23

Heh, it's neither here nor there, it just means great minds think alike :)
thanks for checking out my game btw, I really like your art style, unfortunately I couldn't seem to get it to run :(

jsmars5 May 2014, 09:12

Great start, could be a really fun game but sadly no real goal or challange.

AlexFili11 May 2014, 08:27

This game is entertaining and does a good job of replicating the movement of worms. It would be even better with other insects or some moving objects in the background. Brilliant entry to this ludum dare and matches the theme well