Team : alpha_rat(development) + -DEX- (sounds and music) Engine : Construct2 / HTML5 Graphics : Photoshop
GOAL : Infest the Queen Ant CONTROLS : use arrow keys to move your host, press space to change your host when in range WARNING : change your host often, as it won't survive your infestation for long! and beware of the ant guards
Notes : - the behavior of the guards is still buggy
If you miss infecting an ant in the beginning (press space without an ant in vicinity) the delay until the game restarts is a tad too long. I made it to the queen, but for whatever reason I was no able to infect her. Cool take on the theme!
@kyyrma : It's true that at start when the parasite is dropped it should be possible to restart quickly without waiting. Thanks for reporting the problem with the queen as I didn't noticed anything similar so far, i'll try to fix it ;)
Tricky to see what you're actually controlling at the start but when i got past that it was good, got into a nice rhythm of swapping ants! Green ones weren't much of a threat though.
Cool idea and style. This was interesting to play around with.
One problem I had when playing is learning about how the meter works. I must move quickly. The effect on the ant that I control is visually subtle, so my eyes are busy constantly scanning, and because I move down they are looking on the bottom half of the screen. But the timer is a thin strip of pixels near the top of the screen. I really was unaware of the value of the timer while playing, and as a result it took me a while to learn that changing hosts only filled it a little. I originally assumed it was a host-death timer that fully reset each time I changed, and didn't know why I was dying.
A few ways to fix that would be moving the meter down, making it bigger, or even better having an effect on my character itself instead of a meter. There could also be a warning as I approach death such as a sound or visual effect. Also making the one ant I control more visually distinct from the rest would help me.
Overall this was fun, you have an interesting system to explore and the challenge level is right. Nice work!
@pkenny : thank you for the feedback! I perfectly see your point, and your critic is very useful :) I'll correct this in the post-LD version of the game.
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-DEX-21 Apr 2015, 15:13
Thanks for all the feedbacks , i'm glad our game is worth time :)
The concept is really clever, the gameplay has a great flow and is really addicting. The music and art fit the theme very well :) I would make the radius in which you can infest other ants more clear though, the light emission gives a wrong feeling of that radius.
M
mikomic21 Apr 2015, 23:32
always cool, love your games (ici une amie de l'ombre ;-) )
Nice game, but a little too hard at the start. Maybe some previous levels to learn might help people to get the controls and mechanics. Fun game, good work.
I like the balance of the difficulty in that game. I couldn't keep track on the health and the game at the same time, so maybe the meter/health/whatever should be displayed over the infected ant?
@retrophantom : If you go all the way down and see the queen room, then you have to take the passage on the right, then bottom again, and you're there ;)
This was quite addictive. I think I died about 30 times before I finally got to the queen but I just couldn't stop playing until I completed it. The quick restarts really helped pull the player in for just one more game. Nice job.
Comments24
One problem I had when playing is learning about how the meter works. I must move quickly. The effect on the ant that I control is visually subtle, so my eyes are busy constantly scanning, and because I move down they are looking on the bottom half of the screen. But the timer is a thin strip of pixels near the top of the screen. I really was unaware of the value of the timer while playing, and as a result it took me a while to learn that changing hosts only filled it a little. I originally assumed it was a host-death timer that fully reset each time I changed, and didn't know why I was dying.
A few ways to fix that would be moving the meter down, making it bigger, or even better having an effect on my character itself instead of a meter. There could also be a warning as I approach death such as a sound or visual effect. Also making the one ant I control more visually distinct from the rest would help me.
Overall this was fun, you have an interesting system to explore and the challenge level is right. Nice work!
I would make the radius in which you can infest other ants more clear though, the light emission gives a wrong feeling of that radius.
I couldn't keep track on the health and the game at the same time, so maybe the meter/health/whatever should be displayed over the infected ant?