Pikki has arrived in a strange place. Pikki does not belong here. Pikki must choose what to accept, and what to reject. Will Pikki be able to adapt?
A short game made for Ludum Dare 34, with the themes "Two Buttons" and "Growth." I drastically overscoped this one, and as a result Pikki will likely never see the surface, but I'm pleased with what I was able to achieve in the time limit. This is the first time I've been able to add music to my game, so feel free to mute that with the "M" button at any time.
Controls: The entire game can be controlled with the mouse. Alternatively, you can use left and right, or "Z" and "X" to select buttons. "M" mutes the game. There's said to be a secret, forbidden button that can be found by true explorers... Those who are in a hurry can use "~" Whatever that means!
Sometimes it's not obvious what would happen (I guess that makes sense though). Played it over several times, really like how it all looks, how you change (especially the first stage). Would be awesome to have smoother progression between those two stages (not complaining it's not there now, just that it might make sense to work at it :)). Good job.
Hah, this isn't usually my style, but I liked it. I got to the end of the second stage and presumably died. Nice effort with the art and game style though. Not sure the audio lives up but it didn't detract in my opinion. :D Definitely my favorite thus far.
Thanks for all the feedback so far! I wanted to have a third stage about life on land (and possibly a fourth stage about eating abstract concepts), and had a bunch of body parts already sprited up, but I couldn't get a full set together or implemented by the 48 hour limit. Once I've had a rest, I'll see about making a post comp version that goes further.
@rplnt: Do you think something like having the cell start multiplying, or swimming upwards might work for that?
@Rogod: Sorry, that was actually the end of what I managed to make for the competition. I tried coming up with a few possible ending screens, but by that point they all seemed to be a little cheesy, so I just went with a gentle return to the title for now. It was my first time writing music for a game, so that's something I still need to work on!
Nice idea! It somewhat reminded my of "E.V.O.: Search for Eden". You were able to get quite a few variations, from what I could see. I was able to get a jelly, a fish, an eel and an octopus.
The song was a great match to the first part of the game, with the simple graphics. And it wasn't even nearly as bad as you made it seems (with the "feel free to mute it anytime" XD). I quite liked it. :)
(Also, on a side note, thanks for the comment on my game! =D)
@GFM: Ah! I still need to play that game! I'm sure that could be a useful reference!
@RhysD: It is almost entirely a cosmetic choice. If you refuse to eat anything, the game ends at the end of the first stage, but the injuries from eating trash are completely cosmetic. I wanted the game to be about choice, and since Pikki is so alien, trash isn't necessarily different from food. The negative connotations of trash are what cause Pikki to develop injuries, since the injuries are just negative connotations themselves.
A relaxing, enjoyable experience! The music fit well and the art was very nice, good job! Could be quite interesting with a lot more variations and challenges your pikki that your pikki had to overcome
Such an obscure and charming entry! An overall cutesy performance, all of it: annotation style, graphical choices, somewhat-like-a-voiceover. Amazingly personal game, it was so much fun to explore it!
Great idea. But to me, it's very cheap to use two buttons only for making choice. However, it was interesting to beat it more than 1 time to see the difference in growing and evolution
Definitely liked this better after playing it a second time and realising you could end up as different creatures, I think I was expecting to be able to move up and down as well, so first playthrough felt like there wasn't much to do - liked the variation in the end though! Nice graphics too :)
Cool idea! It would have been great to have some clear feedback on all eat-decisions. If they were productive or not. But I get that would have been a lot of work. Maybe have the bad (if they existed) or neutral ones have a small screen-shake or such. The game kind of ended a little abruptly too, would suggest adding at least a end-screen. Great entry though.
Thanks for all the continuing feedback! I am working on the next stage, though I don't think I'll have this done by the end of the rating period. I will continue to work on it, and see what I can make!
@Maroovan/@Claire1605: I spent a lot of time considering the control scheme. Up/Down are still two buttons, and actionscript has easy to implement collision detection, so it was definitely on the table. I ended up deciding to go with the yes/no choices because I wanted to make the choice element clearer. If I had provided up/down controls, and introduced even the slightest layer of difficulty into reaching the objects, then I'd run the risk of gamifying the choices. If a player felt they had to collect all the objects because it was a challenge, then my game would have failed. That is why I went with the yes/no choice system.
@local minimum: I didn't intend for there to be any "bad" decisions, apart from refusing everything. Even eating trash, which causes cuts to appear on Pikki, isn't supposed to be a wrong decision, the injuries it creates are as much a part of Pikki as teeth or eyes. This was something I am hoping to expand on more in the third and fourth sections. I do understand your point about feedback, though. I would like to create some way of depicting eaten objects, but that wasn't in the time I had in the Dare.
I was pretty confused for the entire first section, but I was still thoroughly enjoying the experience. It was fun to just randomly click the buttons while trying to discern what the choices actually did. Once the game moved into a more recognizable context, it was actually slightly less intriguing. I liked the sense of mystery I felt before I figured out what was going on! But it was still fun to see the results: "You're a squid now!" ;)
Interesting and great concept! I liked the artwork. I would of loved to see more because the whole idea was really unique. The music and atmosphere was also very nice, I liked how it evolved into colour. Great stuff!
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I got to the end of the second stage and presumably died.
Nice effort with the art and game style though.
Not sure the audio lives up but it didn't detract in my opinion. :D
Definitely my favorite thus far.
@rplnt: Do you think something like having the cell start multiplying, or swimming upwards might work for that?
@Rogod: Sorry, that was actually the end of what I managed to make for the competition. I tried coming up with a few possible ending screens, but by that point they all seemed to be a little cheesy, so I just went with a gentle return to the title for now. It was my first time writing music for a game, so that's something I still need to work on!
You were able to get quite a few variations, from what I could see. I was able to get a jelly, a fish, an eel and an octopus.
The song was a great match to the first part of the game, with the simple graphics. And it wasn't even nearly as bad as you made it seems (with the "feel free to mute it anytime" XD). I quite liked it. :)
(Also, on a side note, thanks for the comment on my game! =D)
I wasn't sure if there were any consequences for not eating vs eating. In the end I just assumed it was a cosmetic choice rather than anything else.
Was relaxing to play.
@RhysD: It is almost entirely a cosmetic choice. If you refuse to eat anything, the game ends at the end of the first stage, but the injuries from eating trash are completely cosmetic. I wanted the game to be about choice, and since Pikki is so alien, trash isn't necessarily different from food. The negative connotations of trash are what cause Pikki to develop injuries, since the injuries are just negative connotations themselves.
Could be quite interesting with a lot more variations and challenges your pikki that your pikki had to overcome
The music is very enjoyable too!
@Maroovan/@Claire1605: I spent a lot of time considering the control scheme. Up/Down are still two buttons, and actionscript has easy to implement collision detection, so it was definitely on the table. I ended up deciding to go with the yes/no choices because I wanted to make the choice element clearer. If I had provided up/down controls, and introduced even the slightest layer of difficulty into reaching the objects, then I'd run the risk of gamifying the choices. If a player felt they had to collect all the objects because it was a challenge, then my game would have failed. That is why I went with the yes/no choice system.
@local minimum: I didn't intend for there to be any "bad" decisions, apart from refusing everything. Even eating trash, which causes cuts to appear on Pikki, isn't supposed to be a wrong decision, the injuries it creates are as much a part of Pikki as teeth or eyes. This was something I am hoping to expand on more in the third and fourth sections. I do understand your point about feedback, though. I would like to create some way of depicting eaten objects, but that wasn't in the time I had in the Dare.