NEW: Web version added! If you can't run it, please try the Windows or LÖVE version! I made it with Motor2d, which is an experimental LÖVE clone for the web (http://github.com/rnlf/motor). Especially if you don't get any background music or very slow display, please play and rate one of the standalone versions!
UPDATE: Thanks to to ashdnazg for helping me find a problem in my shader that broke the web version on some windows browsers!
S.E.N.T.I.N.E.L. is the operating system and artificial intelligence built into humankind's strongest weapon against the ever growing slime population.
Can the growth of the slime be stopped? Find out!
* Bugfix 1.01/Dec. 14: Slimes should be easier to hit now when they are really close to the player. * Bugfix 1.02/Dec. 14: Sometimes the games crashed when killing enemies which are very close to walls.
You can get the original versions by changing the version number in the URL to 1.00 or 1.01!
First off, the graphics are impressive as all hell. Great job on those. The terminal on the side is a very nice touch as well.
The combat itself is nice and tense, since you're always able to outrun/outmaneuver the enemy, but have to get in vulnerable positions to fire.
Or rather, the combat would be nice, if the cannon shots registered consistently. There's a deadzone directly around the SENTINEL in which you can't hit the enemies, and that deadzone is exactly where the spawners aim for. I could see that being by design, but half the time even when I move away I can't hit the bastards. Most of my damage was due to shots that visually appear to hit not registering.
Great game! Very fun to play, reminds me of a Walker for Star Wars. Only problem i see is its hard to aim at times. But other then that great game, and great job!
Loved the terminal and the graphics was nice, but it was hard to hit the slimes. Found myself shuffling a lot and getting hit without doing any damage back...
I can't believe how pretty this game looks. And to think it has been made with LÖVE in 2D, amazing!
I also really dig the terminal next to the game. I love those messages running along, and it's a great way to tell the story without getting in the way too much.
I played the updated version and ran into very little trouble. It works quite well! The audio is also nice. The simple musical drone is fine for the atmosphere of this game and the sound effects are quite good. I just wish there were some cool metallic robot sounds to really finish it off, haha.
The plot twist in the end is also a very nice touch and works to give the game a feeling of closure.
Very well done, especially in the ridiculously small timeframe of just 48 hours. I wouldn't mind playing a longer version of this game!
Nice graphics and audio. The game plays well, although, as was mentioned, the hit detection isn't perfect. Loved the terminal. I could see the plot twist from mile away, but I still liked it.
Following the old Ludum Dare tradition, the game unfortunately didn't run for me. In fact it manages to bring down LOVE itself with the following being printed to the console on exit:
intel_do_flush_locked failed: Input/output error AL lib: ReleaseALC: 1 device not closed
Additionally LOVE would continue to quit with this error on *any* project (including the no-project screen -- though only the first line is shown) afterwards until I rebooted -- I ran it again to confirm that it was the game that was causing this. Very strange.
A real shame as the entry looks wonderful! Hopefully I'll find some means of getting to try it out.
A bit tricky with the limited aiming capabilities, although it wasn't a huge problem. Pretty light on content.
Beyond that, really nice graphics style. Very 90s, but I mean it in a good way. Great background drone, basic but moody and functional. Good sounds. Startup screen/output terminal was awesome.
I liked the twist with the visual system. I'd have liked to see a new game plus mode where you.. see things more clearly. Overall very nice!
D
drnick15 Dec 2015, 06:11
I was thinking "this game is not very rnlf-y" but then that ending!
Very good graphics indeed, am happy that your recent work on depth-buffer stuff paid off.
You kept trying to sell yourself short on IRC. Good thing I knew you were lying.
SPOILERS The background sound was actually quite effective. Although drones are used everywhere in LD games, I'm a big fan of the minimalistic backing track. An idea that may (or may not) spark your fancy is the use of a texture rather than a drone. While the drone sounds nice and I enjoy it, perhaps using something clicky or more mechanical. I know I'm not explaining myself well. Instead of trying to think of it like music, think of it as an ambient aural accompaniment. Players will frequently forget about the music anyways while playing a game, so you can really replace it with anything acoustically pleasing that makes sense with the theme of the game. For an example or two of things like this, look at my LD game Fluidity, and rxi's Fragment.
Again, I did like the drone and I think it was a good choice, but other accompaniments are possible as well as relatively unused in the LD world.
Initially I thought the footsteps of your massive robot were underwhelming. However, thinking about it after playing the game, they make sense. You have to think of the footsteps as being heard from inside the cockpit. I still think the footstep could've been modified to be more effective, but I also think you could've added more sounds to put the listener into the spot inside of the robot rather than outside.
I liked how your slimes were portrayed, and I liked what they represented, however I don't know if it makes sense with the story itself. The fact that they are just representations of whats in the playing field could be portrayed a bit better. Such as overlaying them with a grid, keep the slime but show the quads/tri (triangles make more sense, quads look better) that go into the slime shape would help enhance the effect that you are looking through the computer's eyes.
Another small thing would be to make the robot's on and off position different. Maybe droop its head or have it sit like a chicken when it is booting up. It would be a nice detail, but also indicate to the player that they can't control the robot. In fact, at the end of the story I stopped controlling before I went to the next area (joke, there wasn't a next area) and didn't realize that I actually lost control until I was idly pressing buttons.
In the end, your terminal was really well done, it felt real and not faked, it gave a nice bookend approach to the story telling, and it added background information that couldn't be easily shown. Your graphics may of been hacky in the backend, but came across great in the front end. Seeing things through walls was well done, as well as the general white-wall dirtyish style.
I like the game and I got all the way through it, the only issues I had with it were aiming, which seemed really clunky. Otherwise I liked the little terminal it was funny and the combat was pretty alright.
I get the feeling I'm going to have to delve into the source code here, just to get my head around how you managed to make Love2D act like *that*. Good game!
great entry, very satisfying sound and amazing visuals. i think some mouse aiming would be nice, now the challange lies mainly in manouvering the sentinal. with mouse game the slimey enemy's could be more aggressive and it would have more action..love the twist..excellent job
Aside from some collision issues, a very clean and aesthetically pleasing game! Had some instances where I was on the same line but didn't seem to register hits (when 2 slimers were together) but other than that no major issues.
The boot up sequence is awesome. The soundtrack is menacing and ambient. The gameplay is fun and deliberate. The mood is amazing, I'll bet this takes top 20 for mood.
Impressive work. A good project. The ennemies remind me some creatures in an old game called Alien Syndrome. It could be better if the robot moves faster. Great ++
This has a really distinct look, very slick animations. Gameplay felt a little slow paced for me, but I did manage to get through it all which is always a bonus.
The log at the side really helped with the atmosphere, for me.
Great game ! It was a bit easy but it allowed a fluid storytelling using the console, until the awesome ending. Visuals were really nice, and controls pleasant,such as sfx and atmospheric track. Also thanks for the amazing timelapse !
The gameplay, however, felt slow-paced, too easy and especially lacking in variety. It was just positioning yourself right and repeatedly pressing the attack button until everything is dead, with only a slight difficult ramp as you progress through the game. It just didn't feel very interesting.
I agree that the terminal was extremely well-executed. The plot (or, pretty much, the twist, as there's not much to the plot beyond that), however, was extremely predictable (I saw it coming when I first saw the boot-up failures at game start); the twist is too obvious and overdone, as well as lacking in any impact (even if I didn't see it coming, I'd have probably just thought 'oh, so that's what I've been doing'). This is not helped by the disconnect between the mech vs slimes gameplay and the 'real' situation; the enemies behave nothing like they should (plot-wise), you die if you do not kill them, and you are a mech (read: murder machine).
The Web version works pretty well - didn't notice any glitches. Firefox on Win7/64. All in all this is an awesome game. Superb graphics with see-through effects, great sound, and I really really love the BIOS sequences and the black humor!
One of the best games of this year's LD! I'm glad I finally tested it...
Very good! Dig the terminal, the story, the buildup, and there's even an ending! Great stuff. Awesome graphics and gameplay - I always wanted to be an AT-ST :) Challenging but not impossible, and a lot of fun. Great!
The terminal on the side is a very nice touch as well.
The combat itself is nice and tense, since you're always able to outrun/outmaneuver the enemy, but have to get in vulnerable positions to fire.
Or rather, the combat would be nice, if the cannon shots registered consistently. There's a deadzone directly around the SENTINEL in which you can't hit the enemies, and that deadzone is exactly where the spawners aim for. I could see that being by design, but half the time even when I move away I can't hit the bastards.
Most of my damage was due to shots that visually appear to hit not registering.
Get that fixed and this would be a great game.