Ludum Dare #38compo

The Shrinkifier

by pfeyffer

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.75

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.42

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.46

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.33

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.13

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.68

Abduct and shrinkify the population of some small planets.
Each planet will be divided into 13 sectors. You may rotate a planet up to seven times to find any abductable inhabitants.
Additional controls include the Time Warper: Undo the last rotation, the Resonance Doubler: Repeat the last rotation, and the Autofocus Kicker: Rotate the planet just a bit to get that poor bastard.

- Game (Web): http://vorschau.schaller-digital.de/smallworld/
- Source: http://vorschau.schaller-digital.de/smallworld/game.js

Tags: #aliens, #space

Genres: puzzle

Comments23

Firstdream1 May 2017, 13:25

I like the concept of the game, however it was slightly hard because the rotations seemed luck based. However, the graphics were really nicely done.

sharpcoder1 May 2017, 16:04

Nice game! I really like the idea, it is a pretty unique mechanic and fits the theme really well! I felt like the planet spinner had some kind of trick to know how far you were going to move, but I wasn't able to really figure out what made the planet go fast or slow. But still, love love the idea. Great job!

TomBishopSPG1 May 2017, 22:41

Lost 3 planets in a row. Restarted and then it just started giving me abductions and then I lost more planets. I'm sorry but I still have no idea how to play. Graphics a cute. Idea seems insteresting/solid.

multiplexor1 May 2017, 22:46

Very nice art and nice concept! The game felt a bit random, maybe refreshing the abilities after each map would make for a more strategical approach!

Still, I found it quite enjoyable!

Keep up the hard work! :)

junjunlowpoly1 May 2017, 22:51

Seems to be a puzzle game. Graphics is nice and implementation is complete. As the other comments said, it's hard to get the hang of the mechanism and does not seem to balance well. Letting time warper to be used more and introducing some tutorial levels with gradually increasing difficulty could help.

Spaceman1 May 2017, 23:12

I liked the art and the concept, but I had a hard time understanding the rotation mechanic. It seems like the amount of rotation is sorta random, which was a bit frustrating. I liked the idea of the one time use modifiers though.

ruthiepee2 May 2017, 01:03

Pretty unique concept, like a half-puzzle, half-gambling game. Took me a minute to figure out exactly what was going on but I eventually got 600 points, lol. I thought the abilities might refresh after each round so I blew those early and the rest didn't go so hot. The interface is nicely drawn but a tad confusing. Still, I had fun playing it!

FireSlash2 May 2017, 05:23

The first page explaining the controls was welcome, but it still wasn't particularly clear what was going on until I experimented a lot.

Like some others, I would have liked to see a bit less RNG involved. As it is, even the first planet with one cow is quite hard as you're basically relying on luck and a small set of tools to stack the odds a bit.

kantieno2 May 2017, 05:38

It would be nice to maybe have powerups appear in some spaces so that you can recharge after using them. I kind of like the RNG but a little bit more control somehow would be nice. Good entry!

Jeremy Ryan2 May 2017, 06:16

Interesting game. Not quite sure how to control how much the planet spins, but it looks really polished and runs smoothly.

Plus, cows in space are pretty cool. Nice job.

Bonobo2 May 2017, 06:17

Liked the game!

Very simple and solid! Good job!

Could have been better with music tho.

Also the rotation seemed, as mentioned by @firstdream,

based off of RNG which would be better if it wasn't.

Overall, a very solid game!

Behenate2 May 2017, 09:34

Nice game. I'm not sure how to control how planet spins :P But it runs very nicely, and graphics are very good.

CheesyMoo3 May 2017, 04:23

:heart: :cow:

candlesan3 May 2017, 06:31

Love the art! Love the concept. The cows are super cute.

I wish I had a bit more player agency. The three powers in the bottom right are a nice start into this - I want more! :)

Love the way the planet spins smoothly when it does spin. Took me a while to figure out the planet rotation amounts were completely random. Has a slot machine feel.

gurkenlabs3 May 2017, 10:41

I found it hard to figure out what you're supposed to do, but the concept is very unique and interesting.

Bunnery3 May 2017, 14:00

Tried it because the graphics looked very fun and quirky. Loved playing it - but I'm not sure if I was doing it right. Was good fun to try to improve my score each time. I think it could be quite addictive!

the.jahn3 May 2017, 20:25

I don't know if there's a methodology to this, but it reminds me of an LCG for some reason.

dj_pale3 May 2017, 21:00

Got max 400 points. As others pointed out there needs to be more player decision / choice in order to make it really interesting. Since you deplete your helpers and never get them back, you just click and pray without any control at all. What about implementing some sort of betting like Black Jack or similar?

those-30-ninjas4 May 2017, 00:23

Interesting mechanic but even with messing around and reading the tutorial I don't feel like I understand whats happening. Cute cows, poor creatures must be pretty dizzy.

zwrawr5 May 2017, 00:24

A nice looking game with interesting mechanics, that's held back by unclear controllors.

markusfisch6 May 2017, 14:26

Had fun playing it! Interesting concept and good humor! Would probably benefit very much from more or less predictable rotations. Now it feels like playing dice :)

PeachTreeOath9 May 2017, 03:40

I think the concept has a lot of potential but you will certainly need a lot more decisions or abilities to achieve that. Something like a deckbuilder is a game type that has controlled-RNG and can be pretty addicting to play. The UI itself is pretty slick though and the entire theming is nicely unified.