You have invented a marvelous machine which converts human lives directly into cold, hard cash. There's just one problem: once it starts, it won't stop! How much profit can you extract before your creation (and your conscience) catches up with you?
Keyboard Controls
* Run: Left and Right arrows * Jump: Up arrow * Throw: Space
Changelog
* [2 hours after jam end] Fixed button on title screen not being clickable. (This had a documented workaround of pressing space instead of clicking.)
The gamefeel looks amazing, it makes me want to understand the lore of the world. However I don't get the gameplay. Are we supposed to just throw babies into the robot's mouth? What does that do other than increasing the dollar amount? And there's no continues after 4 platforms?
the webgl version is also not working for me, the game flickers and i could click in "commence" a secound time even when the button was not there anymore, just the instructions of how to play. It starts a music, but after the music the screen just flickers. Besides that, i can't download the game, but i really liked the art and the mood that it gives.
@kambing Yes, you've got it! Sacrifice the babies to earn as much money as you can, until your creation catches up with you and there's no where else to run. There are a few different endings depending on your actions! :wink:
Gameplay is basic, but functional. What makes this game good is the atmosphere! It all feels good, even without character animation. It creates a world I'd like to explore!
Also, I want to compliment on your font selection. To must of us fonts are more of an afterthought. You nailed the atmosphere even before I saw anything from the game, just because you took the time to find some *truly* fitting fonts. Nice job!
The atmosphere was outstanding. I installed firefox just for this game. The audio was great, and you really stuck to the ambiance. The only troubles I ran into was some strange throws every once in a while, and I was able to stand on the mouth of the machine for a bit and rack up the money. Great entry!
A+ in the mood department. I'm loving what you've done here!
That said, the actual game part felt a bit unsatisfying. Throwing babies into the thing's mouth is tricky as there aren't any real aiming controls that I could see. They also tend to just sit in front of his jaws instead of going in, and when they pile up, the physics engine has a Physics Moment and just shoots babies off at a zillion miles an hour.
The ending also left me wanting.
This is one I'd love to see developed more post-compo. You've got a lot of really promising looking set pieces, but I think the idea needs to bake a bit longer.
@fireslash Thank you for the thoughtful critique! I had many gameplay ideas I hoped to implement, which would have made it more interesting and reinforced the message. Unfortunately, under the pressure of a game jam... sacrifices must be made. :laughing:
The visuals are very nice. I think the concept could use some work, though. I know we're pressing for time in a game jam, but it's too direct for a title like this. A little more subtlety would go a long way.
A very dark and extremely capitalistic approach which fits the theme of the game jam very well. :) I enjoyed playing it, although I felt like a pig while throwing the babies. The graphics are very unique and fitting. The music supports the dark mood of the game perfectly.
I was intrigued by your postmortem and decided to give your game a try. I think you've done a very good job with artwork and sound. I agree that the game-play leaves a lot of room for improvement, but even so, I enjoyed tossing babies into the gigantic jaws of the robot (as sad as that sounds). For one person with only three days with an unfamiliar tool, you've accomplished a lot, and I think you should give yourself more credit.
The artstyle is great, well picked colour palette, well drawn, well thought out characters, very nice overall Metropolis feel! The gameplay on the other hand is bit on the weaker side, the monster ate babies left on the floor behind his head, jumping felt weird. Also was the level randomly generated? I ended on the gap that I think is impossible to jump over. But most importantly - I think you are unnecesarilly pushing that "social commentary" stuff too hard. I think that you should think more about implementing that social commentary to game mechanics so players will notice and percieve it on their own. Having it as subheader of your game steals most of its magic. I think that for example this one https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/santas-list have strong social commentary without needing to be that explicit about it. Subtle is better, let your player translate your game on his own :)
Cool take on the theme. Loved the artstyle. I think the whole thing would improve with a faster pace. Also, the robot physics created some weird graphical glitches, but I was still able to finish it. Congrats! :-)
Comments32
Besides that, i can't download the game, but i really liked the art and the mood that it gives.
Also, I want to compliment on your font selection. To must of us fonts are more of an afterthought. You nailed the atmosphere even before I saw anything from the game, just because you took the time to find some *truly* fitting fonts. Nice job!
That said, the actual game part felt a bit unsatisfying. Throwing babies into the thing's mouth is tricky as there aren't any real aiming controls that I could see. They also tend to just sit in front of his jaws instead of going in, and when they pile up, the physics engine has a Physics Moment and just shoots babies off at a zillion miles an hour.
The ending also left me wanting.
This is one I'd love to see developed more post-compo. You've got a lot of really promising looking set pieces, but I think the idea needs to bake a bit longer.
Windows 7 64bit, i5-32100m 2.5Ghz, Geforce 610m / Intel HD Graphics 4000, 6GB RAM, 63.0.3.
exception thrown: RuntimeError: index out of bounds,@https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/1171310/index.js line 92 > WebAssembly.instantiate:wasm-function[585]:0x3234e
Odd...
(maybe it could be more punchy if babies were thrown on space down and not on release and if the robot was going faster...)
The graphics sell it and I don't think I like throwing babies into the iron giant - lol :P