Solo dev, first submission, pretty much winging it.
Start with nothing: == Embracing the theme of "Start with nothing", you control a cat who is trying to protect his empty litter box from dogs trying to do their business in it. As the cat, you will have to defend off waves of dogs, using temporary buffs that expire at the end of the round. Each turn you start with nothing, and you have to cleverly use each buff to defeat all the waves.
How to play == WASD or Arrows to move.
Left Ctrl or Left mouse button to swipe.
Left click on abilities to get their buff for *1 ROUND* only. Next round you *start with nothing*
Win by stopping all the dogs from pooping in your litter box!
Survive 10 waves to go to the next level.
Abilities ==
*Abilities can stack, but are lost at the new round.*
Claws - Your attacks hit 3 times.
Fishy - You attack twice as fast.
Bone - Your attacks disable the dog for 1 second.
Water - Your attacks slow the movement of the dog.
Collar - Your cat now can push dogs around and block their movement.
There are 10 levels of 10 waves of "randomly" generated levels with constraints.
Some details about the project: == I produced all code and game assets you see. Since this is my first submission, I skipped the compo, but I pretty much stuck to those rules. The only art asset that was made previously was my main cat character. I am a software developer by day, but I went art heavy this time as I couldn't think of a good idea for the theme and thought I could brute force good ratings with cute cats and pretty graphics.
Tools used: ==
Unity for the Game engine.
Oculus Medium for sculpting.
Blender for model prep.
Substance Painter for texturing.
Instant Mesh for fast retopology.
Visual Studio 2019 for coding.
Final thoughts: == All in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. I'm not happy with the game mechanics at all, and the idea of "losing everything" at the start of each turn is actually a terrible game mechanic, also you rarely want to use your powerups.
But apart from that, it was a lot of fun and I appreciate the opportunity to participate.
I was doing updates but couldn't figure out how to post them without completing my game, so I left them in now.
First update: ==
The first set of assets done:
I still need to animate some of them, and some of them are starting to scare me a bit, but so far this is good enough to work with. Some feedback on my acquaintances who love it:
Person one: "First one looks cool!"
Person two: "Electric, and I can’t stress this enough, chair"
Person three: "OK I'm not sure if this is going right 😅"
I've started on world generation.
I just need to hook this up to pathfinding and then I should be good to start on the enemy AI. The floor is possibly too bright, and the character is getting lost in it, but I will desaturate it later.
Update 2: == Other art assets are complete! They are really starting to come together. They all start to show faults if you look closely at them.. so please don't...
Thank you haha, probably the only thing that is good about my attempt. The actual gameplay loop is more frustrating than fun. You never feel good about using your abilities.
Yeah, sounds were a let down. I lost too much time trying to make the main game loop fun that I didn't manage my time well and missed out on adding sound.
The game is super pretty. The gameplay is okay, but I am not sure the abilities is working. The game also neeeeeeds some music and sound effects. Overall an okay jam game.
Beautiful Environment Graphics, but lacks alot of things :/, when you attack it feels dull, and also the UI could have been polished, Maybe The dogs could be coming from all around the environment rather than just their doggy houses to make user input more dynamic. Animations were funny, For simple games, audio doesn't bother me so that's fine. I hope i'm not too harsh but just trying to be honest :) [ P.s i wish to create assets like that someday ]
The game is beautiful. The gameplay is "Meh", I'm not sure i've understood how the skills are working. I more or less clicked on three abilities, So I had multiple effects at the same time.
Loved the environment artwork. Gameplay became a bit repetitive quickly, but still a good effort for the time. Graphics really kept me playing longer, just so I could appreciate them more. Great work.
@veer I plan to explain how I made those art assets in the future. It's actually simple, you just need tools that can be pricy. If you give me a way to contact you, I will send you the post when I make it.
Yep, visual style is a top-notch, animations is good and fun. But gameplay is boring. I'd will reduce number of waves per level and put enemy spawns on opposite sides on level to make player move around. But next time I recommend you to think how to make game with less game mechanics. For example, you make large worlds to have exploration gameplay that doesn't require additional coding.
I loved the graphics and the animations! I wish this was a action adventure game (you got the basic mechanics and assets you only need a good level) instead of defend the litter box game. But I must admit defend the litter box sounds funnier.
Thank you for making this game. I would love to see this game improve post jam.
@yaroslav-kravtsov Thanks for the honest review, I was also disapointed with the gameplay. I will try my best to implement those tips in my next jam. I was a bit disordered and didn't plan my time well for my first one.
@mrerdalural I actually have been inspired to turn this into more haha. I loved the style so much that I'm seeing if I can make a toy based Zelda like RPG. Did some work on it last night.
@doodums this is why I participate in each Ludum Dare. 2-3 days give me more "battle" experience than a few months in other circumstances. This is most important take away from LD, not just a small game I made.
@doodums I think Zelda like is action adventure genre. Not sure. Anyway that is exactly I had in mind too! Do you have an itch io account or twitter where I can follow the development process.
As the other commenters have said, the visual aesthetics are just gorgeous! The gameplay needs work, though - but you're already aware of that. At one point, I fell off the board and the game wouldn't restart; instead, I could still move the camera around while falling deeper into the abyss. Some kind of tutorial/guidance would be nice, too, as I couldn't immediately figure out e.g. when to use the power-ups. In fact, it took me like a minute to realize I could actually move around, not just strike the dogs from inside the box:) Please continue working on this, I'd love to see this as a full-fledged game!
OMG you made such an incredible job here! I love all the effort you put in modeling everything and that shiny material is amazing, it really makes you want to play immediately. The animations are cute (love those trees and jumping cats). A little easy to beat and would definitely need some sound effect and music, but great entry!
Good graphics animation, and convenient control! But I was surprised complete absence sound. Same game ballance could be some... more thoughtful) Anyway, good job!
Looks really great, from the models and lighting through to the animations. There's just not all that much going on in terms of gameplay. You walk up to the enemies and attack, even the abilities don't change how you play, just the damage values a bit. With how great it looks, this could be really awesome if you could work out a way to make the gameplay fun.
Even just variation on attacks like slow-heavy attacks and fast-light attacks gives the player a bit of flexibility with how they handle the situation. If the solution to every level is always just walk up to enemies and spam the one attack button, it makes it feel more like a chore than a game.
You've got the presentation down, a bigger focus on the game design for next time might go a long way.
Holy moly! I see you invested hard in overall aesthetics and graphics. Reall nice! However, gameplay feels a bit repetitve after a couple of waves but that's ok. I was ok with it because of the graphics!
Thank you for making this game. I would love to see this game improve post jam.
really impressive visauls for a solo dev in the time, solid game as well with a lot of polish, would of been nice to have some sound but overall really good
Very good game, well done, i really impressive visauls, the game some polish and i miss both feedback and background sounds. Anyway for make this impresive game and good job!
The graphics, and especially the depth of field effect, are great, as are the animations. Very impressive and thanks for detailing the tools you used to create the assets. I'm inspired!
I like the idea of the game, original and cute. The assets are amazing, beautifully done! Awesome animations and depth of field effect. I would love to hear some sounds and music
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Thank you for making this game. I would love to see this game improve post jam.
I'll see if I can set something up in the next 20 days and make an update on my profile here to the relevant page.
Please continue working on this, I'd love to see this as a full-fledged game!
Good job !
Even just variation on attacks like slow-heavy attacks and fast-light attacks gives the player a bit of flexibility with how they handle the situation. If the solution to every level is always just walk up to enemies and spam the one attack button, it makes it feel more like a chore than a game.
You've got the presentation down, a bigger focus on the game design for next time might go a long way.
Thank you for making this game. I would love to see this game improve post jam.