I am 11 years old, studying in 6th grade. This is my first Game Jam. The Loopy Wheel is simple 3D spinning wheel game. Juno caterpillar is hungry and needs to eat apples. Avoid dangerous obstacles while the wheel spins. Try to eat most apples to feed the Juno! The complexity of the game increases on every round the wheel finishes.
Controls
* Space key to jump
How to play
#### HTML5 (web) * Open HTML5 link and play
#### Microsoft Windows * Download TheLoopyWheel-LD47.zip * Extract * Click on "TheLoopyWheel.exe"
Hey Anshul! I really want to try your game but I can figure out how to run it. Ive downloaded your zip from github and ive tried opening the solution but it says it has build errors and cant run. :(
I love the art and sound effects, very cute! I'm super impressed to see you making jam games at 11 years old, you should be proud! Looking forward to future games :D
Great job. Impressive game for an 11 year old. It was a bit short, maybe increase the number of apples? Really cute caterpillar and that winning sound was great.
wish I had more control over the jump height since I found myself in some situations where taking damage was unavoidable. It's impresive you finished a 3D game in such a short period of time being only 11! Congrats^^
You're 11 years old? I'm pretty impressed with what you've done, very nice job!
Only real criticism was that many of the apples seemed nearly impossible to grab without hitting spikes. Maybe play around with their placement, otherwise good execution and I liked it
Are the objects randomly placed? I liked some of the trickier jumps although as others have mentioned there were a few impossible ones. Regardless, I thought this was fun to attempt a few times. Continue to teach yourself and you will go far, this is a good entry.
@anshul-k I thought it would be worth getting a definitive answer on it. I don't have any problems with it, I very much believe randomized game elements to be important and I think the way you did it keeps the game interesting. Perhaps instead of spawn positions being completely random, you could have each object choose from a few pre-planned positions ahead of Juno, offscreen. I only mention this because I noticed that sometimes objects (in my case an apple) would start spawning behind the player. I don't know if your objects actually "loop" around or are just removed when they reach a certain point behind the player, if they do loop then I can see where the object spawning is coming from.
What I mean by pre-planned positions is that, although depending on whether or not the player is actually "moving" (My guess is he is not), you could perhaps just have a few positions relative to the player where objects can randomly choose to spawn. For example, let's just say perhaps 3 positions, one which is just level with the player, one slightly above the player, and one that the player will hit at the peak of their jump, all far ahead in the loop. Depending on how that is set up (for example, only allowing 1 spike and maybe an apple, if it passes a random chance, for each row, rows which could perhaps be spaced out based on the number of apples eaten) it could avoid the creation of impossible jumps. These positions could very well have randomized offsets as well to have it look more like the original.
Of course, this is just a vague, aimless suggestion, as I don't know how you set up the game as a whole. I just thought I'd throw the idea out there since I know "impossible situations" were a consistent complaint, I believe something akin to this could at the very least alleviate that issue. I thought this was a fun little game, and you did a great job on the 3D models, keep up the good work! :smile:
@squeed-fingars Thanks for the elaborate explanation. The objects loop around the wheel and are not destroyed. The apple that spawns behind the Juno is actually spawned by spawner objects. The Spawners are static and placed on fixed positions. They spawn on the wheel's tranform. That's why the spikes also spawn in a pattern. I have lot of things to learn and thanks for your help and suggestions :slight_smile:. As it is lockdown, I am also trying to keep up with my online school. While working on the game, I also had to keep track of my study :smile: :sweat_smile:.
@anshul-k Hello! It's funny you said something as I actually intended to respond yesterday (had somewhat of a message written), but didn't get along to it. While I was doing that though I took a look at the website you have up there, good stuff! C++ is my favorite language as well, although admittedly I haven't worked with it in a long time as I've been busy studying other things. That website will look really good to a college, just make sure to remember that the best teacher you can have is yourself.
I haven't worked on a game like this before, so I find the way in which you did it is good to know. It is all a big puzzle I suppose, in fact your explanation makes it sound as though the "impossible" situations could perhaps be lessened by having the objects only loop around 2 or 3 times before being destroyed offscreen, lowering the chance that a spawner will spawn a spike in a position relative to another pre-existing spike which is impossible to avoid. I don't think most people would notice it happening although I do suppose it would bring up the issue of increasing the complexity. That, and having the spawners work on differing timers so that it is difficult for the different layers to line up inconveniently. This is all far too much work for a game jam entry I'd say, and I really didn't explain myself that well, this is fine as it is, it's just fun to throw ideas out there. It isn't any trouble.
It is good that you are keeping up with your online schooling, I know many people don't put enough effort into it, school definitely comes first, you have your priorities straight. :laughing: I am from America by the way, so we're working off of vastly different time zones. Conveniently enough, I would actually be in China right now visiting (step-)family and meeting future business contacts if things weren't going so bad with the virus and all. Regardless, I feel you and I are similar in many respects, albeit that you are 8 years younger than me. Continue pushing yourself and you will do great things, don't let the lack of drive in others keep you down.
you're 11 years old?! Impressive work kid. When I was 11, the only thing I made was a disappointed father.
The gameplay is simple but enjoyable. Timing jumps over obstacles is always fun, but I think you could greatly improve the experience by fixing the placement of the obstacles. Even though you can tank the hits by eating apples, it isn't satisfying knowing there's no way to avoid a hit
Some apples were impossible to get without hitting a spike ball, and some spike balls seemed impossible to avoid altogether. Your game could definitely have benefited from more play testing, but so could every other game in this game jam.
Overall, great job on this game. Hope to see you return and make more games in the future.
(also, we're caterpillar bros! I also made a caterpillar game)
Comments29
Source code was very heavy so i have uploaded essential parts only. Try running exe from above URL. Download Zip and extract and run "Stuck in a loop - LD47.exe"
I hope to see more from you next Ludum Dare!
Only real criticism was that many of the apples seemed nearly impossible to grab without hitting spikes. Maybe play around with their placement, otherwise good execution and I liked it
What I mean by pre-planned positions is that, although depending on whether or not the player is actually "moving" (My guess is he is not), you could perhaps just have a few positions relative to the player where objects can randomly choose to spawn. For example, let's just say perhaps 3 positions, one which is just level with the player, one slightly above the player, and one that the player will hit at the peak of their jump, all far ahead in the loop. Depending on how that is set up (for example, only allowing 1 spike and maybe an apple, if it passes a random chance, for each row, rows which could perhaps be spaced out based on the number of apples eaten) it could avoid the creation of impossible jumps. These positions could very well have randomized offsets as well to have it look more like the original.
Of course, this is just a vague, aimless suggestion, as I don't know how you set up the game as a whole. I just thought I'd throw the idea out there since I know "impossible situations" were a consistent complaint, I believe something akin to this could at the very least alleviate that issue. I thought this was a fun little game, and you did a great job on the 3D models, keep up the good work! :smile:
you actually challenged me getting a score of 8 I tried my best and didn't reach it :smile: maybe I'll try later.
I haven't worked on a game like this before, so I find the way in which you did it is good to know. It is all a big puzzle I suppose, in fact your explanation makes it sound as though the "impossible" situations could perhaps be lessened by having the objects only loop around 2 or 3 times before being destroyed offscreen, lowering the chance that a spawner will spawn a spike in a position relative to another pre-existing spike which is impossible to avoid. I don't think most people would notice it happening although I do suppose it would bring up the issue of increasing the complexity. That, and having the spawners work on differing timers so that it is difficult for the different layers to line up inconveniently. This is all far too much work for a game jam entry I'd say, and I really didn't explain myself that well, this is fine as it is, it's just fun to throw ideas out there. It isn't any trouble.
It is good that you are keeping up with your online schooling, I know many people don't put enough effort into it, school definitely comes first, you have your priorities straight. :laughing: I am from America by the way, so we're working off of vastly different time zones. Conveniently enough, I would actually be in China right now visiting (step-)family and meeting future business contacts if things weren't going so bad with the virus and all. Regardless, I feel you and I are similar in many respects, albeit that you are 8 years younger than me. Continue pushing yourself and you will do great things, don't let the lack of drive in others keep you down.
The gameplay is simple but enjoyable. Timing jumps over obstacles is always fun, but I think you could greatly improve the experience by fixing the placement of the obstacles. Even though you can tank the hits by eating apples, it isn't satisfying knowing there's no way to avoid a hit
Some apples were impossible to get without hitting a spike ball, and some spike balls seemed impossible to avoid altogether. Your game could definitely have benefited from more play testing, but so could every other game in this game jam.
Overall, great job on this game. Hope to see you return and make more games in the future.
(also, we're caterpillar bros! I also made a caterpillar game)
Here is my playtest: