Apocalyptic Romance

by shakedimus

co-authored: @alurian, @soe

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.77

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.70

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.62

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.17

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.80

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.83

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.56

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.84

OH NO! IT'S THE APOCALYPSE! UNFORTUNATELY, PEOPLE ARE STILL CREEPS WHO WANT TO DATE YOU!
RUN FROM UNWANTED ADVANCES TO SAVE YOURSELF FROM A BAD DATE, WHILST ALSO HELPING PEOPLE ON YOUR WAY.
BECAUSE IF YOU DONT HELP PEOPLE, AND ONLY THINK ABOUT YOURSELF, YOUR GUILT METER WILL GO UP, CAUSING YOU TO SLOW DOWN BECAUSE OF MENTAL ANGUISH, MAKING YOU VULNERABLE TO THE CREEP!
AND THEN... A BAD DATE WITH LOTS OF AWKARD SILENCES ENSUES... DID WE MENTION IT WAS ALSO THE APOCALYPSE??!!!!!!

--------------How to play-------------

Move left-right: arrow keys / A-D

Your guilt is indicated at the top right: keep it at bay with items that have negative "G(uilt)" scores

The creep's distance to you is indicated at the top left: keep him at bay with items that have negative "M(eter)" scores

ITEMS

Taking items will give you a certain amount of guilt and distance. For example taking a banana will give you +10m distance from the creep and +5% guilt. Because he slips on the banana and you feel guilty for it.

Stay away from the creep following you

by collecting items that make you faster or the creep slower:
- Grab faster shoes
- Throw a banana behind you
- ..

Keep your guilt a bay

by doing good deeds:
- Helping an older person cross the street
- Help a child that has dropped ice cream
- ...

Feel free to leave highscores in the comments

Comments20

Arttu Halonen5 Apr 2022, 11:14

I unfortunately didn't quite understand the gameplay. Maybe if there was a little more time to react, or if the different items flying at you had some colour/symbols to help the player recognize their effects at a glance? Nice tunes, though!

LDJam user 2691615 Apr 2022, 11:38

MAybe try to improve your code by using Frametimes and make the movement dependent on the timing. Now I know how all those girls feel. akward.

Alurian5 Apr 2022, 12:02

@arttu-halonen Thanks for the feedback! The items were running on ticks instead of delta time. Should be fixed now.

Alurian5 Apr 2022, 12:03

@erikengineengineer Thanks for playing. should be fixed. and i know right!

DogeSquad6 Apr 2022, 09:52

Quite a weird game, but it was fun nonetheless!

jk50006 Apr 2022, 10:00

I like the visuals and the music good. The gameplay is a bit confusing, and I end up losing without really knowing why.

Alurian6 Apr 2022, 10:27

@dogesquad Glad you enjoyed it. It's a family made game.
@jk5000 Thank you. You end up losing, because either the creep catched up and is at 0m (top left) or your guilt meter is at 100% (top right). I get that it's sometimes hard to see, but the text should tell you which one it was. Also the speed of the creep and the speed at which your guilt go up, goes faster as time goes on.

Human Writes Code6 Apr 2022, 11:05

Really good concept. It took me one "death" and a re-read of the instructions before I really understood the gameplay but from that point on I was a shoe-grabbing, child-helping, granny-walking, creep-evader of the highest order.

I do wish that the difficult scaled a bit more and perhaps some colour cues on the icons flowing toward you would have helped with split-second decision making. Overall, though, great work!

BougieBirdie6 Apr 2022, 21:55

Even in the apocalypse, creeps be creeping smh

This game feels like a fever dream, and I mean that in the best possible way

tetrapteryx7 Apr 2022, 01:08

I didn't expect to be dodging so many weird grannies during the apocalypse. This is a really funny concept!

Alurian7 Apr 2022, 13:56

@human-writes-code That's great to hear! Love the feedback. Do you mean that the creeps speed gets higher faster and the guilt goes up faster. Or for example that the items go faster.

@bougiebirdie hahaha nice one

@tetrapteryx Thanks!! It's a family made game haha

Human Writes Code7 Apr 2022, 14:24

@alurian I was thinking that it should start a bit slower with fewer icons, slower creep speed and slower guilt. Then steadily ramp up to a more frantic pace and higher difficulty. I think the current difficulty is fine but maybe starting easy and increasing to impossible would "feel" better?

Alurian7 Apr 2022, 16:17

@human-writes-code Great suggestion! Will probably update the game after the jam!

Cheezegami7 Apr 2022, 19:30

Weird and quirky experience. But hey, helping grannies is great.

Carla9 Apr 2022, 19:31

Really creepy and weird, but it's nice!

deighta10 Apr 2022, 03:05

clever way to make an infinite runner really easily!

LDJam user 27954610 Apr 2022, 12:57

Weird and fun concept. I didn't realize "g" was guilt. Because I saw "guilt" written out earlier I thought it was always going to appear like that. On my second run, I ran for 3 seconds and the game then ended saying I won. So likely a bug there. I overall enjoyed it though. Fun and silly.

LDJam user 28075510 Apr 2022, 14:09

Haha, what a clever idea for a game! I found it a bit overwhelming in the beginning, even after reading the description. Perhaps some work on making the iconography and UI more clear would help?

Applestreet Games10 Apr 2022, 15:01

Took me a minute to figure out what to do but it's a fun little high score game. Thank you for sharing!

HaaYaargh12 Apr 2022, 21:56

It was an absurdly abstract kind of experience when I streamed this game xD

Who would guess that taking a poo on the street :poop:, picking plants :herb: and getting new shoes :athletic_shoe: are the best things you can do to avoid creeps and feelings of guilt. It was an enjoyable experience despite its simplicity. I like when creators go crazy with their games

Cool to see the appearance of Grandma from Cookie Clicker

Other games by @shakedimus

★3.54

★3.11