Flocker

by jaker

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.58

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.12

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.32

Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.82

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.98

A particle-based survival game

Tend your flock of tiny, glowing creatures as they navigate increasingly dangerous terrain.

Objective

Protect your flock from touching the hot laser walls for 120 seconds.

Every 10 seconds, your flock doubles in size and more laser walls are added.

Controls

- Cursor: leads the flock
- Escape: pauses the game
- F1: toggle screenshot mode (hides interface)
- Space: hold to increase game speed by 4x (v1.1.0 only)

Technical Info

Made in C++ and OpenGL 4.5. The particles are entirely simulated and rendered with compute shaders. Check the GitHub readme for more info.

Misc.

For lower-end machines, try reducing the initial particle count and simulation rate in the main menu. For higher-end machines, do the opposite!!

Changelog

v1.0.3 features only critical bug fixes from the original version. This is the final game jam submission.

v1.1.0 adds a no-bloom mode and a way to skip the tutorial section of the game, among some other minor changes.

Comments25

KingShake3 Oct 2022, 19:01

This was a really fun experience! well done! :D

ChillerTyp4 Oct 2022, 06:03

Nothing for people with epilepsy...

Jakerauthor4 Oct 2022, 06:09

@chillertyp I could add a setting to disable the bloom effect. Do you think that would help?

Tomtomgome4 Oct 2022, 06:15

Very respectfull of full C++ games :) Very pretty graphics and simple concept, with a good execution. I managed to get a high score of 88%

Rafale254 Oct 2022, 17:21

Nice

LDJam user 2997575 Oct 2022, 00:44

Really fun cool game good job

eyezzzick5 Oct 2022, 00:50

I really liked how the pixels i controlled moved and looked while i played. The game went from slow to really hard in a short amount of time. Over all a nicely made game

Jakerauthor5 Oct 2022, 04:35

Yeah, I noticed it has a slow start, but kept it so players can get familiar with the controls. It's not optimal for subsequent playthroughs though, so I'll add a way to speed the game up or skip the beginning.

ryusui6 Oct 2022, 02:06

Any hope we'll see binaries? I'm fine downloading games, but asking me to compile them is a little much @_@;

Jakerauthor6 Oct 2022, 02:08

@ryusui there is a Windows binary in the GitHub releases page. It is in a .zip file. Here is a direct download link: https://github.com/JuanDiegoMontoya/LD51/releases/download/v1.1.0/Flocker_1.1.0_win64.zip

ryusui6 Oct 2022, 02:18

@jaker Whoops! Open foot, insert mouth!

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL game - gave me vibes of Rez, if Rez had some of Final Fantasy XIV's thornier AOE patterns to contend with. XD

Turns out I am very very bad at it: I won, but with only 10 floaters left alive XD

Jakerauthor6 Oct 2022, 02:27

@ryusui I haven't played those games, but I see the connection. Very nice :D

Alex de la Cour6 Oct 2022, 13:42

Massive respect with how you've made this game! Working with shaders seriously makes my head spin (and I'm in fact doing just this at university this term!)

The game itself is beautiful and absorbing - it took me a second to get the hang of how to control the particles but once I picked it up it was really fun watching the swarms swirling around. Overall a cool and unique entry!

blobo6 Oct 2022, 18:29

OH man, this was too much fun to play with, ha! That sandbox mode is dangerously fun. The bloom was a brilliant touch, and everything about this was cool.

I recorded myself playing for extra feedback, though I worry a combination of video compression and youtube compression won't do the game justice. There's still the feedback to be had though:

Jakerauthor7 Oct 2022, 08:35

@100th-coin even at 480p it looks decent, if I say so myself :smile:. I really appreciate the feedback and the video.

I wish I could have added more options to the sandbox before the deadline, though.

PS: here's a gif I recorded: https://gfycat.com/chiefjauntylark

Kabura7 Oct 2022, 16:07

really great and unique graphics here! the only thing more unique is probably your profile picture lol

Aristurtle7 Oct 2022, 17:41

I'll say real quick that the it's an enjoyable game to play, even if it's simplistic.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the technical aspect since I feel that's what you wanted to show off here. The use of shaders was a cool choice. Visually they look nice and the bloom effect added really elevates it once you get more into a play or in the sandbox. Shaders are one of those closed box forbidden magic things and it's always really cool to see someone intentionally use them.

I only played the jam version, and saw in the changelog that you did add the option to remove bloom. This would have been my major feedback to give since it does get quite overwhelming.

Hawke Games8 Oct 2022, 02:27

This game is Awesome! The graphics are Stunning! I need this as a screensaver Lol. The particles look absolutely amazing and I could probably spend hours just in the sandbox mode. The actual game part isn't bad, though I do wish it was a bit easier (I think expanding the view to the fullscreen could help if you can do that without ruining the performance). But overall, an amazing experience!

Skel3ton8 Oct 2022, 23:00

Very interesting idea and very nice, the particles and their movement is really beautiful. good job

NiceKot9 Oct 2022, 02:38

This is so pretty. Spent some time just playing around with it. Sad that there's no sound, but the looks, visuals and theme will have my fives.

Fantastic job. I really appreciate when people are able to create something so nice using just simple figures and particles.

danvil9 Oct 2022, 04:14

Love it! With ambient sound this would be perfect

Sphinx13 Oct 2022, 04:18

Cool simulation and stunning visual.

Asheko16 Oct 2022, 12:12

First of all, I love the visual of your game.

The controls seemed a bit awkward (I'm bad with mouse only), and the difficulty ramps up pretty quicly (wich is great).

I'm just missing an audio background to really set a mood.

Other than that Great job !

ChanSmith20 Oct 2022, 07:42

Fun game and it's super interesting to play around with the sandbox. For others: you can Ctrl+Click on the sliders in the sandbox to set the values to whatever you want -- setting some of them to very high or to negative values can give some interesting results:

epeachyband21 Oct 2022, 15:49

Probably the best interactive screensaver. Good job!

Other games by @jaker

★3.52