The Archiver

by ale

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.72

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.50

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.07

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.37

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.03

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.77

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.70

Earth is scheduled for resource extraction by a powerful alien race. Luckily, an influential faction in that race believes it is important to record the history and cultures of all races they extinguish.

You're part of the archiver group which is tasked with doing just that! Care for and raise your human specimen, harvest their brains, and preserve their existence for all of eternity.

If you've ever played Creatures) or Fallout Shelter, then this game is similar to those if you squint and turn your head.

Controls

Mouse/Keyboard:

* Hold left click + move the mouse to move the cursor
* Hold right click to charge grabber, release when it turns blue to activate
* Press right click to release whatever you're holding
* Press ESCAPE to toggle in-game manual

Gamepad (not fully tested):

* Left joystick to move cursor
* Hold A button to charge grabber, release when it turns blue to activate
* Press A button to release whatever you're holding
* Press B button to toggle in-game manual

Tools Used

* Godot
* Spine Animation
* Inkscape
* GIMP

Tags: #virtual pet

Genres: simulation

Tools: GIMP, Godot, Inkscape

Comments20

Wolfraam197410 Jan 2023, 10:43

Thank you so much! I loves stickman games. You the best!

Cambryx10 Jan 2023, 11:38

Cool graphics and interesting idea with a lot of game mechanics.
I found the controls a bit frustrating because often I got the timing wrong and missed the short time when telekinesis tool turned blue or the stickman started walking away while I was holding RMB.
Also I am not sure if this is a bug but I didn't manage to make to start reproduction. After putting two fed humans in the cage, they just dropped down (without their fed status, because it disappeared as soon as I put them in the cage) and nothing else happened.

jan5366x10 Jan 2023, 11:39

I had some problems to understand it at the beginning since it is not my usual game genre, but good work!

Aleauthor10 Jan 2023, 21:11

@wolfraam1974 @cambryx @jan5366x Thanks for playing!

Unfortunately, the damn flu/covid/whatever is going around got me and I've been sick all week. I knocked out almost immediately after submitting this without realizing there were two game breaking bugs: broken reproduction cage, and impossible to harvest brains on Windows and HTML5 builds due to broken input handling.

I've uploaded an updated version which should be working fine, if anyone would like to try it again.

jan5366x10 Jan 2023, 21:51

Hehe ok that explains a lot ... so I was not doing it wrong :smile: ... works now for me ... one time a dude was falling through the ground, but overall good work!
Please chill & get well soon

Torban11 Jan 2023, 00:37

Im able to grab a unit but I cant seem to shake the brain out. I was able to do it once, but usually I just end up dropping the unit instead of getting the brain

Aleauthor11 Jan 2023, 00:43

@torban are you using a gamepad or mouse? I think the gamepad has issues in the HTML5 version. It's also easier to do it if you move the joystick left-to-right rapidly, rather than doing a circular motion. For mouse/kbd, it should work... although the sensitivity might be too low.

Also, the veggie people (the ones bent over at the start of the game) don't have brains, so shaking them won't give you anything.

daitli11 Jan 2023, 03:15

It took me a hot minute trying to figure out what to do even when checking the in-game manual all the time lol

ironhandMD11 Jan 2023, 03:32

nice game! I like the graphics, simple but gives justice to the theme , I had some challenge on getting the brains, I was shaking the stickman, he just fell off. I like the concept of harvesting brains and developing the stickmen form veg to man, keep it up!

Hyster11 Jan 2023, 09:37

I have no idea what's going on, the control are really weird and unsatisfying

Maxuleny11 Jan 2023, 12:55

Particular game, it took me some time to understand how it works. The graphics are nice. Too bad for the absence of the audio compartment.

hmrpf11 Jan 2023, 17:05

Interesting game ! It took time to get it. But I got use to the telekinesis mechanic after a while. I did a zombie, but and almost a second then 4 rebels killed my 2 almost full zombie and I hadn't the strenght to make 2 new :D
Maybe make it a bit more dynamic and it could be super nice. Also the fact that the cursor is slower than my real cursor is a bit frustrating. I wonder if it wouldn't be easier if it just was following the mouse. Great entry anyway, so much work in so little time !

Cloughd11 Jan 2023, 18:39

Interesting take on a colony management kind of game. It took me a good amount of time to figure out how to play even with the tutorial. The graphics are pretty clean and polished with the animated stick figures.

togo sepultraut12 Jan 2023, 02:59

its a nice management idea. the controls however hold it back a lot.
playing with mouse, the cursor lags behind the mouse so you have to click and release constantly to get it anywhere :/ (may be a bug?)

Fluri12 Jan 2023, 14:04

The animations of the stick figures are nice.
- Instructions could be given in chunks to not overwhelm the player.
- The triangle cursor is frustrating to time and would much rather be able being able to move the stick figures with the mouse.

Aleauthor12 Jan 2023, 17:18

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

@togo-sepultraut @fluri @hmrpf @hyster

It seems like the control scheme didn't work out. The reason I made it so weird is because I wanted to add a barrier between the player and the game world, to try and make it feel more alive. I thought that letting the player directly pick up/manipulate things with the mouse would make it feel too mechanical/game-y, whereas having to cross a barrier to do basic things would make each action feel more impactful.

...at least, that was the idea I had early in the jam. Now that I've been able to properly play test, it's clear that it didn't work, at least not in its current implementation. I got used to it while I was working on it, but obviously I'm much more likely to do that than a real user lol.

But anyways, this feedback has been very helpful. I've never made a game like this before, so it's been a very valuable learning experience :D

Harmofish13 Jan 2023, 06:26

It's a very creative game, but the controls are not smooth, and it's unclear what the ultimate goal is. Come on!

milq14 Jan 2023, 01:17

Good entry! At first it was difficult for me to understand the tutorial, and then to get out of it! And at the beginning it was difficult for me to start playing, maybe it would be interesting to improve the usability. However, I find the concept wonderful and then you are hooked. Very good game, seriously, congratulations.

Jezzamon15 Jan 2023, 23:54

Hm, I think you should consider disabling mouse controls, they were too frustrating to use. It actually made me assume that the game was designed for a gamepad first, but I see in the description that the gamepad is the less tested one!

I've play a few games where part of the mechanic is "the controls are harder to use" and I don't think it ever really works! I think you need to make the controls feel as good as possible for people to feel like they're fun and not frustrating.

One tip I often give people is to get people to try their game during the jam, if possible! Someone might've given you that feedback which you could tweak.

I got a bit of the way through the game, managed to get a zombie worker and some worker apes, but it felt a bit slow with the controls. Still, interesting entry!

DFaouaz24 Jan 2023, 11:10

The controls were a little uncomfortable but overall it is a lovely stickman game! Nice job!