Circle Tracer Cookie Defense
This game is from ldjam.com, which is currently unavailable.
You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive (may not load correctly).
You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive (may not load correctly).
Little does that guy know, he's about to be more like...
Game should be self-explanatory, just give it a shot.
===
Notes on the development:
This one was weird. I spent a LOOOT of my time implementing a feature (the green enemies "breaking" your traceline) with a ton of finnicky interactions. But then, when the game loop came together and I saw it in context, I realized to my horror that this feature would need to be cut -- it just didn't play well and actually made the game feel terrible!
I scrambled looking for what was fun in the remaining parts. I stripped a SECOND expensive feature (cookies bounced away from your traceline) that was incentivizing a really boring strategy, and tried to make what was there enjoyable. But now I was down two major interactions.
When time got short I had to push aside the desire to dig further, and turn the corner for the home stretch of sound effects, score tracking, and scene transitions.
Never before has so much wound up on the cutting floor.
Also, I found that I have a new recurring problem: My toddler understands why I disappeared for most of two days, but he wants to see the result. And so what probably would have been killing became "eating cookies" so I don't get difficult questions from him.
If you push deep into a high score here, let me know how it goes. I took some of the safety limits off the difficulty scaling right at the end of the jam, so I'm actually not sure that it doesn't go completely bonkers on you if you can stay alive long enough.
Game should be self-explanatory, just give it a shot.
===
Notes on the development:
This one was weird. I spent a LOOOT of my time implementing a feature (the green enemies "breaking" your traceline) with a ton of finnicky interactions. But then, when the game loop came together and I saw it in context, I realized to my horror that this feature would need to be cut -- it just didn't play well and actually made the game feel terrible!
I scrambled looking for what was fun in the remaining parts. I stripped a SECOND expensive feature (cookies bounced away from your traceline) that was incentivizing a really boring strategy, and tried to make what was there enjoyable. But now I was down two major interactions.
When time got short I had to push aside the desire to dig further, and turn the corner for the home stretch of sound effects, score tracking, and scene transitions.
Never before has so much wound up on the cutting floor.
Also, I found that I have a new recurring problem: My toddler understands why I disappeared for most of two days, but he wants to see the result. And so what probably would have been killing became "eating cookies" so I don't get difficult questions from him.
If you push deep into a high score here, let me know how it goes. I took some of the safety limits off the difficulty scaling right at the end of the jam, so I'm actually not sure that it doesn't go completely bonkers on you if you can stay alive long enough.