Sonny & Gloom by Mach60KAS

[raw]
made by Mach60KAS for LD32 (JAM)
=============================================================
>>>>>>>>>>>IF NO ONE ELSE CONNECTS FOR 5 MINUTES, INVITE A FRIEND!<<<<<<<<<<<
=============================================================
Sonny & Gloom have always had an odd working partnership. As far as ghost hunting duos go, a dog and ghost have always been looked at a little oddly when they take care of a house call.

It's even odder that Gloom uses Sonny's life force as a weapon to battle the undead.

Still, the unlikely team are known as the best exorcists in the tri-state area - and they're about to face more spooks than they've ever met!

=============================================================

This is a 2-player coop game, and unfortunately you cannot play alone. I have an alerts system implemented so that either I or @RHY3756547 can drop into games if we hear an event happen!

-------------------------
Control w/ 1,2,3 to select skills, WSAD to move, click to use your skills!

The unconventional weapon is your own life!

Title screen courtesy of Tom.

Made in phaserjs! (http://phaser.io)

--- POST-COMPO USABILITY FIXES ---
* Placed instructions screen before connection - before this, the embedded app on the ludum dare page would immediately ask for the player's name and put them into a game. This was pretty aggravating!

Ratings

Coolness 37% 1769
Overall(Jam) 3.45 313
Audio(Jam) 2.94 439
Fun(Jam) 3.32 312
Graphics(Jam) 3.05 631
Humor(Jam) 2.68 598
Innovation(Jam) 3.53 242
Mood(Jam) 2.84 677
Theme(Jam) 2.95 777

Feedback

trappytrap92
22. Apr 2015 路 20:09 UTC
Cool game, loved the music and the retro graphics! the dog is a little slow in my opinion, good job and keep working on it! :)
kabutakogames
24. Apr 2015 路 03:22 UTC
I couldn't get a match - but I love the look of this game!
nassi
25. Apr 2015 路 14:33 UTC
Would've liked some rudimentary way of communicating, resorting to barking and spinning in a circle might not have conveyed my message x). Well, we managed to get 226010 points, so not that bad I guess. Started to slow down a bit near the end (that was a lot of enemies!), but still technically impressive.

Networked multiplayer games are always nice, even if a bit risky considering that people might not be able to find company to play them in a game jam. Good job!
馃帳 Mach60KAS
25. Apr 2015 路 14:48 UTC
Thanks for the feedback so far!

@trappytrap92: Thanks so much, I had intended to tweak the numbers properly but before I knew it I was at the 72hr mark. :( Glad you enjoyed it, though!

@kabutakogames: That sucks, glad you liked the look though! :)

@nassi: Hey, I was playing with you as your ghost. That was pretty impressive! Communication was a big part of my original design, with alt-clicks to say "Look Here!" and either a chat wheel or a direct chat for the rest. I ran out of time long before I could have had any of those written I'm afraid, but the lack of communication is sorely felt! The slowdown is a compounding of phaser, network code and my own mistakes at high load with so many sprites spawned at once. It used to be way worse, and truth be told I didn't expect players to make it so far in! Thanks again for the comments!
nassi
25. Apr 2015 路 16:32 UTC
@Mach60KAS: I'll have to make an online multiplayer game sometime in the future too despite the risks involved :P. The idea of playing the game together with the people rating your game feels intriguing, albeit quite time consuming. And of course everything is much more fun with friends... Distant internet friends.

I guess I'll have to check the ghost part in the future too, since that sounded more like my style. Are the characters assigned at random?
馃帳 Mach60KAS
25. Apr 2015 路 16:45 UTC
@nassi: Yep, players are assigned a random state by the server when a lobby is generated. It seemed the fairest way to do it without putting in a screen to choose your character or select a lobby - but it's a pretty harsh workaround.
OnlySlightly
25. Apr 2015 路 16:59 UTC
Really impressive that you managed to make an online coop game during a jam. Congrats!
Frozenfire92
25. Apr 2015 路 17:07 UTC
Really cool concept! I really liked the coop gameplay and how each player had a different role. Would like to see more!
SayHiBen
25. Apr 2015 路 17:23 UTC
The players complement each other nicely! Great work.
Octopus Melange
26. Apr 2015 路 00:10 UTC
A teammate scored the stars.
I'm voting now.
O.4
I.3
F.3
T.3
G.2
A.4
H.1
M.3
Omiya Games
26. Apr 2015 路 02:19 UTC
Very impressed at the balancing of the game. Sure it's on the easy side, but I think it's necessary for games like this where the health is the currency for attacks. I've rarely encountered a game that does this successfully. So well done!
Oborux
27. Apr 2015 路 19:21 UTC
Worked fine for me, like the co-cop element, hope the other player did ok, I entered a name but didn't know the other players handle.
I did a LD game with a dog & ghosts too but its a bit messy, the dog cannot be harmed by the ghosts
EthanWebster
27. Apr 2015 路 20:53 UTC
Fun game! The graphics and gameplay is perfect.