Demonic MeatBall by CafeAmbivalence

[raw]
made by CafeAmbivalence for LD32 (JAM)
You find yourself as a strange whimsical girl; trapped in an arena with an endless colony of primordial quadrupeds. They want your blood! Your only ally is the Demonic Meatball... With ghostly powers you can manipulate the MeatBall. Will you be able to crush your enemies before they destroy you?

WASD - Movement.
Left Mouse Button [HOLD] - Suck MeatBall Closer.
Right Mouse Button [HOLD] - Blow MeatBall Away.

TECHNIQUES and TRICKS:

For a Shielded retreat, Hold left mouse button(LMB) while running away.

For an Orbiting MeatBall, Hold LMB and move in a circle, thereby dragging your meatball into a circle of doom.

For pre-emptive strikes, use Push (right mouse) to take out distant enemies, but be sure to pull the meatball back or you'll be left exposed!

For a safety escort, Use a push or slingshot to get the ball rolling, and then walk alongside it.

Be careful. 50% of monsters will use evasive maneuvers... take them out with lateral attacks like the orbiting meatball.

Ratings

Coolness 51% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.59 215
Fun(Jam) 3.22 398
Graphics(Jam) 3.85 230
Innovation(Jam) 3.62 196
Mood(Jam) 3.68 132
Theme(Jam) 3.65 318

Feedback

馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
19. Apr 2015 路 10:24 UTC
I apologize for the lack of a Web Player. The game does not perform well as a web player at all, and there is some technical challenges with the Right mouse button that I is still beyond my current skill set. I will see if I can fix the issue but the game is working fine, and available as a full download.
ohai1
20. Apr 2015 路 20:56 UTC
Nice little game, I like the idea. Some creepy music in the background would be nice tho :)
benmcnelly
20. Apr 2015 路 21:02 UTC
I haven't got to try the game yet, but no web player is no big deal. Your game looks really interesting, can't wait to try it later!
UKCoder
20. Apr 2015 路 21:07 UTC
Very interesting idea. The graphics are great. A little music would have been cool, but no biggy.

I did find that the character ran a bit too slowly, it was quite hard to manoeuvre into a position to make the meatball effective without getting chased down by the enemies.

A little bit of tweaking and this could be something special.
Qui
20. Apr 2015 路 21:08 UTC
I really like the dark ambiance and the creepy enemy sounds. Unlike the comment above, I find that the lack of music brings more creepiness. Well done.
Leandrus
20. Apr 2015 路 21:11 UTC
Good game. creepy inded. need the music and sound for better ambience.
nice fx with the girl get in on fire.
Thanks for sharing.
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
20. Apr 2015 路 21:18 UTC
Thanks guys! Your feedback is great! (Both postivie and negative feedback) and I will take the comments to heart and then work on an improved version post Ludum.
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
20. Apr 2015 路 21:19 UTC
Also take note that the music and sound effects are not my own but I have provided full accreditation within your download.
Huo-cuo
21. Apr 2015 路 17:19 UTC
Very interesting graphics and mood. Cuo
conniejoern
21. Apr 2015 路 17:34 UTC
played it and thought: cool game, and then I died...
things become creepy. why was i on fire and why did i still controlled the ball? I'm disturbed. What a great gaming moment!
You don't see that in Call of Duty, do you?
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
21. Apr 2015 路 18:03 UTC
Lol. yeah. I'm overly fond of the going-up-in-flames death sequence.
I make apologize for that. It was a quick cheap implementation before before my deadline.

The meatball reacts on a different script and I forgot to disable it. But I felt like fixing it now would be disingenuous to the people that have already rated on it. I'll revise the glitches post Ludum, and I'll work on my death sequences more. Thanks. I appreciate your comment very much.
lunkhound
22. Apr 2015 路 03:09 UTC
Nice premise! I like how the meatball grows when it kills too. I found an exploit where you can climb up on the wall and be (relatively) safe up there while the ball takes out the baddies.
Bensonance
22. Apr 2015 路 12:16 UTC
This is a neat little idea!

The mood is really neatly constructed!

I think the controls need some work though! This could be really fun, but the controls were a bit awkward an hard to manage :).
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
22. Apr 2015 路 16:35 UTC
Indeed. I've got great ideas for taking this forward, but the cotnrols were a bit developer-specific. Thanks for letting me know about the exploit Lunkhound. And Thanks for the advice Bensonance. I hope to get some time to put together a "rework" project for this and maybe add some additional types of monsters and abilities.
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
22. Apr 2015 路 16:41 UTC
OH F#@!$ that exploit is so funny! I tested it out and laughed my butt off when my ball got stuck and the monsters started pushing each other up towards me!
Pixel_Reaper
22. Apr 2015 路 17:21 UTC
Nicely done :) The monster sounds were a bit much, but definitely a dark mood going on there. I ended up almost exclusively using the pull.
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
22. Apr 2015 路 21:27 UTC
Thanks Reaper. I wanted to add some variation to the monster sounds but I only had until sunday to wrap it up. I will add some variation in the future though.
I find it interesting that you mentioned only using the pull.
Can you elaborate as to why you didn't use the push? (I mostly use pull myself and realize the push doesn't respond very fast.)
murilo
23. Apr 2015 路 18:34 UTC
Creepy done right! The mechanic is nice too! And the evasive bugs really makes a difference here! Great job, man!!
Hambone
23. Apr 2015 路 21:41 UTC
Cool! I liked this! It was icky!
TheMeorch
23. Apr 2015 路 21:46 UTC
Very creepy atmosphere, and a really interesting core mechanic. Since the player moves slowly, the Shielded Retreat move seems to be much more useful than the more proactive moves, but with a little bit of adjustment, I think this could get even better than it already is. Nice worK!
Feyd_Rautha
23. Apr 2015 路 21:52 UTC
Fun game, controls are a bit hard to use. I found that pushing the ball away usually ended up punishing me too much. Maybe if the player could move faster while not manipulating the ball. Fun stuff though, the creatures were neat!
reheated
26. Apr 2015 路 08:57 UTC
Waaaaah

Fun and clever combat system. Excellent graphics. I also mostly used pull. I found it much easier to aim slingshot attacks - I think I get finer control over the direction that way.
馃帳 CafeAmbivalence
27. Apr 2015 路 08:06 UTC
Aww. Thanks Reheated. I'm very glad you enjoyed it.Thanks for the helpful tips. I'd have to change "push" to make it more useful.