SumoBall! by flyingbear

[raw]
made by flyingbear for LD31 (COMPO)
An army of crabs has invaded your prefecture. It's up to you to stop them... SUMO PINBALL style!

Made in Game Maker. Used some concepts from Game Maker Pinball Engine by barrya3 for the Pinball physics. Photoshop, Audacity, sfxr were also used.

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12/7 Update: Fixed a bug that caused you to frequently get stuck inside the flippers.

12/8 Update: I totally mismanaged my time this LD and only ended up with 10 minutes to actually playtest and make balance tweaks. I decided that I'd give myself 1 extra hour to flesh out and balance the game a bit. That extra hour of work makes the game substantially more balanced and fun, but it's technically post-compo so judge accordingly.

Here are the changes for the 49 hour edition:
-Reset back to level 1 after death (This is how it was intended to work)
-If there are no enemies on-screen, send the next row immediately
-Fixed a bug where store items weren't always updating their "affordability"
-Made the tougher enemies give out more money
-Time between rows decreases as you get to later levels
-Made the first appearance of some of the tougher enemies happen at a later level
-You can't shoot out of the cannon right as you get to the shop (It would cause you to mistakenly purchase the wrong thing)
-And NEW "ONE-HUNDRED HAND SLAP" ability to help you clear out multiple enemies and blow past their shields!

12/9 Update: Added music to the 49-hour Edition (also quick-fixed the off-the-top-of-the-screen bug)
-One of the things I love doing each Ludum Dare is to spend an hour or two composing a chiptune to go with my game. Well, I didn't get a chance to do that this LD cause I spent so much time on physics this and physics that. So when a tune popped in my head today I couldn't help but spend an hour-and-a-half busting out this chiptune, which you can now find in the 49-hour edition.

12/13 Update: Added a web version of the game! Check it out if you have a somewhat-powerful computer.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.98 30
Audio 3.38 177
Fun 4.12 11
Graphics 3.79 162
Humor 3.75 45
Innovation 3.43 343
Mood 3.41 184
Theme 3.87 252

Feedback

sheigeno
08. Dec 2014 · 09:14 UTC
..2 games in 1 game?! awesome job with this game..it has it's future
elektricmaster7
09. Dec 2014 · 00:21 UTC
What a fun game! :)
QuexD
09. Dec 2014 · 00:47 UTC
Damn Crabs think you can invade my prefecture I will show you.(great game nice combo of 2 classics)
XenosNS
09. Dec 2014 · 00:56 UTC
loved this! :-D
Lacaranian
09. Dec 2014 · 01:20 UTC
Solid game! A few glitches as you mentioned in the 48 hour version, but the mechanics and progression feel smooth. I tried the 49 hour one for good measure, and it did seem a little better. I did have it happen in both, where if I collided just the right (or maybe wrong) way, the sumoer would glitch off screen for the rest of the round, causing an inevitable loss (and return to level 1 in the 49 hour version). Otherwise, this would make a good starting point if you want to expand on it for a larger project!
rogberth
09. Dec 2014 · 01:25 UTC
I played a LOT, but it gets kind of boring trying to farm for the 15k katana. Overall great game! This idea could sell in mobile devices
andrewkennedy
09. Dec 2014 · 01:43 UTC
Nicely done! The shop screen was incredibly well done, and I loved how you use the same mechanics in game to purchase the upgrades! Being able to re-launch yourself with the cannon was unexpected and fun!
🎤 flyingbear
09. Dec 2014 · 01:55 UTC
No! Not the dreaded glitch-off-the-screen bug! I thought I fixed most of those cases, but I guess a few slipped through the cracks. Shoulda paid more attention in physics class!

I've noticed a few minor glitches as I'm playing through the game myself. Ah... it's nice to be able to relax post-compo and just play the game without freaking out. I have to say it's quite enjoyable and I'm proud of how this one turned out. =) (btw, it does take a lot of time to farm the 15k katana, but it's more tolerable in the 49-hour version where the red-eyed crabs generously explode into bushels of money)

Thanks so much to all of you for taking the time to play. And I have to say, you haven't lived until you've hundred hand slapped 5 crabs in a row in the 49 hour edition!
Ryusui
09. Dec 2014 · 07:53 UTC
Pinball, Breakout, and a little bitta Space Invaders...I haven't seen a mashup like this since Super Space K'noidtrix, though this has the advantage that I don't have to suffer through the obnoxious load times in the Sega CD version of The Adventures of Willy Beamish to enjoy it. XD

And of course it's PINBALL, so you know it gets my vote. :3
thopis
09. Dec 2014 · 07:55 UTC
Excellent!Great sprites, +1 background, +5 canon!keep up my friend!
AndresGames
09. Dec 2014 · 08:54 UTC
I have got to say... I really enjoyed your game. I try not to get caught up to much in playing the games but I got stuck for over 30 min playing this. Was a great game, you should put it up somewhere. There was a glitch with the sumo coming back up if you hit it right with the pallet which I didn't mind, made my life a little easier.
davient
09. Dec 2014 · 11:46 UTC
Great game! Very Playable: Space invaders vs Pinball for the win! I'd love the friction to be a little lower and the paddles to rotate another 5-10 degrees at max flip to be able to do reverse flicks and a bit more fine control. Well done - I look forward to seeing you take this further.
richwerner
09. Dec 2014 · 19:24 UTC
Nice JORBS. Played it a bunch! 48th Hr version def fixed some of the things I noticed! Agree with slightly more rotation to the paddles and also if I leave my paddles down, the Sumo doesn't easily fall between them. Maybe make the gap slightly bigger? Look forward to doing more with this one my man!
Alendro
09. Dec 2014 · 20:52 UTC
Funny Art
Grindstorm
09. Dec 2014 · 20:55 UTC
Interesting approach to two overused game types: Tower defense and pinball. Good job
crazyrems
09. Dec 2014 · 21:17 UTC
I really liked playing it.
BFXR sounds are definitely just placeholder sounds.
The sumo is too much sticky IMO.
PlasterPhantom
09. Dec 2014 · 21:27 UTC
THIS IS SO AMAZING. I loved it, really fun to play! Great combination of the two also! Powers ups are really well working and I've had lovely moments of "OH DAAAAMN". 5/5
Gins
09. Dec 2014 · 21:33 UTC
Wow I played this for such a long time that I almost forgot to rate and comment :D

Brilliant idea and perfectly executed with some small bugs that you seem to have fixed already anyway. Good luck going for the throne this LD :)
Magicolo
09. Dec 2014 · 21:43 UTC
-Very nice pinball action here :)
-Great idea with the canons; I've had a few nice combos with them
-Love the sumo's bouncy effect :)
-No music :(
-SFX :)
-Nooooo I lost my sumo off the top of the screen :(
-Simple but Much fun :)
-Nice replayability :)
-This game illustrates how you can recycle the same crab image to make ALL the ennemies :)
puppetmaster
09. Dec 2014 · 23:25 UTC
The best LD pinball so fare!! Very cool! (reached LV-11)
lekochen
10. Dec 2014 · 04:23 UTC
This is awesome. The progress control is so good. Every upgrade feels meaningful. Very well done. I end up reached level 11.
alpha_rat
10. Dec 2014 · 21:49 UTC
When I played it the first time I thought it lacked some music, good thing you uploaded the second version!

Very enjoyable, I like the upgrades
I noticed a few glitches when the sumo reaches the pinball bats
ArcturusDeluxe
10. Dec 2014 · 21:51 UTC
I like the combination of game styles on show here. Despite the game being relatively simple for a pinball game, the powerups and moving enemies add an extra layer onto it. The physics were pretty solid as well. Good stuff! I like the chipmusic on the 49 hour one as well btw.
Zi
11. Dec 2014 · 09:36 UTC
This game was... awesumo.
stray
11. Dec 2014 · 10:27 UTC
WOWWWWWWW, made me laugh a lot. Great dude :D
Headmade
11. Dec 2014 · 19:47 UTC
That was a lot of fun and for a compo entry it had s really polished look and feel. Well done.
However I would like the game to progress quicker. A steeper difficulty curve would help with that.
Todnut
11. Dec 2014 · 22:16 UTC
You never fail to impress! The only thing I would add is an upgrade for a walnut outfit for my sumo.
🎤 flyingbear
11. Dec 2014 · 23:05 UTC
@Todnut hahaha that would be incredible!

Thanks everyone for your feedback and for taking the time to check out the game =)
greysphere
12. Dec 2014 · 01:36 UTC
You know how a good music mash up you the component songs blend together seemlessly, I had the same feeling with SumoBall! The ball motion and rotation and paddle collision are well done and allow total control of my sumo-shots of crab-domination. In the 49 hour version I really enjoyed the catchy tune. And when I inevitibly died to the yellow crabs, rather than table flipping, I spent my hard earned dough on an upgrade and took my newly refurbished sumo-resolve back to the prefecture for some delicious revenge.

Also, now I know what a prefecture is, bonus!

Very well done!
Elemental Zeal Games Studios
12. Dec 2014 · 15:57 UTC
This was fun, nice job!
pjimmy
13. Dec 2014 · 19:16 UTC
very simple but funny, love the style, the music was awesome, well done
panda
13. Dec 2014 · 19:33 UTC
Hilarious game! I love it! I want to play pinball with a Sumo wrestler more often :)
TijmenTio
13. Dec 2014 · 19:46 UTC
Cool idea, played it for like an hour hahaha. The pinball/space invaders mix is pretty nifty and worked out pretty well. I think the game could use a lot more visual feedback and I also think that the sumo guy was a bit too slow and seemed to kinda stick to much to walls sometimes if that makes any sense.. That tune is so awesome btw! can't believe you made that in such a short amount of time :o
bazld
13. Dec 2014 · 20:17 UTC
Loved it! Very playable and fun. The canon and powerups are great additions.
kipelovets
13. Dec 2014 · 20:33 UTC
Awesumo indeed)
Tuism
13. Dec 2014 · 20:54 UTC
A) Yay finally web version :)
B) Whew, you weren't kidding with better frame rates for Windows version... The web version lagged so much, though I don't see why, as it looks really fairly simple in what the game needed to do.

Ultimately, I feel there's a missed opportunity with exaggerating the size of the sumo ball - that's your biggest (ha pun intended) hook with that theme, and I didn't feel like it was much of a factor - have you played Sushi Cat? Yeah like that.

And then beyond that... Any pinball lives and dies by their table design, IMO. So with a really sparse table the interaction potential is minimal... And so fun factor suffers.
el-pepi
13. Dec 2014 · 20:59 UTC
Haha! really fun game! Cool graphics and sound!
Funny power ups!
The sumo got stuck a few times while rolling down, and the sound stopped.
nuqu
13. Dec 2014 · 21:03 UTC
nice game, a solid flipper the sumo ball is nicely done!
HappyTransportGames
13. Dec 2014 · 21:40 UTC
Good job! :)
gamedevBear
14. Dec 2014 · 05:43 UTC
I enjoyed this one. Played it WAY past bedtime :)

The music and hundred hand slap are huge improvements for the 49-hr version.
spotco
14. Dec 2014 · 06:53 UTC
Very enjoyable, nice music (sucker for chiptunes), pretty graphics. A few problems though, though it was pretty repetitive for the first couple of levels and a little too slow-paced. If there was anything really great at the later levels (after 6, which is the highest I got after several playthroughs) like a boss or something, never got to see it.

In addition, a completely missable shop. Consider showing it before the initial playthrough?

Finally, you could have totally had some sumo "HUAH!!!"-style sounds. Wasted opportunity :(

PS. Happy we both had the "pinball" idea, take a look at mine if you got time :)
redoxkun
14. Dec 2014 · 11:13 UTC
A great mix between two classic games. Love the music, love the graphics and enjoyeed a lot playing. Excellent game!
skiddings
14. Dec 2014 · 15:08 UTC
Errr, where did the last half an hour go?
Great, I guess. wow/10
pkenney
14. Dec 2014 · 17:24 UTC
Very fun. It's a cool simple idea that you made shine with nice cartoon graphics and good sound effects.

I did encounter a technical issue where the sound effects stopped playing around the time the first crab with a shield appeared. A minute after that the music stopped and the game was still fully functional otherwise, but silent.
admix
14. Dec 2014 · 21:51 UTC
Got to firth level ^____^ One of the best entries I have played so far! Very polished, I love it!
6DownStudios
15. Dec 2014 · 06:02 UTC
Funny and fun! Great music and art too, love those little shielded crabs, although I think the crab idle might look better if the shield bobbed up and down with the frame change.
Well done!
GarethIW
15. Dec 2014 · 11:10 UTC
Such a great game! Made it to round 5 on my third playthrough, but didn't quite get enough cash to try out the Slap. Was really surprised to see the powerups when I died, kept me playing for ages!
Lyxilion
15. Dec 2014 · 11:18 UTC
Space invaders cross paintball ! Nie I love it !
Valeour
15. Dec 2014 · 12:06 UTC
Really sweet game, intended to rate a bunch over my lunch break today but spent almost the entire time playing yours. Some slightly rough around the edges physics and sometimes a little frustrating hitting that last crab but I really enjoyed the mechanics.
lemmily
15. Dec 2014 · 12:24 UTC
Nice work! Was quite difficult to get the angles right to get to the edge crabs quite often. But fun ! ^^
PlonkyDonkey
15. Dec 2014 · 12:26 UTC
Brilliant, what a good game well done
lycrashampoo
15. Dec 2014 · 13:14 UTC
This game is SUPER FUN! Pinball plus Space Invaders is pretty awesome, it turns out, and I absolutely love how the game over screen is a power-up shop. Also the graphics are such the cute.

The pinball physics are pretty good, but they could still use a tiny bit of work to be really satisfying; in particular, the sumoball is very reluctant to flip backwards the way he would in an actual pinball cabinet. The magnet also doesn't work the way I would expect, but that might be a feature.

Minor quibbles, though, this game is incredible.
RyanNielson
15. Dec 2014 · 13:40 UTC
Nice little game, decent pinball physics and pretty great art all around. I like the mix of space invaders and pinball gameplay.
freaknarf
15. Dec 2014 · 14:30 UTC
KIRBY PINBALL!!!!!!!!YAAAAAAAAH! :) i can feel you've been traumatized too. Well done !!! sometimes the sumo gets stuck at bottom ! 5/5 because of kirby.
Tonasz
15. Dec 2014 · 14:42 UTC
I'm pretty shocked how long I was playing this game. Super fun idea, please, continue work on it :)
MrShoestore
15. Dec 2014 · 14:54 UTC
i like the look of this, and the chiptune sounds really good.
vicious_br
15. Dec 2014 · 14:57 UTC
Five for all, I realy get so far in this game, cong!
rayman1900
15. Dec 2014 · 15:01 UTC
Pinball mixed with Space Invader ? Wow, I really like it !
I was at lvl 2 until I decided to stop playing, but is there a point to collect coins ? Can you buy power ups with them ?
GeorgeBroussard
15. Dec 2014 · 15:35 UTC
Haha! Great entry. Was surprisingly playable and easy to hit things. Really liked your core idea of mixing pinball with space invaders. I could see working on this more and making a mobile version. It's whacky enough to work.
cxsquared
15. Dec 2014 · 16:24 UTC
Great game, graphics, and music. Super simple and fun. Good work.
darthballs
15. Dec 2014 · 18:46 UTC
as a professional sumo wrestler i find this game offensive

seriously though it's pretty good
Dietrich Epp
15. Dec 2014 · 20:52 UTC
Lots of fun! I had a hard time aiming the "ball", however. I thought the bonus items that you could buy were cool.
OldPeculier
15. Dec 2014 · 21:53 UTC
The art is strong with this one. Nice gameplay too and good sound.
LeReveur
16. Dec 2014 · 23:52 UTC
Fun and good arts, well done !
sP0CkEr2
22. Dec 2014 · 06:21 UTC
this game has it all - wonderful
t4u
29. Dec 2014 · 09:41 UTC
Mixing 2 classical games into one --> Good idea!
Vaclav
29. Dec 2014 · 14:19 UTC
Awww that was fun! :D