Kaiser by oscarabraham

[raw]
made by oscarabraham for LD31 (JAM)
(Hint, if you're not content with just playing and you want to win, try leaving bombs at the center of the screen.)

Here is it, a game made using phaser.js. This is a game that uses the bad feelings I had first when I read that the theme was Entire game on one screen. The game explores feelings anger at the limits of life, anger at the way things are suposed to be. And it does it through marriage :). You're the bride in a wedding, everything seems stronger than you; with smart moves and, somehow, bombs, you may enjoy your short but free life.

It supports touchscreens rudimentarily, but please play it on Chrome, on a nice computer, so you can enjoy it fully. This game has physics, webgl shaders and webaudio API sounds, that means it is much lamer on celphones.

It has simple mechanics, but you have to be smart about your movements and your timing. Everything else has much more movility than you, so every move is important. The game might seem hard at first. This game requires precise movement. Please, wait for the learning curve to take you to a more comfortable place and be patient. I hope its difficulty will make it rewarding when you can win it.

You can play by the rules, try and see how much do you last. Or you can try to break the game if you feel the need to win something. (I'd try exploding bombs near the center of the screen. it is hard though; you need around 20)

I'm submiting for my team. I sing in a rock band in Mexico, Dolphant (shameless plug, check dolphant.com if you like our music), and when I told my bandmates that I wanted to do a game for the jam using a song of ours, they jumped on the train, even though they had a lot of things to do. Ricki drew most of the graphics with a pencil, Dany did most of the sound, and I did the geeky stuff.

Don't forget to comment :).
--
P.D.
I hope I have not made it to easy; it was much harder before, but almost everyone that was not me that played the game was really lame at it, so I made it a little easier.

If the web link gets to slow, you can try it on dropbox https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68730042/kaiser/index.html

It is actually the point that you cannot really fight back, just escape. But the enemies movements are not random, you just have to learn the way enemies move, they launch at you when their speed is getting too slow; so instead of avoiding them all the time, wait for their move and get out of their way in time, or put obstacles between you and them. Think every move.

Also if you get too distracted with the mechanics, you stop paying attention on how to win the game, which is the real goal *wink*.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall(Jam) 3.19 524
Fun(Jam) 3.12 449
Graphics(Jam) 3.11 579
Humor(Jam) 2.85 366
Innovation(Jam) 2.84 630
Mood(Jam) 3.25 353
Theme(Jam) 3.00 875

Feedback

muramasa
09. Dec 2014 路 03:54 UTC
I hope my boss doesn't find out I'm playing this!
Ryan Kline
09. Dec 2014 路 03:56 UTC
Background music was nice, and the game was enjoyable, but when I, personally, pressed down, it would force the webpage to scroll downwards with the game. The sprites were really adorable.
ciaodavinci
09. Dec 2014 路 03:59 UTC
Hey that was fun. It took me a while to find the crack but I liked trying to blow it open. Damn those kaisers are always on my face.
Kopeph Developers
09. Dec 2014 路 04:00 UTC
The core game mechanic for this is hard to pick up, frustrating, and seemingly very random. With the enemies seemingly impossibly to kill and nearly impossible to avoid, it quickly becomes almost solely about avoidance and not about fighting back. The art style is really promising and it seems like there's an engaging mood and narrative under the surface wanting to break free, but the basic mechanics get in the way and stop it from surfacing.
馃帳 oscarabraham
09. Dec 2014 路 04:01 UTC
(: Thank you.

That's weird, I cannot replicate what happened to you, Ryan. Maybe I'll look into it a little more. Anyway, you can solve it by playing it fullscreen, or playing in another tab.
OttersDen
09. Dec 2014 路 04:02 UTC
You seem to have opted out of sounds, but the way some visuals were synced to the music was really awesome! I couldn't last through even one song, sadly, I wanted to see what the next song was, or what happened after the first one.
馃帳 oscarabraham
09. Dec 2014 路 04:06 UTC
It doesn't have sound if you are playing in a browser that doesn't support audio API. Try it on Chrome! or at least on Firefox, it is much more cooler.
JFern
09. Dec 2014 路 04:06 UTC
Interesting setting. Controls were a bit awkward on PC. BG song during game was sick but it and sfx were not the greatest fit for me.
Roan Contreras
09. Dec 2014 路 06:21 UTC
Great game, I enjoyed it. I've played this with my laptop's touchscreen monitor. :D
The music sometimes repeat when I am playing a new game, but other than that, nice.
WatercressStudios
09. Dec 2014 路 07:05 UTC
I really enjoy when a game like this has smooth controlls, and you pulled it off very well!
Alendro
09. Dec 2014 路 07:56 UTC
I didn't really understand what was happening, but I like the style.
VictorL
09. Dec 2014 路 08:03 UTC
Like the words shows on the screen. You managed to make me feel angry because of the unkillable enemies.
GrabenGroup
09. Dec 2014 路 08:05 UTC
very nice thing with the song text ;)
jovoc
09. Dec 2014 路 08:06 UTC
This was fun and pretty challenging. I liked the mechanic. But I feel like I was missing some of the game, and I wasn't able to plant enough bombs to win. The blurring and negative effects were cool though.

I liked style and mood but I felt like it didn't match with the gameplay. The backstory was thought-provoking and introspective, but the gameplay was much more arcadey. I think that got in the way a little bit, a lighter theme would have fit the gameplay better, or slower, more puzzle based gameplay if you want to keep the theme.

Also not sure about the "game fits on one screen" theme, since it was scrolling, so it seemed like you were falling through a space much larger than one screen.
SeriousDeath
09. Dec 2014 路 08:24 UTC
I think some other measure to avoid the kaisers would be good, as I very often found myself trapped by them with either no escape, or needing to fall off the map to escape, losing a large portion of HP... This almost always happened directly after using a bomb to save myself, so I had a cooldown to wait for...
馃帳 oscarabraham
09. Dec 2014 路 08:28 UTC
Thank you. It doesn't scroll, the platforms move up, that's why the player falls down with normal progression of gravity acceleration, although I supose it's all relative. If you get out of the screen, you are hurt and returned. It plays on the fact that everything can leave the screen but you and dares you to break it.
LukeZaz
09. Dec 2014 路 08:51 UTC
I want to play more, but the game is just too hard. Nonetheless, it was fun.
alwaysinbeta
09. Dec 2014 路 12:23 UTC
Really enjoyed this. The graphics and music are great and the gameplay feels fluid. Wish I didn't have to wait so long in between bombs though.
Muush
09. Dec 2014 路 17:00 UTC
I had to go fullscreen so the page didn't scroll down. Anyway, it was good work
huggabugga
09. Dec 2014 路 17:50 UTC
Great music, an a fun game. Nice job! I found the keyboard controls easier than the touch controls on my mobile, but I bet there's a way to fix that.
馃帳 oscarabraham
09. Dec 2014 路 19:43 UTC
Yeah, the touch controls suck. I didn't have time to implement a touch stick. I wonder, if I implement a touch stick would that be some kind of porting, or would that be cheating?
01rafael
11. Dec 2014 路 21:31 UTC
stack in the middle whe loading. and nothing I can do with that
psychonull
11. Dec 2014 路 21:47 UTC
wow that was cool and fun. I think it would be better to add browser support for controls, instead of clicking on the screen add the arrow keys to move and the space bar to drop the bomb. I really think you should deploy this to mobile markets, its really fun. The crack is a cool and innovate touch to the game. Loved the music.
ilokimo
11. Dec 2014 路 21:49 UTC
Good one :) Reminds me of some tower falling game I played a lot 20 years ago.
tomo
11. Dec 2014 路 21:54 UTC
like it, nice graphic work.
goodbadokay
11. Dec 2014 路 22:32 UTC
Yeah, as someone said above, this would look nice if polished a bit more and released to mobiles! Keep up the good work ;)
farwyler
11. Dec 2014 路 22:40 UTC
The music is awesome and the gameplay is fun, I liked it!
intersectiongames
11. Dec 2014 路 23:27 UTC
Page also scrolls down for me whenever you drop a bomb. It eventually stops, but the top of the window is cut off. This is playing "on Chrome, on a nice computer" but not in fullscreen mode.
馃帳 oscarabraham
11. Dec 2014 路 23:36 UTC
:/ some few people are having this problem. It shouldn't do that if you have clicked the game screen with the mouse, it should capture the keyboard. :(. It has nothing to do with your system. I don't know why this bug happens, I cannot replicate it. I beg you to bear with me and try it in full screen or in another window. I really hope it is not of such importance that you cannot enjoy the game.

If someone has an idea of how I can replicate this bug in order to solve it, please tell me, I'll be really glad. If it is easey enough to not interfere with the rules of the jam, I'll solve it.
StrayCat
12. Dec 2014 路 03:23 UTC
It was a bit too hard for me, trying to escape was already leaving me without bombs and couldn't break the screen. Nice idea anyways, maybe it needs a bit more polish and testing :)
馃帳 oscarabraham
12. Dec 2014 路 03:54 UTC
@Psycho null, you move with arrows, the arrows that appear at first meant the arrow keys. (: Thank you.
badlydrawnrod
12. Dec 2014 路 22:35 UTC
This a rather cool game. I like the screen effect and the animations of the player character were very well done. And yes, there is some similarity to my game but you've done animation that I could only dream of.

My wife did a "Mum plays..." video of your game: http://youtu.be/7hIPc3eOxoQ
badlydrawnrod
12. Dec 2014 路 23:18 UTC
Also, the Kaiser music is rather good and adds a lot to the mood.
馃帳 oscarabraham
13. Dec 2014 路 07:32 UTC
Thank you! I really loved the video. I will share it on our facebook page, if that's okay.
badlydrawnrod
14. Dec 2014 路 00:06 UTC
@oscarabraham by all means go ahead.
doos
14. Dec 2014 路 13:43 UTC
Amazing on so many levels.. Didn't seem to be able to kill any kaisers. Want a cd now.
doos
14. Dec 2014 路 14:21 UTC
Got a cd.. I didn't mention it, but adding the lyrics to the game was brilliant, as was having the game breaking mechanic, though I couldn't manage it.
friken
14. Dec 2014 路 15:24 UTC
cool concept
Dokthar
25. Dec 2014 路 19:25 UTC
nice graphics, and good idea. But it's too hard to get the enemies off, plus I think words should come earlier. Your game really fit in the theme good job.
twelveplusplus
25. Dec 2014 路 21:17 UTC
hey, a pretty good entry! no clue what it had to do with the theme, but good job...

oh yeah, and add keyboard controls or something... it's too hard to click on the screen!
BabaJaga
25. Dec 2014 路 22:44 UTC
Wow, the art is really beautiful
馃帳 oscarabraham
26. Dec 2014 路 00:44 UTC
Thank you
@twelveplusplus The theme is honored in that it is a one screen game (it might seem that the scree scrolls down, but actually the platforms move up. Look at how everything else moves). Also, try the hint, explode around 15-20 bombs in the middle; then the theme will really shine.

It has keyboard controls, they are explained in the first moment: you move with the arrow keys, leave bombs with the down key.
fierysquirrel
26. Dec 2014 路 00:51 UTC
Interesting concept, a little bit hard though. Nice graphics and soundtrack, would be interesting for mobile and tilting, I think. Nice game.
馃帳 oscarabraham
26. Dec 2014 路 01:20 UTC
Tilting sounds like a good idea, I hadn't thought about it, thanks.
okkolobr
26. Dec 2014 路 16:01 UTC
Fun but hard... I'll try it again to see what happen if I can make this crack in the screen explode...
Halleflux
27. Dec 2014 路 01:11 UTC
Very hard. Maybe I'm just not good at it, but this game was insanely difficult for me (I didn't finish it, I just watched the playthrough =P).
However, it is a good game. I especially like the artwork. Well done.
Omiya Games
27. Dec 2014 路 01:22 UTC
Surprised at how addicting it is, and more importantly, how I felt playing game changed over time. It was a very bizarre experience, and I think you guys are on the cusp of something special. Great work!
Code White
28. Dec 2014 路 18:42 UTC
5/5 for mood. One of the best games I've played, congratulations. I'd love to see how it ends, but I just can't make it :(
Code White
28. Dec 2014 路 18:43 UTC
Oh there's a playthrough. Never mimd!
Kiwiboi
29. Dec 2014 路 01:40 UTC
Nice entertaining game! :) Seems best on mobile, we're the same there. Cheers
馃帳 oscarabraham
29. Dec 2014 路 22:22 UTC
Thank you all that took time to comment, I know that most of you are trying to not waste time to play the most games possible, so if you gave our game the time it needed to be understood and even made time to comment, I am really glad, very thankful. I think I have played all your games finally. Most of them were pretty fun; it was really nice to play them, thank you for them.