(NB: The source is here, I just bumped it off to put in a link to gameplay video: http://twoplusgames.com/nomoreboxes/NoMoreBoxes.zip)

(LINUX VERSION HERE: http://twoplusgames.com/nomoreboxes/NoMoreBoxes_Linux.zip)

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In a world... Where conservation of everything is the most important ever... Nothing can be created... And nothing may be taken away (lest we end up with nothing to take away from).

Six masters of Boxing duke it out for glory! And points!

4 players (sorry no AI)

P1 controls: AWD to move and jump, F to attack.
P2 controls: arrow keys to move and jump, Enter to attack.
P3 + P4: Mapped to Xbox360 controllers, plug and play!

Each character has one attack. The 6th is also a Sucker. Didn't have enough time to sort out the 6th.

This is my second Ludlum Dare, I missed the previous one and was so sad. Good to be back guys! :D

I wrote a bit of a post-mortem for No More Boxes in which I talk about some stuff I've learned through Ludum Daring about maximising your Jam :)

http://twoplusgames.com/no-more-boxes-ludum-dare-31-how-to-maximise-a-game-jam-restrictions-learnings-getting-players/


-------------POST-COMPO EDITION---------------

You can find the post-compo edition here:
http://www.twoplusgames.com/nomoreboxes/postcompo

Then the Post-compo MADNESS EDITION which binds all players' controls to P1 - for fun :)
http://www.twoplusgames.com/nomoreboxes/postcompo/madness

And my post-mortem write up on the post-compo updates:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/2014/12/17/no-more-boxes-post-compo-post-mortem/


-------------ORIGIN STORY-----------------

A lot of people said they hated the theme, that it's too generic, that it was not "imaginative"... I didn't think so at all! It really depends on how you "police yourself". You can be as open-ended as you want or as tightly clamped as you want. The point is it's really up to you!

So me, I took the restriction REALLY strictly - Entire Game One Screen meant that I could not instantiate anything into the game after it started. This had quite a few profound effects on game design:

>> No bullets. They weren't there before the game started, they can't be there after.
>> No "secrets out of a treasure chest" surprise. Same as above.
>> No destroying anything - well this wasn't strictly in the rules, but if I took anything away from the game, it would empty out the game as it went on. And since I can't make stuff, taking stuff away would be detrimental. I played with the idea of the subtraction being part of the play, but decided against it.

And so my whole game is designed around everything being there all the time! It is a versus arena game, and instead of guns and bullets, there are boxes, and six characters with different abilities. Each time a player died they randomly come back as another character. When boxes fall off the bottom they wrap like Bubble Bobble. Nothing is destroyed. Players are one-hit killed by flying boxes in any direction.

These are the six characters that I'm working on:

Tosser - picks up boxes and tosses them.
Punch - punches boxes into opponents and even out of the air
Stompy - Kills by stomping - has a fast-fall stomp attack, could also affect boxes.
Porter - randomly teleports a box from elsewhere on the screen in front of him, tele-fragging them if they're caught by it.
Amy - she throws boxes at an arc instead of a straight line. Possibly needs tweaking. (Amy because "aim"... Yeah I love terrible puns) (She didn't make it due to time...)
Sucker - pulls a box towards him to surprise opponents from behind.