Cellular (v2) by atombrot

[raw]
made by atombrot for LD29 (COMPO)
*Note for the Web Version: I had to decrease the light quality in the web version for it to run. When there is much going on (when multiple enemies die and leave a huge pile of food) it can get kind of slow. Play the desktop version if you want to have the full shiny experience ;)


You are a cell in the deep, underneath the surfacte of the ocean, and you try to survive.

Eat those shiny green things and attack the other cells (or evade them).

Control with WASD or keypad
Use SPACE for more speed (uses up food).

There are still some quirks (see below) but I hope you still have fun playing ;)

Tools, Libraries etc. used in the Process:
- LibGDX + box2d + box2d lights
- Pyxel Edit
- Paint.net
- Ableton Live
- Bfxr (yes, that one sound ;) )

Known Quircks and Bugs:
- You cannot restart if you die.
- The enemy cells are sometimes kind of aggressive. Need to tune this a bit down, as they start chasing the player very early.
- The camera is a bit laggy.
- The stronger a cell is, the more food it drops on death. I had in uncapped and after a while too much food has dropped XD I put a limitation on it now, but i might have to tune the numbers a bit ;)
- It's hard to follow the text when the enemies start bugging the player ;)

I hope I can still port it to webgl after the compo.

Update 1:
I have uploaded a fixed version of the game. There are mainly 2 changes in this version:
- I found a bug in the AI behavior, which would lead the AI to either attack or flee, but never to gather food. Fixed that and it is now much easier at the start.
- I increased the time messages stay on screen and the time the game progresses a bit, so the player has more time in the start of the game to gather food.

Both were non game breaking bugs (the AI one was nasty and made the game much harder, but never the less it worked ;)), so you can decide yourself which version you want to rate. The fixed version is as it was intended for the deadline...

Update 2:
I managed to get the web version running, but it does not run very smoothly.

Ratings

Coolness 55% 3
Overall 3.44 308
Audio 3.18 292
Fun 3.09 489
Graphics 3.62 276
Humor 1.70 1014
Innovation 3.12 510
Mood 3.50 196
Theme 3.26 559

Feedback

uprightpath
28. Apr 2014 路 02:19 UTC
Rather liked what I saw. It's a little awkward attempting to play the game and read the messages at the same time though. I know I missed a bunch there when the first enemies appeared then more when "Strong competition" came up.
馃帳 atombrot
28. Apr 2014 路 02:33 UTC
Haha, yeah. I should add that to the quirks of the game. The plan was that the AI only attacks when they are much stronger than you, but now they start attacking pretty early, making the early game very stressful ;) I need to tweak that ;)
Korwegian
28. Apr 2014 路 03:36 UTC
Controls are a bit awkward with the cell rotating around like it's on a stick, but it was pretty good. Spore inspired?
馃帳 atombrot
28. Apr 2014 路 04:08 UTC
I never played spore. It is more inspired by osmos, which I have played a lot ;)
I'm also not entirely happy with the controls but ran out of time to tweak it properly.
IAmSpencer
28. Apr 2014 路 05:35 UTC
Really great idea, running away from other cells was stressing but fun at the same time. Great job! :)
Flam
28. Apr 2014 路 06:51 UTC
I liked the gameplay. I became very intense after a while and that's the type of games I like. Good job!
rincewind_cz
28. Apr 2014 路 09:27 UTC
Nice and moody! Enemy cells are too powerful in my opinion. But good job on this :-)
b222ster
28. Apr 2014 路 15:41 UTC
I immediately died at the 'Stronger Competition' message, but that's because I'm bad. Turning around was a bit hard, but incredibly beautiful and pretty fun to play.
Thomas Ingham
28. Apr 2014 路 22:19 UTC
This was my favorite part of Spore (And Osmosis) - Love the presentation and the fact that you were able to get enemies in.
NoorStudios
28. Apr 2014 路 22:21 UTC
great job! Really liked the game, though I died at the first enemy...
DaanVanYperen
28. Apr 2014 路 22:40 UTC
Great music!
Joror
30. Apr 2014 路 20:18 UTC
Good mood & lighting - and the fixed version has good tutorial timing. Changing size or visual look of your blob when upgrading would be nice too.
Gap
01. May 2014 路 17:19 UTC
Woah this audio, this gameplay! NICE!
SoupWithBits
01. May 2014 路 19:29 UTC
Feels really great. Audio and graphics!
Some "evolution" of some sort would have been awesome.
ZeppelinCaptain
01. May 2014 路 19:29 UTC
Great stuff, awesome graphics. Very nice tutorial/build-up. Fighting system was a bit too opaque though, and a restart button was missing?
Caridorc
02. May 2014 路 11:37 UTC
This game is very good and highlt enjoable.
myachin
02. May 2014 路 12:01 UTC
nice game, thank you

good music
but sound is too loud
Nichii
02. May 2014 路 12:19 UTC
Fun simple game, It is hard to kill other cells though.
KevinWorkman
09. May 2014 路 15:48 UTC
This was a cute little game. Hello from a fellow Box2DLights users! It would have been better with some obstacles that I could maneuver around to trick the enemies though, as-is it turns into a "run away and slowly be killed" game, haha.
Lolshouse Dev Team
19. May 2014 路 09:16 UTC
I love this. The lighting system looks really good.
~funkeh