The sidekicks by Ludipe

[raw]
made by Ludipe for LD28 (JAM)
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READ ME:
A lot of people are complaining because the game it's too easy, we didn't have time to balance it, so we added a cool feature in the settings menu. You can tweak the difficulty and create crazy rules. Most people are missing it, so be sure to check it out.
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A super villain is trying to take over the world and a sidekick is the only one who can get in his way. But you are trapped in your lair and your nemesis is throwing fireballs at you. The worst part is that you only get one shield to deflect his attacks while you try to save the day. Being a hero(or a sidekick) is never easy.

Controls:
Player 1- Arrow keys to move, jump and use tools.
Player 2- WASD to move, jump and use tools.
Misc- Z to zoom in/out, ESC to pause and P to advance text.

Features:
-Tutorial
-Single Player mode
-Coop mode(which is fun even with just one player, try moving two characters at the same time)
-VS (not available right now, we'll add it in a future version)
-We set up a few difficulty modes but you may change everything as you wish(settings menu) and create crazy rules

To be fixed:
-Music (Due to tech issues just one song was added, the game will feature more tracks in a future version)
-Climbing animations
-Minor bugs
-During the tutorial, when the computer tells you to press "return" it means the down key
-We didn't have much time to balance difficulty; If we upgrade the game we'll fix this

Notes:
-Linux and OSX versions will be uploaded as soon as possible(DONE)
-We recommend using the desktop version instead of the web version
-Our game it's inspired on "Lovers in a dangerous..." as explained here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/14/so-far-so-good-30/
-Right now we want to get as much feedback as possible, in a month or so we'll decide if we end up developing this idea further.

Hope you like it!

CODE & DESIGN: @Ludipe
ART: @aquilicoco
MUSIC: @franklinwebber

Ratings

Coolness 64% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.55 93
Audio(Jam) 3.47 94
Fun(Jam) 3.21 148
Graphics(Jam) 4.15 75
Humor(Jam) 2.98 136
Innovation(Jam) 3.51 61
Mood(Jam) 3.16 178
Theme(Jam) 2.63 321

Feedback

j_stirk
17. Dec 2013 · 04:45 UTC
This is really fantastic, and I'd love to see it fleshed out into something bigger. Graphics are gorgeous, music is awesome, and everything feels really smooth and fun to play with. Really nice to see more 2-player hotseat games too.
finefin
17. Dec 2013 · 12:30 UTC
nice style and gameplay. it's more fun in 2P mode ;)
Cake&Code
17. Dec 2013 · 15:36 UTC
Haha, this is pretty cool. The art is fitting and the dialogue is good, although it felt like a really relaxed game while the premise sounds like it'd be tense and high stress.

The first time was lucky and I just sat on the hacking computer while the fireballs mostly missed and I managed to win with around 20% health, while never touching any other controls.

This reminds us a lot of a game called Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime which was a GDC/PAX favorite of ours: http://www.asteroidbase.com/dangerous-spacetime/
Lolshouse Dev Team
17. Dec 2013 · 15:38 UTC
This is brilliant.
mortus
17. Dec 2013 · 15:54 UTC
Great idea and very cool graphics and sound effects! Too pity the game is so short and easy (especially in 2 players mode).
Thommy
17. Dec 2013 · 15:58 UTC
I beat it on hard by controlling two heroes at once, it was really challanging and fun. Reminds me of FTL. You should continue working on this
Gungnir
17. Dec 2013 · 16:09 UTC
Agree with the others - this deserves post compo expansion. Really charming, lots of character.
dznemotion
17. Dec 2013 · 16:17 UTC
Great Minimal Design
🎤 Ludipe
17. Dec 2013 · 16:29 UTC
@cake&code Our game it's inspired on "Lovers in a dangerous..." as explained here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/14/so-far-so-good-30/

Right now we want to get as much feedback as possible, in a month or so we'll se if we end up developing this idea further.

I know it can be an easy game, we didn't have much time to balance difficulty; If we upgrade the game we'll fix this.
Jellycakes
17. Dec 2013 · 20:22 UTC
Pretty cool, I liked the micromanaging mechanic and the art looked pretty sweet. Although I thought the shield might have been a little useless since you can just win by hacking and repairing. Still nice anyway, good job.
Sakuyan
17. Dec 2013 · 21:18 UTC
Really cool atmosphere of the game. Also Really dig the music.
Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
18. Dec 2013 · 01:33 UTC
Hey, Ludipe! A Fellow C2 user, I know you from the forums of course!

Thanks so much for letting us see your source <3
Top marks for this, I had such fun! The sidekick sprites are SO impressive in their tiny detail!
Senevri
18. Dec 2013 · 09:30 UTC
Really liked the audiovisual style, the gameplay wasn't that fun, though. Needs something.
glovecat
18. Dec 2013 · 10:19 UTC
Cool game! It's really fun for two players :)
the
18. Dec 2013 · 13:05 UTC
Good idea, but too easy.
strong99
18. Dec 2013 · 20:29 UTC
@the you can change difficulty ;)

I like the atmosphere. Poor sidekicks only having one small shield!

Maybe you could see one of my previous games for some ideas about the ship and items to defend/repair it, it's based on the "You're the villain"
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=8175
psychomonster
19. Dec 2013 · 00:00 UTC
Very nice pixelart. Love the characters... they're like pixel federations ;) 2-Players Mode is awesome... played it with myself... I won ;)
travislucia
19. Dec 2013 · 00:58 UTC
GOod graphics, unique idea and gameplay! Would be tons of fun multiplayer.
the
19. Dec 2013 · 09:04 UTC
I'm sorry, now i get it.
mortus
19. Dec 2013 · 12:14 UTC
It's much more lasting with the newly discovered difficulty settings! I should try playing it with someone else and not alone on higher difficulty, though even standard Hard is to easy for me alone. :D

If you plan to make it into a bigger game, I would love to see a bigger ship, much more space to go into, maybe a split-screen for two players so you can go farther apart from each other than one screen could allow. More threats types of course and more devices to counter those threats. Maybe some dangers that you won't be able to figure out before you go yourself to the corresponding block of a ship, like, you get an alarm that says there's something wrong in some area, but you won't know if it's a fire or enemy troops invasion before you go and check it for yourself (it starts to sound more like FTL now).

Anyway, it's just my vision of one possible expansion and it won't necessarily be same as yours. Good luck in any case!
🎤 Ludipe
19. Dec 2013 · 12:46 UTC
@mortus: Thanks for the feedback and playing again. If we decide to make a post-jam version we'll spend a lot of time redesigning the gameplay, I'm considering many options (like turning it into an arena game where one ships fights another). We appreciate your suggestions a lot.
Jgpicatoste
19. Dec 2013 · 12:57 UTC
Hey there! Graphics are great, mechanic is really cool and the take on the theme is original. I found the game to be somewhat buggy :/ I got stuck in the tutorial twice (and I was called stupid!), and then some animation frames didn't display correctly. But when I got to playing it, I found it quite enjoyable. Good work!
zatyka
19. Dec 2013 · 15:24 UTC
Very cool mechanics, great visuals, and I loved that you made a 2 player game. There's a lot of potential in this.
drnick
20. Dec 2013 · 00:19 UTC
Linux version said:
./thesidekicks: error while loading shared libraries: libnss3.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
libNSS is an cryptographic key management library, why does it even use it? Couldn't test.
ObsidianSkin
21. Dec 2013 · 21:21 UTC
Awesome little game. Very unique concept.
Sean Noonan
21. Dec 2013 · 21:25 UTC
Really nice. Great visuals and an amusing tone throughout. I'm not sure if you're looking for feedback, but I found the game to be a little passive. It might have a little more engaging to add an element of skill to each of the computers, i.e. the health computer could involve mashing the space bar, hacking could be typing a series of words that are prompted by the computer, pumping the power could be alternating between the left and right arrows, etc.
Just a thought.

Oh and you say that hitting Enter will interact in the tutorial, whereas I only managed to get the down arrow key to function this way.
🎤 Ludipe
21. Dec 2013 · 22:00 UTC
@drnick: Sorry to hear that, we used construct to develop the game and I'm not sure how it makes the linux port. I'll check it.

@Sean Noonan: I thought about adding some challenge to the tools you can use but I decided not to in case it distracted the player, sugggestion noted. We'll experiment with it.
And respecting the "press Enter" thing, it was just a mistake due to a change made in the last hours.

Thanks for the feedback!
aquilicoco
21. Dec 2013 · 22:36 UTC
Hi,
I made the pixel art, so I'm happy that you like it ;)

@drnick -> we used construct 2 to make the game. It uses node-webkit to the Linux import. I think that the error is in it's chromium layer.
You can play the game in any browser that supports html5
Kyatric
22. Dec 2013 · 01:44 UTC
I tried it only as and in single player mode.
I guess it's more fun in two players since you have to co-operate and one player can focus on the lower side of the lair/hacking whereas the other will focus on defense.

I like the ideas that Sean Noonan is proposing, to add a bit more challenge/action to the fact of hacking/defending the lair.

The graphics and music are sweet and nice overall ambiance on the game.

Good job and congratulations on making it during the jam !
Ted Brown
22. Dec 2013 · 05:46 UTC
I think the concept and the mechanics had a lot of promise, but I think the ball may have been dropped with clearly identifying the goals. Great art look, and thumbs up for 2P co-op controls.
Pomb
22. Dec 2013 · 07:29 UTC
Really enjoyed the music and pixels were very pretty indeed.
yosh
22. Dec 2013 · 11:05 UTC
The gameplay is a bit approximative but overall this game is so great! Graphics, Audio, etc. all very polished :)
postmodestie
22. Dec 2013 · 11:47 UTC
Nice! Very entertaining, and i second Sean Noonan regarding more 'minigames', i guess.
mcapraro
22. Dec 2013 · 16:10 UTC
i couldnt get the osx version to work once i unrar'd it. i ended up with what looked like app package contents
aquilicoco
22. Dec 2013 · 16:57 UTC
@mcapraro sorry, it's a construct 2 problem with some Macs.
You can play the web version in safari.
AMSmirnov
22. Dec 2013 · 21:11 UTC
Very interesting game play. Good job. Easy and cool.
Giovanni Cappellotto
23. Dec 2013 · 00:51 UTC
Great music and graphics!
DhantonGames
25. Dec 2013 · 23:06 UTC
Pixel art is fantastic :D
ezolotko
26. Dec 2013 · 09:57 UTC
Looks cool, but pressing return anywhere doesnt work.
aquilicoco
26. Dec 2013 · 16:40 UTC
@Ezolotko it's a last minute change :) Press down
lotusgame
02. Jan 2014 · 11:08 UTC
I love the atmosphere, it's unique and very well polished ! Congrats :)
lowcade
04. Jan 2014 · 00:55 UTC
Awesome pixel art! Nice gameplay and fun. One of my favorites in the LD.
henrykun
06. Jan 2014 · 00:59 UTC
Beautiful graphics and very nice concept, awesome!.