To That Sect by gamesbyangelina

[raw]
made by gamesbyangelina for LD28 (JAM)
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CONTROLS
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WASD - Move
Mouse to look
Spacebar - Jump

This is a game about a disgruntled child. A Founder. The game only has one level, and the objective is to reach the exit (the yellow cylinder). Along the way, you must avoid the Tomb as they kill you, and collect the Ship.

I use some sound effects from FreeSound, like the sound of Ship. Using Google and a tool called Metaphor Magnet, I discovered that people feel charmed by Founder sometimes. So I chose a unnerving piece of music from Kevin Macleod's Incompetech website to complement the game's mood.

Let me know what you think. In future I'll put more levels into my games, and also make the mechanics more interesting.

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IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS GAME
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This game was made by ANGELINA, a piece of software developed by me, Mike Cook. I designed ANGELINA as part of my PhD research into computational creativity at Goldsmiths College in London. ANGELINA is designed to make games based on simple theme inputs, and this is what it made for Ludum Dare 28's theme.

The commentary above is ANGELINA's description of the game. It's based on a template, but the specifics (about the disgruntled child, the music and so on) are all genuine and filled in by the software as it designs.

Please rate this game as you would any other Ludum Dare game. ANGELINA will hopefully improve and enter many more Ludum Dares in the future!

For more information on the project: http://www.gamesbyangelina.org

Ratings

Coolness 67% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.37 500
Audio(Jam) 3.06 211
Fun(Jam) 1.92 515
Graphics(Jam) 2.53 441
Humor(Jam) 1.81 403
Innovation(Jam) 2.80 282
Mood(Jam) 3.15 180
Theme(Jam) 1.75 533

Feedback

SnoringFrog
17. Dec 2013 · 07:24 UTC
Well that was...interesting. Can't see where/how Angelina used the theme at all. Quite simple game, liked the choice of music, and I really want to know who that guy is that got placed everywhere.
Mental Atrophy
17. Dec 2013 · 14:36 UTC
Angelina makes some bizarre, creepy games.
danbo
17. Dec 2013 · 14:39 UTC
Not particularly interesting in its own right, but fascinating to read that this was somehow generated from thematic inputs.
evilDan
17. Dec 2013 · 14:45 UTC
That was actually surprisingly fun considering that it was a simple collect-the-boat game!

Definitely kinda weird and I enjoyed the moment or two of exploring.
Striwx
17. Dec 2013 · 15:07 UTC
Love the mood, the fact you must avoid flyng statues is disturbing but cool for the mood.
howieV (binarygirl)
17. Dec 2013 · 15:25 UTC
well done man.. angelina sounds interesting :) i dont know why tho but every unity fps i try the mouse sensitivity is ridiculously high..even with my mouse on lowest dpi hmm
🎤 gamesbyangelina
17. Dec 2013 · 19:56 UTC
Thanks to everyone who has played or rated so far! I'm trying not to respond to anything specific until rating is over, but I can answer your questions then for sure :)
kidder
17. Dec 2013 · 20:03 UTC
Creepy and...kind of weird. Enjoyed it, for what it was.
Jerre
17. Dec 2013 · 20:04 UTC
I'm very much intrigued by the fact that it is a computer generated game (if I understand correctly). Sadly the game itself is not very interesting
stvr
17. Dec 2013 · 20:08 UTC
Since when does Angelina work in 3D? Also, it's creepy that your robot is making games about bizarre flying statues under a black sky.
Hypermagical
17. Dec 2013 · 20:21 UTC
It's got a weird little unsettling vibe going on.


The...Tomb? I guess? are pretty creepy. I want to blame it on knowing that it was algorithmically generated, but I didn't realize that it had been made by ANGELINA until after I played it.
Hypermagical
17. Dec 2013 · 20:22 UTC
I rated it before I realized, BTW. I think I stand by what I picked, too.
Tex Killer
17. Dec 2013 · 23:52 UTC
very simple and creepy. Nice job.
ocmu
18. Dec 2013 · 04:55 UTC
Don't give ANGELINA drugs before game jams ;) Great phd project, I'm excited to see how it progresses. Good luck!
Christina Nordlander
18. Dec 2013 · 22:14 UTC
I have no experience with creating a program to create your game, but it's certainly not something you see every day. On that front alone, this gets a lot of points for innovation. The graphics are good, and while the sound isn't original, you use it in a very atmospheric way. The plot is cryptic and interesting.

The actual gameplay isn't anything new, but the game holds together to the end.

Very interesting entry and strongly recommended.
fizzhog
19. Dec 2013 · 15:51 UTC
Fascinating idea. Bookmarked your webpage to explore further.
McFunkypants
19. Dec 2013 · 21:10 UTC
Such an awesome accomplishment.
Jgpicatoste
21. Dec 2013 · 11:48 UTC
It creeped the hell out of me, but I guess it's one of the most innovative games out here.
OnlySlightly
28. Dec 2013 · 00:22 UTC
Nice creepy moody atmosphere
mmickyman
01. Jan 2014 · 20:38 UTC
It's definitely a surreal experience.
van noctar
02. Jan 2014 · 15:30 UTC
Good graphics
jimmypaulin
02. Jan 2014 · 16:22 UTC
Amazing achievement, I saw some writing about your research a while ago with a Christmas based puzzler platformer iirc - although the resulting game here is straightforward, the fact that it was "composed" (?) by a creative algorithm is fantastic, it must have been a very satisfying process for you! Maximum innovation and I think Ludum Dare will appreciate seeing more from ANGELINA in the future...
local minimum
02. Jan 2014 · 17:16 UTC
Angelina seems really good at creating an atmosphere with both sound and visuals. But the game part of it seems a bit lacking still.
Sebastian
02. Jan 2014 · 17:49 UTC
Fascinating project! I'd imagine it's quite a ways off from competing with humans, but very exciting nonetheless.
Harsay
02. Jan 2014 · 17:52 UTC
So that's the future of game developers... ;)
mcapraro
03. Jan 2014 · 06:53 UTC
very very interesting project and it sounds super fascinating. wow, AI will soon beat us all in making games for game jams ;)
Denis Chakarov
03. Jan 2014 · 08:53 UTC
Angelina is very interesting project! The game itself is too simple. It seem the AI got the mood, but not the play. If it have added shooting at the statues that you must avoid and a goal how much ships you have to collect, it would have been better. It felt like playing "art-message" type of game, which is kind of strange for programmatic result when you think about it. But hey, you've made an AI artist - congratulations! :)
loxo
04. Jan 2014 · 12:01 UTC
Simple and easy to solve game. I'm surprised, that a generated game has only one level, because I would think it must be easy to add more. I think the game itself would be more interesting, if you had to collect a specific number of ships before you can leave the level.

Of course, the really fascinating thing about your entry is the game generation part. I wonder what's the goal behind it. Is it to create really fast a large number of games? Is it to improve games? Or is the game creation process only an example area for the development of a creative ai? Very interesting area of research.
Alex Higgins
05. Jan 2014 · 14:11 UTC
Not super fun, but it's really impressive how well the level design works - Angelina didn't accidentally generate unwinnable scenarios, which is really freaking cool.
finefin
05. Jan 2014 · 17:04 UTC
the fact that this was made by an AI is staggering. it lacks in depth and creativity, tho. the funny thing is, that this is better than some of the games I have tested for this ludum dare :)
Several
06. Jan 2014 · 02:50 UTC
I suspect a human that produced this would probably be received as maybe clever and definitely weird (in a 'your brain doesn't work like ours' way) and possibly pretentious (in a 'oh, you're just making things weird and awkward for attention, you don't really have anything meaningful to say' way).

I'm very fond of the blog, by the way. Found it through Gamasutra. Exciting, inspiring stuff.
supremefist
06. Jan 2014 · 07:22 UTC
Freaky stuff!
epb9000
06. Jan 2014 · 18:26 UTC
Kind of impressive given it was created by an AI. Super freakin' creepy earns it high marks on mood.
SecondDimension
06. Jan 2014 · 22:16 UTC
Just as I'm starting to enjoy making games I have become obsolete. Pfft, humans, who needs them.
Very interesting research, and an unnerving mood.
smilingrob
13. Jan 2014 · 22:58 UTC
Angelina could use Screen.lockCursor, because mouselooking will make the cursor move outside the client bounds unless Screen.lockCursor == true. And of course, releasing the cursor when Escape is pressed.