Jack is gonna Die! by psychomonster

[raw]
made by psychomonster for LD27 (COMPO)
Hello again

I've finished the Game "Jack is gonna Die!". Yeah. It was hard and more then 70% of the cool planed game features has been killed in the early hours. Now I've created the game only with the core features for the theme "10 seconds!"
Its the second time at LudumDare for me. It was really fun again. Love you!

The Idea:
Jack has been contaminated by radioactivity... he has only 10 seconds left to life. He want to see his family for a last time. There are pills that can help him. Get them. Every pill will refill his 10 seconds lifetime battery... Guard him home...

how to play:
left arrow key = go left
right arrow key = go right
up arrow key = jump
alt = puke (that radioactive puke kills enemys)
space bar = swallow a pill

WARNING: There is no visiual indicator for the time that is left... only a "ping"... you have to count seconds and swallow the pill at the right moment. If you are Dead... you have to restart at the starting position ;)

Canceled Features:
More then one level
More animations
Better controlls for platfomer (glitches)
Teleporter
More enemys
better sounds
cool selfmade music

Bugs:
Glitches while jumping against solid walls sometimes
some animations are invisible :(
Maybe a view more... I'm tired... have to sleep for a while.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.76 841
Audio 1.87 844
Fun 2.44 929
Graphics 3.09 427
Humor 2.69 314
Innovation 2.49 895
Mood 2.49 745
Theme 3.29 440

Feedback

Supernours
26. Aug 2013 路 09:25 UTC
There is a bug with the time counter ? I do not see it ^^"
Pierrec
26. Aug 2013 路 09:58 UTC
I don't know if the absence of timer is on purpose or not, but this is what I enjoyed the most, counting the seconds myself. "Was it 8 or 9" ? Haa, let's take a pill anyway!"
I think it would be better if there were less pills in the level. I never fell shortage.

(Why does he puke ? ^^)
DaanVanYperen
26. Aug 2013 路 10:20 UTC
One point in Mood for 'love you' :D Didn't pick up on the pill mechanic, death animation would help you figure out what killed you.
馃帳 psychomonster
26. Aug 2013 路 22:11 UTC
It is part of the gameplay that the counter is not visible... you have to count by your self :) I thought I wrote it to the instrzctions :)
Feysoura
26. Aug 2013 路 22:12 UTC
There are some collision problems. Other than that, pretty decent game!
BradleySmith
26. Aug 2013 路 22:16 UTC
Love the pixel art style.. the character is neat.
otresnjak
26. Aug 2013 路 22:17 UTC
There really should be a time counter. Trying to count to myself while playing the game isn't really fun. Other than that, cool game.
flyingbear
26. Aug 2013 路 22:19 UTC
Love the puke-attack, especially coming from this mild-mannered, glasses & turtleneck wearing dude! I couldn't figure out why I was dying sometimes, I thought I was taking my pills?
realtutsgml
26. Aug 2013 路 22:48 UTC
Nice clean cut platformer! Love the puking, Some background music would be nice though. Good Job!
Mandraw
26. Aug 2013 路 22:51 UTC
Really good , it really catch the theme , you really cannot forget the 10 seconds , if you do , it's sure death...
fun to play , the only "problem" is that sound could make it a lot better... maybe after the end of the votes you can make a refined version ?
noom
26. Aug 2013 路 22:52 UTC
Was a bit tough, the lack of the timer complicated things, I kept getting stuck in walls and had a lot of trouble jumping to clear obstacles. The whole "you instantly die" when touching the drips from the ceiling confused me at first, I though I must have missed a pill or something as I never even saw the drips that were killing me! Not a bad game overall, would be cool to see the concept expanded on.
Dark Acre Jack
26. Aug 2013 路 23:13 UTC
Nice, but I'm never gonna die.
馃帳 psychomonster
26. Aug 2013 路 23:26 UTC
Hey Jack ^^

Yeah I see that Sound is a big fail at this... but there was no time left to do :.(

My thoughts was, that to count by your self will take some brain capacity, so that simple commands like jump left or puke this enemy will take some more extra brain power ^^

will work at the game after jam... because i want to see it run better ^^

thanks for so much feedback till now :D
Tork
26. Aug 2013 路 23:26 UTC
I couldn't find out which was the counter, your GUI moves faster than the player.
Loved your art thought.
pedroka
26. Aug 2013 路 23:55 UTC
Good game. Some bugs, nice graphics, etc...
frankbsad
27. Aug 2013 路 00:17 UTC
Nice game, but some of the platforming elements felt a bit cheap to me.
Ossi
27. Aug 2013 路 00:18 UTC
Love the pings as a timer that you have to keep track yourself. Perhaps your character could be a bit shorter, I felt like it clashes with the size of the tiles and the enemies. I like the story you setup for this character as well, great job!
Lissar
27. Aug 2013 路 00:44 UTC
I really liked the design of the main character, but other artwork was hit or miss. Had some difficulty managing the controls (felt jump was a bit weird, but that may have just been the lack of animation for it?) but maybe it's just me!
[-BipolarDesign+]
27. Aug 2013 路 00:54 UTC
I found it tough to remember to press the space bar every 9ish seconds, just as some people who take medications find it difficult to remember to take their pills. Very good mechanic with a very real real-life meaning behind it. Whether you meant it or not, this is a problem a lot of people deal with, and I understand how terrifying it can be if they forget to take their medication on time.

If you wanted to add something to it, I think overdosing could be an interesting mechanic (like if you take it within 6 seconds of your last pill, you collapse for three seconds, or something).

The platforming control was a bit iffy, and I wish there was a bit more variety in the gameplay, but I enjoyed the concept and got my own meaning out of it :)
JimmyDelaney19
27. Aug 2013 路 02:39 UTC
I couldn't stop playing til I beat it! Pretty fun, simple game. Interesting idea with making the timer invisible.
hbocao
27. Aug 2013 路 02:42 UTC
It took me a while to understand when I was supposed to take the pill and then I loved it. I really didn't like the buttons configurations. :( alt+space it's not a good combination.
murilo
27. Aug 2013 路 02:57 UTC
Nice pixel art! I got stuck on some walls and couldn't understand why I always died even after grabbing the pills!
Gus
27. Aug 2013 路 03:52 UTC
Didn't beat it, but at least I know the ending by the screenshots
Well, didn't like this one so much, but I found the lack of a timer thing interesting, it gives an unique tension that makes you getting pills not matter what time do you have, this would've been frustrating in a long game, but in this one, it works nice.
Some more animation and sense would help.
LittleThor
27. Aug 2013 路 08:11 UTC
Interesting game but some issues with hitboxes make this game very hard (especialy with yellow-idontknowwhat-drops). Nice character design.
infernet89
27. Aug 2013 路 08:59 UTC
Very nice sprite! Too bad it have so little animations.. Love the idea of puking instead of shooting, didn't liked the lack of visual timer and some lifes (i don't want to be killed at first hit with some yellow liquid)

Cool idea, keep going!
tripleVisionGames
27. Aug 2013 路 18:24 UTC
Nice work on the graphics. I liked not knowing how long was left too, made it kind of worrying.
jay griffin
28. Aug 2013 路 01:38 UTC
Cool game. I like the idea of mentally having to keep track of your remaining time. Just a shame you couldn't get more of the planned features implemented in time, maybe you can expand it a little in future. Good job!
ratalaika
28. Aug 2013 路 16:54 UTC
good job
Dir3kt
28. Aug 2013 路 19:47 UTC
Nice game but controls are a bit hard to master.
ellipticaldoor
29. Aug 2013 路 00:16 UTC
Nice art!
futuristteletex
29. Aug 2013 路 06:04 UTC
poor steven.. i mean jack.. it'll be our little secret =).. enjoyed it, even having to count myself =)
馃帳 psychomonster
29. Aug 2013 路 11:42 UTC
@futuristteletex :D It's no secret... yeah Jack is heavily inspired by the pixelart galerie http://www.andysowards.com/blog/2011/100-8-bit-design-inspiration-%E2%80%93-illustration-pixel-art-web-design-more-retro-nostalgia/ ... but there is no copy and paste... I did it myself ;) with diffrent hair, beard and glases :) Animation too :D
Brian Stegmann
29. Aug 2013 路 17:10 UTC
I'm glad you didn't include a timer, having to track the 10 seconds yourself is a good take on the theme. Makes it challenging.
ddionisio
30. Aug 2013 路 03:18 UTC
Hehe, charming take on the theme! I like the character design.

It's a good thing he doesn't overdose on those pills! He also seems to have an endless amount of puke, that's quite the symptom!

My only complaint is, as you mentioned, the character getting snagged on walls.
d__adee
31. Aug 2013 路 15:15 UTC
THIS GAME IS AWESOME!
I like how you not put a counter! I have to count mentally to 8 or 9 before pressing space. Also by counting mentally, the game made me confused with controls. Like pressing space instead of alt, by which I have to count back from one again, before I know it, that slime got me. Have to redo a lot and finally made it to the finish line.

It's nice, I like everything... take all my stars!
:D
馃帳 psychomonster
31. Aug 2013 路 23:41 UTC
@ d__adee :D
GeorgeBroussard
01. Sep 2013 路 02:55 UTC
Good entry for 48 hours. I don't know why, but the guy reminded me of Steve Jobs :) On a Mac, the alt key caused problems. Should map to another key to avoid stuff like that. Very hard game :) I liked that you could collect pills and choose when to use them.
馃帳 psychomonster
01. Sep 2013 路 14:00 UTC
@GeorgeBroussard ohh well the alt key is problematic... i see.. damn. and yeah the main character is definitely based on a 8bit pixelart of steven jobs ... but I created diffrent haistyle, diffrent looking glasses and another beard :D There is a link to the original artwork above --> http://www.andysowards.com/blog/2011/100-8-bit-design-inspiration-%E2%80%93-illustration-pixel-art-web-design-more-retro-nostalgia/
iterative deepening
02. Sep 2013 路 18:41 UTC
A bit strange. I dislike how avatar's jump.
sP0CkEr2
04. Sep 2013 路 03:39 UTC
great theme -- needed a timer and the controls were hard -- nice effort