Shape Catcher by zinfandel

[raw]
made by zinfandel for LD26 (COMPO)
This is my minimalism version to a catch & train game. It's my first Ludum Dare and first time that I do more code than art in a game.
I had a lot of fun working on it anyway.
What to do?
Notice the bar above. You start with one creature-shape and can find more in the grass. You can level them up and gain more power in the grass. Heal at the healer (blue building).
Try to find the most powerful shapes,and when you think you've got enough power, challenge the league at the top left!

Ratings

Coolness 55% 3
Overall 2.41 1219
Fun 2.29 1118
Graphics 3.94 94
Humor 2.33 481
Innovation 2.85 773
Mood 2.67 767
Theme 2.35 1305

Feedback

GAFBlizzard
29. Apr 2013 路 08:48 UTC
Very clever art, and amusing pokemon-style approach. I assume the store and breeding center do not do anything right now, and there is nothing to do after defeating a champion in the fence, but it's neat. If you have the time and interest, you could make a very impressive game with this art style and perhaps a different theme.
nicotuason
29. Apr 2013 路 11:10 UTC
Hehe cool claymation, but the gameplay is hard to understand
馃帳 zinfandel
29. Apr 2013 路 11:16 UTC
Thank you so much! I glad you like it. Yes it's missing feedback and sound to make much sense. And a lot of features. I've still got a lot of passion to complete it though.
Andrei Barsan
29. Apr 2013 路 11:55 UTC
The graphics are lovely but the rest doesn't make that much sense... I like how it's inspired by Pokemon. :D
timtipgames
29. Apr 2013 路 12:31 UTC
I really like the graphics. I wish there was some more game to play here :)
EdoMiyamoto
29. Apr 2013 路 12:59 UTC
It was a bit hard to understand but the concept is very cool i'd like to see more of this !
howieV (binarygirl)
29. Apr 2013 路 13:28 UTC
love the gfx ..i didnt really understand what i was supposed to do tho ;p
Flai
29. Apr 2013 路 14:32 UTC
As others have mentioned, awesome graphics but didn't have a clue what was going on :P
8BitPimp
29. Apr 2013 路 21:53 UTC
Claymation is always a cool style to use for a game, but I agree the story left me confused, sorry.
Lythom
30. Apr 2013 路 06:26 UTC
Hi, here is some feedback about your game.
What I loved :
- art style
- pokemon spirit
What imo could be improved :
- remove unfinished features (it makes the game messy)
- title, author, instructions on a splash screen or on webpage
- ending
- juicy feedbacks when shapes level up <3

Pretty neat overall, thanks for the game !
Andrewves
30. Apr 2013 路 08:54 UTC
Great idea for the graphics, but the gameplay is a little confusing.
馃帳 zinfandel
30. Apr 2013 路 10:04 UTC
Lythom - thank you for those suggestions, they are excellent!
I've learned so much from this event. It rawks.
Linus Lindberg
30. Apr 2013 路 13:19 UTC
OSX version doesn't wrok :/
Graphics looks amazing though.. I'll have to play it on my windows computer later!
Alex Shestakov
30. Apr 2013 路 13:19 UTC
Nice graphics, but hard gameplay
Yoni
30. Apr 2013 路 13:22 UTC
Nice graphics, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do and I kept dying for no discernible reason :(
Kalakian
30. Apr 2013 路 13:25 UTC
It looks really nice, but I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. At one point, I kept getting a "you were killed" message for moving into the grass.
free_napalm
30. Apr 2013 路 13:39 UTC
Pokemon with auto-fighting could actually work. Nice graphics, but you would have to improve the the way you interact with them.
daniel2357
02. May 2013 路 12:13 UTC
Very nice concept. Looks Awesome. Its pretty hard though.
Very good game overall.
galman
02. May 2013 路 13:20 UTC
Nice game! Really like the interesting graphics and the "Pokemon" theme, I'll be happy to play a sequel :D
acro
02. May 2013 路 15:49 UTC
I like the look! The screenshot is nice, and grabbed my attention. But I was rather let down by the 'game', which isn't really there. I walked in the grass until stuff levelled up, increased attack, and got more "shapes" -- was it shapes because I was an egg? Why was I an egg?!
I went to the hospital every 20 seconds to refill health, then after a few minutes went to the league over and over and total health and cash went into the thousands... and then it seemed like there was no more... Visiting the hospital after getting 20 league wins put 'total health' back down from 250,000 to 146 or whatever it was meant to be. So I didn't do that the next time. Total power seemed to stop increasing, too.
But having said all that, my RPG-brain compelled me to max those numbers, and the graphics made me expect a lot because they're really interesting.
KunoNoOni
02. May 2013 路 23:13 UTC
Very cool idea. I do agree it was a little confusing in the beginning though. Definitely do a post compo version and add the missing features. Good use of theme. Good Job!
Tom 7
03. May 2013 路 17:13 UTC
Great graphics! I only sort of understood what was going on -- needs more feedback in the game! :)
kibertoad
03. May 2013 路 23:40 UTC
Terribly unpolished. Art was nice.
sudorossy
04. May 2013 路 21:55 UTC
Cute, but I didn't really understand what was going on.
loxo
05. May 2013 路 10:50 UTC
The graphics are great. And I like the game idea. But I don't understand why the hp is increased after defeating one of the champions and gets decreased again by visiting the hospital.
eli
07. May 2013 路 18:39 UTC
Your signature look is wonderful.

I didn't have much trouble figuring out what to do. Player actions are limited, though, and the game felt grindy and "make numbers go up". It's clear there is more that you didn't have time for. Good work!!!