The Canis Incident by srakowski

[raw]
made by srakowski for LD35 (COMPO)
"The Canis Incident"
by Shawn Rakowski

Description:

Dr. Adi Van Kovski, a leading bio-engineer at Vitae Dare labs, heads home after a long day of work, leaving her kitten at the office. Then the unthinkable happens... The lab explodes covering the area with an organic mush that, when combined with DNA from animals being tested on in the lab, shapeshifts into bizarre creatures. Dr. Van Kovski makes the courageous decision to save her kitten from these unthinkable creatures, but will she be too late?

In this top down shooter you'll fight your way through the halls of Vitae Dare labs... killing koala-bats, tortoise-hares, and narwhal-horses whom fire rainbow blasts in your direction... in hopes of saving a kitten.

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Controls

W - move up
S - move down
A - move left
D - mover right
Q - toggle shotgun/rifle
mouse - aim
left-click mouse - fire

Press any of WASD to skip through story faster

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Notes:

I didn't have time to put some indicators in the final stage of Story Mode (you'll know it when you see it). Interact with items in that spaces that seem a bit out of place and you should be able to finish the game.

There are 2 weapons, I didn't get time for an indicator. Q swaps between a shotgun and rifle.

Ugghh! I forgot to wire in the final boss' damage... that 48hr time limit :-(

Play for at least 8 levels in story mode to get to the final level.

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The Direct X version seems to work the best.

The OpenGL version sometimes fails on me for no apparent reason. You'll probably need to install OpenAL for the OpenGL version as there is audio.

*** Used .NET 4.6.1 / MonoGame

**** IF WINDOWS DOESNT LET YOU RUN IT ***
Right-Click on the EXE, select properties, and click 'UNBLOCK'.

*** IF IT DOESN'T RUN IN WINDOWS ***
You may need to install directx 9... not sure why things don't get bundled. Try installing here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

For the GL version you may need https://www.openal.org/

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 2.94 685
Audio 2.74 450
Fun 3.06 505
Graphics 2.53 725
Humor 3.29 110
Innovation 2.45 820
Mood 2.70 611
Theme 2.74 798

Feedback

Javabot
18. Apr 2016 路 03:00 UTC
I come up with an instant "stopped running" error, and I looked at details and system.dll cannot be found? Can't run it.
馃帳 srakowski
18. Apr 2016 路 03:07 UTC
Which version? You may need DirectX or OpenAL installed
mf1214
18. Apr 2016 路 03:18 UTC
Great game! I had fun playing it.
HoldMeImScared
18. Apr 2016 路 03:21 UTC
High marks for humor! :) I like the sparse use of color (I giggled the first time I ran into a unicorn), and your character design for the main character.

The sad music playing as she worries about her kitten and blasts any who would threaten it amused me, too. Nice work :)
dylanwolf
18. Apr 2016 路 03:53 UTC
A well-done shooter. It took me a few tries, since my instinct is to try to clear rooms, and the randomized levels added to the challenge.
nicotuason
18. Apr 2016 路 03:54 UTC
Lol that was a lot more fun than I was expecting! The machinegun is awesome. The white flash and sound effect when you hit an enemy is both efficient and satisfying. Good variety of enemies and the way they swarm you makes the game pretty fun!

The hit detection on the bullets seem a bit inconsistent though. If there was some small effect to let me know that the bullet was hitting a wall I think the game would be even better.
Cerno_b
18. Apr 2016 路 09:42 UTC
Brilliant! So you've taken the Vlambeer design approach. Awesome. I laughed out loud at the narwhal unicorns. Very fun game, five stars. Nitpicks include the simplistic music, navigating narrow corridors and coins moving slower than the character, but overall I love it.
Cerno_b
18. Apr 2016 路 09:54 UTC
I had to return to the game to try and finish it. I enjoyed the boss, although it was a bit easy. Overall some status indication would be nice to show how far you have progressed in the game, it made me wonder whether there was an end to it.
Aaranos
18. Apr 2016 路 11:44 UTC
At first I thought the spread and speed of the bullets were excessive, then I saw the horror swarming around. Fun game, but the music didn't feel right for what you are doing.
Itay2805
19. Apr 2016 路 01:07 UTC
From some reason it doesn't run... The openGL version doesn't do anything and the DirectX version just shows a white screen...
馃帳 srakowski
19. Apr 2016 路 01:25 UTC
Sorry to hear that Itay, ugh... maybe I need to go back to JavaScript or try Unity >.<
DeltaF1
19. Apr 2016 路 01:43 UTC
It was fun to play, and the ending was very funny. The firing noise was a bit annoying, but overall it was a fun little game :)
LRP
21. Apr 2016 路 12:06 UTC
fun in a can
Paulgami
21. Apr 2016 路 12:19 UTC
Found it a little unplayable with the ton of enemies and (for me at least) pretty low framerate. Best part hands down was the newspaper pages.
NIGIC
24. Apr 2016 路 16:42 UTC
Solid, glitch-free gameplay. Interesting way to present the story.

You sort of fell into a lot of the trappings of this game type though. The shotgun gives way too much coverage vs the rifle's somewhat-higher fire speed and range; the only time I ever even wanted to switch was during the final level, where the rifle simply outranged the boss. Infinite ammo and ridiculously high (infinite) health regen means you can just hold the shot button and run around carelessly. And enemy placement feels, well, random, and aside from the first couple levels, you don't feel any progression in difficulty (or anything, for that matter) from one level to the next. All levels looking exactly the same didn't help on that front either.

Still enjoyed it though. Good job!
thedashdude
26. Apr 2016 路 00:38 UTC
I liked the game, but the ability to just run through levels without shooting anything made it a little pointless.
Freank
26. Apr 2016 路 16:49 UTC
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
Jungle
01. May 2016 路 14:18 UTC
Nice entry. Fits theme very well. Good, sharp (and a bit difficult) shooter. Congratulations
TheCain
07. May 2016 路 02:45 UTC
What this game lacks, is character progression.
In Nuclear Throne, or Risk of Rain, as you go deeper, the game changes, and your character changes.
That is what this game is missing.
I just ran past all the enemy's to the exit, because I had no reason to kill them.
I did like that every enemy gave back a little health.
But other than that, it was nice.