The goat that ate Christmas by lando walters

[raw]
made by lando walters for LD25 (COMPO)
You play as Goat, who unsurprisingly is a goat. Goat is upset because no one ever gives him any gifts. He hatches a villainous plan to eat everyone's gifts, therefore ruining Christmas. The governmental hears of this dastardly plot, and sends in a veritable army of robots to stop him.
The game plays as a platform shooter. It is an arcade game, so there really is no way to win. Instead you can get the high score,which is then submitted. See your name at the top of that list (if your good).
The worlds that Goat plays in are generated, so you never play the same game twice.
I hope you enjoy your gift-eating-spree, and may you eat Christmas many times over (XD)

Note: The game does take a while to load. My apologies. The world generator could have used a few optimizations to make it go quicker, but I just didn't have time. I was also using an interpreted language (gml), so it wasn't at optimal speed. Once the game does load (which takes around 30 seconds to a minute) it should run at somewhere between 35-100 fps most of the time (the game updates 35 times a second, so you wont notice any slowdowns unless you go below 35 fps) The loading screen is static, so if it seems like its frozen, it likely is not.

Ratings

Coolness 51% 3
Overall 2.92 397
Audio 2.21 425
Fun 3.08 247
Graphics 2.12 658
Humor 2.78 280
Innovation 2.46 553
Mood 2.55 495
Theme 3.08 423

Feedback

dansludumdare
17. Dec 2012 路 06:31 UTC
Some kind of progress indicator at the loading screen would be nice.

That GMechanism thing is interesting.
h.attila
17. Dec 2012 路 06:37 UTC
Having an online leaderboard is an excellent idea - now I kinda wish I'd implemented it in my game, but it didn't even occur to me.
The game takes a surprisingly long time to load on my PC for some reason, otherwise it's a fine shooter game.
I think the controls are a bit off, and the goat shouldn't have that much health because it can take an insane amount of punishment.
Joeslayer97
17. Dec 2012 路 12:42 UTC
Pretty fun, although I agree with h.attila
Joeslayer97
17. Dec 2012 路 12:44 UTC
Controls could do with some tweaking
馃帳 lando walters
17. Dec 2012 路 15:55 UTC
Thanks everyone for the feedback. How do you think that the controls could have been tweaked? I might make a post jam version.
Oh, and all of you mac users out there, im working on a port to that platform :)
馃帳 lando walters
17. Dec 2012 路 16:08 UTC
h.attilla: I highly recommend the GMech API. I literally implemented it in like 30 mins :)
Plus, it lets me see how many plays I have. (currently I have like 20)
馃帳 lando walters
17. Dec 2012 路 16:59 UTC
note that it only works for GM or GM:S :P
JacksGamesSucks
17. Dec 2012 路 20:48 UTC
cool game, but too much things happening on the screen and this sounds making me crazy :)
馃帳 lando walters
18. Dec 2012 路 00:46 UTC
lol, I used sfxr for the sounds, just to have sound in the game XD
I know its kinda annoying :P
thanks for the feedback :D
se1by
18. Dec 2012 路 01:34 UTC
The controls are a bit too fast, but it was pretty funny to play :D
suve
18. Dec 2012 路 01:40 UTC
Very nice! With the amount of robots wandering about, bullets flying and running speed, this is just total mayhem. And mayhem is fun. Loading time could definitely use some work, though. And personally I'd made it a bit harder - I think it would be even more enjoyable if a single playthrough was shorter, thus allowing to have more chances at the high score in the same amount of time.
馃帳 lando walters
18. Dec 2012 路 04:38 UTC
@suve: I totally agree with everything you said, mayhem is fun. I also agree that I should have decreased the health, perhaps down to 200 instead of 500? I found a way to decrease the loading time by a few seconds, so if I make a post compo version expect to see all of these things, as well as tweaked controls. btw, nice job at getting the second highest score (the first one is from me testing, so I might delete that :P)
Edocentrique
18. Dec 2012 路 11:48 UTC
Nice job with the world generating !
Amoaeba Junior
18. Dec 2012 路 21:53 UTC
Nice concept and good work on the leaderboards. Unfortunately you level generator a made a hole that I was unable to get out of, in great part due to the goat being too fast :(
馃帳 lando walters
19. Dec 2012 路 00:26 UTC
Edocentrique: Thanks, glad you liked it :D

Amoaeba Junior: Yes, the world gen sometimes does this. I had no prior experience with prodecural generation, so I basically winged it. Thanks for the great feedback ;)
Tyren
19. Dec 2012 路 02:11 UTC
Interesting idea. The robots would come in huge droves. I got stuck under the floor once! Oops!
馃帳 lando walters
19. Dec 2012 路 04:31 UTC
Tyren: yeah, I was going to make something so that made sure that the blocks at the floor and walls didnt despawn, but I just didnt have time :P
馃帳 lando walters
19. Dec 2012 路 04:32 UTC
but im glad you liked :D
Dylan McCall
19. Dec 2012 路 05:04 UTC
Love the high score thing! Really hectic, in a good way :)

The controls were a little frustrating: my goat would continue gliding for about a good while after releasing an arrow key, which made it really hard to get to some places.

Anyway: Yay, goats!
Amos Wenger
19. Dec 2012 路 05:05 UTC
Well, it was certainly interesting :)

The physics were a bit surprising tough, but interestingly it wasn't the jump that threw me off, but more the lack of velocity when moving right/left - it made it really difficult to make precise jumps.

Otherwise, procedural level generation worked pretty nicely, I didn't get stuck anywhere.

The sounds do get a bit annoying/oppressive after a while.

Otherwise, nicely done!
馃帳 lando walters
20. Dec 2012 路 03:55 UTC
Dylan McCall: Thanks for the feedback, and glad you liked it. I currently have a post compo version in the works, with reworked controls and a optimized world gen!

Amos Wenger: Yes, the controls are a bit off :P
glad you still liked it :)
FrederickK
20. Dec 2012 路 23:29 UTC
It's kinda hard to control your character and there are so many enemies that shot at them is not very effective...
I liked the concept and is fun to play too!
馃帳 lando walters
21. Dec 2012 路 00:27 UTC
FrederickK: great, glad you liked it. really happy that people are giving me such constructive critisum too! I will work more on getting the controls just right next time (and likely less time sleeping XD)
Jeremias
25. Dec 2012 路 17:10 UTC
Hi lando, here is my feedback:

- The highscore is a very neat idea :)
- Either the player has too much life or the enemies are too weak, but you should ensure that somewhere along the way the players will die. I killed myself by standing in front of robots to see, where I landed ca. on the highscore list.
- Optimize your world generating code. I got stuck in an area where I couldn't jump out anymore :)
- Additional, you should tweak your movement. It's okay, but doesn't feel perfect.
Patrick64
29. Dec 2012 路 12:35 UTC
Cool game, I like the floaty jumping and the festive scenery. It had an odd bug on my pc where it wasn't clearing the previous frame.
馃帳 lando walters
05. Jan 2013 路 23:51 UTC
Jeremias:
- I had some time at the end, and thought that it would be a good idea to add :D
- I know :P. I did this to myself last time I entered in a jam too :I
- good to know :). This has happened to a few people
- agreed. particularly in small passages

Patrick64: Glad you liked it. I think I know the source of the bug, and it should be fairly easy to fix it.