LudumData

Critter Criminal by JaJ

[raw]
made by JaJ for LD25 (COMPO)
In critter criminal you fight, catch, breed and butcher friendly critters for your own personal gain. Use them to show that police officer who's the boss, or to steal candy from a little girl, whatever makes you feel like a badass.

Use the arrow keys to move and space to interact/ select. Additional keys are shown on the screen.

I made a short guide for this game. Click on the 3rd and 4th screenshot. The game is not as complete as I wanted it to be, but once again I was way to ambitious. I hope you enjoy playing around with it. Going to look if I can port it to html5 tomorrow.

Windows http://www.jajaben.com/CritterCriminal.zip
Source http://www.jajaben.com/CritterSource.zip
Web(Html5) http://www.jajaben.com/ld25
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=5496

Ratings

Coolness 66% 3
Overall 3.67 62
Audio 3.94 9
Fun 3.28 162
Graphics 4.12 41
Humor 2.93 237
Innovation 2.47 548
Mood 3.55 59
Theme 3.15 392

Feedback

kannas
17. Dec 2012 · 12:59 UTC
this game is so damn good! xD
Mava
17. Dec 2012 · 23:05 UTC
Really nice graphics and very moody! Its like a true Gameboy game too, really well done I like it very much :)

Your critters are very creative
BipolarMike
17. Dec 2012 · 23:06 UTC
Yes indeed this was way too ambitious, but this is a good start! The main issue I have is I never really felt like a villain... it just felt like I was playing Pokemon with a swapped out script.
cwilloughby
17. Dec 2012 · 23:06 UTC
Great work! I love the concept and the satirical approach to the theme.
tommycreo
17. Dec 2012 · 23:08 UTC
Music and graphics are awesome.
kewry
17. Dec 2012 · 23:09 UTC
Awesome work
pillbrain
17. Dec 2012 · 23:09 UTC
I enjoyed it, but couldn't really figure out how to win or lose, also my critter seemed to start losing every fight, and I was not entirely sure why.
Smaxx
17. Dec 2012 · 23:10 UTC
Very nice and with a fitting Game Boy style. I guess the similarities to Pokémon are intentional? But, hey, selling your "Critters" to the Butcher? :D
🎤 JaJ
17. Dec 2012 · 23:12 UTC
@ pillbrain:
The critters moves and characters are the biggest factor in winning or losing a fight. Power and defense are a lot less important than they seem at first.

@bipolarmike: The idea was that you use the critters for evil purposes, but in the end I only got to three scripted battles where you actually do something evil.
Devenger
17. Dec 2012 · 23:13 UTC
Graphically very impressive. A shame you didn't have time to flesh it out more - with the limited content, it's rather tricky to stay interested long enough to breed critters that stand a chance against the ones the tougher NPCs have.
dj_pale
17. Dec 2012 · 23:16 UTC
Very nice graphics and music! A bit hard to relate to theme and learn how to "beat" the game. Overall a nice entry.
🎤 JaJ
17. Dec 2012 · 23:16 UTC
@Smaxx: In the beginning I wasn't really sure if it was going to be a parody or something original, so the graphics were heavily inspired by that other game where you catch and train animals. In the end I do think there was enough to set this apart from that game not to go this route. Most importantly the heavy emphasis on breeding instead of catching.
gameXcore
17. Dec 2012 · 23:26 UTC
Really nice
adnzzzzZ
17. Dec 2012 · 23:28 UTC
Really nice graphics, music and mood. Pretty funny at times too ("Are you going to kill me for absolutely no reason?" lol). But yea, at times I didn't know what I was doing wrong...
aeveis
17. Dec 2012 · 23:46 UTC
I had fun with this! The walking back and forth was a bit tedious but it was cool to try and get stronger monsters. Your guide helped out a lot too.
JoeCool17
17. Dec 2012 · 23:55 UTC
I liked it- sorta slow and non-intuitive but the color scheme and the concept, not to mention the resolution, remind me of pokemon (like *that* was ever intended, lol)
🎤 JaJ
18. Dec 2012 · 00:01 UTC
Thanks! I noticed I forgot to add breeding mechanics to the guide though. I'll do that tomorrow but here it is in short:

Newborns get each stat from one of their parents (so not an average of the two of them!) This makes it possible to breed critters that have the maximum value of each stat.

They inherit the character of one of their parents, and one skill of each of their parents.
ahmedcab
18. Dec 2012 · 00:21 UTC
really nice graphics and very addictive. i also like the retro feeling.
Tapestry
18. Dec 2012 · 01:39 UTC
Great game. Music is awesome and pokemon-like gameplay is always fun! My favorite character is Silent rock.
Cássio Eduardo
18. Dec 2012 · 16:49 UTC
Nice pokemon style game. The kids has some funny lines.
MrAmazingSocks
18. Dec 2012 · 17:00 UTC
It's fun but movement is hard as you have to be on the exact square as the path you want to go on
🎤 JaJ
18. Dec 2012 · 17:27 UTC
@MrAmazingSock
I know. It used to be different but that could get your character stuck when going from one room to the other. In the end I didn't have time to fix both. This will be solved in post compo versions
Mythalore
18. Dec 2012 · 20:21 UTC
A very cool 'mature' Pokemon! Nice job!
rxi
19. Dec 2012 · 00:38 UTC
I really enjoyed this entry. I felt in tune with a lot of the humor in the dialogue and chuckled at quite a few parts. Nice work!
Diamonde
19. Dec 2012 · 21:34 UTC
Super well done!
Not too well balanced... It feels like I'm a little kitten trying too hard to do evil deeds. :P
🎤 JaJ
20. Dec 2012 · 05:03 UTC
That's a great description. I guess being evil shouldn't be this much of a struggle.
caranha
20. Dec 2012 · 13:24 UTC
Very cool graphics and specially the music - you got yourself a game with a very clear personality!

I didn't "feel the evil" that much, but other than that, the game was fun.

Maybe you should add some transitions between the battle and field screens? The changes were kinda sudden.

Thanks for the game!
🎤 JaJ
20. Dec 2012 · 16:42 UTC
And thank you for playing it!

I've added transitions to my to do list.
Mase
21. Dec 2012 · 03:38 UTC
Thanks for porting it. Maybe a brief gory cutscene for the butchering would be a good foil for the pokemon atmosphere. Would be nice if you could get items from the butchering, such as snacks for your critters.

I liked the talking tree and silent rock; I missed them in the later fields.
Pierrec
23. Dec 2012 · 08:59 UTC
Very impressive work!
Like Caranha, I hope to be even more evil, torturing poke...critters and all! Bet seriously, what you did here is quite amazing.
PiepTon
23. Dec 2012 · 14:24 UTC
really great work !
blob
26. Dec 2012 · 07:16 UTC
Even though that was ambitious you did a lot and the gameboy art and audio are very well done, pretty impressive.
I wish there was more "evilness" in the gameplay itself. The butcher is a really nice idea.
🎤 JaJ
27. Dec 2012 · 07:38 UTC
Thank you. I know, I wish that it had more more evil elements too.
(Note however that you can also steal critters from other owners.)
Houly
27. Dec 2012 · 23:26 UTC
The graphics are great and the game feels complex for this short amount of time. Very pokemon like, but in a good way.
csanyk
01. Jan 2013 · 02:38 UTC
Solid!
goerp
06. Jan 2013 · 17:40 UTC
A very good retro feel, whith very good music.
Impressive to have done this in so little time.
angrygeometry
07. Jan 2013 · 12:47 UTC
this was nice! only issues i had is with the web version, sometimes the tracks play twice over each other, the collisions are a little strange etc. but overall, nice job!