Ulovetion by Colapsydo

[raw]
made by Colapsydo for LD24 (COMPO)
You are the last survivor of your species.
Will you solve the mystery of the Lovis and the elemental gates of evolution ?

CONTROLS: arrow keys.

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Quiet a simple game for this first entry, even if the starting idea was more ambitious. I miss the audio even if it's ok without it.
This first LD was really instructive. Hope to be more efficient next time.

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POST COMPO VERSION

In this version, main bugs were fixed, music and SFX were added, and the gameplay was clarified.
I try to fix what I wasn't able to finish during compo and I used comments I received to improve a bit the game.

Now the faces of the lovis give you information on the validity of the gate in the combination. It becomes some kind of master mind. You can now move at any time, a lot of strange events due to speed incoherence have been fixed.

Since there is sound, you can activate/deactivate it with the "m" key, and WASD control are now available

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.72 512
Audio 1.32 581
Fun 2.37 563
Graphics 2.48 530
Humor 1.85 456
Innovation 3.28 183
Mood 2.33 523
Theme 3.68 96

Feedback

Senekis
27. Aug 2012 · 04:25 UTC
Nice concept. (:
I enjoeyed it, although eventually got frustrated because it seems I'd be a terrible species designer, as I just kept failing over and over. >_>

Th only bad thing is that sometimes, after evolving, the thing will be launched at one of the edges and it will evolve again (in a way that you don't want it to) or die.

Also, don't forget to include WASD controls whenever there's arrow keys movement.
pjchardt
27. Aug 2012 · 08:02 UTC
I like the concept as well. There are some weird scenarios when the collision freaks out or the creature is spawned and falls into a gate (as mentioned by Senekis) I think this could be an interesting mechanic for a puzzle game.
hungyg
27. Aug 2012 · 08:05 UTC
Very nice for a first entry, congratulations!
TuxedoFish
27. Aug 2012 · 08:10 UTC
It was cool and new just became a bit repetitive imo
eyehawk
27. Aug 2012 · 08:45 UTC
The game is intriguing, definitely piqued my interest, but I couldn't quite figure out what I was doing. Perhaps during the game you could provide more feedback on if I'm winning or losing?
gbear605
27. Aug 2012 · 11:31 UTC
Its ok... Too hard/confusing though.
tomsik68
28. Aug 2012 · 10:34 UTC
Really nice game. It fits to the theme very good.
Nickolai51
28. Aug 2012 · 10:43 UTC
Cool game, I found it quite difficult when they started moving.. -_-
juaxix
28. Aug 2012 · 11:17 UTC
I think it could be more fun if you dont disable the controls during mutations, so you can do multiple mutations at the same time, and join them etc :)
sounds expected :O
matthias_zarzecki
28. Aug 2012 · 11:35 UTC
Great idea!
lesterpig
28. Aug 2012 · 11:45 UTC
Great, great, great idea ! But too much confusing / boring to my mind ;)
gnx
29. Aug 2012 · 09:13 UTC
I got extinct. Seems kinda hard right from the start. Nice number of different transformations though.
🎤 Colapsydo
29. Aug 2012 · 10:23 UTC
There is 256 possible transformations, but since gates actions are not so evident, I'm working right now on a Post-Compo version based on your kind comments. Thank you all :D
tupperwarespoon
30. Aug 2012 · 12:33 UTC
I honestly had no idea what I was doing at any point. I didn't understand what the different elemental gates actually changed on my creature, and didn't feel like I was guiding it along any sort of path, just randomly hoping for a correct change.
Zed
30. Aug 2012 · 12:56 UTC
Really cool. Only problem is there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way things evolved, so I was just randomly pushing them into the borders and getting very confused when some of them disappeared, and others split into two.
🎤 Colapsydo
30. Aug 2012 · 13:26 UTC
@Zed: Yeah, I admit it's a bit confusing.
Each gate has a transformation function, but this function take as an entry the step of evolution and result in a angular translation of the transformation.

For the disappearance or the splitting, it's a random process at the fifth step (the combination being made of four step).
cobrajs
31. Aug 2012 · 09:08 UTC
Cool but fairly confusing. I guess figuring it out is part of the game, but I really had no idea what I was supposed to be accomplishing :P
AdventureIslands
01. Sep 2012 · 13:28 UTC
Very confusing game, also pretty hard because the creatures start to move on their own, falling to the gates by themselves, and if they are too close you can't even push them away from them.
zx81
01. Sep 2012 · 14:38 UTC
Congratulations! I liked it :)
Benjamin
01. Sep 2012 · 16:00 UTC
Great game ! I think this is a very good vision for this theme.
The spawn points of evolution results should be close to the the center, otherwise you are not free to push them on the portal you want to target. Some of them seems also affected by some kind of gravity after evolution. Dont know if its a bug or not, but it's kind of frustrating and very difficulty to handle, especially if you already have 6-7 other experiments in the way.
Maybe 4-5 evolution instance should be enough to play the game. Spawning more of them make the game confusing and unplayable.
These comments apply to the compo version.
Happy to reverse the motiontwin relationship author <-> player :-)
Zelen3d
03. Sep 2012 · 00:44 UTC
I like it. Especially the post compo version, since you know what to do.
neocrey
03. Sep 2012 · 09:24 UTC
Good idea and realisation! I'd like to hear some sounds in the future
lurkingshadow
03. Sep 2012 · 09:25 UTC
interesting idea but gets boring and frustrating after a while, but good for a first entry.
mdkess
03. Sep 2012 · 17:24 UTC
Good entry. The physics were a bit wonky I thought, but otherwise it was a really solid concept and idea. Plays well into the theme, I really enjoyed it.
Rex Peppers
03. Sep 2012 · 17:27 UTC
Nice try! Pretty tough, tried a bunch of combinations and couldn't seem to get the right species created.
infernet89
05. Sep 2012 · 09:53 UTC
I rated the pre-compo version, but all my complain were fixed in the post-compo.. So, good work!
(Ed è bello vedere un altro italiano!)
BMacIntosh
07. Sep 2012 · 23:03 UTC
I really dig the faces, for some reason :P. Yeah, I didn't understand what was going on in the compo version. I also think I managed to break it when it looked like two dudes tried to evolve at once. They both went white and floated to the same spot on the map. They didn't reappear and I couldn't move at all afterward.

In the post-compo version, now I actually understand that there is a goal. Yay!
eli
08. Sep 2012 · 07:47 UTC
I loved this one!! I couldn't figure out how to win, but I really appreciate the depth here. (Yes it does kind of remind me of my own game ...) The seemingly endless possibilities add a lot of depth to this simple configuration.

The bugs you mention are really fascinating too. I thought I had "won" because one of the creatures seemed to move on its own, but I think it was just too crowded.

I'm going to play your post-compo version now.
agersant
11. Sep 2012 · 17:51 UTC
I like the way you can evolve into many many different things but it's too bad it makes the game SO hard (in the compo version).
Keep up the good work!
Cyboot
12. Sep 2012 · 18:56 UTC
At first I have to say, the post-Combo is way better in all ways.

Only pushing one of these things at a time and waiting after it passed a gate was very annoying in the combo version.
Also the audio fits.

Although I really like the concept (and it fits perfectly to the theme) most time I had no idea what i was doing.
I just keep pushing these things in the gates and hope that something happen.
Maybe a little more instructions would have been great!
DWallin
14. Sep 2012 · 02:07 UTC
Cool Mechanic. I think you really just need a bit more of an explanation of how the mechanics work though. I eventually won and didn't even understand why.
Gabriel
16. Sep 2012 · 07:18 UTC
Congrats, I think this is the compo game I've rated higher so far! I really liked how the portals and mutated lovis interact in an organic way, and through experimentation you can start figuring out what does what. To be honest, I didn't find out myself all the actions / reactions, so I was unable to win, but I found this to be a cool, procedural thing that feels like an alchemy or magic system. Could very well be tweaked to that! On the constructive criticism side, things are TOO cryptic! It's really hard figuring out what's going on, even in the post compo version. Still, very good work!

This is one of the entries I'd love to know if it ever gets developed into a bigger or more complete game. Please drop me a tweet if you ever continue development! @pixel_cows

Cheers from Brazil!
pardue
17. Sep 2012 · 12:28 UTC
Interesting concept, I played both versions and the post compo is an improvement, the compo version is a little hard to figure out.
alwaysinbeta
17. Sep 2012 · 20:49 UTC
Nice concept. Enjoyed playing although wasn't sure what to do.
garygreen
17. Sep 2012 · 23:03 UTC
I half worked out what was going on, but couldn't work out how each element affected which type of character. I ended up with a lot of :-| characters. Nice idea though.