LudumData

Survival of the Leggiest by sanojian

[raw]
made by sanojian for LD24 (COMPO)
These unfortunate critters have come up short in the leg department. When nature was handing out speed, they were busy getting a second helping of cute.

Now that a new species of voracious veloci-gophers (you heard me) has arrived, even the very best celebrity-endorsed running sneakers cannot save them from extinction. They are going to have to evolve while the evolving is good.

They are a little bit dim and still have a strange attraction to stubby, stubby legs so you will have to help them along.

HTML5 game. Use mouse and keyboard. Tested in Chrome and Firefox. IE gets no mouse events, so it doesn't work for now.

UPDATE: Made some tweaks and republished under "Playable Version".

IMPORTANT! USE KEYBOARD 1, 2, 3 TO SWITCH ACTIONS.

Web (Original) http://sanojian.appspot.com/ld24/game.html
Web (Playable) http://sanojian.appspot.com/ld24/game2.html
Source http://sanojian.appspot.com/ld24/game.txt
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=7542

Ratings

Coolness 54% 3
Overall 3.07 316
Audio 2.90 199
Fun 2.68 428
Graphics 2.86 397
Humor 2.90 139
Innovation 3.29 178
Mood 2.86 257
Theme 3.57 123

Feedback

jplur
27. Aug 2012 路 15:50 UTC
Hey this is great, couldn't exactly figure out when they were hungry, the hunger reading always said 0, but I bookmarked it to come back and play more later on. Great to see another crafty.js game and cool that it's on appspot !
DaveDobson
27. Aug 2012 路 16:28 UTC
Great to see another Crafty game on here. I really like the art style and the theme of the game. I had a little trouble figuring out how to control anything; I tried the three modes at the top and clicked all over, but I never seemed to be having much effect. Eventually my guys starved or were eaten, and the only achievement I got in six games was the speed one. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Anyway, looks very slick, and I think I'd really enjoy it if I could figure out how to play better.
馃帳 sanojian
27. Aug 2012 路 17:21 UTC
@jplur: 0 hunger means they are starving. You want the number to be higher. Hmm perhaps I should have chosen a different word. Sorry for the confusion

@DaveDobson: You have to use the keyboard to choose between 1: herd (follow mouse), 2: scatter (wander aimlessly), 3: feed (click to drop food). There is help text but you have to press a key for it. Maybe I didn't think that through... Will check out your Crafty game soon!
DaveDobson
28. Aug 2012 路 06:11 UTC
Ah, I couldn't drop any food even with clicks as you describe. Maybe it was my old computer. I'll try again.
馃帳 sanojian
28. Aug 2012 路 06:18 UTC
@DaveDobson: Was it IE? I just tested IE9 and mouse actions don't work.
gnx
28. Aug 2012 路 14:30 UTC
Nice style. Took me a moment to figure out how the gameplay works.
Also nice arcade-type sound here. Feels like a proper game with some depth to it :)
sampyxis
28. Aug 2012 路 19:44 UTC
Nice game play - took a bit to figure it out - but nice
Bemmu
28. Aug 2012 路 19:49 UTC
Was too difficult to figure out what exactly I was expected to do (or could do), so didn't continue playing after the first minute. Didn't rate though.
JaJ
28. Aug 2012 路 19:55 UTC
I liked how you didn't control the evolution but had to protect them so they could evolve by themselves. Have not seen that yet.
Sgt Squirrelly
29. Aug 2012 路 02:18 UTC
I really liked the idea, but I couldn't quite figure it out. I was switching between modes and trying different things, but it didnt seem to have much effect. Either way, I really liked the idea. The goal was very clear, and the "story" and art were pretty neat, too.
Raptor85
29. Aug 2012 路 06:46 UTC
really could have used being able to drag the mouse to place stuff, those monsters come so fast you have to constantly be clicking at hyper speed to get enough food down to keep reproducing
馃帳 sanojian
29. Aug 2012 路 07:45 UTC
This is great feedback. Thanks so much everyone. I may try to make a new version that is easier to play and create a second link to it.
Ragzouken
30. Aug 2012 路 11:48 UTC
Cool idea :) I found the monsters pretty much impossible to dodge, but they seemed to stop coming when I only had two males left, which left the game in a bit of a dead end.
馃帳 sanojian
31. Aug 2012 路 06:43 UTC
@Ragzouken: they are not supposed to be avoided. Some of the critters need to be eaten. There wouldn't be any evolution without a little pain and suffering, would there? ;-)

I made some improvements last night to make the game more playable. Hoping to upload a new version under a new link tonight after work.
goffmog
01. Sep 2012 路 13:07 UTC
Was fun once I figured it out but the creatures seem to die randomly :( It would be great if there was a system that warned you when one was in gander of starving/etc. Took me a while to figure out that the mouse was involved at all, I kept wondering what they're supposed to eat and when they didn't herd together when I told them to.
goerp
01. Sep 2012 路 13:21 UTC
A good game, looked good , sound was OK and it was an evolution theme. I didn't feel like my actions were very influental, though. But that's probably what being a creator feels like.
AdventureIslands
01. Sep 2012 路 13:21 UTC
You really could have added some instructions, I didn't really understand what I was supposed to do at first. Also I don't know if feeding did anything, atleast clicking around didn't create anything.
N0W33t0rs
01. Sep 2012 路 13:57 UTC
I like this one. It took me i while to figure out how the feeding worked. Its defensibly fun to try to breed them for speed.
amidos2006
02. Sep 2012 路 08:58 UTC
nice :)
DaveDobson
03. Sep 2012 路 02:47 UTC
Sanojian - it was Chrome; when I played it on my newer computer (same version of Chrome, though) it worked much better and I could play for longer.
davidwparker
15. Sep 2012 路 00:29 UTC
All my males died. :(
Fun game, nice concept.