LudumData

Buffalo Joe by Oreganik

[raw]
made by Oreganik for LD24 (COMPO)
Only the fittest can survive, and Buffalo Joe is fit like a battleship!

How does this fit the theme?

Well... I can always claim "survival of the fittest," right? =D

But the original intention was to have special plants which would evolve your herd and give them wings, allowing you to fly over the lava gorge and win the game. So if intentions were gold I'd be at Fort Knox, but since time's oversold it's more like "guess not"!

Read the post-mortem if you like: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/08/28/buffalo-joe-post-mortem/

Want to simply win the game? When you start, pressing "a" adds a baby buffalo. Forgot to remove that debug key... d'oh!

Windows https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/BuffaloJoe-Win64.zip
OS/X https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/BuffaloJoe-OSX.zip
Web http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/BuffaloJoe.html
Source https://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/BuffaloJoe_UnityAssets.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=12485

Ratings

Coolness 53% 3
Overall 3.19 249
Audio 3.48 63
Fun 3.13 204
Graphics 3.63 129
Humor 3.40 59
Innovation 3.06 284
Mood 2.88 249
Theme 2.10 644

Feedback

Sgt Squirrelly
27. Aug 2012 · 03:45 UTC
Pretty interesting game. I like the concept, but it seems like you needed a little more time to flesh it out some more. The intro voice over is super awesome
DavidErosa
27. Aug 2012 · 03:49 UTC
Dude, there's a wolf floating over my head :D
Nice game, maybe a first person view would have worked too. Switch view button? :)
Kortuga98
27. Aug 2012 · 04:08 UTC
Very cool. I really think you should continue working on this :D
K1NET1K
27. Aug 2012 · 04:13 UTC
Pretty funny
AndyBrown
27. Aug 2012 · 04:33 UTC
Ah man dive bombing wolves are super evil! Amusing game though, was pretty fun!
robcozzens
27. Aug 2012 · 04:34 UTC
Pretty cool.
It was more difficult than I expected.
Wasn't clear to me how it was evolution, but still cool.
GFM
27. Aug 2012 · 14:53 UTC
Let me see if I got this right...

When a baby buffalo eats enough, it breeds another? O_O
Words fail me... xD

Jokes aside, the idea may be kinda fun... but I found the gameplay lacking. >_<
It's nice to knock wolf away and it's kinda funny to see new babies being born... but it's only that!
More stuff would be nice... (though I understand... xD)
🎤 Oreganik
27. Aug 2012 · 16:49 UTC
Thank you for your comments, everyone! I plan to write up a good post-mortem on this, as it is a great example of how game concepts [wait for it] DEVOLVE to meet deadlines! =D
Krobill
27. Aug 2012 · 17:11 UTC
Hard to get the hang of the babies behavior but definitely +1 for the mouth-made soundtrack :D
TobiasNL
28. Aug 2012 · 11:16 UTC
Cool stuff. Missed some country music or the such like though.
🎤 Oreganik
28. Aug 2012 · 23:39 UTC
Epic post-mortem went up: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/08/28/buffalo-joe-post-mortem/
Enjoy!
hamster_mk_4
29. Aug 2012 · 01:58 UTC
I love the sound effects, the actual game play felt unnecessarily tough. Especially when I pushed a calf into a wolf trying to get to the wolf. Nothing points out how stupid computers are than friendly AI.
kato9
29. Aug 2012 · 02:23 UTC
Dang, I really liked this game, very unique and original mechanics. It's kind of tough but mostly in a good way. I wish the baby buffalo were just a little smarter, like for example it'd be nice if they got out of your way when you are charging at a wolf. There's a lot of other little tweaks that could make the experience friendlier, but overall I thought this was really good!
BNeutral
29. Aug 2012 · 04:17 UTC
Best voice of Ludum Dare.
mes
29. Aug 2012 · 04:22 UTC
I loved the "Durh" noise the wolf makes when you hit him. That single detail added about three points to my ratings overall

Here is some constructive criticism:
The baby buffalos have a tendency to try and run through joe to get to the grass, but you can't move... so you have to keep trying to reconfigure them to not bump into you. Maybe add some logic so that they seek the nearest clump of grass that isn't pastjoe?

I liked the character art but the level art I felt could have meshed a little bit better.

Good work, fun to play.
DaveDobson
29. Aug 2012 · 04:40 UTC
The art style is really cool - I like the 3D and the intro screens. Very well done. The game is a little frustrating; there's not a ton to do, and the little guys don't get out of the way when you need to charge a wolf. I spent a lot of time trying to find grass one time, and the wolves seemed to get a lot more frequent, so I was having trouble holding on. But it was fun, and worked well, and I had a good time. I think with another couple of days, you'd have a really fun game built on top of this strong foundation. I love the quirky humor, too - very fun.
DustyStylus
29. Aug 2012 · 12:49 UTC
Great voiceover! Cool idea for the game as well. Some of the wolves spawn a bit close though. Very nice graphical style as well. :)

PS: I'd change Web url to HTTP (i.e., not HTTPS). Some people are getting the "Install Webplayer" page even though they have it properly installed. It's an issue with Dropbox hosted Unity games.
michax
29. Aug 2012 · 16:32 UTC
Haha awesome voice over. Enjoyed the gameplay and graphics! Good Job.
🎤 Oreganik
30. Aug 2012 · 14:24 UTC
Thank you, DustyStylus! That confused me to no end. I fixed the link like you suggested.
Cyboot
31. Aug 2012 · 19:17 UTC
i thought my baby buffalos where lions at first and try to run away :D

nice game :)
harusame
31. Aug 2012 · 21:30 UTC
Nice voice X)
I like the idea,intersting game, good job dude !
Teknik
01. Sep 2012 · 18:13 UTC
great game. definitely needs more to it but a great start. good job!
Colapsydo
05. Sep 2012 · 15:01 UTC
Really nice presentation. AI works well. It seems a good base for a bigger game.
Kmad
09. Sep 2012 · 09:13 UTC
A fun little game although evolution that could be developed further. Looks great, I'm impressed to see such a good 3d game in 48 hours. I had a few collision problems, sometimes my buffalo went through the wolves and the baby buffalo would collide with me or themselves and get stuck when trying to move towards food. Good entry.
Kmad
09. Sep 2012 · 09:15 UTC
I just realised the first sentence of my comment is gibberish, that was some bad editing. What I meant to say was "A fun little game that could be developed further although it didn't have much to do with evolution."
pardue
15. Sep 2012 · 18:28 UTC
Nice game, I laughed a few times due to the voice-over. Interesting art style as well.