LudumData

Circus Flea by Oreganik

[raw]
made by Oreganik for LD23 (COMPO)
Complete an ever-escalating array of trick challenges with your highly-trained and super tiny circus flea!

Lots of fun dialog in this one! My kids and I had a blast talking in the background. It might be unique in this compo, but with 1000 games, who can tell?

Sorry I didn't make this a full flea circus simulator like I was hoping for. But this one "sideshow" is a bit Tony Hawk Pro Skater in its move combinations. I hope you enjoy it!

I wrote this in Processing, which does not handle audio on web versions very well. I didn't have time to solve that problem before the deadline, sorry!

Tips:
* You can safely mash the spacebar to skip the yappin', or tap once, sit back, and enjoy the 5 second interludes of comedy!
* Practice jumping into the wee lil' bucket for a while. You aren't penalized for missing tricks, just missing the bucket!
* How high have you jumped? Have you touched the light?

Windows http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/CircusFlea_Windows.zip
OS/X http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/CircusFlea_OSX.zip
Source http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16352360/CircusFlea_Source.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=12485

Ratings

Coolness 53% 3
Overall 3.57 116
Audio 4.07 13
Fun 3.10 273
Graphics 3.80 108
Humor 4.07 12
Innovation 3.40 207
Mood 3.30 125
Theme 3.70 108

Feedback

j_peeba
23. Apr 2012 · 05:02 UTC
Hahah, I loved the voices and the presentation. The first game I've rated this time around that made me laugh out loud. :)
Monomer
23. Apr 2012 · 05:05 UTC
The VO was a really welcome change of pace, and was used in a really entertaining way. Bravo on that; game mechanics seemed decent, but the audio was really what kept me playing it.
MagnesiumNinja
23. Apr 2012 · 05:32 UTC
That was beautiful :D
robbiehunt
23. Apr 2012 · 12:02 UTC
Haha, wow with 1000+ entries you really can never tell what's going to come out! Another game that takes the flea circus idea and mashes it with Tony Hawk - I love it!

Really excellent presentation, dude. The whole thing really is fantastically executed but the graphics especially contributed to the whole vibe.

Good job!
KevinWorkman
24. Apr 2012 · 00:21 UTC
You might want to check out the Minim library for sound in Processing, it's served me pretty well so far. Also, you might consider using the free Java and Processing hosting at http://StaticVoidGames.com. I'm the creator of the site, but I think it looks better than dropbox.
Jezzamon
24. Apr 2012 · 06:06 UTC
I love the voices in this game so much!

Playing this game made me really happy. :D

My criticism is that when you are holding down space you instantly skip the "congratulations" screen, and miss out on the good job message.
I found the game fairly hard too... and I didn't really enjoy it when I kept getting gameover. :C
🎤 Oreganik
24. Apr 2012 · 12:04 UTC
@Kevin: I actually did use the Minim library, and it fell short when I had to load a bunch of audio files up front. After a certain point, file handles were simply "dead" (e.g. not null, but not playing, either), so I had to scramble to load samples just before playing, etc. It was a massive headache. And it doesn't work at all in the HTML5 / Javascript mode. FML. :|

However, I like your website! I'm actually using Processing to teach high school students how to program games, so I think we see eye-to-eye there. I'm really sad that Processing and Java prevent it from being a one-click web thing like Flash, but I guess that's the tradeoff for initial ease-of-use.
🎤 Oreganik
24. Apr 2012 · 12:06 UTC
@Jezzamon: These fleas are hardcore!

j/k! Thank you for the feedback. I'm sorry it was frustrating. I was going to make it so the flea survived if it fell from a low height, but the tradeoff -- at that point -- was getting more sounds in the game, which I was doing up to three minutes before the contest ended! Ah, well. Stupid reallife, getting in the way of Ludum Dare! :D
bburbank
24. Apr 2012 · 22:05 UTC
I love games where you are one pixel! Had fun doing stunts in this, had a nice challenge progression.
Jeffalisk
25. Apr 2012 · 15:47 UTC
Loved it! Great graphics, great sound, great sense of humour... and like all flea circuses most of the detail takes place in the audience's mind! Great little game all round.
Gareth Jenkins
25. Apr 2012 · 16:06 UTC
Love the flea.
jrasmussen24
25. Apr 2012 · 16:51 UTC
Great work-- quite humorous concept. The audio really sold it for me. I only made it to performance 8/10 (my fingers are just not nimble enough), but that was a really solid game.
trylle
25. Apr 2012 · 17:11 UTC
Nice. :) But I wish there were subtitles, as I have difficulties hearing. Guess I can't really expect accessibility from a ld entry, though. :p
Pierrec
25. Apr 2012 · 17:31 UTC
I don't know why, but Circus Flea is something that always made me laugh. When I was a kid, I loved to feign I got a circus flea and that it was doing tricks, I guess everybody did (or I am THAT weird ?). Obviously, I really really loved this game, lot of memories, lot of smiles and the gameplay is actually good!
Pierrec
25. Apr 2012 · 17:48 UTC
Oh, and because some people found it hard, I just want to add that I didn't.
Jiddo
25. Apr 2012 · 18:14 UTC
Simple yet effective idea which has been very well realized and feels complete. The little fleas feel very alive despite just being a tiny dot, and the whole setting made me smile. Judging by the VO you had a lot of fun making it, kudos for being an awesome dad making games with your children! :)
davisan
26. Apr 2012 · 13:53 UTC
Good game. The audio has charisma. :)
Bemmu
27. Apr 2012 · 18:10 UTC
Well polished
seagaia
28. Apr 2012 · 01:02 UTC
I thought it was quite cute and appreciate the humor :)
rik
28. Apr 2012 · 11:42 UTC
Amaaazing presentation. Gameplay was kind of boring, but still scored it quite highly on 'fun' because it was still incredibly entertaining. Great job!
dokidoki
29. Apr 2012 · 05:44 UTC
Awesome audio & humor. I was happy to see that jumping into the light worked as I expected. :)
gritfish
01. May 2012 · 12:05 UTC
First game with v/o I've come across (done about 85 now..) and it's SO well done. You are such an awesome parent getting your kids involved in stuff like this!

The difficulty in getting in the tub IS pretty high, I couldn't quite get that figured out...
MrBarnslig
06. May 2012 · 01:34 UTC
Great take on the theme. The narration and sounds of the mom and kids were really charming and fun. Nice work!
Sestren
06. May 2012 · 23:55 UTC
The voice-over was adorable and entertaining. I gave you 4 stars on Audio only because the jump sound became rather annoying fairly quickly. Other than that, an excellent game all around!
Puzzlem00n
10. May 2012 · 20:33 UTC
I still haven't beaten it, but I've seen enough to rate it. I gave it 5/5. I love simple little games like this without too much going on, and seriously, nice voice acting. It worked out on your part, too, because it seemed really polished to me just because there was very little to polish, which is a nice benefit you got. Seriously, I think this is only the second or third game (out of 65) I've given a full five. Sweet game.
Tomalla
10. May 2012 · 20:59 UTC
Truly made me laugh! Amazing idea, voice acting and visuals.

Sadly it's really unbalanced. If someone wants to play this game legit, he'll brake his fingers. If he wants to cheat - well, he'll break the fingers anyways. Mashing all of the arrow keys rapidly *is* enough to pass every level in a game. I couldn't get past Stage 16 in Challenge Mode only because my hands couldn't make it on time ;)

Cheers!