Tondie and Zupe by Cosmologicon

[raw]
made by Cosmologicon for LD23 (COMPO)
Requries an HTML5 capable browser. Chrome is strongly recommended. Firefox has some problems.

This is sort of a cross between a platformer and a tower defense. It should take maybe 25 minutes to beat it. If you're stuck, here's some tips:
* You start the game able to double jump (jump in the air), and you can upgrade it later.
* At the beginning, collect money to advance the game. When you reach $250, you get the ability to grow. After that, keep growing to advance the game.
* Grow will only work if you have 90/100 health or higher.
* You have to be standing at the base of a structure to upgrade it.
* The final boss has a pretty small hit box, right in the middle of its dome. Attack from above and try to hit it right in the center. Launchers upgraded about 6 times are excellent for getting up there.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.94 30
Audio 1.78 670
Fun 3.96 14
Graphics 3.47 186
Humor 2.85 169
Innovation 3.71 100
Mood 3.54 61
Theme 4.10 24

Feedback

AlwaysGeeky
23. Apr 2012 · 20:54 UTC
Nice story.
jeffreybiles
23. Apr 2012 · 20:57 UTC
Wow! The best LD23 I've played so far! Loved the graphics and the story, and the gameplay was simple yet fun. My only complaint is that it seemed a little too easy.
jeroenimooo
23. Apr 2012 · 21:12 UTC
Yay! A good upgrade game, I love when you can upgrade EVERYTHING. real cool, though after a while i got dizzy from running circles ;p An awesome game!
Shigor
23. Apr 2012 · 21:21 UTC
Excellent piece (and I normally HATE jumping games). Good idea , nice fitting art and story.

It hanged after a while in chrome, I don't know why... Just stopped responding at all, like it would stop receiving timing.
fatSquirrel
23. Apr 2012 · 21:25 UTC
Great controls and design. I liked how the camera zooms out the higher you go.
Syntaxide
23. Apr 2012 · 23:19 UTC
The story kept the game interesting. I really like the zoom as you get farther away from the planet, seemed perfect.
oldtopman
23. Apr 2012 · 23:20 UTC
Every time I place a table, the controls die. No chrome for me here on linux though :/
🎤 Cosmologicon
23. Apr 2012 · 23:39 UTC
@oldtopman: I think there's a problem with the focus changing in Firefox when you click a button. Either press 5 to place the tower instead of clicking, or click back on the gameplay area to restore the focus.
Verrazano
23. Apr 2012 · 23:49 UTC
That game was flippy dippy amazing. And the story line was emo tastic :(
Gremlin
24. Apr 2012 · 00:12 UTC
I wasn't expect heartwarming with a poignant ending, but that's what you delivered. Well done!
invaderJim
24. Apr 2012 · 03:59 UTC
This is very well done! Excellent work on the little details like animations, and camera control. Ya! JUMPY!
feyleaf
24. Apr 2012 · 04:02 UTC
I liked the characters you presented, and their relationship.
Rose
24. Apr 2012 · 04:12 UTC
Very fun. It's good that the planet turns when you move, since some of the "run around the planet" games I've seen here make the character turn instead, which is disorienting.
Rabbits...
24. Apr 2012 · 04:57 UTC
Bubbler for the WIN! Best game ever...I played for an hour...I defiantly thing that you should win...Best game ever!!!!Five stars down the board! Even in firefox...
emveyh
24. Apr 2012 · 18:30 UTC
cool entry! the game feels really polished and the mechanics are fun to play with. It becomes a bit tedious after a while, though
eburn184
25. Apr 2012 · 01:12 UTC
Cute little game. Got a bit dizzy at times, but had fun. Only issue I had was the numerous 'walls of text'. Most players will probably skip right over these. Nice job though!
uberneen
25. Apr 2012 · 01:23 UTC
This was cool, I enjoyed it. It seems like Tondie can only take one hit though, then the whole thing just seizes.
🎤 Cosmologicon
25. Apr 2012 · 02:02 UTC
@uberneen: that's not good! It locks up for me on Firefox, but I haven't had any problems on Chrome. If you can try on Chrome, I recommend that.
mneubrand
25. Apr 2012 · 02:09 UTC
Awwesome game with a great control scheme. Got me hooked from the beinning and I played through the complete game. Great job!
Rectifier
25. Apr 2012 · 03:39 UTC
Nicely done!

The bubble physics were really wonky. It took me several cycles to realize if you don't hit jump after contacting them, you go way further up. Then I noticed they reset your jump-counter and surrounded the planet in them. :D

Good game, though!
humblesound
25. Apr 2012 · 03:56 UTC
Chaining together jumps from enemy to enemy is addicting!
PabloAM
25. Apr 2012 · 14:36 UTC
Nice game! I like the mechanics!
Dylan McCall
25. Apr 2012 · 17:40 UTC
Wow, this game is brilliant! I'm really impressed you made something so long (especially that kept me hooked for so long) in two days. The progression is just about perfect, and I loved the story :)

The camera zooming is especially neat. It gave me a good sense of Tondie growing bigger.

It did feel a little easy to me. I think Tondie never dropped below 85 health (and I had placed / upgraded a lot of healers since they're pretty inexpensive), so the attackers never really gave me a sense of urgency.
mildmojo
26. Apr 2012 · 04:06 UTC
Wow, super polished entry here. I had the same locking problem in Firefox. The main screen stopped redrawing, but the build/upgrade buttons still lit up as if I was moving around the surface of the planet. I was able to switch to Chrome to avoid that issue.

I'd never heard of the UFX library (I used CraftyJS), but it looks like you've put it to good use. The animations were nice & smooth, and the graphical style was consistent & cute. Great job on all the tower types and effects.

I do wish you'd been able to add a few sounds (sfxr!) for things like jumps and enemy deaths. And I really wanted the character's first jump to be higher--early in the game, you have to let enemies get uncomfortably close before you can hit them.

Nice story. The exposition seemed to trigger when I was in mid-air, though, which was a little jarring. That's where a sound cue would help, I think, to warn that gameplay's about to be interrupted.
mildmojo
26. Apr 2012 · 04:07 UTC
Very slick! I love playing the other HTML5 entries.
johnfn
26. Apr 2012 · 05:55 UTC
This is a fun game :-) My only suggestion would be to work on those graphics! The gameplay and everything else was simple, fun, and polished. Good work.
namuol
28. Apr 2012 · 01:49 UTC
Very fun indeed! I love the jump/bounce/kick mechanics. Very satisfying to keep afloat. Is there a sort of combo system going on in the background? If so, you should emphasize it with a nice big arcadey combo-counter. :p

And yeah, you should add sound! The game is already pretty damn fun, but with even the simplest "bounce" and "pop" sounds of the enemies, you'd be surprised how much more cathartic the whole experience becomes!

Oh and I actually like the procedural animation. Maybe some different color choices, but the graphics were mostly charming in my view.

Keep it up!
gnx
28. Apr 2012 · 11:16 UTC
I don't usually care much for planet defense games. But you've blended it with platforming action in a way that is very inspiring and fun.

The game is a bit easy and it doesn't really progress much, but the basic action is so fun it makes up for that.
Evil Cult
29. Apr 2012 · 07:42 UTC
[Comments and ratings from this account come from various team members]
Pretty fun and addictive but a little rough in places. The frame rate dropped considerably at later levels which really decreased my enjoyment. The only other complaint I have is that it was very annoying stopping you doing anything everytime you made a building. Very cool concept and very enjoyable though. Was especially fun to chain combos together.
🎤 Cosmologicon
29. Apr 2012 · 16:36 UTC
@Evil Cult: just curious, what browser were you on when you saw the performance drop? I got much better performance out of Chrome than Firefox.
toadd-y
01. May 2012 · 16:43 UTC
Wow! really nice work in only 48 hours! polished and fun to play! super cool!
Mesene
01. May 2012 · 16:53 UTC
I enjoyed it too much, reading the description I thought it was going to be more difficult.
nice job :)
ragnister
01. May 2012 · 18:00 UTC
This game is amazing! It's really fun, but it could be harder.
Yapikom
02. May 2012 · 08:02 UTC
Cute story and graphics, nice progression but waaay to easy. Would like some sound, the jump felt a little to weak.
domrein
03. May 2012 · 16:14 UTC
Love it. One of the best ones I've played. Keep up the good work!
kirbytails7
05. May 2012 · 00:58 UTC
Fantastic! I love the concept.
thegreystudios
08. May 2012 · 04:37 UTC
Love how you can make nice jump/kill chains :)
Datw
09. May 2012 · 02:47 UTC
You got all my fives dude. Give me 'em back, I need to rate other games!
machinas
09. May 2012 · 06:55 UTC
really fun. creative. i got the superjump before i'd beaten the final ship, not sure if you intended that. seems like healing machines are too strong. with a single healing machine there weren't really any threats to the planet as long as I was passively playing. I like that the money payouts increase as you progress, but it seems like you get a higher payout for killing enemies closer to the surface. should it be the opposite of that to reward people for climbing? also, the height of the jumping is tuned to make it pretty tough to use platforms. once i got to the point where i'd unlocked the spring boards and bubblers, the platforms didnt seem to have much value. the bubblers don't seem to put out enough bubbles at level 1. for a while I was confused if they even did anything at all, but eventually saw a bubble. the bubbles may fade out a bit early too. anyway, hope this is useful feedback. game was fun. oh, and the number controls take a bit of getting used to for purchasing, but it's much preferable to using the mouse. also, thanks for making both wasd and arrow keys work. i have a weird keyboard, so a lot of these games are hard to play without alternate mappings. nice job.
DaveDobson
09. May 2012 · 13:15 UTC
Just an excellent game - tons of complexity, engaging gameplay, smooth operation and logical controls, plus all the upgrading! Man. Nice work.
Per
10. May 2012 · 09:06 UTC
This is my winner!
Absolutely fantastic. Almost made me cry in the end :)
Gameplay is great, some tweaking is necessary though such as the jump that is way to good at maximum upgrade.
MrPhil
10. May 2012 · 22:44 UTC
One of my favorites.
Sodaware
10. May 2012 · 23:13 UTC
I really wish this had sound or music, but other than that it's excellent. Great fun, a nice mechanic + upgrade systems, and even a nice (if a little sad) story.
dcolgan
11. May 2012 · 04:16 UTC
A true 5-star performance. One of the most fun games I've played yet. Awesome job.
summaky
11. May 2012 · 06:54 UTC
Great little game; it has everything: action, a bit of strategy, and upgrades!

After a while the game stopped the display and I could see that it received input because the buttons to place towers would switch from on to off depending on what keys I pressed, but the canvas was frozen. I use Firefox, so it might be the cause...
Will Edwards
11. May 2012 · 09:18 UTC
Loved it! Really loved it!
netguy204
11. May 2012 · 13:48 UTC
Cute, addictive, entertaining. Loved it! The powerups and difficulty ramp really make the game stay fun over time too. Excellent work.
Dr.Pingu
11. May 2012 · 14:51 UTC
Nice work :)
Daisuke909
11. May 2012 · 19:49 UTC
Wow... that was amazing. Great job!
KevinWorkman
11. May 2012 · 23:01 UTC
This is perfect. I want to give a more useful comment, but I don't think you should change a thing. Perfect score, except n/a audio.
SonnyBone
13. May 2012 · 22:40 UTC
Holy crap. With audio, this would be so perfect. It's already the most fun I've had with a Ludum Dare game in forever. Some rad music and sfx would put it over the top. Great, great, great, great, GREEEAAAT job!