Quaternion Nightmare by cakemonitor

[raw]
made by cakemonitor for LD23 (COMPO)
Hi everyone, and Happy Anniversary to the event organisers! :)

This is my third Ludum Dare event and the first game I have ever developed in Unity. Trying to work to the 48 hour time limit with unfamiliar tools meant I really had to cut some corners but I'm fairly happy with the result given the circumstance.

With 'Tiny World' as the theme I took my inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy because it seemed an interesting challenge to recreate the very small planets of those games with their 'gravity could act in any direction' physics ... the first day and a half was spent just trying to get the player model to point 'up', and fall 'down' without vearing off course while turning or walking over such unpredictable and often upside-down terrain; hence the title "Quaternion Nightmare". All other aspects of the game were developed on Sunday afternoon.

If I had had more time I would have added: engaging combat, simple 'key + lock box' style puzzles a boss fight and more than one world as well as music and a menu system.

The tools I used in development were:
Unity (http://unity3d.com/)
Blender (http://www.blender.org/)
BFXR (http://www.bfxr.net/)
Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/)
Spacescape (http://alexcpeterson.com/spacescape)

For anyone interested in the physics behind this type of game the following article explains it very nicely: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131997/games_demystified_super_mario_.php

Good luck everyone with your own entries!

Enjoy :)

Ratings

Coolness 56% 3
Overall 2.76 562
Audio 2.32 492
Fun 2.66 518
Graphics 2.50 625
Humor 2.19 446
Innovation 2.91 437
Mood 2.23 701
Theme 3.59 142

Feedback

Gremlin
23. Apr 2012 路 20:55 UTC
Interesting. I found it a little hard to escape from the enemies once they caught up to me.
tequibo
24. Apr 2012 路 08:19 UTC
It's disappointing when you realize that there is no win condition, but instead you get back to start. So collecting all items do nothing.
But I can see it as a sad story. Some poor guy got stuck on a planet and he slowly going crazy and imagines all sort of things - some sparkling crystals he need to collect - slimes that chasing him. But when he collect all crystals - nothing happens, so his mind just resets.
Anyway, nice programming/technical achievement.
Lidfrid
24. Apr 2012 路 08:44 UTC
I can feel the nightmare for this quaternion stuff :)
Good title asd
馃帳 cakemonitor
24. Apr 2012 路 09:02 UTC
Thanks everyone for your comments :)

@tequibo It doesn't take you back to the start when you clear a level, it gives you a score multiplier and spawns even more critters so each level is tougher than the last. But yeah, there's no win condition as such - instead the goal is to just get as high a score as you can (30,000 is good, 150,000 is great) ... if I'd had time I would have added combat against the critters and ended the game with a boss fight :)
robcozzens
24. Apr 2012 路 09:07 UTC
Are you kidding me? This is your first game with Unity! I had a similar idea, but abandoned it out of fear of the tricky control scheme. You nailed it! Congratulations.
R3ason
24. Apr 2012 路 09:09 UTC
Interesting! Combat would have been fun for sure. Great first foray into Unity! Thanks for making this game!
Catman
25. Apr 2012 路 11:18 UTC
It's hard to escape, otherwise cool game. Next time add some textures!
icefallgames
26. Apr 2012 路 08:00 UTC
Oddly fun...
evilseanbot
27. Apr 2012 路 02:15 UTC
I thought the slug animation was satisfyingly icky.
Evil Sandwich Studios
28. Apr 2012 路 08:23 UTC
I can't play your game because there is no version of Unity web player for linux. Perhaps another member of my team will find and rate your game.

- Inês Almeida from Evil Sandwich Studios
castor
28. Apr 2012 路 21:37 UTC
I thought it was an excellent game for 48 hours work.
Moth
29. Apr 2012 路 12:48 UTC
This was neat to see! Excellent exhibition of tech for sure- great job with this. The sound effect the enemies made was surprisingly creepy! The space parallax was pretty nice as well.

Excellent work putting this together in just 48 hours!
caranha
29. Apr 2012 路 16:10 UTC
It was quite fun to go around collecting the gems. The game handled quite well.

Sometimes I felt a bit lost -- it would be nice to have some sort of response to know if I'm close to a gem or not -- maybe some sort of "hot or cold" dynamics? Also, some way to know whether the slimes are close behind me (some sounds?) would be cool too.

Cheers!
Daniel
02. May 2012 路 09:24 UTC
Not bad! I like how the objects lock in the terrain.
gavin5564
11. May 2012 路 22:25 UTC
Strange but had me playing for a while. good work.
Christina Antoinette Neofotistou
12. May 2012 路 22:27 UTC
I dieeed. Very good effort, and good job replicating mario galaxy, that must have been hard! Top marks for fun and theme
samoojamies
13. May 2012 路 16:35 UTC
Funny name of the game. Impressive physics. I wanted to make a similar game first but I lacked skills for that.