Primordial Smackdown: Bacteria with Badditude by Vilborg

[raw]
made by Vilborg for LD23 (JAM)
IMPORTANT NOTES FOLLOW:
The standalone link includes the exe and content folder. If it does not run, or gives some sort of XNA error, you MUST use the installer instead (or install XNA). This happens because you cannot run the application without the XNA dependencies, and if you do not have them the installer will get them for you.

PLEASE READ the readme either linked above or included in the downloads. It's not a long read at all and has all of the information about the game you need to know what's going on.
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You are a bacterium struggling to survive, thrive, and evolve. Attack other bacteria with a variety of weapons, get a variety of upgrades and buffs, and for goodness' sake watch out for bacteriophages.

The controls are explained more in the readme, but here's the short version:
Mouse - target
Left click - move towards mouse
Space - bite
C/V/B (configurable) - use active abilities
Escape - Open/close upgrade menu, which also has keybinding and sound control

Some people have reported that biting is rather difficult, so I advise tracking your target with the mouse first, and using it to swim towards them secondarily. It doesn't really matter your orientation or position as long as you're close enough, mouse-over-ing them, and pressing space. Hope that helps you all who are having trouble.

Combat, short version: "mouse over bacteria and hit space to bite" -racarate. It might take a bit to get used to the controls.

Ratings

Coolness 73% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.03 131
Audio(Jam) 3.51 50
Fun(Jam) 2.80 122
Graphics(Jam) 3.00 151
Humor(Jam) 2.93 63
Innovation(Jam) 2.86 135
Mood(Jam) 2.69 145
Theme(Jam) 3.60 38

Feedback

tripleVisionGames
25. Apr 2012 路 17:10 UTC
Had a good bit of fun with this. Do need the readme though!
MinerCraftGuy
25. Apr 2012 路 17:12 UTC
Could use a good README, the game itself is well thought about
SusanTheCat
25. Apr 2012 路 17:45 UTC
I found it hard to bite things and move at the same time. The music and graphics are sensational.
馃帳 Vilborg
26. Apr 2012 路 15:08 UTC
tripleVisionGames, MinerCraftGuy, the readme is included in both downloads. Did you miss it, or was there a problem?
davidwparker
26. Apr 2012 路 15:30 UTC
Sorry, I'm not able to play as I don't have Windows.
j_peeba
26. Apr 2012 路 15:37 UTC
Nice variety of upgrades and great audio. I think some of the core mechanics, like attacking, could have been better but it was pretty enjoyable regardless.
tripleVisionGames
26. Apr 2012 路 16:25 UTC
Sorry I meant that the readme was really helpful when I read it.
wademcgillis
26. Apr 2012 路 22:54 UTC
The control scheme makes it hard to attack most of the time.
The game also crashes when you die.
But otherwise, it's fun.
R3ason
27. Apr 2012 路 02:48 UTC
Pretty fun stuff here! Biting was a bit difficult. Fix this, 'cause there's nothing so satisfying as to go around biting things in a game :D
johannhat
27. Apr 2012 路 05:22 UTC
Love the music! I agree with other people that the controls were awkward, but it looked good and sounded great. Good job!
racarate
27. Apr 2012 路 06:49 UTC
Loved the faux-90s badass attitude platformer splash screen. Too bad no sunglasses in-game though. Cartoon-style character design was great, background and special effects didn't seem to keep up though. Mechanically, I didn't understand it at all at first. The is the only LD game I've seen with a README, but most my confusion could have been assuaged by displaying "mouse over bacteria and hit space to bite". The icons on the upgrade screen are really good, and so is the writing. There isn't really much visual feedback when you are attacking or are attacked -- I think that makes combat a little unsatisfying. The music is suitably wacky. The vignetting is a good touch and adds claustrophobia. Good bacteria shooter, overall.
robcozzens
27. Apr 2012 路 21:02 UTC
I would try it if you had a Web or OSX version.
馃帳 Vilborg
28. Apr 2012 路 20:31 UTC
robcozzens: It's in XNA, so I'm afraid I don't have the tools to port it. I'd really like to, though!

racarate and others: Thanks for the feedback on the controls! I'll look into how to make combat easier to handle.
quickfingers
28. Apr 2012 路 20:39 UTC
mac user here :(
Cake&Code
28. Apr 2012 路 22:01 UTC
What a fun little game! It was hard to get the bite to hit sometimes but it was rewarding whenever you finished an enemy off! Maybe some indication of their fatigue or health level would be good as it seemed I always attacked the full health enemies xD
Kvisle
28. Apr 2012 路 23:00 UTC
Was unable to run in Mono - would be cool with a Mono-port.
Manik Sinha
29. Apr 2012 路 04:13 UTC
Nice game. I can see myself possibly coming back to play your game again when I'm bored. The only complaint is that the controls are somewhat awkward, but I'm not sure how to improve them.
mneubrand
29. Apr 2012 路 23:44 UTC
Takes a while to master the controls but is fun once you got it figured out. Once the first boss thingie shows up (screenshot 2) it pushes me off the screen regularly tough which gets pretty annoying
DaveDobson
30. Apr 2012 路 05:08 UTC
Interesting and fun. I made something similar. The graphics are neat (although I didn't like the dark viewport window - brighter would be easier to see, I thought). Gameplay is a little hard to manage, what with using the mouse both to move and attack in different ways, but once I got used to it, it was fun. The boss was very hard, and I wasn't sure what to do. Music was great; sound effects also cool. Some visual indication of the HP of enemies would be helpful to understand combat. Nice work!
masterhyjinx
30. Apr 2012 路 08:53 UTC
I had a hard time playing it. Nothing was smaller than me on the first play through. On the second game I seemed to be able to press space to hit some things but eventually the collision just stopped responding. Excellent music and graphics though
Jezzamon
04. May 2012 路 11:48 UTC
D: Cannot play on my mac.
Rex Peppers
07. May 2012 路 13:42 UTC
I don't have windows, can't play, which is unfortunate because the game's name and the paramecium with the sunglasses are both awesome.
KinoftheFlames
14. May 2012 路 00:53 UTC
A bit confusing but I really loved this game, would like to see it flushed out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evkAdJmIils