LudumData

Freeform by Faulkin

[raw]
made by Faulkin for LD35 (COMPO)
This is my first Ludum Dare, an I'm happy I actually managed to get something playable and 'hopefully' working! :)

The aim of the game is to score points by guiding the skydivers through the oncoming obstacles by selecting the appropriate formation.

Controls:
Use A and S to select a formation and the arrow keys to adjust the position, then press Spacebar to confirm.
Press escape to return to the menu screen.
I also added some gamepad bindings but haven't had much chance to test them. If you have an Xbox pad the bumper buttons should cycle the formation, left stick to set position, and A to commit.

In the end I didn't have time to add all the gameplay features I'd planned, and the end result is a bit light and simplistic. A lot of the strucutre is there, I just ran out of time to implement.
Windows http://cg-art.co.uk/store/LD35/LD35_Freeform.zip
Timelapse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxB6L4Gjd1Q
Source http://cg-art.co.uk/store/LD35/LD35_freeform_src.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=86432

Ratings

Coolness 56% 3
Overall 3.19 489
Audio 2.96 345
Fun 2.79 694
Graphics 3.11 428
Humor 2.22 457
Innovation 3.58 193
Mood 2.76 570
Theme 4.04 71

Feedback

Nolocality
20. Apr 2016 · 00:44 UTC
Very original take on the shape-shift theme.

A thought dawned on me...what if they were all floating upwards into the sky and the obstacles were actually trying to save them...
dsmeathers
20. Apr 2016 · 11:47 UTC
I agree, great take on the theme!
alsantour
20. Apr 2016 · 12:55 UTC
Good game very impressive and creative take on theme! Only one grief (or else id play it more) is that i found both the blue and red highlights difficult to see most of the time, and the white was almost invisible.. esp when they overlap or overlap with players or clouds, would suggest darker colors, or stroke outline, or maybe even set by user? But really cool overall.
PS: Gamepad bindings do work.
whilefun
20. Apr 2016 · 13:00 UTC
Very original idea! big way skydiving is cool, and it's neat to see an LD game about it. I found the time between formations a bit shorter than I would have liked, resulting in an abysmal score. But I still had fun! You should make a 4-way blocks version of this :D
Linver
20. Apr 2016 · 13:28 UTC
New fun idea, but game is unplayable a bit - after some figures white clouds make hints invisible :'(
I think you can strongly improve your game with visible hints, and changings of shapes with 1-2-3-4 buttons (and don't forget to add button-shape hints on the screen)
pixzleone
20. Apr 2016 · 16:58 UTC
Very cool idea, and well done. A bit too hard though!
nk
20. Apr 2016 · 20:16 UTC
Really cool idea, and I really enjoyed it once I got the hang of the controls. Only real criticism was that the clouds often made the additive blended UI unreadable, which meant every now and then I'd have to miss a few and wait for one in a clear patch of the screen.
🎤 Faulkin
20. Apr 2016 · 23:19 UTC
Thanks for the feedback everyone, I had a great time working on it! I totally agree with the comments about the hint visibility and difficulty - some things I'd been planning to change but ran out of time. I'll probably come back and take another pass at finishing it once the judging period is over.
mayank.technical
21. Apr 2016 · 03:23 UTC
I love this skydive concept towards the theme. Cool game bit difficult to play but fun to play.
jk5000
22. Apr 2016 · 18:01 UTC
Super idea, but to play this you need to be fast as a ninja. Audio and graphic is really great.
MrBoxBox
22. Apr 2016 · 18:09 UTC
Wow this looks really good and i would love to play it but there is one thing that absolutely ruins it for me. The clouds. They cover absolutely everything at times. But whenever i wasn't completely blinded by clouds i really enjoyed the game.
TheMeorch
23. Apr 2016 · 16:57 UTC
It's really cool controlling the skydivers and watching them move into various positions. It often seems impossible to cycle through the shapes and move to the new location fast enough -- increasing the move speed with the arrow keys would help.
Very cool take on the theme. Nice work!
deadbodyoutline
29. Apr 2016 · 03:59 UTC
Interesting entry, nice take on the theme.

The UI is is a problem, the semi transparent guides are difficult to see.

Some tips: there are a lot of formations, this is cool, but maybe using the concept of "levels" could be cool, so when the player progress he has access to newer formations. Also, using the same idea of levels, you can increase the velocity as the player advances.

This is a very creative game, I'd love to see an improved version! ;)
commanderstitch
05. May 2016 · 03:23 UTC
haha nice. i had no idea you could make a game that was like this. it was realy realy hard.
notime4games
07. May 2016 · 16:15 UTC
Wow that was hard!
Often I couldn't see the formation I was supposed to make because of the clouds, and once I could see what it was it was tedious to try to find the correct formation.
I got 400 or so score at best

Well done though!! Felt like a game that was well put together. Solid game loop, nice graphics and sound, well done!