Alone With a Phone by waynebeam

[raw]
made by waynebeam for LD22 (COMPO)
My concept for AWAP was you're a guy who is lonely, so you use your phone to send messages and get popular. As it goes on it gets more difficult until you can't keep up and you lose all your popularity and the game ends. Then, once again, you are alone with a phone.

This is my first Ludum Dare. It was fantastic. Really happy that I heard about it and was able to get it. Had a very busy weekend with other things but I got a lot of good work done and learned a lot. And had fun.

Please enjoy Alone With a Phone! Let me know what you think, and I can't wait to play everyone else's games!

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.58 401
Audio 1.00 594
Community 2.70 251
Fun 2.00 492
Graphics 2.41 415
Humor 2.48 150
Innovation 3.18 112
Mood 2.00 438
Theme 2.82 283

Feedback

Falkreon
19. Dec 2011 路 15:25 UTC
I would have played longer if it had more room in the follower bar. I just couldn't click that fast! :)
馃帳 waynebeam
19. Dec 2011 路 20:10 UTC
Haha yeah the sipped picks up a lot as you go :) Thanks for playing!
馃帳 waynebeam
19. Dec 2011 路 21:31 UTC
*speed picks up
James Paige
19. Dec 2011 路 22:47 UTC
In spite of the detailed instructions, I don't think I ever understood how to play :(
馃帳 waynebeam
19. Dec 2011 路 23:30 UTC
@james sorry about that :/ i tried to make it clear as possible but it was tough. press space bar once for each white icon, then click the mouse
ziomorti
21. Dec 2011 路 16:42 UTC
Gameplay is original, graphics are simple but they do their job. And I loved how you approached the theme. Good job! (I think the explanation of how to play was totally understandable)
Cambrian_Man
21. Dec 2011 路 16:53 UTC
I didn't really have any trouble learning how to play, though I still found it hard to click fast enough and keep track of the people with matching icons. This was actually kind of similar to the first concept I had for this LD, so I'm glad someone made something like it!
馃帳 waynebeam
21. Dec 2011 路 18:46 UTC
@ziomorti thanks! i'm definitely not an artist so i'm glad simple shapes work for things like phones and buildings!
@cambrian_man thanks for playing and for the feedback! i think if i updated it i would make more colors and just have color matches instead of colors+ symbols. that get a bit tricky
MurrayL
22. Dec 2011 路 21:52 UTC
Good little game, although quite difficult. My main problem was keeping track of the speech bubbles at the same time as paying attention to the phone.
Nice work for 48 hours, and definitely a lot of scope for an expanded version! I like the idea of removing the shapes and just keeping colours. What about doing away with shapes/colours altogether and using objects instead?
馃帳 waynebeam
22. Dec 2011 路 23:38 UTC
Thanks Murray! I really appreciate it and the feedback. I would like to expand it, maybe as an iPhone app (I need to learn how to do that do this might be my incentive finally). Just using objects is a good idea, I like that. I was thinking even if I just did colors having text on them. Somehow so that it was clearer that they're text messages you're typing
evilseanbot
23. Dec 2011 路 05:05 UTC
Love the concept pages on the journal
JoeCool
23. Dec 2011 路 15:13 UTC
Cool concept but frustrating to play, its just too hard for me sorry ;)
caranha
23. Dec 2011 路 19:29 UTC
Wow, the first rhythm game I've seen here. I like those... but you really need sounds for a rhythm game to work! No music needed - blips and blops for the cellphone can be generated by sfxr, and you can add some indistinguishable murmur for the background, since "crowd" and stuff.

Instead of "space space click", I would go for "space space enter" or some other key combination. Easier on the player's hands, and might allow for harder difficulty levels.

Sometimes the speech bubbles from the people in the background cover your cellphone, is that intentional? I didn't like this much.

Thanks for the game!
馃帳 waynebeam
23. Dec 2011 路 20:37 UTC
@joecool i'd tweak the difficulty if i could. thanks for playing!

@caranha during planning i thought rhythm game, but the final product wasn't supposed to be lol. i did want some sound effects but i haven't used sound in flash much so i didn't get a chance to learn it in the 48 hours. i'll have sounds ready for the next dare! i didn't think of using two keys instead of key-mouse. good idea, i'll have to think about that. covering the phone i knew about and decided to leave for now. thanks a lot for the feedback!
CireNeikual
25. Dec 2011 路 02:16 UTC
Cool game! The only problem was that it was very difficult to watch the speech bubbles and the phone at the same time. I ended up looking just at the phone.
馃帳 waynebeam
26. Dec 2011 路 03:00 UTC
Gotcha. Thanks for the feedback. And thanks so much for playing!!
Make A Game
28. Dec 2011 路 14:58 UTC
The idea and gameplay feel very fresh and unique =D. It's a pity that there isn't sound. Good job =D
Kitch
07. Jan 2012 路 22:21 UTC
Good concept. took a while to start to get the hang of it, not sure if I ever fully did. A slower and more forgiving start would do wonders.
Beerman
08. Jan 2012 路 01:04 UTC
Impressively original, brutally hard though.

Took me a few plays to realise you don't have to click on the phone to submit, and yeah, having to keep track of colours *and* shapes at the same time is pretty hard.

Maybe if you started with just colours and added the shapes later for added difficulty?
馃帳 waynebeam
08. Jan 2012 路 01:09 UTC
Thanks for playing! @beerman @kitch and @makeagame! Yeah biggest thing I'd change would be the difficulty toned down a lot and add some sounds. Appreciate the feedback
Kelly Thomas
08. Jan 2012 路 03:03 UTC
i'm not fast enough, but the idea has merit
SonnyBone
08. Jan 2012 路 03:09 UTC
I suck at this in real life, too... so I wasn't too sad when I lost. Nice interpretation of the the theme!
Pierrec
08. Jan 2012 路 09:00 UTC
Funny, but very hard. I love the shape/color concept, it reminds me Jungle Speed
Black Ships Fill the Sky
08. Jan 2012 路 16:46 UTC
Clever idea!
wbobeirne
08. Jan 2012 路 21:40 UTC
Game gets too fast for me to keep up, very tough.
Aaron
08. Jan 2012 路 23:18 UTC
Very impressive for your first dare, waynebeam, congrats! Perhaps a different approach to the endings could make quite a bit of difference. Instead of saying that you "lost all of your followers", maybe "you're still lonely in real life, but hey, at least you had 540 followers on twitter today" (a win statement) would have made the pressured gameplay a bit more rewarding. Solid job, simple but fun :)
馃帳 waynebeam
09. Jan 2012 路 02:01 UTC
Thanks @aaron! That's an interesting idea, the win statement. I like that idea.