LudumData

Lizard Wizard by stevejohnson

[raw]
made by stevejohnson for LD19 (COMPO)
You play a lizard who runs around in a cave eating flies that represent parts of random Wikipedia articles. Why? PLAY TO FIND OUT. (You will need the internet.)

Try not to ram flies into walls. You will regret it.

The post-compo Mac build has asynchronous networking and 100x better Wikipedia scraping. However, I did that stuff after the contest, so feel free to ignore it if you're voting.

Parry Hotter front by http://www.anke-art.de

Windows http://trmonks.me.uk/LizardWizardWin32.zip
OS X https://github.com/downloads/irskep/lizardwizard/Lizard%20Wizard%20(Mac).zip
OS X (alt) http://filer.case.edu/download/Lizard%20Wizard%20%28Mac%29.zip
OS X post-compo bug fix http://dl.dropbox.com/u/360865/lizardwizard/Lizard%20Wizard%20%28Mac%2C%20updated%29.zip
Source https://github.com/irskep/lizardwizard
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-19/?action=preview&uid=3120

Ratings

Coolness 28% 3
Overall 3.00 89
Audio 3.13 50
Community 2.73 124
Fun 2.73 117
Graphics 2.80 122
Humor 3.38 22
Innovation 3.73 25
Theme 3.40 72

Feedback

kylerhoades
20. Dec 2010 路 16:03 UTC
Love the concept, but it was just too jerky when I played it for it to be enjoyable. I think it'd be a great game if it ran smoothly.
馃帳 stevejohnson
20. Dec 2010 路 17:08 UTC
What platform are you on? I get an even 60 FPS on OS X. Someone else packaged it for Windows and I haven't been able to test that.
kylerhoades
21. Dec 2010 路 09:27 UTC
I'm on Windows Vista. I'm getting a FPS of 5-9. My computer runs well for everything else.
whitetigle
21. Dec 2010 路 21:51 UTC
Not playable on my netbook (screen resolution too small...).
And WASD keys are not funny for non qwerty keyboards...
So It will be hard for me to rate the game. Sorry about this.
馃帳 stevejohnson
22. Dec 2010 路 01:15 UTC
I should have expected that. Oh well, these things happen when you don't have any time to polish.

The window is 1280x720. Is that larger than your screen? (I realize the lack of a fullscreen option is an issue here.)
馃帳 stevejohnson
22. Dec 2010 路 01:16 UTC
And for the record, I only ever play with W, not ASD. I included them because it felt weird having only one "move forward" key.
Endurion
23. Dec 2010 路 06:38 UTC
Looks nice, also worked fine with about 30 FPS.
The control system feels nice, why the fuff with the Wikipedia articles. For me it could've also been simply flies. Plays nice, but there is absolutely no challenge.
The music is very fitting.
馃帳 stevejohnson
24. Dec 2010 路 05:37 UTC
>> why the fuff with the Wikipedia articles

To fit the theme of course! What's so discoverable about boring old files? :-)

I'm working on a significant expansion to this that will integrate Wikipedia much better into the gameplay.
FireSlash
25. Dec 2010 路 04:36 UTC
Interesting idea, but the execution is a bit dry. Gameplay get tedious fast. Liked the little story at the beginning, and the good screen transitions. Would have liked to see some menus, save/load, etc. Controls felt very awkward, and moving in small spaces was kind of buggy. Would like to see this expanded upon a bit :)
dertom
25. Dec 2010 路 14:21 UTC
Runs perfectly for me (win7/64).Nice sounds,nice little story,nice game!Good Job!
thristhart
25. Dec 2010 路 16:05 UTC
Runs fine for me on Windows with 60 FPS. Very amusing, although your Wikipedia article parser needs a little refinement. "== Background ==" is not the most interesting tidbit of information.
Benjamin
26. Dec 2010 路 21:41 UTC
original implementation of the theme, and nice introduction too !
馃帳 stevejohnson
27. Dec 2010 路 05:09 UTC
thristhart: The updated Mac version has *much* better Wikipedia parsing (uses Mobile Wikipedia instead of the original markup).

I'm still working on the game. I've got a textured background and an entirely mouse-based control scheme. Working on transition screens.
arielsan
28. Dec 2010 路 21:44 UTC
I like it, it is an fun an educational game :D (educational while you are not with multiple wiki articles on the same level)