Alpha Channel by Spooner
This is my first LD. This game is quite simple, but has some concepts it may take a couple of games to understand.
By taking control of your enemies, you can block and kill the other enemies that are nearly as tough as you are. Unfortunately, while controlling an enemy, the other enemies will continue to attack you so you need to protect yourself AND make sure you don't run out of energy, freeing your slave! Sometimes running away for a bit is the best plan...
Best, though, is play and figure it out for yourself! Press F1 for in-game help.
GAMEPLAY VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmTGW4jAd_M
= Alpha Channel
Spooner's entry for Ludum Dare 18 - "Enemies as weapons"
This is my first LD. This game is quite simple, but has some concepts it may take a couple of games to understand. By taking control of your enemies, you can block and kill the other enemies that are nearly as tough as you are. Unfortunately, while controlling an enemy, the other enemies will continue to attack you so you need to protect yourself AND make sure you don't run out of energy, freeing your slave! Sometimes running away for a bit is the best plan...
Best, though, is play and figure it out for yourself! Press F1 for in-game help.
License: GPL v3
== Ingame help (View by pressing F1)
It is hell being a pixel. Why can't they all just get along?
= How to play =
* Red is evil; Red wants to hurt you!
* Take control of Red, when it comes near, and use it to protect yourself from the other Reds!
* Controlling Red is strenuous and will use up your limited energy reserves (Blueness).
* All colours hurt colours that aren't the same. Green isn't too painful, though :)
= Controls =
* Arrow keys or WASD: Move self (or a controlled Red).
* Space or Return: Take/relinquish control of Red.
* P: Pause
* Control+Q: Exit game.
== Compatibility
Runs in a 640x480 window. Windows, Linux and OS X [10.6 only].
== Where to get a copy of the game from
* Project: http://github.com/Spooner/spooner_ld_18
* Downloads: http://github.com/Spooner/spooner_ld_18/downloads
* Repository: git://github.com/Spooner/spooner_ld_18.git
== v1.1 (2010-08-24)
Ludum Dare #18 entry compatibility update
* Fixed CTD in Linux.
* Fixed font rendering in Linux by changing the font (also changed font used in Windows to keep things the same).
* Made OS X executable.
== v1.0 (2010-08-22)
Ludum Dare #18 entry
By taking control of your enemies, you can block and kill the other enemies that are nearly as tough as you are. Unfortunately, while controlling an enemy, the other enemies will continue to attack you so you need to protect yourself AND make sure you don't run out of energy, freeing your slave! Sometimes running away for a bit is the best plan...
Best, though, is play and figure it out for yourself! Press F1 for in-game help.
GAMEPLAY VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmTGW4jAd_M
= Alpha Channel
Spooner's entry for Ludum Dare 18 - "Enemies as weapons"
This is my first LD. This game is quite simple, but has some concepts it may take a couple of games to understand. By taking control of your enemies, you can block and kill the other enemies that are nearly as tough as you are. Unfortunately, while controlling an enemy, the other enemies will continue to attack you so you need to protect yourself AND make sure you don't run out of energy, freeing your slave! Sometimes running away for a bit is the best plan...
Best, though, is play and figure it out for yourself! Press F1 for in-game help.
License: GPL v3
== Ingame help (View by pressing F1)
It is hell being a pixel. Why can't they all just get along?
= How to play =
* Red is evil; Red wants to hurt you!
* Take control of Red, when it comes near, and use it to protect yourself from the other Reds!
* Controlling Red is strenuous and will use up your limited energy reserves (Blueness).
* All colours hurt colours that aren't the same. Green isn't too painful, though :)
= Controls =
* Arrow keys or WASD: Move self (or a controlled Red).
* Space or Return: Take/relinquish control of Red.
* P: Pause
* Control+Q: Exit game.
== Compatibility
Runs in a 640x480 window. Windows, Linux and OS X [10.6 only].
== Where to get a copy of the game from
* Project: http://github.com/Spooner/spooner_ld_18
* Downloads: http://github.com/Spooner/spooner_ld_18/downloads
* Repository: git://github.com/Spooner/spooner_ld_18.git
== v1.1 (2010-08-24)
Ludum Dare #18 entry compatibility update
* Fixed CTD in Linux.
* Fixed font rendering in Linux by changing the font (also changed font used in Windows to keep things the same).
* Made OS X executable.
== v1.0 (2010-08-22)
Ludum Dare #18 entry
Ratings
| Coolness | 35% | 3 |
| Overall | 2.74 | 95 |
| Audio | 1.85 | 117 |
| Community | 3.75 | 27 |
| Fun | 2.79 | 77 |
| Graphics | 2.25 | 131 |
| Humor | 1.50 | 136 |
| Innovation | 2.85 | 106 |
| Theme | 3.35 | 77 |
Thanks for taking a look at my game!
I like the concept, it worked very well. I didn't find the graphics great, honestly, but a solid effort. The gameplay idea could be expended into a very fun game.
I don't think I'm allowed to fix the sound in the competition entry version (only porting and crash fixes allowed, I believe). Currently I'm working on fixing the Linux/OS X ports, which I'll submit as soon as I can, as part of the competition (v1.1), then I can make some non-competition tweaks, like fixing the volume, before I consider the game in a properly usable state.
@everyone: Thanks for all of the positive comments (and quite reasonable criticisms)!
The extremly simple graphics render quite nicely, and the sound was ok too.
The gameplay was fun and quite addictive, although it is repetitive.
Can you check the files?
The application I used to make the exe is Ocra (for Ruby). It packages up the complete Ruby installer, the .rbw file (so it can start up the rest of my scripts) and whatever other dependencies are needed in a .exe. Mmm, I've just found several posts saying that the regular Ruby interpreter installer had tested positive for TR/Dropper.Gen and that being dismissed as a false-positive. I suspect, therefore that this is a similar situation, since my exe has most of the Ruby interpreter inside it.
Not sure if this would help you, but if you downloaded one of the copies of the Ruby Installer (not intending to _use_ it) and it came up as infected when you tested it, then you might be assured that you were safe using my exe (The installer is a very widely used application, unlike my game, that would not be left with a trojan in it for very long!). Ultimately, up to you, of course, but if you still have doubts you could run from my source version (you need to install from the aforementioned Ruby Installer, then run "gem install ocra chingu" and then run "rubyw lib/spooner_ld_18.rbw").
Can't think of much to say since I think the single mechanic works pretty well and there's no obvious thing to add. It might be more approachable with a more concrete visual theme, but that's about it.
Fits the theme fairly well. Clean graphic design is pretty nice. I like the score in the background.
The enemies kind of float in from the middle of the screen sometimes - an alpha problem perhaps? Or on purpose?
Also ... I wonder how colorblind people see this game =)
Sorry I can't be more helpful than that (I can't imagine you'll have a problem installing Ruby 1.8.7, or later, on your system, so I needn't mention that)!
@eli: I have actually already considered the colour-blindness problem. The most common colour-blindness is red-green (can't tell the difference between red and green colours), but that doesn't matter since my Red moves and Green doesn't and they are both to be avoided anyway. As long as the player can tell the Blue from the other two, that isn't too much of a problem (until someone tells me there is a form of colour-blindness that can't differentiate that from the others and then I am screwed!). If I was doing it properly, I suppose I should have a "colour-blind mode" that superimposes a marker on top of the player's block to make it stand out?
Not sure what you mean by "floating" enemies. There is, however, a bug with my rather naff manual collision handling that means that occasionally a block will jump to another position rather than collide correctly. I fixed this after the competition by hooking up to the Chipmunk physics engine and there are no longer any glitches like that, though that doesn't fix the version you are playing.