Grabman by jfarquhar

made by jfarquhar for LD18 (COMPO)

NOTE: Click "Web (Flash)" to play the official pre-deadline submission. If you get annoyed with the spikes hitting you when you aren't actually touching them, you can play the "Bugfix (Post-deadline)" version, which fixes a couple of annoying bugs. In the interest of fairness, please judge only on the pre-deadline version.

Play as Jon Grabman, a possibly naked man who likes grabbing enemies and using them for his own greedy, cake-acquiring benefits.

Please read the instructions on the title screen for the controls, and please don't give up if you die, it's fairly hard! Apologies for any bugs that may spring up.

See if you can activate the hidden level editor mode! (Note: buggy, and intended as a developer-only tool. Only included as an easter egg!)

Web (Flash)	http://www.farquharsoftware.com/springwick/ld48/LD48.swf
Source (ZIP)	http://www.farquharsoftware.com/springwick/ld48/jfarquhar_grabman_source.zip
Bugfix (Post-deadline)	http://www.farquharsoftware.com/springwick/ld48/LD48 - Bugfix.swf
Walkthrough Video	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLhaMJ48OcQ
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=preview&uid=2554

Ratings

Coolness	8%	82
Overall	2.71	102

Audio	2.10	104
Community	2.50	99
Fun	2.81	71
Graphics	2.71	99
Humor	1.94	99
Innovation	3.00	84
Theme	3.19	93

Feedback

AClockWorkLemon

23. Aug 2010 · 01:40 UTC

Heh, nice game. could do with a few more levels, but definately a good start :D

blitzgren

23. Aug 2010 · 11:43 UTC

It was frustrating at first but after sticking with it I made it to the end!

Meep

23. Aug 2010 · 20:32 UTC

A short fun game, but it's really easy to accidentally hurt yourself while putting spikes back down and such. =<

KilledByAPixel

24. Aug 2010 · 18:08 UTC

That was pretty fun, I got the cake! I think you should just press left mouse button again to drop something instead of space.

🎤 jfarquhar

24. Aug 2010 · 21:56 UTC

Thanks for the comments, guys.

@AClockWorkLemon: Yeah I'd love to make a few more, but I think I'd only do so after a serious reprogram, I hacked a lot of it together, as you do ;)
@blitzgren & Meep: This was an error on my part, I forgot to refine the spike's hitbox in the original version. It is fixed in the Bugfix(Post-deadline) link, but unfortunately you can't judge on that version.
@KilledByAPixel: I noticed that with a few play testers, I actually made it so left click fires bullets when you pick up Shooters. I agree that another click should drop the enemy, though.

Thanks again for the plays and feedback.

HybridMind

03. Sep 2010 · 17:47 UTC

I tried playing this like 6 times but could never get very far. It is very difficult and the controls seem just a little odd and counter-intuitive. I do appreciate the effort you put into trying to make a little puzzler platformer but it just suffers from too little tuning and usability with this version. Seems the collision detection is really sensitive and I'd frustratingly die against things when I attempted to drop them. I would be good if you had levels that would lead you into this compo level eventually once you had mastered some of the skills.

pekuja

04. Sep 2010 · 23:52 UTC

I couldn't figure out how to make the buttons stay pressed. Also I thought it was way too easy to hurt yourself when dropping a spike.

stqn

06. Sep 2010 · 07:03 UTC

Very interesting puzzle and nice graphics, well done! I'm too tired currently to solve it though, but I like your game. It's one of the few that seem fun to me. The instructions seemed overwhelming at first, but after trying the game and re-reading them it was ok. An ingame tutorial would some this problem I suppose.

The only annoying thing is that the bottom part of the screen blinks regularly as if it was drawn in single-buffer mode without VBL sync (I'm under Linux, and some other Flash games do that, but not all.)

It would have been nice to see a bit more community thing from you, like a timelapse for example (it doesn't cost much time to setup and it can be put together after the deadline...), desk and food photos!