Fire, Fire, Where You Are by Jonny D

made by Jonny D for LD18 (COMPO)

You play as a firefighter, fighting his greatest enemy... Fire (You didn't see that coming?). His weapon of choice? Fire (Again, really I thought you'd get that).

The full title was given by my 4 year old daughter:
Fire, fire, where you are, I'm going to fight you with a fire department

Use wasd or arrows to move. Move and click the mouse to set fires. Use these fires to burn away fuel from the expanding wild fires. There's also a nice surprise in there that fits all too well ;)

Note: There's a bug with the deltaT between levels, so to minimize its impact, make sure that you're not moving when a level ends. I'll see if I can fix the library which causes it when I get home tonight.

Edit: I think I got it. The original (bad) version can be found here:
http://code.bluedinosaurs.com/open/LD%2018%20-%20Jonny%20D%20-%20Fire%20Fire%20Where%20You%20Are%20-%20bad.zip

Everything is the same except for that game-crippling bug.

Windows	http://code.bluedinosaurs.com/open/LD 18 - Jonny D - Fire Fire Where You Are.zip
Linux	http://code.bluedinosaurs.com/open/LD 18 - Jonny D - Fire Fire Where You Are.zip
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=preview&uid=654

Ratings

Coolness	22%	24
Overall	3.26	37

Audio	1.25	134
Community	3.75	27
Fun	2.95	61
Graphics	3.21	64
Humor	2.63	47
Innovation	4.05	5
Theme	4.11	9

Feedback

hdon

23. Aug 2010 · 02:37 UTC

Seems that on level 2 I am stuck in the water and it's difficult to move and maybe impossible to reach the land.

🎤 Jonny D

23. Aug 2010 · 04:51 UTC

Ugh. It seems kinda random, but sometimes the player or fire positions get messed up. You should be able to try again and it might work.

The nature of bugs: They don't make any sense! I'll see about fixing this (and finishing the Gimp terrain filtering) in a post-compo version.

Covenant

23. Aug 2010 · 08:15 UTC

Had some trouble controlling the fire... most of the time, my mouse wouldn't start a fire, no matter if I pressed it or clicked it... :(

🎤 Jonny D

23. Aug 2010 · 09:16 UTC

Were you trying it on fresh grass? Fires won't start on burnt terrain.

ｂｒｏ.ｋｅｎ.ｌｉｎｋ

23. Aug 2010 · 09:31 UTC

Good use of theme, plus an original gameplay mechanic (I don't think I've ever seen a controlled-burn game before). Could have benefited from sound, front-end menus and/or better flow. The art was good, and the fire effect was top-notch (although the grass is just a teensy bit on the bland side).

Five stars awarded under 'community' for taking part in a meetup and making a video of the event.

Overall, I'm awarding this four stars. It's not perfect, but it is fun, and it has loads of potential.

Sparky

24. Aug 2010 · 14:52 UTC

I think this is a great idea, and a really creative use of the theme. To be honest, while I think the basic idea is totally sound, I think the game would benefit from having a bit more depth. I liked some of the later levels where I had to prioritize and make more decisions about where to put controlled burns. Those were the most fun parts of the game for me.

I wonder if it might be fun to allow controlled burns to get out of hand sometimes- perhaps they get too hot if we keep the mouse in one spot for too long? :D

It could add a bit of a risk / reward mechanic. Holding the mouse down would make areas darker, and thus more fireproof, but it would also require a bit of caution.

Anyway congratulations for finishing. Nice idea. I'd love to see more firefighting games, this mechanic seems like it's got a lot of potential.

Jonathan Whiting

24. Aug 2010 · 23:23 UTC

Haha, I kept on accidentally setting the houses (and myself) on fire. This game reminds me of a story my mum used to tell about how she 100% genuinely believed that firemen went round setting alight to peoples houses when she was young.

I love the full title, and the solid fire simulation. Oh, and props for recovering from catastrophic source faliure (next time, version control! ;)

The controls are a little less lovable.

Spooner

26. Aug 2010 · 05:18 UTC

Did like the concept a great deal, though I found it too hard to exactly place my fires so they blocked the onslaught (I felt that once I had worked out where to place them, it shouldn't be a work of extreme precision to actually block off an area).

Nice original use of the theme and pretty too.

Danik

26. Aug 2010 · 05:43 UTC

Great use of the theme, pretty unique game.

Alan Lynn

26. Aug 2010 · 11:19 UTC

Sometimes the fire would get through my burn lines. I tried to make them thicker so the fire wouldn't get through, but the game didn't really let me.

Jhelle

28. Aug 2010 · 12:05 UTC

The fire seems hard to control. But I had a fun time playing this innovative game :)

someone

29. Aug 2010 · 06:23 UTC

Fun game. Good use of the theme.

stqn

03. Sep 2010 · 04:36 UTC

Thanks for the Linux version, but I'm missing libsprig.so.1 and there doesn't seem to be a package for it for Arch Linux...

HybridMind

04. Sep 2010 · 19:37 UTC

Oh this was awesome to finally play! It has come so far since the first day we were at the meetup together! This is a really fun and interesting game. My only gripe currently is the fact that if you screw up a mission it boots you from the game without being able to continue. I'd totally love a post-compo version of this with score comparisons and continues. Also major humor points for the bonus screen.. i won't spoiler it but that was great. Such an innovative idea and really good execution. I loved how you have to strategize how to stomp out parts of the fire sometimes without getting burned alive. Top notch!

🎤 Jonny D

05. Sep 2010 · 12:29 UTC

Yeah, sorry. I didn't do a good job packaging the Linux version. It uses SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer (even though I didn't put in sound), SDL_ttf, and Sprig. You can build Sprig yourself or grab that shared object here (and hope it's compatible - put it where PATH will find it):
http://code.bluedinosaurs.com/open/libsprig.so.1

🎤 Jonny D

06. Sep 2010 · 06:28 UTC

Oops, I mean LD_LIBRARY_PATH of course.

Thanks, guys, for the comments so far. My complaints about the game are the same brought up here, mostly thanks to code crisis just before the polish phase. When I get the chance, I'll be posting a version with completed menus, sound, graphics, and more exact burnt terrain indication.

Scramasax

06. Sep 2010 · 15:23 UTC

A little hard to control. Seemed a little random when it came to burning out the fire, but cool, and fun.