LudumData

Run from the hangman (Renegade) by jshaffer94247

[raw]
made by jshaffer94247 for LD 41 (COMPO)

This Endless Runner is trying to escape the Hangman. Good luck!

I was about half way through when I realized that the Styx tune "Renegade" is a perfect theme song for this game. I would have asked for a license to include the tune but figured they would laugh at my art. I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Instead, I've given you the first line of the song and you can sing the parts you know.

"Oh Mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law...(3 lines skipped)... Hangman is comin' down from the gallows and I don't have very long" - from "Renegade" by Styx on the album Pieces of Eight, circa 1979

The game is not fully balanced :( and the dictionary of words is kind of short. Opinions differed on whether full health should be restored after a word is successfully guessed. High score is not currently saved, and it's really hard to get past Level 1. It would probably be a lot easier if I had actually had time to build a Level 2. No theme song -- no audio at all, actually, but this way you won't get in trouble if you play it at work, right? Hands on the keyboard but only the space bar does anything. Well, except maybe for one key that I forgot to take out of the debug build. Oops! Easter egg?

This game was created using the free-for-the-weekend GameMaker Studio 2 which I started learning on Friday night. :D I thought I'd be able to output HTML but no luck. Download the zip, unzip, scan if you like, and fire it up.

Disclaimer: All insect violence is simulated and no actual insects are harmed in this game.

Windows http://www.coppermoongames.com/ld41/index.html
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/renegade-hangman-catches-up-with-the-runner

Ratings

Overall 560th 3.017⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 628th 2.625⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 233th 3.586⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Theme 142th 3.983⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 493th 2.897⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 264th 2.87⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 472th 2.778⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 29🗨️

Feedback

mao
23. Apr 2018 · 04:14 UTC
Clever combination! It was a little annoying to have to wait for desired letters, but aside from that, the game worked quite well.

(Also, a personal note: thank you for using the .zip build rather than the installer build)
🎤 jshaffer94247
23. Apr 2018 · 04:30 UTC
Yeah, the letter waiting annoys me, too. That's the missing game balance. :\ Too much time spent getting the fundamentals to work and not enough time play testing. More lessons learned!!
Swen
23. Apr 2018 · 11:38 UTC
I love how the little arms hang when u guess wrong :stuck_out_tongue:
XCVZXC
23. Apr 2018 · 11:51 UTC
Object collision on platforms is awful :( You should really work on that
XCVZXC
23. Apr 2018 · 11:51 UTC
Object collision on platforms is awful :( You should really work on that
Noxbuds
23. Apr 2018 · 12:12 UTC
It's an interesting idea, but it feels like it needs a bit more work. While I agree with the people above that waiting for letters is annoying, I think the real problem is that the user doesn't have enough control. I would suggest making the movement closer to the likes of Super Mario Bros where you can move left/right but can't go back. And the platforms should probably be less high up ;). Also, not sure if it's intentional, but you often can't jump when on a platform and you move faster.
Though for your first game with a new engine it's not bad
🎤 jshaffer94247
23. Apr 2018 · 15:59 UTC
Comments are greatly appreciated. It's too late to put in a better version, but I'm going to keep working on this. Agreed on the collisions. It makes me mad when I bump my head on a platform and land on a letter I wanted to jump. My daughter figured out how to jump higher than the screen. The list grows...but I'd still like more feedback, please!
AL19890604
24. Apr 2018 · 05:01 UTC
Nice concept! And I like the animation of moving arms so much haha, although my size of vocabulary and speeling are not good haha.
jharler
24. Apr 2018 · 19:45 UTC
This is a great mechanic with a lot of potential, however, I ran into some problems. It was hard to accurately jump over and miss letters, as the bounding boxes didn't seem to fit the sprites on screen. There were also times when it was impossible to avoid getting letters you didn't want. I also think you forgot to add the letter N to the pool of letters that appear. I tried avoiding letters for no less than 2-3 minutes waiting for an N that never came. Like I said though, the concept is solid and I like it. Congrats on finishing and submitting your game!
🎤 jshaffer94247
25. Apr 2018 · 04:08 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! The only one that's not spot on is the letters...but you're pointing out that "random" is not always the best choice. The letters are always the_word+aeiou+10_random_letters. So the letters you need are always in the mix, but if the word is "Casablanca" + aeiou, then your chances of getting "a" are very good but not so much on the "n". I'll have to think of a better semi-random plan.
BlueMirror
25. Apr 2018 · 06:45 UTC
Uff what an amazing idea you got there. I like the catterpillar for the hangman really nice. The collider of the letters was off, and letters I already had, kept beeing in front of me. Also wrong words, which sometimes sadly left me with just one choice "keep walking nothing is going to happen" (since I already got all these letters). A fix for that is to not show the letters anymore, that I already had been colliding with. (Just a simple if statement which checks whether the letter has been used can solve that :) )
without that I actually would have played that game for quite some time :D Well done!
Dark Roast Studios
25. Apr 2018 · 06:47 UTC
it feels like you should weight the chances of a letter showing up based on if it is in the chosen word, would cut down a bit on waiting for the right letter to turn up and focus more on the jumping etc to collect it. Anyway, good job its not easy to learn new tools during the compo lol :)
rjhelms
25. Apr 2018 · 23:41 UTC
Really clever idea. A lot of my thoughts are already captured by the other feedback - in short, this could really shine with a bit more polish. I really like the idea of going with an "original Super Mario Brothers" sort of movement scheme.

I did find a bug where a jump would end up with me half way in a platform, and that would move me a bit to the right. Once I realized that, I was able to push myself completely off the edge of the screen.
🎤 jshaffer94247
26. Apr 2018 · 05:27 UTC
Ahhh...rate other games? Fix my game? Sigh. I gotta rate the other games. Thank you for the comments; I will make good use of them.
dob
27. Apr 2018 · 05:27 UTC
Site seems to be down - I couldn't get there on two different browsers.
Zinkler
27. Apr 2018 · 07:52 UTC
The concept is great, I love so much. The actual implementation, however, isn't that good. My two biggest complains are poor controls and rare letters. How about an option to manually type the word in once you know it? Still, thank you for your entry!
Shellfish Games
27. Apr 2018 · 11:53 UTC
Surely not bad for a first attempt at GameMaker, and as others have mentioned, the concept is cool. Just a bit difficult with the glitchy collision. Is the double jumping intended, or a bug? If you hit Jump multiple times when on the ground, you can practically fly to infinity. Also is it intentional that our little insect protagonist keeps moving to the right? Because in the end I he was so far right on the screen, I simply wasn't able to see the letters before they hit me. And now I feel bad for the armless little guy. :(
🎤 jshaffer94247
28. Apr 2018 · 01:26 UTC
Oh! I had no idea he was drifting right! I feel bad for him, too. I need to fix that. Thank you for pointing it out.
silkworm_sweatshop
28. Apr 2018 · 16:53 UTC
The player moves faster on higher platforms is the cause of the drifting. The game might actually be too forgiving as well. I wasn't able to lose for the longest time even when I tried. Idea is neat though.
🎤 jshaffer94247
29. Apr 2018 · 00:53 UTC
:\ I ran out of time to do enough play testing to find these, and now my GameMaker Studio 2 trial license is expired. Comments still appreciated so that the next version is better.
bentglasstube
29. Apr 2018 · 09:12 UTC
I will agree that waiting for letters is a bit annoying and you don't feel like you have much control. I also had lots of trouble with drifting, and my character wound up off the right side of the screen. Still, a really interesting concept that might be cool with a little more time.
LMB
29. Apr 2018 · 15:50 UTC
This was a nice idea, and the implementation isn't bad either (especially considering that you were learning the tool along the way). I liked those mountains in the background! What I found most difficult (in the annoying sense of the word) was the jumping. It was too hard for me to get into the desired platform. I ended up staying mostly in the ground.
Paula
08. May 2018 · 20:54 UTC
A really entertaining game! I love the art style, and the dragon is really cute. The story has its humor which is great and interesting, it makes you wanna know whats gonna happen. The combination of genres is great, it fits perfectly with the story. It seems that the guard always follows the same pattern patroling, it would be nice it changed or the map was different to give more challenge. Overall, a really cute and interesting game, good job!