Friends and Monsters by Killnaprimer

[raw]
made by Killnaprimer for LD 40 (COMPO)

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In this game you must make as many friends as possible, to make a big friendly crowd, but beware:

There are monsters that chase you and your friends!

And if one of those monsters gets to your friend - your friend turns into a monster too! :fearful:


How many friends can you get before monsters get to you?

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Ratings

Overall 169th 3.681⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 154th 3.653⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 130th 3.639⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Theme 16th 4.347⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 34th 4.222⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 137th 3.382⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 191th 3.371⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

Talia
04. Dec 2017 · 11:56 UTC
yeah I made 13 friends. But the monsters are overwhelming. I really like the graphics. Good job!
toboggan
04. Dec 2017 · 14:08 UTC
This is stressful! haha in a good way. Nice colour palette. Not sure if you intend to work on it more, but it would be cool to have different layout options. Perhaps it would be nice if the monsters were substantially bigger than friends (even 2x) so that you can more clearly/immediately differentiate them and so the monsters are more imposing. :)
Handle
04. Dec 2017 · 17:59 UTC
Fits the theme nicely. Nice, clean graphics. Really needs sound! I think a bigger playing field would be helpful, as it would extend the ramp up to impossibility and give the player a little more agency in avoiding enemies early on.
Matthew Roelle
04. Dec 2017 · 23:25 UTC
The graphics are really nice. I also love that your friends could get stuck behind objects and prevent you from moving forwards, it definitely made for some hairy situations lol. It fit the theme really well. Great job :)
SilvervaleGames
05. Dec 2017 · 04:03 UTC
This is a great game!
MaxGarena
05. Dec 2017 · 09:13 UTC
cool, good game!
Gao Ming
05. Dec 2017 · 09:27 UTC
this is so cute, really wonderful 2d animation,espacially these jump and shake,also with good control feeling.
if there is some audio effect,it could be more interesting.
solid work and have really great art design.
hope more levels and more new gameplays.
Mighty CheBo
05. Dec 2017 · 09:29 UTC
Lovely visuals and a very neat core mechanic. As previously stated, it could benefit from further expansion or exploration.
kbjwes77
05. Dec 2017 · 09:48 UTC
Love the art. Gameplay was interesting at first. Just felt a bit like tag after a while. With a little work this could be a really engaging game!
Kyrv19
05. Dec 2017 · 10:12 UTC
Started to be hard too soon ;) Other then that I feel like it needs more gameplay to it and sound!
TerraPass
05. Dec 2017 · 11:01 UTC
Very good idea and graphic style. The lack of sound effects doesn't particularly take away from the experience for me, but some background music would definitely help.
Scurf
05. Dec 2017 · 11:03 UTC
Your game looks very nice! But for me it's too difficult - I can not defend myself and the game very quickly becomes too complicated. But overall it was fun!
Royoyo
05. Dec 2017 · 11:41 UTC
Wow! That's surprisingly neat game! Love the tempo. Nice Mechanics that friends slows you down & if they stuck - you stuck too... And a lot worse, if they die!
THX1342
05. Dec 2017 · 12:40 UTC
I really enjoyed this game and I think it is a good platform to work on further!

It is fun how things get exponentially harder. I liked how monsters switch between wanting to get to the player and (smartly) going for lone 'friends' to increase their monster numbers.

A great use of the theme

Even though the theme is a bit saturated, I can easily see this re-skinned as a zombie survival where you go around trying to save people. And sometimes part of your party 'turns'. :D

Things I would work on to further improve:
- Sound!
- Player movement feels a bit too 'floatty'. I'm curious how more snappy/responsive controls would feel
- Friend movement is also a bit too floatty, but if they were super precise behind you that would ruin the fun... but I would test some different options (I imagine you might have during development)
fiaKaiera
05. Dec 2017 · 13:26 UTC
Oh no! Bunny friend! NOOOOOOOO! Bunny friend, I shall avenge you with more of my friends! ;^; **You could probably continue this further.**

* Movement of everything that's not the monsters are too floaty. Okay, maybe just the player. That- or your friends are fake friends and they're dragging you down. Nice use of the theme if that's really the case!
* Improvements? Speed-ups, speed-downs, barricades, friends having the ability to fight for you until their dea- what? Different map layout, more monsters, some patterned monsters instead of following ones, getting friends back and a ton of others you can just figure out it's lacking from.
* Please don't make this a zombie game. We have too much of those. Something else that is not a zombie game with zombie-related mechanics is refreshing to see.

I can't say much else from this game, so great job!
MagonX
05. Dec 2017 · 22:58 UTC
The art is amazing and the theme too. The physics with the hinge joints are wonderful, I enjoyed a lot playing the game. Good job!!!
Laylow
06. Dec 2017 · 04:07 UTC
Great game! It felt very passive though. I'd love to have been able to detach a friend in sort of "take one for the team" kind of way.
PeachTreeOath
06. Dec 2017 · 06:34 UTC
Perfect interpretation of the theme. I like the AI you put into the game. Seemed to have both a chase mode and a bit of a wander mode. We had some AI in our game as well and that was a nightmare to get right. I ended up camping in the left area behind that well and just letting friends spawn for a while. Playing the game normally is super fun though, you have solid gameplay.
paulhocker
08. Dec 2017 · 21:39 UTC
great use of theme - a little music and sound would have taken this game over the edge - great game
saintheiser
09. Dec 2017 · 12:49 UTC
Good game, yeah! The best using of theme so far. Really exited whn my friend turn to moster. Simple and additive game mechanic with nice visuals.
Cons of this game for me is TOOOOO slow runnig with a lot of CPU despite of my 4 cores...

Also, I thing this game has a potential. The first one is more interesting purpose than "beat highscores". Also game needs different locations to run. Maybe system to make monsters to friends.
Zambini
13. Dec 2017 · 07:47 UTC
Very nice work! It was a bit difficult to control but overall a terrific adaptation of the theme. Cute graphics as well! This game could use a plucky high octane soundtrack! :)
Dlaha
27. Dec 2017 · 21:06 UTC
Very good use of theme and nice graphics. I have a feeling that two or three simple sound effect would improve the mood by a lot. Also I would appreciate some set goal, like escorting your friends to some safe-place. However I see a huge potential in this. Great job.