Don't Die, Dumpstercat! by Trifectuh

made by Trifectuh for LD 44 (JAM)

Here in a city quite like all the others... there lives a dumpster cat.

Her name is Taki.

Taki of House Dumpster is just a lonely cat trying to navigate a cruel, chaotic city. She wanders the streets in search of shelter, snax, a place to warmly loaf, and most of all, companionship.

But be careful out there, brave cat! There are foes aplenty and only but a few furiends. Her foes are furmidable and may take a toll.

If she fears she is not strong enough to make it through the streets on her own, there are mystic cat ways of seeking help.

She may purchase a few pawers to help her on her journeys. But know this, small cat. The cost is high... The highest any cat could hope to pay.

She must pay it with her lives.

Like any cat, she entered this world with nine lives. To help her on her journeys, she can use these lives to purchase pawerful advantages against her street foes. But beware! It may take more than one life to survive the alleys of this treacherous city.

The bargain is yours to make. Guide her well.

Taki Cat Gif.gif

This game was made by:

Brogrammer in Chief: Justin Wash

Cat Mechanics Engineer/ Pigeon Resarcher: Emilio Navarro

Master of Tedium/ Cat Pun Supervisor: Aubrey Byron

Rocket Cat Photographer: Bridget Cromien

Assistant Vice Principal of Beeps and Boops: Charlie Nowell

Source Code	Http://GitHub.com/justinwash/ludum-dare-44
HTML5 (web)	Http://trifectuh.itch.io/dont-die-dumpstercat
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/dont-die-dumpstercat

Ratings

Given

20🗳️

27🗨️

Feedback

Kivelocity

30. Apr 2019 · 01:10 UTC

Well, a nice fun game with good style. I would recommend more graphical effects such as screen shake on death, and shaded pixel art maybe. That was just nitpicking, this was fun.

EggPlant891

30. Apr 2019 · 02:11 UTC

Cute idea. I did enjoy the aesthetic you had too. The item balance was a bit off, but a nice idea either way. :)

VinegarLove

30. Apr 2019 · 02:17 UTC

That's a cute cat :cat2:
Anyway, maybe it's my screen but sometimes birds were too similar with the background.
Probably it's me that i'm blind :smile:
Love the sprite!

🎤 Trifectuh

30. Apr 2019 · 02:23 UTC

thanks @kivelocity @eggplant891 @vinegarlove for the feedback! glad you all enjoyed it

Doug Graham

30. Apr 2019 · 02:24 UTC

Interesting entry, took me a few runs to figure out the controls, and sometimes I couldn't get a laser to shoot when I was jumping. Liked the graphics style and audio. Good job!

🎤 Trifectuh

30. Apr 2019 · 02:58 UTC

Thanks for playing @doug-graham I think a bit of tutorial would have been good, but there's only so much time in a weekend. Glad you liked it!

killscreen

30. Apr 2019 · 04:21 UTC

Purrfect use of the theme! Very short game, but consequently has a high amount of replay value; *of course* I had to try it with all the different powerups!

SamuelDeboni

30. Apr 2019 · 04:23 UTC

Nice game overall, the graphics are nice and with some improved animations and some more polishing this can became a really good game.

No Grapes Games

30. Apr 2019 · 04:24 UTC

I just kind of jumped into the game all gungho and didn't realize that you had to move forward until the third attempt. Boy that was stupid of me. But anyway, the sounds were great and the game is good. Not much of a challenge since you can just dash to the end without thinking much BUT it did go along with the theme! Good work!

🎤 Trifectuh

30. Apr 2019 · 04:27 UTC

@killscreen +1 for cat puns!
@samueldeboni and @no-grapes-games thanks for playing! I appreciate the feedback and agree with both of you. We plan on going back to add all the stuff we didn't have time for to sharpen our dev skills for next ime.

cppchriscpp

30. Apr 2019 · 04:30 UTC

Fun little game! Very short, but as others said it's replayable. Also always appreciate seeing retro-esque entries :D

grllle

30. Apr 2019 · 12:54 UTC

This brought back alley cat memories <3

🎤 Trifectuh

30. Apr 2019 · 14:23 UTC

Thanks @cppchriscpp and @grllle for playing and for the feedback!

RoyalSoup

30. Apr 2019 · 16:12 UTC

The main issues I had with this one was that it was fairly short and it was a bit too easy to the point that I didn't need to use items. Like I could beat it with nine lives at the end pretty easily. If the items actually made the game significantly easier and the cost was less, I could see how choosing your item set would basically be like setting the difficulty. But it doesn't really work that way here. Honestly, that's a balancing issue I've seen in several games, including the one I worked on. Other than, it had decent graphics and sound and everything about it made sense, so that's definitely important.

🎤 Trifectuh

30. Apr 2019 · 16:28 UTC

@royalsoup Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. Item balance is something we ran out of time to really dedicate resources to (unfortunately). Shortly before submission we had a brief playtest and could barely finish the game with the most powerful items, so we bumped the difficulty down. We were maybe a bit too heavy handed and I'm sure we would have noticed given more time to test, but that's the way of the jam. Thanks again for taking the time to play and write!

miu

30. Apr 2019 · 17:39 UTC

Nice game, I really wanted to play more levels

🎤 Trifectuh

30. Apr 2019 · 17:50 UTC

Thanks for playing @miu !

RoyalSoup

30. Apr 2019 · 18:53 UTC

@trifectuh Indeed, that's definitely the nature of the beast. Well done again and thanks for the reply.

Ryan Brenner

01. May 2019 · 15:46 UTC

Cute game, love the idea to use PICO-8 as your engine, which I haven't seen for an entry yet. The game is a little too simplistic and easy, but the mechanics and presentation are solid. It's a good foundation for a larger game with more levels and balanced gameplay. Great job!

🎤 Trifectuh

01. May 2019 · 16:54 UTC

Thanks for the feedback @ryan-brenner ! I love PICO-8, it's such a fun little machine.

ropedog

03. May 2019 · 01:43 UTC

You don't see many LD games with intros and instructions, and this game presented both very well. I loved the cat puns, and the music fit the game and style well. The different items each changed up the gameplay quite a bit, which was for a shorter game. I do wish there were some additional levels, but it's tough to fit in a lot of content during a game jam.
Really nice entry - thanks for the submission!

aeveis

03. May 2019 · 08:29 UTC

I beat it! I liked how easy it was to try the different options. The platform was a bit difficult, but I realized I could actually traverse most things on the ground so that made it a bit easier for me. keep up the good work!

🎤 Trifectuh

03. May 2019 · 15:58 UTC

@ropedog and @aeveis thank you for the detailed feedback. Very helpful :)