Get off my shelf! by OnePlusOne

[raw]
made by OnePlusOne for LD 42 (COMPO)

Description

You are a small cardboard box. Fighting for your place on the shelf! Other (bigger) boxes are trying to conquer it, but you wont let them!

How to play

|Action|Key(s)| |------|---| |Move Left|A or <-| |Move Right|D or ->| |Jump|Space| |Power Up|F/E|

Controller (works in WebGL)

|Action|Key(s)| |------|---| |Move Left|Joystick Left| |Move Right|Joystick Right| |Jump|A| |Power Up|B|

Play

WebGL and Windows Versions Fullscreen is recommended

Post your highscores in the comments! :)

Known Issues

  • Rare: You might fly away when using the shield and landing on the ground while other boxes are in your way.
  • Very rare: Random bug where you seem to have lost although you did not touch the ground nor did the boxes stack above the barrier.
  • Using Forcefield and launching a box into the barrier can cause a Game Over
  • Highscore is reset once you go back to the main menu (not when using the restart button on the game over screen)

Features I wanted to add

  • Background music (now its just an AC :P)
  • Generally improve overall sounds
  • 2-3 difficulties which the player can choose from (in this case size of shelf)
  • Few menu items could be visually more appealing
  • Random rotated boxes (had this on my sheet since the start and forgot about it -.-)
  • Check at the barrier that boxes only enter from below (was also on the plan)

Screenshots

Screenshot<em>1</em>ready.jpg Forcefield.gif Screenshot<em>2</em>ready.jpg Screenshot<em>3</em>ready.jpg Screenshot<em>4</em>ready.jpg

Development

Overall a lot better than the last Compo. The last game I did during LD41 (Compo) was a total mess. I didn't manage to follow my plan. This was mainly due to randomly implementing things. I started writing a feature and in the middle of it went to start on another one (because it maybe was somehow related or cooler). Well the result like I said a total mess. This time it worked out a lot better. The core game was done at around half time. Then I carried on implementing some additional features I had in mind right from the start. This also worked out, just one mechanic was changed completely around 5 hours before submission. I was also able to add sounds and a menu this time which was missing completely from LD41. In general I am fairly happy with the result. Although it is not the greatest idea I do like it and enjoyed play testing quite a bit :).

Day 1

I started out by writing down what came to my mind. Instantly I thought of Super Hexagen. Also storage on hard drives, in parking garages and warehouses came to mind. I did follow a thought about trash cans and keeping the environment clean, but then went on to use the warehouse idea. At first it was supposed to be a kinda endless runner (doodle jump style) where boxes stack up and you follow them to infinity. However I thought this was to basic. While the idea that I finally took is not really that more complex I still think it is something different. I began by first implementing the basic player controls. As its a cube/box I wanted to do it using physics so it's a lot of wiggly and twisty movements. That was done fairly quick, jumping was another thing. Although the first iteration was already quite close to how it is now, I iterated many times over it. Then I proceeded to get the spawner done. The amount and area where they spawn can all be modified from the inspector. They are calculated once at the start. After finishing the spawner I made a quick and small UI to keep track of the score and the yet to be implemented top barrier. Then (what a surprise) I proceeded to create that barrier. Basically the boxes are not allowed to stack up and reach the barrier. Cause else the storage is full. That was also done quite fast and only got one iteration over the day, because I needed to keep track of multiple objects crossing the line. The rest of day 1 I actually went ahead and prepared some basic models. Designing the general outline of the scene. The player was then fully designed, as well as the other boxes to kick off the shelf. Also made some texture variations using Substance to give it a bit of diversity. That was it mostly for day 1.

Day 2

Day 2 I started out by creating the power ups. As the core game was basically done I went ahead and used the time to implement this because I felt like there was enough time. There was, but I did realize I got a bit more hectic while coding, so some things are done a bit dirty now. So note to myself stay structured until the end :P. I proceeded to finalize the scene and added a manu and gameover scene. Also added some sounds I recorded on the site using some old cardboard boxes I had lying around. Those also made it into the final build, so I got some sound going on. Background music/sound is sadly just some nice. I did attempt a few melodies, but I am just way to bad at making music. I tweaked a lot of the settings and added a few more things in some scripts to kinda 'polish' the whole experience. Finally I needed some camera movement and used Cinemachine for that. Worked out great. I like it so much that I also used it for one thing in the menu :). Did some lighting and also some post processing to give the game a nice look. Several hours before the submission I tried the first build which failed (oh no the horrors), but it was just due to some random asset I didn't even use. Removed it and the build went through! Tweaked some of the unity settings and done was a proper build with most settings already in place.

Software Used:

|Use|Software| |------|---| |Engine|Unity| |Models|Blender| |Textures|Affinity Designer/Photo & Substance Designer| |Audio|Audacity & Rytmik Studio| |Scripts|Visual Studio Code|

Build Updates (due to game breaking bugs)

  • New version was uploaded due to a game breaking bug (see 2nd comment), causing the main game scene (not the menu) to be mostly black. This occured on chrome and any chrome related (i.e. Vivaldi) browser.

Ratings

Overall 106th 3.814⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Fun 126th 3.686⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 61th 3.863⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Theme 44th 4.235⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 64th 4.049⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Audio 378th 2.837⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Humor 106th 3.26⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Mood 223th 3.229⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Given 75🗳️ 1🗨️

Feedback

itab2
12. Aug 2018 · 23:07 UTC
Damn that's polished
(シ\_ \_)シ
parameterized
13. Aug 2018 · 01:21 UTC
The WebGL version is broken for me https://i.imgur.com/SOCMahc.png (the menu parts still look fine though)
🎤 OnePlusOne
13. Aug 2018 · 07:28 UTC
@itab2 thanks I gave my best :)

@parameterized thanks a lot for noticing this issue! I only tested it on firefox and never on any chrome browser. As this is a game breaking bug I tracked it down and within the next 15 minutes should be a playable version available.
Predominant
13. Aug 2018 · 08:47 UTC
Overall really good, I could escape the shelf to the neighbouring shelf, and not be considered "dead", or end of game. Super interesting with the different powerups!
jackyjjc
13. Aug 2018 · 08:55 UTC
The instruction transition was nice and the models looks great!
It is pretty fun to push other boxes off the shelf. However it is also very easy to fall off the shelf myself. It seems it accelerate a bit too fast.
I got to 15 points

Good job! :thumbsup:
Memel06
13. Aug 2018 · 10:20 UTC
The instruction transition is awesome!
Nice idea, very clever and theme fitting.
Maybe it needs a soundtrack to improve the overall mood.
I also had a shitty best score of...

![asddddd.png](///raw/650/b/z/17540.png)

I'm really bad ahahah

Have nice day! Rate my game if you want, I really deserve some feedbacks to improve myself
thechubbypanda
13. Aug 2018 · 10:25 UTC
Absolutely amazing!!!!!! Only problem I have is that the buttons can be a bit dodgy. It doesn't work on edge for some reason, but edge doesn't count as a browser anyway soooo, STILL AWESOME!
asleepforthree
13. Aug 2018 · 10:28 UTC
Amazing game! This is an awesome idea, and I absolutely love the powerup system. There's probably a lot more I could compliment but gah it's just a great game! Well done!
Denneledoe
13. Aug 2018 · 10:28 UTC
damn this is very polished. a damn solid 4.0
tritium
13. Aug 2018 · 10:33 UTC
This was a really nice and polished game. The graphics are great and like that the menu UI physically exists in the room. I did find that the game was too easy though, since you can just hold space to move much faster. Also you can just hold on to the forcefield while the boxes build up and then knock them all off. Great job!
Dark Roast Studios
13. Aug 2018 · 10:35 UTC
nice, simple game but very well delivered with a high levelof polish and great use of the theme, good job!
wavertron
13. Aug 2018 · 10:37 UTC
Strange concept, silly but fun
🎤 OnePlusOne
13. Aug 2018 · 10:39 UTC
@predominant haha yea I did realize that before the submission but thought lets give the player the chance to get back (cause that is really hard :D )

@jackyjjc yea that transition is really nice! That is the challenge. Its all physics based. To lose velocity keep breaks between keystrokes. :)

@memel06 there was a very bad generic beat that could be considered a soundtrack, but I removed it before the submission. It was to bad. Will check out your game! :)

@thechubbypanda ahh have not tried it on edge. You might want to try it in Firefox, Chrome or Vivaldi those are confirmed to work. Else try the windows version.

@asleepforthree thanks a lot. Power Up system came to my mind early on, and was more of a bonus. But it was so tempting that I implemented it

@denneledoe thats what a structured plan gets you! :) definitely a step up to my LD41 submission which was a total cluster**** :D

@tritium while you are right I would say towards the higher scores it does get challenging. And even the forcefield struggles to keep up + its a random chance of what power up you get. But yea I did want to make 2-3 levels (see features I wanted to add) which have larger shelfs, or more spawns.

@dark-roast-studios create a structured plan at the start and follow along it seemed to work quite well :D

@wavertron simple but it works :)

Thanks to all for commenting! :) I will check out your games as well.
Bentekiller
13. Aug 2018 · 10:41 UTC
Nice working game with no bugs or anything, haven't come across one of those before! It could use some backgrounds music, and if you take your time you could get a good score, but to bad I'm impatient so I rushed all the time. But There wasn't musch preasure, but still really hard, I got to 16 points.
Props to you, looks great!
Derek Volker
13. Aug 2018 · 10:42 UTC
That was a very nice entry, with excellent graphics and an innovative mechanic. I find the controls a bit hard to control but i guess is part of the game, as it made the box start moving very slowly and suddenly very fast making it fell off the shelf easily.
JSMCAG
13. Aug 2018 · 10:44 UTC
Really well polished, playing around with the physics based movement is really fun!
I also like the presentation of the game, the main menu specially!

Great entry, congrats! :thumbsup:
Ajay.2002
13. Aug 2018 · 13:29 UTC
Very nice and polished game, the graphics are very good and the physics as well. May I know how you managed to get such good physics? Did you tweak the physics settings or fixed timestep by any chance?
Paden Shorey
13. Aug 2018 · 13:29 UTC
Great concept. There are some spelling errors in the "how to play" section and it isn't immediately clear that you can't fall off the shelf. Great work.
angelofdeath1000
13. Aug 2018 · 13:51 UTC
​Now this is fun, great game, good way to wind down after the jam.
Korso
13. Aug 2018 · 13:57 UTC
Great game overall. Feels polished and the controls are intuitive. It is definitely noticeable the time you spent time polishing it on day 2. Loved the physics.
tcmxx
13. Aug 2018 · 16:27 UTC
Small box is a little hard to control. But overall a fun game~
Thought Reactor
13. Aug 2018 · 17:11 UTC
This was delightful to play. Loved the movement mechanics and the power up effects. I had a good time with it, great job!
amras0000
13. Aug 2018 · 17:17 UTC
You explained how the movement mechanics work - you apply more force the longer you push. But even so, it was a bit difficult getting used to them. I often felt like random physics events would cause me to suddenly gain a huge burst of speed and fly across the level to my death. The graphics are nice, though the UI could use some work.

I ended up using the strategy of only pushing boxes off indirectly, using other boxes as cover. That seemed to make the weird physics events happen less often. Though after 41 points on my last game I did fly across the screen and died.

Being able to jump at the end screen is a nice touch.
Troftu
13. Aug 2018 · 18:23 UTC
Love the idea, thought and polish you put into this. As simple as the idea seems, it is a perfect fit for a compo, as you managed to show off with nearly no bugs.

The solid main mechanic and cleverly chosen really show the thought you put into developing each aspect of the games gameplay mechanics, for example I really liked the ability to air jump to save myself from falling off my shelf, also gives the game a faster feel. Unfortunately, I experienced some issues while using the forcefield, which triggered the barrier with boxes and thus resulting in a game over, but overall, I like the uniqueness of the powerups and their appearance in the game (although stomping seems overpowered :D)

Graphics are aesthetically pleasing and look polished and well thought through (for some reason I really like that wall texture :D) The menu screen transitions and ability to jump in the game over screen give a juicy feel to menu navigation, which could be further improved by enabling directly stepping through the menu using the keyboard or controller. Speaking of UI improvements, I think the barrier activation could also be visualized in a more noticeable way.

As other commenters have suggested some kind of upbeat soundtrack would be nice, but I also appreciate you not putting in an unnerving loop, which would ruin the game.

I would love to see a competitive couch co-op or mobile version with a global leader board. My highscore up until now was 39 boxes, so I guess I have to step up my game a bit to beat @amras0000 :D

I rate this a perfect 5/7.

PS: I also enjoyed reading your development log. Keep up the good work :)
🎤 OnePlusOne
13. Aug 2018 · 19:10 UTC
@bentekiller well I wouldn't say no bugs, but maybe not to many.

@derek-volker yea it can be quite challenging especially when it picks ups speed.

@jsmcag thanks :) although simple it does look nice

@ajay-2002 Hoping to not disappoint you here, but those are in fact the normal Unity Physics. I did tweak a few settings on the rigidbody component of the player and the boxes but that was about it.

@paden-shorey fixed the errors thanks for noticing!

@angelofdeath1000 glad you enjoyed it :)

@korso yea really works out getting the core done on day one and using extra time to polish it

@tcmxx thats the challenge :D

@thought-reactor happy to hear! Power ups just had to be in it.

@amras0000 I do agree sometimes it does pick up quick. From what I observe it has to do with being in the air and being on the ground. In the air the applied force causes a lot more movement where as on the ground you have the friction reducing the push it gives. That would be my guess.

@troftu Thanks for the long and detailed review. I agree simple mechanics, but fun game all around. The barrier did have several iterations, until I finally took the most simplistic look. I think maybe using a soundtrack in the menu would have been nice. I did think about a mobile version at the start but was afraid of the touch controls that had to be done. I did not want to lose to much time on trying those things. Will fix the typos as soon as possible :)

Again thanks to everyone commenting. I will try and look at all your submissions as well. :)
witylernn
16. Aug 2018 · 17:28 UTC
Tough as hell, or im bad
Zombie Virals
16. Aug 2018 · 17:31 UTC
That was pretty impressive! Good way to think outside of the "box", lol, terrible pun. I think this would kill it as a mobile game with use of the accelerometer to control the box. Very well done, it's one of those "Why couldn't I think of something like that!?" moments, for me. I was able to make it to like level 7 with a score of 34 or something like that. My XBOX 360 controller worked very well. :) Great job!
anstabo
16. Aug 2018 · 17:42 UTC
It's simple but fun, nice use of the physics with restrained axis. You maybe should have put a higher poly model for the wall behind (that's nitpicking) It's hard but it's the main drive of this ame (like all physics game made).You should have spent more time on the music i think. The box look great !
GexAlmighty
16. Aug 2018 · 17:44 UTC
That was different lol, looked good and nice use of theme
Cercle
16. Aug 2018 · 17:49 UTC
Really well done! The camera movements were fantastic, putting the controls/instructions on the side of the box in the main menu was super slick. Controls felt nice and I know that with some time, this could be a game a person could get really, really good at (not me :) ). The only thing I would ask for is a quicker way of starting again on the lose screen, by pushing space bar or something like that. A game like this takes a lot of iterations to get a hang of and being able to immediately jump right back in and keep playing would be awesome. That tiny note being said, what a great idea and execution!
Jonasz999
16. Aug 2018 · 18:01 UTC
I don't know why, but I enjoyed trying to get onto another shelf more than fighting for the place on the middle one :wink:

#### It is way more peaceful on the other shelves :smile:
![Get off my shelf! - Another shelf is better.png](///raw/cbb/9/z/1a08a.png)

**But now for real, I really enjoyed playing the game!** It feels so calm and relaxing for me. And I absolutely loved the way you placed the instructions on the side of the box :smile:
🎤 OnePlusOne
16. Aug 2018 · 19:30 UTC
@witylernn maybe I should add an easier level and a harder one. :) Three challenges in total

@zombie-virals Mobile game was definitely one of my first thoughts as well! Awesome that the controller worked and nice score!

@anstabo Yea simple idea but lots of fun. What exactly do you mean with a higher poly wall? What would that add? The material does have tesselation, but it is not supported in WebGL2.0 I think. True a nice tune would add a lot.

@gexalmighty Glad you enjoyed it :) I am also very happy with the visuals

@cercle Camera movement all thanks to cinemachine. Such an awesome system from unity. I give you right on this. A quicker way to restart would be nice. I did have a script where I could press R to restart, but it was only used for my prototyping. Maybe I should have left it in :D

@jonasz999 Haha yea I did as well. It is like they say the grass is always greener on the other shelf :grin:. Aweomse you enjoyed it.
saoi-games
20. Aug 2018 · 04:33 UTC
Thank you for sharing your game with me. I played it on my stream tonight at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames

I have rated your game, but all of my feedback was captured in the stream. It was close to the beginning.

You can hear my comments in the archive at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/299357576?t=01h44m14s
🎤 OnePlusOne
20. Aug 2018 · 09:51 UTC
@saoi-games Thanks for the feedback and presenting the game on the stream :)
I do agree using the controller in the menu would be a lot more convenient. Especially because you do restart a lot in these kinda games. Thing about the controller is I totally forgot about adding the ingame instructions, so they are only present here on the ldjam site.
The level value is not directly an indicator of score. Since you can just wait and let enough boxes spawn and reach probably level 3. The levels are suppose to give you, during gameplay, a rough idea on how quick the boxes may spawn. Spawnrate increases with every level, so seeing for example level 5 you kinda get an idea of how quick they will spawn. I probably should have named it something different.

//EDIT: And my bad you are right A is the button on the controller to press. That was my mistake. Fixed it in the table :D