don't dead it by drprettypatty
a short game made for ludum dare 46 - 'keep it alive'


controls
point and click
bars at edges of screen are for navigation
button under clock returns to it
space skips messages

description
i wanted to make an art project that was also kind of a game. it's basically a tamagotchi -- feed it different types of food and wait a few minutes to see what it grows into. there is a different adult stage for each kind of food!
originally intended for this to also be a dragon-based mmo (not science-based, i'm not crazy). but i decided to try polishing a project for once, instead of cramming in async multiplayer. would have been cool though, i wanted to make it have a lifespan of hours instead of minutes, and let anyone playing feed everyone else's pets c:

tips
don't underfeed or overfeed it unless you're trying to kill it. in which case, you monster.
to feed it, click the picture of the food in the menu that pops up when you click on it. sorry, it's not super intuitive
credit
- nohidea idk pack
- gaegu font
- gamepeanutbutters base code
tools
krita for art
fl studio, serum, blue yeti microphone, cheap guitar, various random objects around my house for sound
unity and related packages, like cinemachine and gamepeanutbutters, for code
animal crossing lofi hiphop for inspiration and joy
gamepeanutbutters
this is a set of basecode that i made last year to gather together boilerplate and features that i was reimplementing every LD. this was my first trial run actually using it in a project, and it actually went pretty well, aside from losing a few hours to an unexpected bug that turned out to be in the base code, and not sticking to the architecture very well. i think i'll elaborate on it in a blog post
| Youtube | https://github.com/zr3/dontdeadit |
| Youtube | https://zre.itch.io/dont-dead-it |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/dont-dead-it |
Ratings
| Overall | 550th | 3.4⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 784th | 2.95⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 658th | 3.125⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 619th | 3.575⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 19th | 4.475⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 69th | 3.925⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 418th | 2.974⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 299th | 3.5⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 21🗨️ |
since it's a tamogatchi-style game, I spent a lot of time wondering if I should be doing more with the creature or expecting it to prompt me for things. as a small blob, it basically just sat there while I fed it.
I did think the gathering mechanics were good and simple and fitting with the mouse controls (same thoughts with the navigation), and the "return to egg" button was a huge timesaver.
looking forward to seeing what my bat blob becomes. good work!
@pavel-ivanov thanks, and yeah i wanted to try something different control-wise, with just a point and click interface that would work on a mobile device, but the nav especially turned out bad and i didn't have time to go back and fix it ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
@sayumeki thank you for the great feedback! yeah, i had plans to do a lot more in terms of interactions and animations (as we all do in LD, ha). but i ended up cutting off the scope so that it didn't end up completely broken. this is a project that i actually do kind of want to extend, and add more things like growth stages and types and colors and stuff, along with longer real-time lifecycles and a finished map. also, don't wait too long on the bat! he is actually in the adult stage and will have to either die and be reborn, or you can reload the game (or open another tab lol) to try to get one of the other kinds
@ioan-pop thanks! i use [krita](https://krita.org/en/). i don't have a drawing tablet, so i just use my mouse set to low sensitivity, and i also turn on the brush weighting feature in krita. it was actually my first time drawing a full game in this kind of adventure time/hand drawn style. i took a lot of inspiration from that as well as this mobile game called [CatStar](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.owlogue.catstar) (i'm not endorsing the game, i just like its art style ha)
and yeah, i also think more guidance on how to interact with the pet would be good. i realized that right at the end when i had my brother play it, and only had time to add a few text popups unfortunately
@sergei haha nice, and thanks. i agree, the camera controls are not great, and i'd like to revisit them if i take this project further
@sneakycocoon that's really nice to say, thank you. and well, i guess you win! :D
A few things that i would have done:
- world border
- multiple clicks on the "speach bubble" possible
- i would rotate the grip 45°, it feels more natural
I would like to play an updated version
I think... I killed my first one by over-feeding it, but I'm not sure, the game just seemed to get stuck?
My second dragon was a Tough One :sunglasses:
I'm not really sure what to do next, exploring the world was fun for a while, too :)
@riccastudio thanks for the feedback! yeah, it definitely needs some kind of border. i didn't think of doing multiple clicks, i will definitely look at doing that if i extend this
@dylan-fries haha that's sweet, and thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. i agree that the camera should be improved. i wanted to avoid early optimization for the compo, but i'll definitely run some profiling for the next version -- i'm not as familiar with unity's 2d toolsets, so i'm not sure what was causing your slowdowns.. i don't think it's anything on the code side (0 lights, everything was prefab instances, sounds are lazy loaded, pooled fx objects), but i didn't do much as far as sprite packing or optimization or anything, so that might be it. yeah the blueberry thing is just a plain bug. sorry for accidentally leading you to the void! will definitely be mindful of that when designing the map in the next version, if i keep going with it. will also check more resolutions -- thanks again!
@benji-kershenbaum thanks, and i actually did want to do that! unfortunately that feature was one of the things that was smashed by the big hammer of scope management. but i will look at it for the next version if i continue
@omaskery thank you! sorry it wasn't clear, after you MURDERED your pet it remains dead for a minute or two, and then it grows back into a plant, which you can click on to spawn an egg. you made it through a full game loop, all there really is to do currently is explore the world and grow the thing into the 3 different types :)
What a resounding success on every front it went for. Execution of the concept is basically perfect. The art style is the biggest draw of course, but then the gameplay loop is so solid I couldn't Not see my fella through to its final growth stage.
EDIT: i spent about 20 minutes feeding it and waiting for another evolution past its "adult form"... oops xD I guess that speaks to how compelling I found the design!!
Lots of love for this submission. Great work ^^