Ambulance Drifter by Strange Nebula

[raw]
made by Strange Nebula for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

ambulance<em>drifter</em>000.png

Rush through the city in an ambulance to successfully rescue people's lives as fast as you can! Drive with care though, as drifting and driving recklessly will harm them! Bring them back to the hospital with utmost care and collect morphine to ensure their survival, netting you a new highscore.

Play solo or split-screen multiplayer with a friend for some crazy times!

Controls:

To confirm an action in the menu, press C or V.

| Action | Player 1 | Player 2 | | --- | --- | --- | | Accelerate | Up arrow | E | | Brake | Down arrow | D | | Turn left | Left arrow | S | | Turn right | Right arrow | F |

Tips:

Every patient suffers from a different condition, depending on their colour. See the following table for details:

| Colour | Points | Damage inflicted by | | --- | ---| --- | | Light-blue | 1 | Hits | | Yellow | 2 | Drift | | Dark-blue | 3 | Drift, Hits | | Pink | 3 | Over time | | Red | 4 | Hits, Over time | | Green | 5 | Drift, Over time | | Brown | 7 | Hits, Drift, Over time |

This game was developed using the PICO-8 micro-computer.

Credits:

Theo Fafet - physics engine, code, tileset, mapping

Brice Graulier - game design, code, tileset

Puddy (N.D.) - music, sound design, tileset, mapping

ambulance<em>drifter</em>001.png

ambulance<em>drifter</em>006.png

Post-jam update !

We really like our game and we want it to be as good as possible. So we made an update! The source code for this update is available on the github page.

  • @ohfiddlediddle suggested in the comments to add a tip when picking up a patient so we added it.
  • During playtests and in the comments some people found the game a bit too hard, so we added easy, normal and hard mode.
  • Two cells of the map were wrong so we fixed them!

You can play the latest version here https://theo-fafet.github.io/ludum-dare-46

Ratings

Overall 1017th 3.571⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 457th 3.722⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 737th 3.536⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 56th 4.339⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1102th 3.714⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Audio 535th 3.64⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 411th 3.596⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 827th 3.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Given 36🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

Donitz
21. Apr 2020 · 10:44 UTC
I like the GTA physics. Like a micro-GTA.
megaqueijo
21. Apr 2020 · 17:52 UTC
We tried the two player mode it was really hard to keep the patients alive but we had fun! Great job!
sndsgood
21. Apr 2020 · 18:07 UTC
I loved this! Great idea, controls are super fun - had fun playing the objectives, and a couple of runs just drifting about the streets. Music was enjoyable too!
Rikitaner
21. Apr 2020 · 21:48 UTC
I love the pixelated graphics (always a fan of those) and the physics are fun. It takes a while to get used to the controls, but when you do it's fun!
OhFiddleDiddle
22. Apr 2020 · 08:03 UTC
Very fun, and cool concept. :)
I got 20 on my first try and 31 on my second try. My only suggestion would be that it would have been great if it popped up with what I had to do for each patient, because it's hard to remember. So if I picked up a yellow patient it would say "DRIVE SAFE" or something like that.

Anyway, well done, and keep up the great work. :D
Owen Rees
22. Apr 2020 · 08:11 UTC
I manange to get a score of 8 on my first try. This game is great, I love the "arcadey" car physics and the music and pixel is good too. Overall a great entry! Good job!
Snarkusius
22. Apr 2020 · 08:13 UTC
love the old school game design and fel
🎤 Strange Nebula
22. Apr 2020 · 08:21 UTC
Thank you all for your comments :D During playtests many friends told us the game was too hard and we thought about adding "easy", "normal" and "hard" modes. We'll make an update for this and some other minor stuff. Btw @ohfiddlediddle I really like your suggestion, maybe we'll add it ;)
Helen
22. Apr 2020 · 08:36 UTC
Funny idea :) nice graphics and music. At first I had some difficulties driving but then I rescued some people :)
Kriss
22. Apr 2020 · 14:48 UTC
Cool old style graphic / gameplay!
Chocolat-Endive
22. Apr 2020 · 15:11 UTC
Always love some pico8! Graphics and controls/physics are great, it'f fun (I did'nt try multiplayer, but multiplayer only means more fun in this kind of game).

I would have love if patients location was more random.

I agree with @ohfiddlediddle suggestion.
Puddy
22. Apr 2020 · 16:53 UTC
Hey, thanks everyone for the kind words! I'm glad everyone seems to be having a decent time with what we put out there.
Working on the music was fun, it's good to hear that it doesn't seem to sound too busy or distracting!
Izokia
23. Apr 2020 · 01:42 UTC
This game really works and feels great! I Love circling the map drifting rather than playing the game XD. Doesnt mean the main game isn't fun though. Fits the theme well and adds to it with great art work. Love what you guys did!

Problems: Sometimes the controls don't register (arrow keys... this may be due to my laptop being old, but I'm not too sure). Not enough time to save patients. NEEDS a baby mode for me
yy404
23. Apr 2020 · 14:46 UTC
Do love the art design! Had such fun although it is hard to drive the ambulance:)
BriceGraulier
25. Apr 2020 · 09:49 UTC
@izokia You got your baby mode ;)
Number6406
26. Apr 2020 · 18:32 UTC
I'm very bad at this game, but it's great :grin:

I like the low-pixel style (is it correct to say that? :thinking: ), but I think it's reaaaally hard to drive this saopy ambulance... I killed like half my patients :rofl:

Nice entry anyway, it respects the theme and the overall is great!
Rojola
28. Apr 2020 · 09:56 UTC
I am lousy driver so I had some hard time to keep the ambulance going into right direction. Simple game but there was some deep mechanics about how to drive depending of different sorts of injuries being delivered. Some more sounds effects would have been fun too :)
amkingTRP
28. Apr 2020 · 12:33 UTC
In two minds about the graphics; on one hand it's a nice chunky pixel design like I grew up with decades ago, on the other hand I found it difficult to see the patients. Maybe some flagging of some description might help (e.g. a pulsing green circle).
Gameplay-wise; it's like a lowres 2d Crazy Taxi, which is brilliant. I ended up ignoring what I was supposed to be doing and just speeding around the map.