Haiku, and the Mother Virus by Mister Morris Games

[raw]
made by Mister Morris Games for Ludum Dare 46 (COMPO)

Screenshot 2020-04-20 at 04.21.43.png

HAIKU, the Robot, has been captured by the evil computer virus. The little fellow has been brainwashed into protecting that what he once sought to destroy. Haiku has gone into some sort of berserker mode and will do whatever it takes to keep mother virus alive...

Features to add in a future build: More enemies, more weapons, and more levels. Plus a better scoring system and music wouldn't go a miss :sweat_smile:

Ratings

Overall 160th 3.848⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Fun 197th 3.721⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 708th 3.061⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Theme 328th 3.868⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 7th 4.544⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Audio 196th 3.606⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 442th 2.926⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 175th 3.688⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 4🗳️ 6🗨️

Feedback

jxavier
20. Apr 2020 · 02:29 UTC
very cool, reminds me super crate box, loved the graphics and gameplay
Courtmac
20. Apr 2020 · 14:53 UTC
Very well done! Loved the visuals. Perhaps the enemies should come in waves with pauses in between? With each wave having more enemies than the last. Because for me it got to the point where I could just camp at the mother virus switching back and forth between directions without any repercussions, but moving would've likely gotten me killed. I reached 430 seconds with this before letting her die to see what would happen, a difficulty curve like a wave system would likely end the camping issue.
JoskerDu
20. Apr 2020 · 16:24 UTC
Very impressed by the polish you got in 48hrs. Plays great, smooth effects, and just neat panic gameplay. The artwork is mmm so good.
Michaela Schanes
20. Apr 2020 · 16:24 UTC
I love the artstyle, that your shooting actually adds to the sound and the idea, the only critique as @courtmac already said, that you kinda have to camp cause so many enemies will spawn, and if you move a bit, you loose, so pauses would be nice
Twigg
20. Apr 2020 · 16:26 UTC
The graphics and music are awsome, the gameplay itself has some issues. I found the number of enemies to be a little insane, especially wetih the number of particle effects on screen. It took me a while to figure the game out but once I did it was loads of fun.
Corporation
20. Apr 2020 · 16:26 UTC
Wow. visauls are really amazing. This is what called juicyness in games. Changing sound based on weapon is cool, but i started to get a headake from uzi at some point.
Hanamigi
20. Apr 2020 · 16:29 UTC
Great visuals, and I liked the synesthetic sound effects that blended into the music.
I also think that waves of enemies would be better, or in any case some moments of respite. otherwise the player always ends up in front of mother virus, alternating between shooting left and right, without any real interesting gamepay left and no real challenge.
Heavily super crate box inspired.
jpv
20. Apr 2020 · 16:34 UTC
It's basically a more polished [Super Crate Box](http://supercratebox.com/), which is impressive for 48 hours...

Platform around on a small level with ever spawning guns and baddies.

The music is intense and I think it's responding to which gun I have? That's cool.

I love it.
sndr
20. Apr 2020 · 16:34 UTC
Super cool entry! :)

I absolutely adore the graphics. The faded colour palette contributes to the overall feel, and the explosions and small animations make it super satisfying.
Camping next to the mother virus is definitely the strategy here, so I agree with the above comment that the experience could benefit from some balancing: waves with some "resting" times.

The music ends up being a bit repetitive, but I have to say that paired with the animated UI is very effective at conveying this urge sentiment.
mutuware
20. Apr 2020 · 16:42 UTC
Juicier than a ripe watermelon! Nice chip tune and art style.
Kirbloid
20. Apr 2020 · 16:53 UTC
Excellent style and visuals here with the use of colors and sound mixing together for a great mood. Enjoyed the hectic nature and the way it ramps up.
EntityNull
20. Apr 2020 · 19:31 UTC
Love the art style. Audio was a little jarring in a couple of places, but I love how it ties in with everything in the game.
kingdork
21. Apr 2020 · 01:10 UTC
Saw you posting about this on instagram and had to check it out. Really digging the art style.
sigod
21. Apr 2020 · 01:52 UTC
Interesting game.

Starting screen is kind of annoying, I had to sit thought it several times. And for some reason walking to the right doesn't work.

On a side note: I saw your art on Instagram. Are you sure the game is qualified for the compo?
joannetteg
21. Apr 2020 · 03:18 UTC
That pixel art was super tasty ! Everything fits very well together. Well done !
Shaolin Dave
21. Apr 2020 · 06:02 UTC
Normally this type of monochrome art style turns me off, but this doesn't seem to bother me as much (maybe because it's not the usual Game Boy green?). Still, I'd suggest some research into color theory. I saw some videos earlier about how the Hollow Knight creators used colors.

Colors aside, the graphics and character designs are great!

Graphics aside, I love the gameplay. The simplistic but responsive controls make this an easy game to get into, and the action is frantic but still fun.
itsandyjones
21. Apr 2020 · 12:54 UTC
So obviously the art style is top notch - I'd definitely play a whole game in this style ;)
The level of polish and the control were great and it was super fun to play. Like really fun!

As stated above already, a skip/double speed option during the start scene while 100% not essential would be a nice "I just want to shoot at things, why wont you let me" addition.. also if you play the web version during the opening and hit the ESC key it I guess try to close the game and breaks.

Really enjoyed the music track, but the gun beeps sort of distracted me from it, personally I found them a little to frequent and/or loud.

Overall the game was really nice! A great entry - thanks!
Sinamon
21. Apr 2020 · 13:41 UTC
Great game. Great (short) backstory. Great job!
Forging Foxes
21. Apr 2020 · 13:50 UTC
Same as above really, I love your visual style and follow you on twitter but the level layout and enemy spawn system made it a bit easy to just cheese beside Mother
Rialgar
21. Apr 2020 · 15:01 UTC
As many people have said, it is visually stunning and reminds me of Super Crate Box in the best of ways.

See me slowly figuring out that the best strategy is actually just standing in the corner :laughing:
https://youtu.be/FQmq8Sj0hOI
Sandra Jasionowska
21. Apr 2020 · 16:53 UTC
I found one nice way to keep winning :smirk: Besides that, I liked the graphics (of course!) and the gameplay itself. (I actually started shooting to mother virus at the beginning :face_palm: ) The game is hard, once you find a good place to stay it's the best to just not moving at all :smile: Nice submission! I'm waiting for the full version of Haiku related game :heart:
Zesix
24. Apr 2020 · 01:34 UTC
Such a fun little gem. Great production all-around :)
🎤 Mister Morris Games
26. Apr 2020 · 10:39 UTC
Thank you everyone for your feedback! Completely agree that the game lack any real depth. A wave system would have been nice and quite easy to implement but I think I spent a little too much time on graphics as you can see 😅anyhow, considering this is my second game jam I'm happy with the result and learned a lot from the feedback so thank you!!

Btw, I'm hoping to improve the game with all the feedback from above once the voting has ended :v:
🎤 Mister Morris Games
26. Apr 2020 · 10:42 UTC
@sigod the only asset that I reskinned was the player and even then I had to redo the sprites to incorporate a gun. Everything else was drawn during the event :D - and for my followers, I wanted to keep it in the same theme/world as my commercial game :v:
sigod
26. Apr 2020 · 10:54 UTC
@mister-morris-games That confused the hell out of my friend (who's your follower). :laughing:

> And for some reason walking to the right doesn’t work.

I figured it out - it's because I have Vimium extension installed.