Keep "IT" Alive by RoboDoig
A minimalist word game for Ludum Dare 46
* HOW TO PLAY *
The goal of the game is to keep a word alive through successive rounds, beginning with the word "IT", and continuing for as many rounds as possible
Each round you get a new set of letters that you can swap in to make a new word before the timer runs out
Once you have made a new word, press ALIVE to progress to the next round
You can also press KEEP to carry letters over to the next round
As you progress through the rounds, you start to earn powerups which appear at the bottom right:
- Extra time
- Change letters
- Extra vowels
* TIPS *
- The KEEP button is useful for making it further in the game. If you make a word and realise you can extend it with the remaining letters, press KEEP to hold those letters for the next round
- If you're stuck, use your accumulated powerups. Give yourself extra time or new letters
* TOOLS * - Unity 2019.2.0f1 - Pyxel Edit - Ableton Live - "Better Minimal" for WebGL build https://seansleblanc.itch.io/better-minimal-webgl-template
Let me know how many rounds you make it through!
Note: web version is temperamental on mobile right now.
Ratings
| Overall | 1040th | 3.567⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1168th | 3.344⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 241th | 3.867⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 617th | 3.944⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1908th | 3.034⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 773th | 3.443⭐ | 46🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1927th | 2.071⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1163th | 3.425⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 3🗳️ | 3🗨️ |
For a bit more challenge on on-theme-ness, you could add a rule where at least one letter must be kept, or a random letter from the word. (But remove the timer)
Was not trivial at first that I can replace existing letter and not just have to extend at the beginning and end, which was hell :). Keeping it at three letters forever howevers makes it a bit easy. (Except for the timer)
Not sure that more and more letters being available is intended or a bug, but that should probably be limited, or tied to current world length?
For the power-ups, some attention-grabbing animation might be good, I completely forgot about them.
Overall great idea, well executed!
I love the interpretation of the theme on this one! Nice atmospheric sounds and effectively simple visual aesthetic too, nice work!
I really liked the audio. It was very fitting given the pressure and the challenge this game has.
I love this type of games, although I certainly did not do very well x) The concept is nice and simple. My one big issue is maybe the fact that it was not clear to me that `KEEP` was a check box rather than a button. I expected the letters to be kept when I pressed it. Also it seemed to me that the game did not check that a new word can definitely be made out of the letters provided?