Damacreat by KayZ
You are one of many. You are a Dark Matter Creature, a Damacreat. One of the lowest life forms existing in the vast space of Dark Matter. You have just evolved your first pair of thrusters. Once you learn how to navigate, you will have a better chance at surviving in the hostile environment that is Dark Matter.
It's eat or be eaten. Survive! Grow! Dominate!
Or so it should be. Luckily for you, God only had two days to create the Damacreats. And you are the first and only prototype with a digestive system. So it's just eat! Eat! EAT!
Two Button Controls
* To turn right, fire your left thruster with F or left mouse button
* To turn left, Fire your right thruster with J or right mouse button
* To move forward, Fire both thrusters at the same time
* If that's too hard, turn your mouse or keyboard by 180°
It's eat or be eaten. Survive! Grow! Dominate!
Or so it should be. Luckily for you, God only had two days to create the Damacreats. And you are the first and only prototype with a digestive system. So it's just eat! Eat! EAT!
Two Button Controls
* To turn right, fire your left thruster with F or left mouse button
* To turn left, Fire your right thruster with J or right mouse button
* To move forward, Fire both thrusters at the same time
* If that's too hard, turn your mouse or keyboard by 180°
| Web | http://kayzgames.github.io/ld34/ |
| Post Compo (itch.io) | http://kayzgames.itch.io/damacreat |
| Post Compo (GameJolt) | http://gamejolt.com/games/damacreat/114531 |
| Source | https://github.com/KayZGames/ld34 |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=17933 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 69% | 3 |
| Overall | 2.86 | 784 |
| Fun | 2.61 | 816 |
| Graphics | 2.92 | 581 |
| Humor | 2.00 | 629 |
| Innovation | 2.58 | 785 |
| Mood | 2.71 | 665 |
| Theme | 3.86 | 372 |
The controls are really interesting, but I think it could've used a bit more tuning. It's really hard to stop turning once you start.
The art style is nice. I liked the particle effects that shoot out from the ship.
On the other hand I found the controls a little too wonky. Maybe a slower rotation might have helped to give a higher sense of control. Right now it felt like the games difficulty came from the frustrating navigation, rather than from a challenging task. Nevertheles, one eventually turns big and eats everything :D
I could picture myself playing this quite a lot if some chill ambient music was playing in the background. Good job!
It will be more of a "game" if there was some things that you shouldnt eat. (i might have just missed them, never mind in that case ><)
otherwise i grow initially abit and then il just keep growing without any effort required.
Awesome stuff!
Then the game itself didn't give you much visual cue to get anywhere. Initially I just spun in place without knowing what to do or where to go. Then after I figured out the controls (which were very strange, why map them to buttons so far apart?) (And they were definitely the wrong way around. Asking people to flip their keyboards... Why didn't you just make a second set of keys that was inverted? Wouldn't be hard).
Everything was so slow, I think things needed to be faster.
The inertia was too strong - it was basically super hard to get the ball to go where you want it to go. And when you get there, you overshoot and realise you have to try and stop on it for a while.
I didn't get to eat anything, I tried a few times, then got really frustrated and left it.
@Tuism: the buttons are the base buttons for the 10 finger system, so you can control both thrusters with your index fingers in a way you naturally use your keyboard. If you used only one hand, I can understand your problems. Maybe I'll add AD and/or cursor controls or configurable keys in the post compo. I'm sorry that it was a frustrating experience for you. It should have been a chill and soothing experience. Once you grow really big, fill the screen and spin a bit it's kind of hypnotizing.
@YinYin: Actually I had planned for a zoom out and it'll happen in the post compo.
@everyone who had problems with the controls: I'll add the option to invert the controls in the post compo version. I'll also add an easy mode with the option to enable some kind of friction, making it easier to stop rotating
@everyone who would like some chill ambient background music: something like that will be added in the post compo version
@everyone: Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated and I'll see what else I can add to the post compo version.