Chasin' Dreams by AnimalX

[raw]
made by AnimalX for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

The Game

You play as a dog that needs to go to bed! As usual, you don't want to so you challenge your mother to a game of high tag. Run around, collect time and treats but make sure you don't get caught by your mother as you will lose time and get reset! And remember, high places are safe places!

Controls

Move with WASD/ZQSD and jump with space. Controllers are also supported, but not in the menu. Left stick to move, bottom face button (A for XBox, X for Playstation and the other one for Nintendo controllers)

Team

I originally intended to submit this to the compo, but ran into loads of issues with the animation (first time rigging and animating a quadruped) so missed the deadline :(

Images

Doggo.gif

MainScreen.JPG

Ratings

Overall 896th 3.38⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 714th 3.36⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 877th 3.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 830th 3.54⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 863th 3.44⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 830th 2.84⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 861th 3.34⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

aligator
04. Apr 2022 · 21:59 UTC
I couldn't get it running on linux
```
5.0.0-0+++UE5+Release-5.0 1004 0
Disabling core dumps.
MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete
Failed to find symbol file, expected location:
"/tmp/Chaser_Linux_Shipping/Chaser/Binaries/Linux/Chaser-Linux-Shipping.sym"
LowLevelFatalError [File:.\Runtime/VulkanRHI/Private/VulkanMemory.cpp] [Line: 3637]
Out of ? Memory, Requested0.00KB MemTypeIndex=0

Signal 11 caught.
Malloc Size=262146 LargeMemoryPoolOffset=262162
CommonUnixCrashHandler: Signal=11
Malloc Size=131160 LargeMemoryPoolOffset=393352
Malloc Size=131160 LargeMemoryPoolOffset=524536
Engine crash handling finished; re-raising signal 11 for the default handler. Good bye.
./Chaser.sh: Zeile 5: 69719 Speicherzugriffsfehler (Speicherabzug geschrieben) "$UE_PROJECT_ROOT/Chaser/Binaries/Linux/Chaser-Linux-Shipping" Chaser "$@"
```

The windows version also does not start with wine.
🎤 AnimalX
04. Apr 2022 · 22:09 UTC
@aligator Oh no, I knew I should have tested but was too lazy. I've updated the download on itch, removed one too many files when trying to reduce the download size!
terylangosh
05. Apr 2022 · 16:51 UTC
Cute doggo game. I like how the chasing dog is faster so I had to jump on things. The colors were so cheerful and in conclusion it was all very nice. :)) (I ate 13 treats)
Oliver Richmeier
07. Apr 2022 · 11:17 UTC
Simple concept but it works quite nicely. Graphics fit the game's mood. Good job!
FatiguedFox
07. Apr 2022 · 11:28 UTC
Real cute and unique idea, a fun use of the theme! Balancing between jumping up and grabbing the treats was interesting, and the colours and graphics are really charming! Only issue I had was that it was a little jarring getting caught by the mother and being sent to a random spot without any kind of quick transition inbetween.
🎤 AnimalX
07. Apr 2022 · 12:12 UTC
@terylangosh @oliver-richmeier Thanks for giving the game a try, glad you liked it!

@fatiguedfox Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I agree with the reset being jarring. Unfortunately I had issues with the animations so lacked time for polish :(
pcmaster
08. Apr 2022 · 09:25 UTC
Very cute, nice animation, nice overall feeling, nice sounds. Nice :) Woof.
Arihan10
08. Apr 2022 · 12:51 UTC
Really fun game! Although the general setting and mechanics are a bit unclear (like why the time you have for your mom to chase you changes as you eat the time things) I think the idea is still a perfect fit for the theme and I really enjoyed playing it. Good job :)
🎤 AnimalX
08. Apr 2022 · 13:47 UTC
@pcmaster Thanks, Woof!

@arihan10 It's the same magical force that is spawning the treats in the garden ;) Glad you enjoyed it!
commanderstitch
09. Apr 2022 · 02:32 UTC
lol woof! very friendly graphical feel, cute and whimsical animals, fun green trees. Was attracted by the idea of being on a merry go round (your initial picture) and it goes faster and faster and inevitibly you can't hold on anymore and you'd go flying off. haha. that wasn't this game but it's what i thought of when i saw the initial pic. hee hee
Ehon
09. Apr 2022 · 12:18 UTC
Aw, as a dog owner, I had to play this one. Great idea for incorporating the theme and really fun gameplay. Amazing one! I like the simple art and color sheme as well. The only thig that was a little bit confusing is that on the bottom of the screen the dog could leave the visible area and i was constantly getting lost there. If you're planning to patch the game, I'd add a small fence here or something to prevent this from happening. But it's a minor thing, later I was just avoiding the area. I got 10 treats first run and a few more next. My dog would probably eat even more but he's not yet able to use my PC (luckily).
Meta-link
09. Apr 2022 · 12:55 UTC
Cool game ! I had a lot of fun controlling the dog and trying to escape the mom with various strategy (and success rate).

Good job !
🎤 AnimalX
09. Apr 2022 · 20:12 UTC
@commanderstitch That would be an awesome mechanic to add to the game! Thanks for trying the game, Woof!

@ehon Furiously writes down to add dog friendly controls to future doggo themed games :D Thanks for the feedback, that's really helpful :)

@meta-link What's the highest you ended up scoring? Glad you enjoyed the game!
Oleg Bone
10. Apr 2022 · 17:21 UTC
Not bad :) Very cool result for 1 person, but
I found the bug. This is enemy dog on highground :)) In general, everything is good!

![dog 1.png](///raw/25f/e2/z/4dc41.png)
rekkorize
10. Apr 2022 · 17:21 UTC
movement feels a bit clunky, but overall it's really good (especially for one person)
Skleembof
10. Apr 2022 · 18:39 UTC
That was fun! I love the dogs running animation, it looked great! The gameplay was fun too, it felt like real dogs playing, they way the just chase each other for no particular reason. Making the mom faster than you was a good idea and forced you to be more strategic with your sprints to the treats.

My main criticism with the game is that the character controller felt a little barebones. There are a lot of things you could do to improve the feel of the controls and make it feel like you're controlling a dog. Having the dog accelerate instead of stopping and starting immediately, increasing the turn damping and maybe rotating the body into the turn a little bit, having a slight slowdown right before a jump as the jump animation starts. Little things like this can go a long way to make simple gameplay feel a lot more polished and robust. Also, a simple looping soundtrack would fit great for this type of game

Great job putting this together in 72 hours!
angiemon
11. Apr 2022 · 17:20 UTC
A cute game with a nice premise and also, congrats on the rigging! I easily I spend half of the jam on the main character alone xD (But it's the main character right? So time well used I'd argue :)

I'm amazed you did that AND the programming, wow!!

Graphics are minimalistic and pretty, the colours are nice and pleasant (although the indirect lighting (GI) could be a liiiittle bit brighter for me - so I'd like the shadows to be a little less dark, but I'm not familiar enough with Unreal to know how to fix this. Do you also need to bake light for realtime GI to work?
Or are there Post Processing Effects? Not sure how they work in Unreal, but in Unity this is like a miracle! Basically like an after effects filter, it puts make up onto the final image of your game, lol. you can then cheaply brighten up your end result if theres's not time for light baking/fucking around with light :D)

The idea and gameplay are really nice and fun, I feel like it might need a bit of tweaking to make this really fun for post jam version :)

My 3 main issues:

1. Controls with KBM feel a BIT off can't say why, it just feels SLIGHTLY off with the world game orientation? I will try with the controller afterwards but right now it's in use :)
2. Mom is a little too OP: yeah sure, she needs to be quicker and faster, but it should also be possible to run a bit from her (can be skilled based, I know I know, no time during a jam - but that's why I said post jam ;D) so maybe she like drags you and you can do QTE button smash actions to escape or something? (With button smashing I'm imagining a mini game like in Pokemon Stadium with the pikachus and voltorb where you make electricity if you're familiar?) Or like make her slightly slower and give her a little direction delay so the player can sidestep like a rabbit to throw her off ^^ base game already offers nice mechanics/opportunities like running around or jumping over the carussell :)
3. jumping and reaching platforms should be a little easier I think, and your jump/gravity maybe a bit faster :) (so that you also reach the floor faster when you fall down)

All in all a great entry! Congrats :)
pollahard
15. Apr 2022 · 13:15 UTC
Very cuteee, I like it
rojo
17. Apr 2022 · 04:45 UTC
This was a cute game. The simple graphics were simple but had an interesting almost clay-like aesthetic. The only major feature that's missing is some music. Aside from that I found it a little more difficult than expected to jump on the rocks, so maybe some tweaks to their collision could further improve the experience. Overall nice job.
Zitao YE
17. Apr 2022 · 09:00 UTC
Really a cozy ,lovely space,Love the mood!
Sopata
20. Apr 2022 · 21:16 UTC
I liked the concept and the game kept me interested. Some of the collisions need fixing but that is normal for Game Jam games. I like that it fits the theme and the spawn of coins seems fair. I was able to last around 4 minutes, maybe the developers can share their highscore :sweat_smile:

![Untitled1.png](///raw/c4d/82/z/4e3fb.png)