Rat King by noisemaker
"As the Cheese Moon rises, something squirms in the gutters and ditches of the world. Can you appease the Rat King before it's too late?"
A grab and go puzzle platformer featuring a very special hamburger grinder.
CONTROLS - WASD: Move - Hold left mouse: Aim - Release left mouse: Throw sack - R: Retry level - W: Enter doors - F4: Toggle fullscreen
CREDITS - Noisemaker - Programming - Kallen - Music - Dougle - Art - hairyballbastic - Art - Shemmet - Art - Fruits - Art - ERMAC - Level design - Klester - UI layouts
BUG FIXES CHANGELOG - Fixed hidden and overlapping layers on some levels - Fixed cutscene text typos - Fixed issue where ceiling buttons could be pressed if standing on floor above - Fixed issue where the cutscene background wasn't appearing - Fixed issue where fire hydrants could carry you after you died - Fixed issue where you could resume the game while settings screen was open - Fixed issue where aiming nodes wouldn't disappear once you died - Fixed issue where aiming nodes wouldn't disappear if you stopped aiming in the process of grabbing someone - Fixed issue where you could lock yourself in the sacrifice room without the sack - Fixed issue where jumping would open the settings screen - Fixed issue where quit button would appear in the web build - Adjusted speed the sack is thrown at - Adjusted sack collision detection - Adjusted positions of fire hydrants in level 7 - Adjusted sack magnetism over buttons to make aiming easier - Adjusted initial volume slider levels so your ears don't get blown out - Increased variety of civilians (only sprites present in the initial release were used)
| Web build + .exe download | https://the-mountain.itch.io/rat-king |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/rat-king |
Ratings
| Overall | 38th | 4.269⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 97th | 4.051⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 452th | 3.538⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 635th | 3.705⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 106th | 4.449⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 112th | 4.064⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 18th | 4.421⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 152th | 4.064⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 31🗨️ |
Excellent job, all of you guys! :smile:
If further work goes into it I'd say putting some effort into ensuring the bags pickup range is smaller would be greatly appreciated - I kept picking it up on the weak ledges and getting dropped despite it being further along the solid shelf. ;-;
For any changes/critique, I'd only be able to say that I wouldn't allow the rat rain to continue happening while you're in the rat den, as it often kills you right after entering the door before the sack can hit the ground, and prevents quick shaves which would otherwise feel cool from happening.
The gameplay mechanics generally worked well enough, and there were interesting puzzles built with them (though often I had to make multiple attempts at a given level because I had to figure out some remotely optimal route). My complaint would be mostly about sometimes unresponsive jump. Also, the fact that I collect the bag from any place and position was a hindrance sometimes, e.g. when a bag landed near the platform edge, I automatically grabbed the bag, and then I landed on fragile tiles and fell down. I guess it could help if the player had to stand on ground to collect the bag (might be tricky if the bag is lifted by fountain, though) and/or they'd need to hold down a special button if they wanted to collect the bag from non-standing position.
At any rate, a well-made game overall, and with some pretty cool concept and mechanics too. ^^