DisasterGuard by Jroo

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

Some call it delaying the inevitable extinction of mankind. We call it Tuesday.

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You work for DisasterGuard, and your job is simple — clock in, keep the world from falling apart, then go home. On this average Tuesday at work, you're faced with the following: * The nuclear reactor powering your base is spewing radiation and threatening to meltdown (like usual.) * The volcano your base is built on feels like erupting today. * Aliens have invaded and are determined to take over. * Worst of all, the coffee machine is on its last legs.

Keep the machinery running, shoot down the alien invaders, and keep yourself fueled with a steady supply of snacks and coffee to make it through your shift.

Itch Page: https://abnormal202.itch.io/disaster-guard

Genre: FPS Survival

Controls

  • WASD — Movement
  • Left Click — Shoot
  • Right Click — Aim Down Sights
  • R — Reload
  • F — Interact
  • Escape — Pause/Unpause
  • Left Click/E — Fire Anti-Air Gun (Arcade Cabinet)

Credits

  • Alan R Tao — Programming
  • Avery Greer — Programming
  • Chase O’Brien — Programming, UI, Level Design
  • Drew Busch — Programming, UI, Level Design
  • Luka Delrado — Programming
  • Matthew Herwig — Modeling
  • Natasha — Lighting/VFX
  • Nik Bigger — Modeling
  • Noura El Bayrouti — Programming
  • Travis Bittel — Programming, UI

Resources

  • Unity Particle Pack
  • Sci-Fi SFX Pack by Chris Logsdon
  • Hordes and Hordes by Ben Arntz
  • Free Sci-Fi Office Pack by Terresquall
  • Star Pack - Advanced Sparkle System by Andtech
  • Ultimate 10+ Shaders by The Developer
  • Sci-Fi Styled Modular Pack by karboosx
  • Additional sound effects from ZapSplat

DisasterGuard™: Where doomsday is our day job

Ratings

Overall 394th 3.75⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 423th 3.617⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 516th 3.483⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 395th 3.9⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 436th 3.397⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Mood 845th 3.35⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 41🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

Lachlan James
05. Apr 2022 · 01:30 UTC
No links, my dudes!
Edit: Cheers :)
Taffycat
05. Apr 2022 · 01:52 UTC
unfortunately it crashes every time I try to start up.
Mooptychunk
05. Apr 2022 · 01:54 UTC
Lots of interesting parts. Nice stuff!
Matt Swieboda
05. Apr 2022 · 01:54 UTC
looks super cool, and there's a lot to do. Very impressed by the AI bots. However it was a bit clunky to move around, and I found myself getting snagged by corners and jumping on things, but overall amazing work. Really great assets and ideas! Awesome that it had so much stuff to interact with!
surr-sloidah
05. Apr 2022 · 04:46 UTC
I really like the visuals and presentation of this game, though I found myself having a few problems with it.
The movement going down I found a bit too punishing, as at some point in the game I was unable to drink coffee, and the game didn't tell me how to fix it, which was a problem with how rapidly the enemies move from side to side as I was unable to catch up and get myself blown up as a result.
Dunusoor
05. Apr 2022 · 05:12 UTC
tried to play it, the game seens interesting but unfortunately i was having issues getting it to run
thefatgalaboo
05. Apr 2022 · 05:27 UTC
Awesome! Great visuals and use of theme. The biggest problem in my eyes is the slight lack of instruction; I couldn't drink coffee, and I didn't know how to fix it, nor did I know where some of the things I had to fix where. However, overall this is a great game with tons of moving parts and impressive visuals. All 5s
Travis Bittel
05. Apr 2022 · 05:40 UTC
@taffycat Super sorry to hear that :(
Thanks for giving it a shot anyway, I appreciate it!
Travis Bittel
05. Apr 2022 · 05:40 UTC
@dunusoor Sorry about that :(
Thanks for trying though, I appreciate it!!
ChaseOB
05. Apr 2022 · 05:57 UTC
@surr-sloidah @thefatgalaboo Thanks for the feedback! We patched a couple of bugs related to coffee and the coffee machine in a new release if you'd like to give it another try. We wanted to include a minimap but sadly ran out of time, hopefully it wasn't too difficult to find everything.
WitchGF
05. Apr 2022 · 12:18 UTC
It felt like low optimisation and sharp controls. The concept is good, tho
Anchry
06. Apr 2022 · 18:02 UTC
The shooting felt a bit jank, especially when you were being shot at by about 8 aliens at once, which happened in both of my playthroughs after about a minute of playing. Not sure if that's intentional or maybe i'm just terrible at the game.. But it was very well done for a gamejam, tons of stuff and things to do so well done!
MPK90
06. Apr 2022 · 18:06 UTC
I like the cave theme. There is a lot to explore. Unfortunately, too many attackers to play a video game in the arcade ;)
ZachsButt
06. Apr 2022 · 18:08 UTC
i thought this was a lot of fun! it kinda reminded me of old call of duty zombies in a way. lots of running around and managing different issues.

i will say at first i had a hard time getting my bearings, just like figuring out where everything is and what i was supposed to do. maybe a map would've been nice? it also would've been nice if there was some more visual feedback in terms of when things went wrong. maybe like a text log would've worked, like "x aliens have landed, reactor 2 needs repair" as opposed to the flashing symbols and colors. oh and i noticed my mouse was invisible in the pause menu, so it was hard to change the mouse sensitivity and stuff.

i played through it a few times so i could try out different strategies, i figured out the sniper rifle was pretty over-powered. lotta fun, great job 👍
Travis Bittel
06. Apr 2022 · 18:20 UTC
@anchry The shooting can be a bit of an acquired taste haha, thanks for the feedback! :)
Travis Bittel
06. Apr 2022 · 18:21 UTC
@zachsbutt CoD Zombies was definitely an inspiration! And I was going to make a map in the pause menu or even a minimap on screen but I ran out of time unfortunately; you're definitely right about that being needed! And about the icons, yeah I agree, unfortunately they don't give quite as much information as we thought and intended. Thanks for the feedback! :)
trixsterzz
08. Apr 2022 · 05:46 UTC
the gradual aliens and lack of coffee was increasingly stressful
S_Onoe
08. Apr 2022 · 05:49 UTC
I just wanted to say that the game was a blast. Controls were not the greatest (jumping for example) but I LOVE how it's executed. Will drink coffee again.
RubixNoob13
08. Apr 2022 · 23:41 UTC
This was a pretty fun little game. I both loved and hated that I needed coffee to move at a faster speed. Loved it because it's a good idea, hated it because I kept having to go back for more coffee, then fix the coffee maker, then getting jumped by like 14 aliens while trying to have a cup of coffee. While also everything else in the world was exploding. Great job! :)
🎤 Jroo
09. Apr 2022 · 05:32 UTC
@rubixnoob13 the coffee was the last mechanic that barely made it in the build, and we had like zero time to balance it ha. I appreciate that you like the challenge though
Lomna
09. Apr 2022 · 09:07 UTC
This was an interesting game. I liked it even though I have a few problems:
When my controller was plugged it the game glitches and the camera does not move, though disconnecting the controller fixed this problem so it's no big deal.
The speed reduction feels a bit too harsh. Maybe coffee should have given a buff to the speed rather than the speed of the player being so low. I think either the lava or the reactor should have been cut from the game, it would make it easier to balance the game. Maybe the player should have started with another weapon along the pistol. The shotgun seems necessary especially when the number of aliens increase later so that would be a good choice to start the player with, though it's also fine right now as the shotgun machine is not far from the either lava lowering station or the nuclear reactor. The arcade game which is used to reduce the number of aliens spawned maybe could have the platform move like in space invaders rather than the rotating aiming it has now, it would be easier to aim than way, I think it would have been better as there are other things to manage in the game already and easier arcade would have helped to make focusing on other stuff easier though the current one is not that bad. I was not able to reach the next shift, the closest I got was about 40 seconds left I would love to try and beat it sometime later.

I think my comment is too negative but I really liked the game and I enjoyed playing it. These are just some suggestions for if you make a post jam version with a few tweaks. I like the music and the environment. I like coming up with routes to most efficiently play the game. Overall it was a good experience and I will leave a positive review :thumbsup:
Hawkin
09. Apr 2022 · 16:25 UTC
This was an ambitious game! I think the whole asset environment and level design was very well done. The defense system being an arcade game is a hilarious touch.

I think the weakest part was the difficulty curve. It kind of felt like four different games (coffee, reactor, defense, volcano) all going bad at once, and it was really hard from the start to even begin managing them. Maybe if you added them in one by one, that would allow the player to learn each of them over time? You all obviously put a lot of work into this, and I think this was my only real critique.

Also, on the pause menu, the mouse cursor should reappear so I can find the slider more easily haha. And the sensitivity setting should persist between reloads! Did you put it in PlayerPrefs?
Travis Bittel
09. Apr 2022 · 17:09 UTC
@lomna Thanks so much for the super detailed feedback! It means a lot :)
Travis Bittel
09. Apr 2022 · 17:11 UTC
@hawkin Thanks for the feedback!! The idea of introducing the disasters over time is a great one and something I wish I would have thought of during development :)

Also the sensitivity slider was quite literally implemented last second, so we were satisfied with it not persisting haha. Definitely something we plan to change in the future though!
ChaseOB
09. Apr 2022 · 17:13 UTC
@lomna thanks for the feedback!
1. We didn't have time to add controller support to the jam version, but we are working on a few touch ups and changes and we'll definitely include it
2. We chose to not start the player with more weapons in order to encourage them to engage in some level of combat to obtain better ones. You are correct that getting one of the better weapons is a big help, especially if your strategy involves not staying on top of the arcade game. It is possible to beat the game without ever buying a new weapon, though that's much easier said than done
3. Feedback like this is the most valuable kind there is. I'm glad you enjoyed it and we'll be sure to keep you posted with future developments!
ChaseOB
09. Apr 2022 · 17:16 UTC
@hawkin thank you! The system we implemented for triggering the disasters is to pick a random interval (between 20 and 30 seconds i believe) to increase to the next level, but you're correct that this means you can get a little overwhelmed at the start sometimes. We'll look into changing that a bit in our post-jam version to help give the player a little more time to adjust.
Hawkin
09. Apr 2022 · 18:32 UTC
@travis-bittel @chaseob Thanks for sharing that insight! I understand it better now. I feel like these events are always a "choose 2 out of 3" sort of problem :D
🎤 Jroo
10. Apr 2022 · 02:48 UTC
made a bit of balance adjustments. You'll notice more aliens, even if you're on the arcade machine 24/7 (good luck with pacifist strategy now, ha!). I think the game is a bit harder towards the end now and you WILL have to sacrifice some systems in order to win. I was able to beat it though so I wish good luck to all you jammers! If you beat it and you're proud leave a comment, I wanna see!
real_flamingicecubegames
10. Apr 2022 · 16:37 UTC
Seriously impressive and fun for a jam game. Legitimately want to see where this one goes.
Remn
14. Apr 2022 · 17:30 UTC
I don't know why, but it doesn't work for me, the screen immediately floats and I can't do anything :(
Doot
18. Apr 2022 · 14:28 UTC
Wow that's a lot of programmers! Great job making something that works with so many people on board.

The gameplay works well, and there are a lot of great systems ideas. Good choice of assets too.
I was a bit overwhelmed by all the elements at first but it was a bit better during my second and third attempt.

Thanks for the game!
ChaseOB
19. Apr 2022 · 05:51 UTC
@doot thank you! It was definitely no small feat coordinating everyone but luckily some of our programmers were able to knock out some solid boiler plate code in just a few hours, which allowed most systems to be handled primarily by a single programmer before their eventual integration. Things were certainly a little chaotic at the end , but we managed to bring everything together in time. I'm glad you enjoyed! :)