The sleep of reason produces monsters by Ithildin

[raw]
made by Ithildin for LD33 (COMPO)
A strange flock of creatures you'd never seen before has arrived in your hometown. The townsfolk are worried about their nature, or if they're dangerous, and in no time debate ensues as if to shoot first and ask questions later. As one of them, it is up to you to decide what to do about them.

There are several outcomes depending on your approach ;)

The idea was quite ambitious, definitely more than I can chew in 48h, and with all the things I couldn't get in due to the lack of time I'm not sure if the tie to the theme is going to feel too subtle to go by unnoticed or, on the contrary, too obvious (specially with the intro text). In addition to the narrative, there are lots of things that I'd do way better regarding all aspects of the development process. I'll go into more details on the postmortem when it's ready, but for now feedback is appreciated as always :)

Controls:
=================================
WASD/Cursor keys for movement.
Mouse movement for aiming. Left button to shoot. There's an additional button for actions, but they weren't implemented).

No mute or pause options, I'm afraid :S

Implementation details:
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* Unity 5.1/C#
* Photoshop for graphics
* Labchirp and Bosca Ceoil for sound/music.
* TexturePacker for...texture packing :D

KNOWN ISSUES
=========================
=> There seems to be a glitch on WebGL versions where the creatures don't spawn until after a lot longer that the game starts. I haven't had the time to find out why, but they'll appear eventually. Sorry about this, as a result the only "living" entities you find on the map are your townsfolk.
On the windows build it seems to work okay.

=>Collision-related bugs are cross-platform, I'm afraid.

NOTES
=========================
I've added a version without lights during the submission period. I'm not sure if that'd qualify as a valid compo submission, so you can consider it as a post-jam.

The non-default font is Fragment Core, downloaded from Dafont.com

Update 6/11/2016: Updated web link after Dropbox removed HTML rendering.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.82 729
Audio 3.17 255
Fun 2.65 722
Graphics 3.55 234
Humor 2.00 738
Innovation 2.15 865
Mood 3.10 391
Theme 2.70 803

Feedback

Algerator
24. Aug 2015 · 06:57 UTC
Quite fun! Loved the suspense music :D
iossif
24. Aug 2015 · 12:14 UTC
a dog with a gun! what can go wrong?
Slashee the Cow
24. Aug 2015 · 13:14 UTC
I love the gameplay! And the art style! Just wish it was a bit longer. Spawns seem a bit buggy, though. First time through I killed the wolves in about twenty seconds, then about twenty seconds later the birds started spawning (they killed me with about a minute left). Second time I killed the wolves in about ten seconds, but the birds didn't spawn for over a minute after that (I didn't kill them all before the timer ran out). Third time I killed the wolves in about ten seconds again, but the birds never spawned.
aberdeenphoenix
24. Aug 2015 · 19:34 UTC
I love the don't starve aesthetic of your game. Very nice. By the third play, the birds don't spawn, though. Or they didn't for me.
Split82
24. Aug 2015 · 20:43 UTC
Awesome mood and somehow hypnotising music :) Nice!
Vaida
24. Aug 2015 · 22:15 UTC
The art style and music are very nice, you should be proud of what you've achieved in 48h! :) The gameplay was quite simple, though, but the sound effects and the lazer made it enjoyable.
Matthew Rayfield
24. Aug 2015 · 22:20 UTC
Cool music! Nice graphics! Pretty fun!

I can easily see this being expanded and being quite a bit of fun. Reminds me of a game...

I had a weird glitch where a bunch of birds got stuck in the corner.
mantis
24. Aug 2015 · 22:51 UTC
Great music!
ladycerberus
25. Aug 2015 · 09:37 UTC
Very impresive, love music and the message ;)
Sergi Montaner
25. Aug 2015 · 16:25 UTC
Nice one!
The art is nice and the music is bad ass!

Sometimes happened to me that after holding the shoot button and releasing it, the gun starts shooting non-stop
Zener
25. Aug 2015 · 17:55 UTC
Fun game with pretty art style and moody music! Very impressive for one woman army!
steve
25. Aug 2015 · 20:44 UTC
I liked the hand drawn art style, but I felt there needed to be some kind of impact effect when you hit the birds as I wasn't sure when my shots were actually connecting with them, a puff of feathers and knocking the birds back a few feet would have really help sell the hits.

Good work though, I had fun even though all my dogs died ;)
SinclairStrange
26. Aug 2015 · 09:17 UTC
Loved that Genesis style audio, man that was cool. The art style is awesome and it plays well! Loved it :)
guoboism
26. Aug 2015 · 13:56 UTC
Funny game! Well, I thought cats were monsters...
TheOlinone
26. Aug 2015 · 22:51 UTC
This games really puts you in that "Don't think about the rest of the world for a little while" mood. The art and especially the music helps sell the theme. Although simplistic i kind of liked the game play. I can see that further interaction was planned but as a small LD entry I think it works okay. Only bad thing I can say off the top of my head is that the gun sound gets repetitive really quickly.
Afenda
27. Aug 2015 · 10:27 UTC
Nice music and nice graphics.
defacid
27. Aug 2015 · 21:06 UTC
This game was very pretty, and the different endings was something that was great to have. The only thing I could say it needed was a more involved take on the gameplay - it was SUPER polished for what it was, but it got repetitive quickly. I played through twice, though!

Definitely on my list for a great example of what's possible in a Ludum Dare game.
goodbadokay
28. Aug 2015 · 09:36 UTC
I love this art style and sound
yuigoto
29. Aug 2015 · 04:33 UTC
The idea is really nice, really. Loved the art style and, together with the OST, it helps set up a really nice mood for the game!

The bug where the mobs spawn after some time is a bit strange, but didn't get in the way as I was playing and enjoying it. :)

I felt the need for some extra explanation/instructions, together with the narrative, but it's nice already. :P

I played the game and read the post-mortem before writing this and, even more after reading what you wrote, I certainly think it fits perfectly into the theme and can be expanded to include a lot of things, I'm sure. :P

It was quite a nice experience to play your game. :D

Cheers!
darklightteam
29. Aug 2015 · 10:49 UTC
Wow! Nice plot twist at the end. It's impressive you did all of this in so little time. Really good job :)
dpisarcik
30. Aug 2015 · 00:22 UTC
The artwork was great and the game was a decent amount of fun. Thanks!
Empyrealhell
30. Aug 2015 · 22:46 UTC
I liked the feel of this one quite a bit. The web version seems really buggy though, based on the other comments. The creatures won't spawn unless I kill the NPCs, and the creatures don't do any damage. I'm also not sure I get the story, or if there's more to it than just killing the unknown making you a monster. Still, I liked the graphics and the audio.
AnaglyphCoding
31. Aug 2015 · 11:32 UTC
A neat little PC game, however when the birds came in I was super confused. They just kept spawning and when I hit them, they would turn into a four-winged red vulture of death? And then back into a bird? Then, all of a sudden, I died.

Very nice physics/lighting/control/graphics and it is evident that the game is very well designed and coded, the music was awesome too.

The lack of HUD was a problem, nothing to show us a score or lives and that made it more confusing. Hopefully you can take these into consideration for a great post-LD build.

Well done! :)
MAnimal
03. Sep 2015 · 09:56 UTC
Nice music and atmospheric graphic design
bombjack
06. Sep 2015 · 11:48 UTC
classic but fun. the art is cool.
🎤 Ithildin
06. Sep 2015 · 21:32 UTC
Thank you all! I'm surprised and glad at the reactions about art and music. As for gameplay, I know that it does need some work to make it fun and to make the connection to the theme clearer. I was aiming for some kind of "The Chase" vibe, but between the bugs and the non-player characters feeling lifeless it was hard to see.