April 20th-23rd 2012 :: 10 Year Anniversary! :: Theme: Tiny World
IMPORTANT NOTES FOLLOW:
The standalone link includes the exe and content folder. If it does not run, or gives some sort of XNA error, you MUST use the installer instead (or install XNA). This happens because you cannot run the application without the XNA dependencies, and if you do not have them the installer will get them for you.
PLEASE READ the readme either linked above or included in the downloads. It's not a long read at all and has all of the information about the game you need to know what's going on.
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You are a bacterium struggling to survive, thrive, and evolve. Attack other bacteria with a variety of weapons, get a variety of upgrades and buffs, and for goodness' sake watch out for bacteriophages.
The controls are explained more in the readme, but here's the short version:
Mouse - target
Left click - move towards mouse
Space - bite
C/V/B (configurable) - use active abilities
Escape - Open/close upgrade menu, which also has keybinding and sound control
Some people have reported that biting is rather difficult, so I advise tracking your target with the mouse first, and using it to swim towards them secondarily. It doesn't really matter your orientation or position as long as you're close enough, mouse-over-ing them, and pressing space. Hope that helps you all who are having trouble.
Combat, short version: "mouse over bacteria and hit space to bite" -racarate. It might take a bit to get used to the controls.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 73% |
| #38 | Theme(Jam) | 3.60 |
| #50 | Audio(Jam) | 3.51 |
| #63 | Humor(Jam) | 2.93 |
| #122 | Fun(Jam) | 2.80 |
| #131 | Overall(Jam) | 3.03 |
| #135 | Innovation(Jam) | 2.86 |
| #145 | Mood(Jam) | 2.69 |
| #151 | Graphics(Jam) | 3.00 |
Comments
Could use a good README, the game itself is well thought about
I found it hard to bite things and move at the same time. The music and graphics are sensational.
tripleVisionGames, MinerCraftGuy, the readme is included in both downloads. Did you miss it, or was there a problem?
Nice variety of upgrades and great audio. I think some of the core mechanics, like attacking, could have been better but it was pretty enjoyable regardless.
Sorry I meant that the readme was really helpful when I read it.
The control scheme makes it hard to attack most of the time.
The game also crashes when you die.
But otherwise, it's fun.
Pretty fun stuff here! Biting was a bit difficult. Fix this, 'cause there's nothing so satisfying as to go around biting things in a game :D
Love the music! I agree with other people that the controls were awkward, but it looked good and sounded great. Good job!
Loved the faux-90s badass attitude platformer splash screen. Too bad no sunglasses in-game though. Cartoon-style character design was great, background and special effects didn't seem to keep up though. Mechanically, I didn't understand it at all at first. The is the only LD game I've seen with a README, but most my confusion could have been assuaged by displaying "mouse over bacteria and hit space to bite". The icons on the upgrade screen are really good, and so is the writing. There isn't really much visual feedback when you are attacking or are attacked -- I think that makes combat a little unsatisfying. The music is suitably wacky. The vignetting is a good touch and adds claustrophobia. Good bacteria shooter, overall.
robcozzens: It's in XNA, so I'm afraid I don't have the tools to port it. I'd really like to, though!
racarate and others: Thanks for the feedback on the controls! I'll look into how to make combat easier to handle.
What a fun little game! It was hard to get the bite to hit sometimes but it was rewarding whenever you finished an enemy off! Maybe some indication of their fatigue or health level would be good as it seemed I always attacked the full health enemies xD
Nice game. I can see myself possibly coming back to play your game again when I'm bored. The only complaint is that the controls are somewhat awkward, but I'm not sure how to improve them.
Takes a while to master the controls but is fun once you got it figured out. Once the first boss thingie shows up (screenshot 2) it pushes me off the screen regularly tough which gets pretty annoying
Interesting and fun. I made something similar. The graphics are neat (although I didn't like the dark viewport window - brighter would be easier to see, I thought). Gameplay is a little hard to manage, what with using the mouse both to move and attack in different ways, but once I got used to it, it was fun. The boss was very hard, and I wasn't sure what to do. Music was great; sound effects also cool. Some visual indication of the HP of enemies would be helpful to understand combat. Nice work!
I had a hard time playing it. Nothing was smaller than me on the first play through. On the second game I seemed to be able to press space to hit some things but eventually the collision just stopped responding. Excellent music and graphics though
I don't have windows, can't play, which is unfortunate because the game's name and the paramecium with the sunglasses are both awesome.
A bit confusing but I really loved this game, would like to see it flushed out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evkAdJmIils
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Had a good bit of fun with this. Do need the readme though!