August 24th-27th 2012 :: Theme: Evolution
In this game you play a dino-hunting men called "The Darwinizer". He collects the genes, uses them to increase his strength or combines them among themselves.
Have a look at the HOW TO PLAY first (it's also in the download files):
http://www.stevencolling.com/downloads/ld24/How_To_Play.pdf
This is a XNA game.
Download and install Microsoft's .NET-framework 4.0 and the XNA-redistributable first:
http://www.microsoft.com/de-de/download/details.aspx?id=17718
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20914
If you have problems running the linked game (e.g. playing on a laptop or something like that), try the following:
http://www.stevencolling.com/downloads/ld24/The_Darwinizer_reach.zip
Thank you for playing and giving feedback :)
Feel free to post your highscore in the comments below!
Downloads and Links
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 72% |
#124 | Graphics | 3.64 |
#153 | Theme | 3.48 |
#158 | Overall | 3.39 |
#183 | Mood | 3.00 |
#208 | Innovation | 3.21 |
#211 | Fun | 3.12 |
#242 | Audio | 2.77 |
#280 | Humor | 2.33 |
Comments
I thought it was a little odd that I was holding a gun and still had to walk up to monsters to kill them. I also got stuck in a corner a couple of times. I don't see why you stopped the player going back to the left.
Nice game, I like thr throwback to the rogue-like gameplay mechanics and dare I say minor Pokemon influence.
Fun to play with some nice graphics and sound.
@jamioflan: If you follow the path marked with arrows, you can't get stucked.
@Vordux: Thank you for your comment.
I can not run the game under Windows 7 64bit. It's running for a while in the background without showing any graphics and then crashes.
Interesting idea. For some reason though I'd get overly aggressive against the dinosaurs and then forget to collect the genes!
I quite enjoyed the concept behind this game, and the dinosaur sprites are very cute and well drawn. :)
Keep up the good work!
@Danvil: I developed on Windows 7 64bit and had two people testing my game with the same OS. Do you have an exception message for me? Did you install .NET 4.0 and the XNA redistributable linked in the description?
@dalbinblue: Yeah, that happened to me sometimes, too :D
@Mach60KAS: Thank you.
This is a really neat game, loved the roguelike gameplay and use of genes... Very well done, congratz
From the 7 games I've played, this is the second rpg, and I love that. I like that, even though the game is pretty deep, it is actually balanced. Usually with LD games you get either one or the other.
I like the graphics, it is a bit confusing, a lot of instructions in PDF!
@Robotic: Thank you, it's nice to hear something like that :)
@JaJ: Oh yeah, my game for the last Ludum Dare was so bad balanced, that even I was not able to beat it...
@juaxix: You are right. It's difficult to make a tradeoff between "simple games where everybody can enjoy some minutes so they can go on with other games to rate" or "some deeper gameplay which are leading to instructions which no one wants to read if he goes through the games he wants to rate"... I prefer the latter one (even if there are ways to improve the GUI to make things clearer...)
Hey, I'm came from the game "Cubevo" :)
Actually, I like your game very much! It reminds me a lot of "Chocobo's Dungeon", and that's a good point for me :)
All the randomized stuff is interesting, and can create tricky situations (for example, when your first enemy is a red dinosaur). I like the strategic aspect.
However, the audio ambient is not so rich and quickly became boring (because of the repeatability of the music and the reduced amount of sound effects).
For 48h, the work is amazing, and i love the look and feel of the provided PDF explaining the basics!
Liked it. Could have done something more to encourage combining genes, though. Having some other way to restore health might be a good start. As it stands, I found it most useful to simply chug one health restore gene when at low health, and then switch to one damage one immediately. Rinse and repeat. Worked to complete the game, at least.
Fun idea, though sometimes getting stuck (or monsters spawning as unreachable) is a slight problem. Otherwise enjoyable!
Liked it, managed to finish it! Nice concept but I feel like the genes are not that important except to recharge health.
Also there should be a game over if you get stuck.
Anyway it is fun to play, the creatures are really well drawn and the music is nice too :)
great game! i just dont like 2 things: that you or enemies can get stuck, and that there is no real ending, just a YOU WON written on the screen. other than that its great, considering the time you had.
@NostraDamon: Yes, music and sounds are my weaks. I used Otamata... the backgroundmusic was up top 60 seconds work... thank you for your feedback!
@Materie: You are right. So part of the game is to decide which genes used to restore health and while fighting the next dinos, combine other genes
to improve the fighting abilities.
@shinD: If I had the time, I would made an algorithm so the dinos get not stucked in the level. You can't get stucked if you follow the path
marked with arrows on the rocks. But this I should made clearer next time.
@berareu: Always difficult to balance a game within the 48 hours... like everything else ^^
@Deykoweec: Yeah, if I made a post-compo-version, I would make a proper ending screen or something like that. Thank you for the hint.
AirRider3: ;( it's XNA an therefore nasty to port it to other platforms than windows (xbox, windows phone).
Great concept. I won with over 420 points, though the ending itself seemed like a dead end ;>.
Very, very interesting mechanics, but the game could be even harder, I think - it's too easy to just hoard healing genes. But I'd like to see this expanded. Some kind of post-compo version, perhaps?
@marudziik: Yes, I should invent another mechanic for healing which doesn't compete against the gene system. If people are interested in, I would make a post-compo-version.
Huh. I'd like to play this, but upon running it, all I get is this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/otlmr6atlkue8ks/error.png
Did you try to run this on a laptop or any system without a graphic card?
I linked another version, try this (it should work):
http://www.stevencolling.de/downloads/public/ld24/The_Darwinizer_reach.zip
Laptops don't have graphics cards?
I can't believe I'm just realizing this. So that's why hardware acceleration doesn't do anything on this thing! Wow, I'm slow.
Well, I haven't managed to win, but I like what I saw. Good work, good graphics!
Otomata rocks, right?
Sorry, I forgot to write "proper graphic card". Otomata is a good tool, right - I have no idea how to make music, so Otomata and Autotracker is the right for me :)
I liked this a lot and played for quite a while. For only 60 seconds work your music loop was surprisingly good !
@tompudding: Thank you. If you want, just check out Otomata: http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata
You get interesting music in few clicks, recordable and downloadable.
Ah, well, doesn't matter about that mistake, and my gullible acception of it. I have returned to tell you that I found out from another game it was just a driver problem! Sweet, right?
This game was alright, I finished it without really having to grab any genes from the yellow orange or red dinos, though. Thus the end felt a little unfulfilling. If the game were a little longer and it didn't feel like it was prodding me forward, I probably would have experimented more with the gene combining/dino slaying.
@RARoadkill: Thank you :)
@feyleaf: Thanks for your comment. Yes, there should be a better ending (or an endless-mode). The game's problem is that it is too easy, so there is no need to combine the genes - as you said.
Felt like a pretty nice little game. Would've been nice if there was a way to track better what your combinations actually did and upgrading bit by bit, instead of saving up for a big bang. Getting stuck into dead ends made me sad, and I don't know why they were even included in the game. :( Your idea and execution were nice, but the gameplay still needs a bit of refinement.
Perhaps the how-to-play guide could've been integrated somehow into the game.
@phren: Thank you for your feedback. I hoped that marking the rocks and explaining it in the instruction-pdf would be enough, but ingame-control-explanation is the better way to do this. Even a way to get out of a dead end (destroy rocks by planting bombs) was an idea.
Nice idea. Felt a little clunky but for a 48 hour concept it was good. Enjoyed playing.
Well I'm not pleased to see a big area of the playfield with all the creatures in it is unacessable or you can stuck if you go there - AND you don't have a way to restart the game.
It's just unbelievable you did this in 48 hours. You must have a pretty "evolved" base code there... :) Anyway nice gfx and RPG elements it has. I had fun playing it!
@BumpkinRich: Thank you for the feedback. Can you told me what was "clunky" for you?
@RawBits: Yes, if I had a bit more time, I would fix the spawning in unaccessible areas and add a mechanic so the player can't get stucked. But if you follow the rocks marked with a brown arrow, you can't get stuck (I know, not the best way to do this).
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Doesn't seem to run under Wine, sorry. Might try it on my laptop later if I use it :P