After lurking here for a while, I decided to take a crack at WG game-dev for myself. Within a couple of weeks, I created this short, simple game where you sneak into the increasingly spacious and populated dwellings of half-awake people and eat all of their food.
Currently, the game features 5 weight gain stages and a random level generator. It’s fully playable, though the only real WG content is in the form of tiny monochrome sprites.
As you may be able to tell, I’m really more of a programmer than an artist, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Tell me if you have any issues, criticisms, or suggestions. As of now, my only plans for this game would involve getting an artist on board to add higher-res sprites, proper animations, rewarding splash screens, extra characters, and a stuffed state, though this seems unlikely since all I have to give in exchange would be my programming skills and/or a plug in the README. Contact me if you’re interested; otherwise, consider donating a few dollars here if you think it’s worth it.
That said, it’s the least I could do to make something after playing so many of the great games on this site. I might stick around and make some other stuff in addition to possibly updating this, especially if another game jam comes around. Have fun!
this is a good concept, but I agree, the visuals are a bit distracting. it also seems like the guards can pile up in areas sometimes, and take quite a few attempts to move into another area. good job so far though!
I’m having some trouble getting the download to execute. Is there an alternate pre-zipped version somewhere? It’s rare to have trouble with those, on Mega.
This game is great, but it needs a lot of work. Again, take this with a grain of salt, but here are some things I would change about your game.
Loss States. Currently, if a tile goes white while you’re standing on it, you lose. This… is incredibly brutal. Now, if difficulty was your goal, then hey! good job. Buuuut, if it wasn’t, you might have to rework how the player loses. Personally, I would like for the Loss State to be changed to TOUCHING a guard with, vision acting as an alert for a guard. What I mean by this is that when the player enters a guard’s vision, the guard starts to chase after the player for a finite amount of time. Not only would this make the game more fair, as the guards’ vision is no longer a death laser, it would also make the game more exhilarating, as the experience of getting chased while growing slower and slower sounds pretty hot.
Sprinting? I think it would be cool if the player could sprint with a key (like shift) for a very small period of time. Mainly so the player actually has a hope of escaping the guards at higher levels.
Coins. The player should have like, 2-3 coins per level. The player could press a key to throw the coin and “distract” the guard. This would be quite nice, since it’s really annoying when guards camp a single cupcake.
Okay, here’s version 2 based on some of your suggestions:
change log:
reduced retina-searing qualities of background
added wasd support
added enemy chase behavior
added fanning-out behavior at level start to alleviate enemy stacking
added stuffed state with new sprites (still looking for artist)
In order to keep the game somewhat difficult (the way I like it), I have made a penalty for being spotted and escaping. An extra enemy is added to the next level if you don’t make it through undetected.
Anyway, tell me what you think and what else you’d like to see. Thanks for your feedback, and enjoy!
Fantastic update. Love how you’re incorporating our suggestions and adding a twist.
Regarding the chasing, it might be too hard to lose the guards. What I’d do is tweak the level generator to have more white space so that the player has a greater chance of juking the guards. Of course, this is YOUR game, so make sure that my suggestion aligns with your vision before making any changes!
Also, how far do you plan for the WG to go? Because if the player can get to the point where they’re a blob that moves slower than flowing pitch, then more escape tools ought to be added in the later levels. Again, I don’t know what your vision is, but I’d give the player one big smoke bomb per level past level 5.
If this hasn’t been said before, thanks for making one of the coolest games on this site!
Hey, glad to hear from you again. I don’t really intend for the WG to go too much farther than it already has, so any new levels will be more likely to be added as in-betweens than extensions. I’m thinking of going for 8 or 9 total, but this is likely to come towards the end of my planned development. As for escaping, I have some ideas in mind that you might see in the next update. It’s nice to see that people are having fun with my project. Every bit of feedback helps.
I don’t know if anyone else is encountering this issue but, whenever I lose or I gather all the objective points and move back to the door my game crashes.
I had this problem as well but I think it was on an early version of the game. At the time I thought it was the end of the game and it was suppose to happen.
Okay, I think I’ve located the source of the problem, so it should be fixed in the next update. Sorry it’s been a while, but I’ve had a lot to do lately. I should have plenty of time to work on my game soon, so you can probably expect the next update within a couple of weeks. It’s hard to say for sure, though, since I would need to make a fair amount of new art in addition to introducing more features. Thanks for letting me know about this.
I’m no artist, but I’ve done pixel art related to WG and I’d be glad to help out if you’d like. I can color stuff in or create different body types for the player.
I intend to maintain the current black-and-white style, perhaps with outlines in the future to make the visuals clearer. If you can make original sprites at about double the current resolution, PM me with a sample of your work (there could be money in it if this game starts making any). Otherwise, I appreciate your willingness to help, but I don’t need to bring anyone on board for less than a visual overhaul.
Regarding the necessary libraries, Sebabs, they’re supposed to be included in the downloaded .zip. If they’re not, try re-extracting or re-downloading. Failing that, they can be acquired from the SDL website.
change log:
added stomping maneuver to confuse enemies
added vents for hiding (with new crawling sprites)
expanded player graphics to avoid cutoff
fixed garbage-collection bug that was causing crashes
Those of you who couldn’t play before, tell me if it’s working now. Everyone who’s been following since previous updates, let me know what your opinions are on the new features I’ve added. I believe that they help put emphasis on the stealth mechanics while also making the weight gain aspect more tangible and interactive, though I am worried that they may make the game too easy. If you have any other ideas for future updates, don’t hesitate to tell me. At the moment, I’m thinking of finally implementing animations and laying the groundwork for improved graphics. I may soon proactively seek an artist, but only time will tell. Anyway, I hope you like it!
