Definitely simple but undeniably adorable and cheery, Nerd Herd Production's action arcade game The Comet's Calling is about a trio of "monsters" living in a junkyard who need to amass all the food and supplies they can before the place is shut down in one month's time. Each day you're given a different list of items to collect, and as the monsters race in their shopping cart and toss junk in the air, it's up to you to catch items by clicking to open your mouth, and avoid the things that you don't want by releasing the mouse to shut your trap, as it were. If you accidentally swallow something not marked with a star from your list, click rapidly to spit it out. The Comet's Calling isn't particularly hard and it definitely isn't that complex, being repetitive in a way that may put some players off, but where it shines is its sunny sense of humour and sweet cast of characters throughout the game's many story cutscenes. While a little more variety would have helped flesh out the gameplay significantly, the endearing story and style infuses The Comet's Calling with charm and personality to spare.
Does this game save progress, or is it reset every time you close the window?
It Does. This is an awesome game. Cannot WAIT For More From Them!!! 5/5 Shrooms!!!
It was probably during level 5, after running for endless miles without seeing any needed items, that I began to nod off. Suddenly one of the many items I needed appeared! But I cannot be absolutely sure it was needed because I'd already forgotten my list. For me, the game induced a sleepily-meditative-wakeful state, and perhaps that's the point? But I'll need gallons more caffeine to even attempt level 7.
The main problem with the game is the way that the random generator appears to work. It appears to generate "good" and "bad" items at first from a list, and when you no longer need a particular good item, it replaces it with a bad item. This means that at random times, you will probably run into several levels that you can't complete in a day, as by the end of the day, it's generating a large percentage of trash.
The author should have made the probabilities shift as items were checked off the list, recalculating generation probability based on the remaining items. I don't think this would have made the game too easy.
jcfclark, the items you need are highlighted, although it can be a little difficult to see.
Mantus, I agree with you about how the RNG could be improved, but on the other hand there are many more days than missions. I had no trouble getting to the end even though several times I started needing an extra day to get the last few items.
This game is great to play when you have a cold - it's fairly zen, doesn't require a whole lot of thinking or reflexes, and doesn't have a complicated backstory. I debated starting the Myosotis saga tonight, but decided it's probably just too complicated for my cold-addled brain to comprehend. This game is perfect, and has that extra dose of adorableness to boot. And it has my 2 favorite animals in it - dragons and foxes!
Excellent music too, btw.
But, what am I supposed to do about
the dog? It'll just randomly show up and I don't know why. The game told me that you get slowed down when you choke on something, but the dog has shown up 3 times now and all 3 times, I hadn't choked on a single thing the entire run.
Is there some way of getting rid of him once he's close?
Kind of an annoyance, but not enough to spoil the game.
Leopardmask,
From what I hear on other sites, I think the dog thing is a programming error. The dog appears to have some lag time between the last time you choke and when it appears, and the "dog is activated" state doesn't reset between levels. So if you choke too many times right before finishing the stage, the dog will still get you in the next stage.
Update