It's Ludum Dare time again! Ludum Dare 16 has come and gone, leaving with us dozens upon dozens of unique, quickly-crafted games to enjoy. The latest competition's theme was "exploration", and here are a few of the top games as voted by the LD community!
Cat Planet (Windows, 1.7MB, free) - An exploration game created by chuchino in the vein of Knytt, Cat Planet puts you in the winged shoes of a character whose only goal is to float about the land, talking to cats and exploring the underground caves. Surprisingly, the cats' dialogue adds a lot to the experience, and each environment is uniquely colored, giving you enough reason to venture deeper underground.
Scavenger (Windows/Linux, 9.5MB, free) - A simple game of exploration and treasure hunting by Fiona. Fly out from your space station hunting for anything that isn't pure junk. When you spot that valuable spent powercell, pull it in with your tractor beam, then take it back to the station and sell it so you can upgrade your ship. Earn more cash, get a stronger ship, and keep flying deeper into the endless black. If you've played titles like I Dig It or Motherlode, you'll get what this game's all about.
Penguinagain (Mac/Win/Linux, 5.8MB, free) - Penguinagain, by dock, is an isometric game all about hungry penguins in the snow! Help your friends get the food they want by moving around the landscape, nudging things into place by building a bit of speed and bumping into them. It's that simple, but it's so charming you won't help but fall for it.
Apocalypse Adventure (Windows, 1.5MB, free) - Set in a post-apocalyptic top-down world, you take the role of a guy whose plane has crashed in the desert. You need to get away, but the unfriendly inhabitants aren't too keen on helping you out. Use items such as bombs, keys and knives on your journey as you explore the wasteland and try to stay alive. Created by Hempuli.
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
is there no save function in Cat Planet? bummer :(
i mean i know it saves after you die... but it doesn't seem to save when you close the game
Also, not a download game, but y'all should check out Robot Wants Kitty from the same LD competition. I'm a sucker for Metroidvanias, what can I say?
The readme for Cat Planet does specify that there's no save feature. (Another helpful tip: "If you hold up or down then flap your wings, you can control the height/speed.") I feel like it could have used one, though; sure, it's not a long game, but at 66 cats, I'm starting to feel the need to set it briefly aside and come back later.
Cat planet started off fun, but some of the screens were ridiculously hard. I think the moment it went from being a fun challenge to annoying was
the screen in the black zone with the two crows and a massive maze of spikes.
if it's going to be that hard, there at least ought to be a save function so you can come back to it later. also, the lack of friction means that you slide all the time, even when flying (somehow). in a game with so many hazards, this is actually horrible.
W00t! beat cat planet! 67/67 cats and 1:33 time! I only found 2 or 3 room really difficult.
Tahnan/origamibunny:
Both of you are actually on the second last screen of the game! It was intended to be the hardest screen though so it's understandable that you'd want to give up there, but you're really close to the end so keep trying.
Anyways, thanks for the mention. Sorry if it's too hard, I play hard video games a lot so I had trouble balancing the difficulty. I toned down a lot of the rooms to try to keep things reasonable and I still got a ton of comments saying it was really difficult to beat.w
I.
HATE.
CAT PLANET.
>:(
I played PenguinAgain with my 1st grader and she really enjoyed it. However, I noticed in the bottom right corner of the world there's a section we can't get to... is there something I'm missing?
Lol you guys are a bunch of wusses, Cat Planet is actually pretty easy, you guys just aren't used to platformer games with difficulty 8)
It's too short to need saves anywho
Cat Planet! :D
I can't seem to figure out how to win Penguinagain.. I think I have to
get the log through the green gate
but every time I try the log gets stuck and I have to start over. hmm... I like the visuals of PenguinAgain, but I wish it were more elaborate.
scavanger is a nice, CASUAL game.
I really enjoyed penguinagain. Beat it, with
the melon and battenburg left
and an area I hadn't reached.
So anyone ese trying out Apocalypse Adventure? It's actually pretty good....although one part confuses me...
Why in the world do mutants or zombies have flamethrowers?Can anyone give me a way to defeat the flamethrower wielding mutant in City Ruins B? Its past the double doors that require the red key and bomb someone help me figure out how to defeat it.
Catplanet is one of those games that I love despite the fact that the controls and gameplay make me want to kill things.
Scavenger is a nice, relaxing example of a genre we need to see more examples of.
It would be even better if:
If nearly every item didn't do damage to your ship sixteen or seventeen times before you actually get it on board. And no, I'm not talking about when your hold is full; I can't get things to absorb when I'm completely empty unless they take their "pound of hull" first... It felt like a "your-tractor-beam-operator-stinks-repairs-tax"
If the music changed. Even once every twenty minutes would be enough.
If there was something to do with the aliens besides "run away and ignore the impossible-to-get-goodies in their range" and "die trying".
If there were more upgrades and/or more levels of them.
Penguin Again was cute, short, and sweet. I was a little confused as to
why there were extra foods left over at the end of the game. A watermelon and piece of taffy I think?
I also really like Scavenger, but there is no save function? I'd like to try for all the upgrades, but I can't sit still playing something like that for very long.
Does Scavenger have any sort of save feature? i found it annoying to have upgraded several parts of my ship, only to accidentally press Esc and have my progress erased... very frustrating.
To my amusement, when I saw origamibunny's comment, I thought, "I wonder if it's the same room that's about to make me give up?" And sure enough, it is. With 66 cats, which looks like one shy of the end, I think I'm going to have to call it a game. Alas.
Yeah, uh, thanks, John Lee, but there's no need to insult us. When you say that "you guys just aren't used to platformer games with difficulty", well, in my case you're right--in fact, I don't really like platformer games with a lot of difficulty. And the thing is that it hadn't been all that difficult leading up to that point, and I would have happily set it aside and returned to the last screen or two later, if I could have. Of course, having quit the game I was in the middle of, it's a little late now, unfortunately.
Is anybody getting a message saying error every time they try to play scavenger?
On Apocalypse Adventure - how do you use items? I can select them and pick up/drop them but other than equipping the knife for melee I can't seem to use anything I find.
Has anyone explored far enough (in Scavenger) to know if there is anything anywhere beyond the scrap zone?
To anyone else who was wondering - left click on the item and then left click on yourself.
Cat planet was fun, but... stupid fire spinning thingies!!! And spike mazes!!! Anyway, would have loved a save feature, but it was still a nice game.
Does anyone here know how I can get Scavenger to download? I really want to at least try it, but the speed I'm getting from the ludum dare site is in bytes. Help?
Has anyone else experienced this? I don't get any money when i in scavenger, which makes the game kind of pointless.
In Scavenger I still can't grab items without taking some damage. :(
nonny: yes, more scrap and sellable items, and i've read about
enemies that shoot lasers guarding some really profitable items
Tetha: do not get the scrap. Dodge it and get some named item, which you can sell for a profit whenever you return.
Apocalypse adventure has some funky controls. I forget how you use items, but I know its some combination of left and right mouse buttons. left click on the item in your inventory and right click on the map? something like that. Despite this, it's an excellent "sandbox" style game that puts very severe limits on how long the player can survive. Actually, to beat the game, you need only three items: 2 propeller pieces and an engine.
Cat Planet was very cute, but I gave up after 57 cats. Just too frustrating.
Yeah, I finally just got fed up with the #&^%!!! crows at 66 cats and quit in favor of more satisfying entertainment. Otherwise, dug cat planet a lot.
After peeking at Scavenger's source code, I found a feature that hadn't quite been implemented by the time it was released. Press Spacebar to fire lasers. They'll push debris around a little bit, but they won't do anything to turrets and mines.
It's too bad they didn't finish it, since all the game needed was something to do to turrets and mines. Snatching at debris near them from long range wasn't too exciting. It would have been nice to shoot at them, or throw big chunks of debris at them, or maybe even rush them and suck them into your hold (I tried that, and found that I could push them around, but not capture them. And then they shot me.)
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