Beating "Save Otto Griffis"

2014-10-23

I recently entered and submitted a game to the BaconGameJam08 with my game Save Otto Griffis. Here I discuss my game, and show my very own lets' play where you see my beat the game.

Let's play of Save Otto Griffis

From seeing others play my game I really got a wake up call. I found that others played and approached my game quite differently than I had in mind. Some things were not as obvious as I imagined when designing the game. (Keep in mind, it was created within 48 hours, so not that much thought has been given to this aspect.)

My strategy is to lurk the zombies down to the white stage, where I like to keep Otto safe and sound. Then I sprint up on the stage, and kill the zombies from there. They can still kill you, if you get too close to the border, but you, the player, actually has a slight larger range of attack than the zombies, so it is possible to stay in a spot where you can hit them, but they can't hit you.

I recorded this video with gtk-recordMyDesktop, and used ffmpeg to add an .mp4 source (along with original .ogg file). I used the Firefox webbrowser to play the game in the video. Chromium was used when developing the game.

Thoughts

So, creating this game and watching others play it has learnt me a few things, and from the feedback in the comments for example, I am cleverer to as what works in this game, and what doesn't.

Negative / improve

  • Confusing that Otto often dies suddenly, if you do not sprint down and kill the zombies that might have spawned near him.
  • Although it plays smoothely most places I have tested, it is resource heavy and in a let's play, the game was nearly unplayable when screen-recording was enabled.
  • Written text (font) does not fit visual style. (When I implemented it, I didn't have time to draw my own bitmap font.)
  • Still mises some sounds/music (e.g. at gameover/win and menu).

Positive

  • The music-change when hitting the button seemed cool.
  • I am satisfied with the graphics; given my art-skills and that I am still learning the ways of pixel art, I am satisfied with the sprites and visual feel of the game.

What I would like to learn / do better next time

I have some thoughts on what I'd like to experiment with next.

  • Optimization: e.g. only drawing/handling objects within viewport.
  • Be more cleverer about level-design and creation.
  • Write a common framework from the most recent games/experiments that uses pixi.js. Especially the Game object and an Entity super-class with commonly used methods and attributes used by all entities.
  • Try creating a mobile-friendly game (touch controls)!