I’ve fixed some bugs/gameplay flaws in my LD24 entry! Lightning now loads faster and reaches the bottom of the island, and some issues with mating were fixed. It should be more playable now – you can try the new version here (or play & rate the original entry!)

Since my game is a bit confusing, I also made a quick playthrough video that shows one way to complete the game. You can see that I focus on the Poggles with features I want (round ears, long nose, and then long legs) and get rid of the rest.

This is Poggle Island! The purpose of the game is to breed a target creature. Doing that means eliminating creatures you don’t want from the gene pool, either by making the climate inhabitable for them or sniping them with lightning bolts. Play and rate it here!

Good

• I made a very polished game in 48 hours! On Saturday night, I had the gameplay down but was worried that the game wasn’t very fun. Should I try to make some big gameplay changes or stick with what I had? With just 12 hours left, I decided to keep the gameplay but focus on polish. I think that was a better idea than starting some whole new game features that might not be done in time.
• At the last minute, I added the pile of bones when a Poggle dies. I think that was a great thing to add, because it emphasizes the humorous aspect of killing off groups of small, cute animals.

Bad

• The theme. I couldn’t really think of any very interesting ideas. On the other hand, then one I did use follows the theme very closely. (Less fit organisms die due to environmental changes.)
• Not playtesting! I always think that I need graphics in order to test the game, so I spend hours on the graphics before I even know if the game is fun. In the future I have to use placeholder graphics and nail down fun gameplay before I get started on the art.
• If I had just a tiny bit more time, I would have tweaked when Poggles mate so that it was a bit more consistent and manageable…

Unexpected benefit: Reminiscing about some great old computer games, like Fripples and Mixed Genetics.

I’ve been working hard on my game, and the gameplay is mostly done. Unfortunately, it’s not a very fun game… I may have to make some major changes tomorrow, and I need your advice. Please give my game a try and let me know what you think and if you have any ideas. In the meantime I’m going to get some sleep. -_-

Instructions: The goal is to have only creatures that match the bottom description on the island. Your powers are: 1) Change the climate by click on the mountains. The volcano world kills furry creatures and the ice world kills non-furry creatures.  2) Click on the cloud to send a bolt of lightning that kills a creature (it’s a bit buggy, sorry.) 3) Click anywhere else to nudge the creatures in the right direction. NOTE: there’s not a win condition in the game yet.

Play it

My current idea is that bunch of creatures are running around having babies, and you have to get them to evolve into the form you want by wiping out ones you don’t want to reproduce via natural disasters and such. It’s not terribly original, but I hope it will be fun. Anyway, here are some of the creatures. Current traits: color, furriness, height, ears, and head shape (not sure if I’ll keep this one.)

I’ve participated in the previous two LDs and I’ve been waiting for this one ever since I finished the last one! I’m going to do a few things differently this time:

1. I’ll be using HTML5/Javascript for practice, even though I’m much more comfortable with AS3. I’m going to start with some base code I put together myself (it’s mainly to deal with animated sprites) which you can get here.

2. This time I’m determined to finish in 48 hours! My past two attempts dragged on into the Jam time even though I’m working alone. This time I’m going to make sure to finish the basic game and then have time to improve.

Good luck everyone!