Ludum Dare 24
August 24th-27th 2012 :: Theme: Evolution
Boxy the Boxcat in Evolution Escapades - matthias_zarzecki - 48 Hour Compo Entry
Web | Win | OS/X | Source | Timelapse
Survive and evolve in this urban landscape, which is littered with radioactive waste for some reason, and protect your kittens!
Features:
- Boxy the Boxcat (from LD22-game 5 DAYS)
- Boxkittens
- Nuclear Evolution!
- Tophats
- Lasers
- Melons
- Hidden collectible extras/upgrades, which will be displayed in your hideout. Can you find them all?
- Kongregate-Highscore-integration
- Sex
- A sweet music-track I totally not just panickingly composed an hour before the deadline
You control via the WSAD/Arrow-keys. Everything else is for you to explore.
Also available for your convenience: A timelapse-video, windows- and mac-standalone-files, and the soundtrack.
Have fun! And if you can, please give a rating for the webbuild on Kongregate :)
-Matthew
//Music
I uploaded the "Evolution Night"-theme, for all your music-related needs :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCU4hleCtC4
//Review
Boy the Boxcat got reviewed!
http://www.indiegamemag.com/indie-intermission-day-12-boxy-the-box-cat-in-evolution-escapades/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IndieGameMag+%28The+Indie+Game+Magazine%29#.UEo5q671WoI
//Let's Plays
Some videos have been cropping up. This one is especially lovely :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8k5xouUNhA&feature=youtu.be
//Post-Mortem
I wrote down some thoughts. Features videos and an exciting staged new screenshot! :D
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/09/13/thoughts-on-boxy-the-boxcat-a-post-mortem-if-you-will/
View matthias_zarzecki's journal. | View all entries by matthias_zarzecki
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 100% |
| #40 | Humor | 3.57 |
| #103 | Mood | 3.28 |
| #109 | Overall | 3.51 |
| #111 | Graphics | 3.71 |
| #149 | Fun | 3.27 |
| #165 | Audio | 3.02 |
| #190 | Theme | 3.39 |
| #411 | Innovation | 2.76 |
Comments
Pretty nice! I agree with aschearer that it's kinda slow moving, but it's a good, solid, entry, IMO.
Kittens! <3
Played through to the end, but I only say like 7 cats. That's like 993 short of the theme, bro.
Seriously, though, super impressive. Music was oddly fitting of my cat blowing up cars wit lasers. Also, my cat had laser eyes. Awesome work. Definitely the best I've played so far.
If I was going to complain about something, it would probably be the feel of the controls. Both jumping and walking were a little funny feeling, but that's definitely nit-picking. Also, I think I already mentioned, but not nearly enough cats.
Pretty cool game. Kind of short but the graphics were good. The gameplay was kind of stale. Overall good effort.
I love a game that doesn't take itself too seriously!
I ran around the city blowing up cars with my laser vision!
Great fun! Good job!
This entry had me laughing way too much. May just have been sleep deprivation over the last two days but I found your entry to have an unique charm to it. Short, sweet and pretty funny, intentional or not.
Needed more sound and some variety for certain.
A nice game, smooth controls (though slow).
Could use a little anti-aliasing for non-text.
Cool looking game dude! I love the simple "lego" look. If you could add some sort of boost effect that would make it a bit more fun. Also if there were some bad guys chasing you around that would add to the excitement.
Really well made, great explosion effects too. And I must hug every cat so this game rules for that reason alone.
that was a very funny game, thank you :)
I think I never thought about radioactive, glowing, waterbreathing, laser cats before - nice
audio & graphics are solid too (although some textures could have worked wonders)
It took me a lot longer than I'd like to admit to figure out that running into toxic barrels is a GOOD thing. Before that, I figured I was just meant to be finding stuff.
A bit confusing and pretty easy to get lost, and that music track got REEEEEEALLY annoying after a while. Movement was a bit slow, too. Maybe put in a mini-map or a waypoint arrow thing or something.
Really liked it, though. Very charming.
I really like your take on the theme :)
Very enjoyable game.
Really awesome, I went around blowing up all the cars with my mighty kitteh laser-vision before I went to my kittens, it was awesome.
cute cats, cute music! i like wandering around this cute post-apocalypse looking out for my kitty offspring
Kittens :D
Really nice game with a lot to it. Eventually felt a bit slow paced and lacking variety but I loved the little touches like all the stuff you collect decking out the kitten's den.
Great game, I laughed with it! The only con I can think of is that I'd had made the cat a little faster, and maybe make the items not arrive instantly to the kitties, but having to take them yourself.
Nice graphics and lighthearted mood. Yeah your music track is pretty sweet, I was firing lasers and jammin out. The controls are nice but I felt I was doing little more than wandering about the world. I agree with others that the game could stand to have puzzle/battle elements (or other possibilities) to enhance the gameplay and the world.
So slow! Being that i was a cat i with the game made me feel more like a cat, quick and able to jump. other than that seems great.
Well done overall, gameplay was a little slow and something a little more challenging would be nice. The laser eyes really increased the enjoyment of the game. Good job!
Daht mighty laser vision, nuff' said! Loved it, great job for a 48 hour compo!
I loved the art style - can we have a cardboard cutout instructions for the cats? Laser eyes were awesome, too. I think it would be better if it had sound effects. Great overall :)
A little confusing at first but i like the little cats and the top hat lol :D also good music and art style
There are some great assets here. I wasn't all about searching through keyboard buttons to find the later functions, so my experience sorta tailed off.
I had fun. I thought it was cute. I didn't feel like the cat went to slow, but the jump did feel weird. Nice and solid for a 48 hour production, though. And I thought the music was catchy. In fact, I wrote lyrics. (I had to insert a few pick up notes, but it sounds good when I sing it.)
Boxy cat, yeah
She's got kittens
and she's goin'
to feed them
Tiny tophat,
rockin' guitar,
these are cool but
can't eat them
Fish in the lake
but she can't swim
Boxy cat, no!
What will ya do?
Time to evolve!
Gills, tail, paws, too.
Become something new.
Yay for strange goo!
Love the aesthetic! Wish boxcat was a little faster. Nice story as well, very cute. :)
You will like this game, if not - you will die of kitten eye lasers! :D
Fun. On one hand, the slow controls hinder things a bit, but, on the other hand, laser eyes.
Man I love those graphics!
The top hat and the guitar made me laugh a lot XD
But like said before, it's a fetch game!
If this was on steam for £2.99 I would buy it. Epic game, good luck with the compo!
Yo have to change the music...
and I have a question...if the original cats were not evolved, how is that the partner was already evolved when you founded it?!
good use of unity engine :)
i like your style but the game turn out a little boring without sounds or enemies, i think this is my error in mine too :O
Cute little exploration game with a touch of metroidvania. A little light on gameplay but bonus points for laser eyes.
Kittens, yay! Nicely made game, quite a looker with nice progression through the game, Liked the little touches mid-way through the game taking the items back ot the kittens to see them change as you played, good fun!
Hahaha. Hilariously off-beat. One laser-mew! sound short of five stars.
Nice mood and really funny game, though I missed some more challenge. Fitted fine with theme and the graphics are lovely! Overall good. Congratulations. =)
Coolness but had a tough time collecting anything other the guitar. The graphics are amazing so is the sound. How did
Really fun game, maybe the only one that i've really finished for the ludum dare !
Nice game, I'm quickly learning how beneficial it is to keep things simple, being able to play a complete game goes a long way. I love the radiosactive smoke effect!
Thanks for the comment on our game, if you have time to respond to my reply that would be awesome.
At first, I was like "WTF, radioactive bins in town... ?".
And then I was "Go, radioactive cat ! Destroy everything !!"
Very funny game :)
I'm surprised someone hasn't written a sternly worded letter to their council about those bins.
I wish that the you could have 'evolved' to move faster. Also, the music got to me after a while so I was glad to see there was a mute button. I love that you took your box-cat character from LD22 an used him in this one. The car models and general look of the environment is really nice. I also enjoyed blasting cars with my laser eyes. Well done.
Really nice work. It's sort of like a 3D metroidvania which was quite nice. Good job.
First kitten game I've had :) Felt nice and solid to play but would liked to have had a bit more of a challenge.
Go go laser cat!
Good to see a sandbox game, cool idea. The movement was a bit slow and the music was totally annoying. I liked the main concept, though. Good job!
This was really just a trip. I wish there were some obsticles to attempt to thwart you.. cars trying to run you over or something. Anyways very nice job.
The fetch questing got me bored for awhile. although after reading about the ability to blow up cars, I went played it again and endured. Nice touches of humor. Good job.
Cute little game, nice music and pretty good humour as well! An early speed upgrade for my cat would've been nice as he was a little sluggish. Caterpillar tracks followed by a rocket engine perhaps? ;)
Radioactive laser cats! The game is as awesome as it sounds.
Only down side was the movement felt sluggish.
Laser eyes are soooo awesome ! I kinda wish there were enemies, since car didn't seem to fight back ^^
Great entry !
It wasn't clear you needed to touch radioactive barrels to evolve.. i was searching some objects in the scenario!
Cute game! The music set the mood, although it also was kind of at odds with some of the cuter moments of the game. It wasn't readily apparent as to how I could evolve and move the game forward, but after I got that it was a lot more fun and enjoyable. :) I got stuck at the part where you could find a mate haha. Great work!
Nice exploration game! With kittens :) Hard not too like. Didn't manage to feed them but did manage to get self illumination :P Good job!
This game as it is now with the short story is ok. Actually you made me install Unity what killed my Windows in the previous 3 LDs so I needed complet reinstall. But now it seem to work well.
I liked the graphics and the music is nice, it was good to hear and the game needs it. Jumping is a little disappointing becase come on it's a cat. Cats are not jumping, they don't know about gravity they just fly.
Anyway thanks for making this! :)
Radioactive boxcats with laser eyes. Awesome!
The level design rather looks like being insied a building than outside. Some sound effects would be great. Pretty solid gameplay.
Really good well rounded entry. It's all there characters, music graphics, cuteness. Good job.
I really like the idea, is very funny. The music matches perfectly.
Here's a tip for a small fix: sometimes the character´s light goes out, right? You need to change the light´s configuration. Go to "Render Mode" option and change from "Auto" to "Important" to correct this problem. Great job!
Way to add the kittens. I like the music the most. It occurred to me that the Mama cat's mutations will not be passed on to this litter of kittens because she acquired them after breeding.
You spent much time on graphics, so other stuff seems to lack content. The idea is working. Humor is nice.
Ah, I see you've gone with the collectible hats again ;)
Good to see you're developing a personal style - I enjoyed this, although the movement could have been a little quicker!
I really liked this game, it was very cute and I enjoyed it a lot. But it's a bit short and needs more gameplay beside exploring.
Also it's too bad the gliding style of movement without animation or sfx ruins the immersion a bit.
Cute art style. Game reminded me of space station valley. Bonus points for kittens.
Controls felt more like a RC car than a cat, but great music, and some really cool ideas in there that had me exploring. The green fog effects from the radioactive barrels were a nice touch.
The game was slow for being an exploration game. The music wasn't loopeable so I had to turn it off, because it was being very repetitive. The first time I played, some barrels didn't make me evolve, so I was wandering a lot of time trying to figure what to do.
It was a funny story, but nothing more.
well, it wasnt than fun it seemed to be at the beginning. But nice
A pretty interesting entry. Gravity when jumping feels a little off, but laser eyes make up for it. The game is pretty complete for 48 hours of work! Good job!
really good & funny game. one of the few good 3d games in ld24! i think the game would be really improved with some soundeffects.
Funny and fun game. Awesome graphics.
I liked the mutations and the ending :)
Lots of fun, did not understand at first that the radioactive stuff gave you abilities, so a bit confusing at first but the atmosphere of the game is hilarious.
Wooooo awesome game although I hate kittens.
But I just love this game. Well played, awesome effects, awesome everything.
Cool chilling music, cool graphics, cool idea. Yeah. Nothing much to add here I guess. Although yes, the movement was a bit slow, but who cares. I had fun while it lasted.
Also super extra points for having a time lapse video and all the extras you added.
Even if the ammount of work is impressive for 48h, spend only 1 or 2h for sounds effects would have really help to make it a perfect entry. Especially the powerup sequence which have a lot of graphic polish, could benefit from a rewarding "shhwililin" or "bwalalaonng" SFX. And I'm not even sure that silent laser vision is legal... I mean Georges Lucas could sue you for that.
<3 Little kittens n.n, I love the idea bro! nice work :D
The jumping felt very stiff, but it had some good humor in it!
Those little kittens tug at your heart strings! But they're fine by the end, so all is good!
Loved the game. The idea is fairly simple, but the execution really shines. It's weird and funny at the same time. I really enjoyed blasting stuff with my laser eyes!
Took me a while to figure out I should move towards the radiation spilling barrels though, but given the nature of the game I shouldn't be surprised. Doesn't ruin the overall experience.
What everyone else said. This is really well done- you somehow had me inventing a backstory and caring about the kittens even though they were just cubes. That's skill.
Nicely done. I agree with what people said about the controls. Both the jumping and the walking felt off. The game definitely could have really used some sort of challenge (puzzles, enemies, etc) to really engage players.
Cute. Add a minimap and a run option so that backtracking isn't so tedious and this would be perfect. Really nice job on the graphics, by the way. I don't think I've ever seen so much 3D content in a LD game before.
Also: I was so pumped up to get the jump and jump like 20 feet in the air. Then I finally get it and I jump like 2cm. what a disappointment :D
Great game, anything with cats in gets my vote. The laser eyes and top hats made me smile too, good work
Simple, but fun.
Really liked the visual style.
The controls were a bit irritating at first, but I got used to them.
Cute and funny. Wasn't sure if the tail mutation actually did anything though. Wish Boxy was a bit faster as well. Not being able to enter the water seemed forced in an invisible-wall-type way. Maybe if a message popped up saying something like "Can't go in there. You've never learned how to swim," it would be a little more clear, and not seem like a bug at first.
Sound effects would have helped A LOT too.
Good job though.
I really didn't like the sluggish controls, and I got stuck where I couldn't seem to evolve any more, and couldn't jump over the barrels/boxes. I liked the music, and overall quirky nature of the idea though. Rock and roll kittens!
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Well made and well thought out. I felt the movement was a little slow which made things drag slightly. Ultimately, I think this game's biggest danger is becoming just a series of fetch quests. You should consider mixing in some puzzles or action in order to spice things up.