Hilarious fun, reminded me of old episodes of Finders Keepers in some ways where everyone was tearing up the house in pursuit of random objects. I did get caught by the king a few times when I had the blugger in my hand which felt a tad unfair ("it's all under control, m'lord, honest"), but otherwise one of the best and most thematically on point games I've seen all jam. Amazing work!
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BLUGGER's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #144 | 4.283 | 4.283 |
| Overall | #157 | 3.950 | 3.950 |
| Fun | #190 | 3.850 | 3.850 |
| Originality | #217 | 4.050 | 4.050 |
Ranked from 60 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The goal of the game is to capture an out of control experiment, with ever-increasing chaos as it moves through the environment.
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
Yes
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
No
We used pre-existing audio
Comments
Hilariously disorienting - had tons of fun chasing the blob around and watching its destruction unfold. Felt a bit like the guards didn't really add much to the game though, they mostly got in the way but in a non-engaging fashion.
Would like to see maybe trap-like objects or interactions triggered by the blob that can hurt or stun the player - things like the falling candelabra, fenced gates that open/close, drawbridges, statues that fall in a tree-felling fashion and such.
Either way, an amazing submission! Congrats!
Submitted
Terminal TimeWith how much chaos is created by the Blugger, making it so that other objects stun the player would likely be more frustrating that enjoyable since there really aren't any interesting consequences of that action and waiting to regain control can be an infuriating mechanic that wouldn't really be in service to the fast-paced feel we were going for with the game. I would agree that there needs to be more ways to interact with NPCs and more end-states with those NPCs to keep things engaging, but we only had time for the one during the jam. I like the drawbridge idea, having some physics objects that could interact with the world in more predictable (or even unpredictable) ways than just flying everywhere could be fun to play with. Thanks for your feedback and for playing our game!
I can certainly see how stunning could be frustrating, but there still might a way of making the 'excessive amount of physics displacement' a more consistent interaction - it already happens to some extent, you just don't really have much control of it as the designer, right?
Yeah, more environment interactions would be cool - the blob hitting switches closing doors, putting lights out and so forth. What was the goal with the NPCs? What sort of interaction/engagement would they ideally offer?
Yeah, as one of the designers I only had control over the assets and level design. Still, as a player, I would worry about excessive set backs in a game that's already pretty difficult, but I'm sure my friends would have better insights than I do, I would defer to their expertise if they have any additional comments on that.
I personally think that the NPCs should interact more with the world at large and have different predictable behaviors. As an end state to the game, I still think the King does what he was designed to do, but he could get more enraged with more damage. I think a Janitor that would become outraged at the chaos that could alert the king would be interesting, or maybe a Cleric that could prevent spells from being cast in a vicinity but is completely unbothered by the Blugger or the player, so as the player you'd have to figure out how to keep the NPCs in such a way that they are driven away from the chaos or the chaos is driven away from them. With the tools the player has right now, I don't think that would be any more engaging than just having the King, but if the world at large was something the player could controllably interact with with more thematic portions of the castle segmented by a variety of sizes of passage ways that could be opened or closed, I envision that could be a fun challenge of trying to manage the flow of the ball with the patterns of the people.
Is that whole driving NPCs away part fun, though? Feels like following and interacting with the chaos is where the fun's at, and despite making sense conceptually, the interactions with NPCs that you mentioned would get in the way of that. I'd say that NPCs that interact with the environment and/or the blob are a safer bet - things like the blob sticking to NPCs that walk around and then you have to knock if off of them, guards that mostly open/close gates and raise/lower drawbrigdes, jesters juggling balls + the blob, mages channeling some weird ritual and the blob gets caught within the ritual circle into some move pattern and so forth.
These are also suggested with different types of blobs in mind, with slightly different behaviours like targeting interactibles if it bounces close by, avoiding humans if it 'sees' them - either way it's way too much speculation at this point - there's plenty you can explore for sure bahahahahah
I like a lot of these suggestions. I'd say maybe a stun or a trap that gets trigged by the blugger could add more to that feeling of out of control and give the environment more consequence. But I would say that said stun/trap would have to be dodgeable and occur very infrquently otherwise I do agree it would just add frustration to game that some people already find frustrating. I think the biggest problem is the game is too easy for some people and too hard for others and it's going to be a lot of work to balance especially when adding new features
Catching that dang Blugger was quite a fun challenge. A big problem I faced though was that it seemed like my force push didn't really do anything to it, and it was super hard to grab. Also, I found myself wanting to try to sprint, but found that it really wasn't necessary.
Submitted
RuleScrambleWere you charging the force push/grab or just clicking? We've gotten a couple of comments along the lines of that, so I just want to make sure we direct attention to the proper place to address that criticism if it was the instruction that was unclear or the controls themselves. Also, I think the jump increases speed, but I've also caught myself holding the shift key on occasion. Thanks for your feedback and for playing our game!
Very nice concept, and the visuals are also really well made. A very fun, chaotic experience. Well done!
Submitted
Waste WasterAwesome game
looks and feels really polished
perfect fit for the theme
Only problem I noticed was, ist possible to barricade the king into a room, so he cant move anymore.
But it was still fun to do so.
great work
Submitted
GMTK2020SubmissionThanks for playing and for the feedback! That's actually really cool that you got a barricade to work, we wanted to implement something like that but couldn't do so reliably enough to balance for it. Do you remember what room you were able to trap him in? I'd love to experiment with that a bit. We're glad you had fun!
Very well done! Definitely challenging and I had a lot of fun with it. I would suggest using a different font, but otherwise I think this is an excellent submission!
Submitted
Chain ReactionDefinitely chaotic, definitely follows the theme very well! Awesome game!
Submitted
Midnight MonorailI just rated your great game! Thank you very much for watching the stream!
Submitted
Stupid BobIt was fun to chase the thing and then watch everything get thrown about! Great idea~ Congrats on submitting a unique game to the jam, please check out my game if you haven't :D
Submitted
Black Hole DefenseThe art here is great! Physics very well implemented. Good game!
Submitted
Scrap Boy - GMTK Jam VersionI loved the absolute chaos that ensued from the very beginning of the game. The sheer amount of destruction the Blugger could reap was impressive, especially from a technical standpoint because the game didn't have any slowdown.
Fun and kinda frustrating gameplay, I can see massive potential in an expanded experience.
Submitted
Elemental GolfThanks for playing! I'm happy you appreciated the chaos, it's always one of the highlights for me and it works pretty well with the low vertex count from the low-poly graphics. I'm glad you see potential in this game! That really means a lot. If we expanded it, hopefully we'd be able to dial back that frustration a little, at least starting off. :)
This is amazing but man it's super hard too, only caught the bugger once and accidentally released it.
Submitted
GrandNyationalYeah, that happens a lot to me, too. It is definitely something that skill can improve, having played the game quite a bit the past few days, but it's really difficult out of the gate and I can understand not wanting to invest that sort of time for a jam game. Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
There is just an insane amount of objects in this for being created in 48 hours, love that. The feeling of that blugger was definitely an out of control experiment it was really well implemented. I really love everything about the environment, the shove and the king. It's the grab. It was really hard with the speed of the blugger to time the grab, also I think I caught it twice but wasn't aware quickly enough that it was caught and accidentally released it. I would recommend some feedback on the catch (maybe change the hand color). as well maybe the spectral hand starts at where the target hitbox is? gives a better idea on the range size of grab? Love it and can be a very fun time killer :)
Submitted
CottonwoodYeah, that whole catching and releasing of the Blugger got me a lot after we published, I'm usually so surprised that I actually got the darn thing that I immediately let it go again. It'd be good if there was a buffer once you caught it before you can intentionally release it, just to get rid of that accidental catch and release. If we keep working on it, I'm sure we could get that to feel a bit better, thanks for your feedback!
Very enjoyable and unique game, the presentation was very good aswell.
Submitted
Ice Cream Boy and the Magic BulletI love this game. Looks, feels, & sounds great!
If you do develop this more, I think the king ought to react more to things - maybe have him freak out about the mess, or go off on you for pushing him around? Would add a lot to the comedy =]
Submitted
Must Go FasterThanks! Yea, that would be awesome to have some more comedic moments like that, we'll keep that in mind if we work on it further! I liked the idea of him having increasing threat levels for how much things are damaged or something like that, but we didn't get around to it. Thanks for playing our game :)
Man thats awesome. Really looking forward to the mac or web build after the jam.
Submitted
Laser Guy (Harold)I quite enjoyed this. Pushing the king out of the way was probably the best part. It definitely felt out of control. I do think it would have been nice to have a bit more range on the right click grab. I ended up trapping the blugger in a room and just spamming right click until I caught it.
Submitted
Spin OutYeah, I think obviously you would want to avoid making it too easy. I wonder if maybe some visual representation of where the force grab would work would help with this. Something like a cone that expands as it charges or something? I don't know. I could see having multiple levels as well with guards coming from different directions. A lot of fun.
Yeah, I think there are ways I could've worked on an animation that was more clear. Instead we really just had two frames of the open hand and closed hand and quickly interpolated between that, I could totally envision a growing hand or something off to the side of the screen that swoops in to catch the Blugger or something so that the depth is a little more understandable without needing to play it a whole bunch to get to that point. Also, additional NPCs would be really neat, I already have a lot of ideas for that :) Thanks again!
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