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[NostraDamon]

Be The Beetle!
>> PLAY NOW! <<

Hello everyone! 

I'm glad to show you a little FPS game i developped in 7 days for the "7DFPS" contest.
It is named "Be The Beetle!", you play as a beetle and have to rescue your friend using your claws!

The gameplay is simple: cut things with the Left Click, grab objects with the Right Click, and jump with the Space key.

Some screenshots:







To play the game, follow this link to my project: http://7dfps.org/?projects=3154
  (It's highly recommended to download an executable version for the best experience and quality!) 

Feedbacks are welcome. I keep updating the project regularly to solve all the bugs you can find, and the suggestions you might have.

Thank you 

[yellowmonkeystudios]

Interesting concept, kinda reminds me of Rainbow Studios' Deadly Creatures for the Wii.

My feedback based on the browser version,

- I recommend resizing the HUD, its quite large and blurry
- Cel-shaded visuals are groovy!
- Is there a reason my beetle can only cut twigs when the claws are retracted all the way back? Even if I do about 60 percent, visually I should still be able to cut the branches down.
- After you cut the twigs down, you could have them disappear after some time since they somewhat hinder your movement and can even obscure your view (and from my experience, I'm not able to hold onto them either, so they're presence doesn't seem all that required anymore).
- Grabbing onto a mushroom requires too much precision. You could have some sort of "locking" mechanism in place once the claws are able to get a hold of something. Because while I am carrying the mushroom towards the beetle that's asking for it, it starts fidgeting around a LOT.
- Same goes for trying to collect the water droplet. I must've spent 5 minutes trying to collect it, using different holds and changing my position. But I got frustrated and just gave up

Hope that helps!

[NostraDamon]

Hi yellowmonkeystudios, thank you for the feeback 

I recommend resizing the HUD, its quite large and blurry

Yes, that's a problem i encountered with the webplayer... I need to resize it, indeed.

Cel-shaded visuals are groovy!

I tried to make it as "cartoonish" as possible 

Is there a reason my beetle can only cut twigs when the claws are retracted all the way back? Even if I do about 60 percent, visually I should still be able to cut the branches down.

To cut things, you have to charge the claws a little bit, but no more than 50% normally. I might reduce it to 20-30%.

After you cut the twigs down, you could have them disappear after some time since they somewhat hinder your movement and can even obscure your view (and from my experience, I'm not able to hold onto them either, so they're presence doesn't seem all that required anymore).

That is true, cut twigs hinder the movements a lot, especially at the begenning of the game.
Make them disappear after a short duration of lifetime is not a bad idea.

Grabbing onto a mushroom requires too much precision. You could have some sort of "locking" mechanism in place once the claws are able to get a hold of something. Because while I am carrying the mushroom towards the beetle that's asking for it, it starts fidgeting around a LOT.

The grab mecanism is the main issue i encounter in the game development. I have to spend some time to work on it. However, a locking system is already in place while grabbing objects, but it seems that it's not efficient enough.

Same goes for trying to collect the water droplet. I must've spent 5 minutes trying to collect it, using different holds and changing my position. But I got frustrated and just gave up

Still the grabbing problem. If you right-click, and hold, water droplets will stick to your claws, that's the simplest way to catch them.


Thanks again for the feeback, it helps a lot 

[JosephCh]

Not a bad game.  I won't go through and mention the issues since they've already been done, all except that I was a little confused at the final puzzle.  It took me a minute, but I figured it out.  The blocks were way too big to have them right in front of the screen like that...

Overall, it's a pretty decent game.  It was fun and it made me think a little.
Good job! 

[NostraDamon]

Not a bad game.  I won't go through and mention the issues since they've already been done, all except that I was a little confused at the final puzzle.  It took me a minute, but I figured it out.  The blocks were way too big to have them right in front of the screen like that...

Overall, it's a pretty decent game.  It was fun and it made me think a little.
Good job! 

Thanks for playing!

Yes, the final puzzle is a little strange, i did it in emergency, the day before the deadline 
The grabbing mecanism is clearly bad at this point. I'll have to work on it.

However, I'm glad you have finished the game 

[NostraDamon]

Now Version 1.2 (and less buggy): http://7dfps.org/2012/06/21/be-the-beetle-update-v1-2/
Please have a look!

[Nate Kling]

Tried the game out and had a lot of fun. Great music and atmosphere. I liked clapping my claws to the rhythm ! I'd love to see a whole world to explore! Chopping down the flowers was really fun. I did have a hard time getting over the stumps of the flowers at first though.

[NostraDamon]

Tried the game out and had a lot of fun. Great music and atmosphere. I liked clapping my claws to the rhythm ! I'd love to see a whole world to explore! Chopping down the flowers was really fun. I did have a hard time getting over the stumps of the flowers at first though.

Ahah! I like following the rythm with my claws too 
Yes, i thought about doing an open world, but it was too much for a seven days contest. In the future maybe, why not?

[Slushy_]

When I recorded a short video for my channel I had problems with my cursor not locking to the game. That was the first version though

[NostraDamon]

Now the cursor is hidden, and locked into the game while playing. You can press Escape to unlock it, and left clicking in the game will relock it.
Did you publish a video of the game? Where can i find your channel?  

Edit: OK found it  Ahah, the cursor problem is now gone, and the grabbing system is less buggy, check out the update 1.2 

[King Slizzard]

The ambience is really pleasing and goes well with the simplistic missions.

I really liked the rubber band effect the biting had. I wish grabbing had the same effect but a bit more cushioned. It was hard for me to know when my Grab command would open or close the jaws.