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The Last Compact Disk's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| End-of-life plan | #8 | 4.140 | 4.286 |
| Sounds | #109 | 3.105 | 3.214 |
| Overall | #137 | 3.133 | 3.243 |
| Theme relevance | #159 | 3.243 | 3.357 |
| Graphics | #183 | 2.829 | 2.929 |
| Fun | #236 | 2.346 | 2.429 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
End life plan
I won't let anything bad happen to this game. Unless maybe I screwed up the time step again, somehow. The point is that this game will exist for as long as I am myself, or maybe long after I'm dead.
My games are meant to survive for as long as there are computers. And I'm making the code itself open source, as described on the submission page. You can download the source code as a .love file, and play it on any operating system that supports LÖVE 11.5, if you know how to set it up or compile it.
Transparency note
I hardly did anything to this game before the first day of the jam started. Does making a function called "deep_copy_table(the_table)" by using a reference sound like cheating? Everybody should have their own way to deep copy tables right from the beginning.
And under no circumstances will you find me using a modern AI while developing games to write code or draw graphics or make music for me. There are some Speak-o-Tron voices in the game, but that was like pre-2008 stuff. Speak-o-Tron voice synthetics don't harm the world. I also had my mum make some of the music that's in this game.
Though I have to admit, I was anticipating the game jam approaching this time and I did have a lot of ideas for what I wanted the game to be beforehand... but all the code, graphics, and music happened on days 1-7, not before. I really sweated turning a framework into a weird platform engine.
After uploading version 1.0.0-a, the first public Jam version, I found out that there were some bugs. Bugs that I had to fix. This was still within the designated period of the game jam, but I uploaded a better version, 1.0.0-b. Both versions are legitimate to the game jam, but the "B" version is the one I recommend playing, and "B" is the one that's currently streaming as the embedded in-browser playable build. Basically, version 1.0.0-b is correct. I hope you enjoy it.
This was crazy. I don't think I should do this again lightly. These last seven days have been madness for me. There better not be critical bugs.
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Comments
Nice game! With a good promise for this jam hahaha
The premise is sweet and sad in exactly the right way for this jam: a future where only ONE physical disc is left, and it wants to get back to its owner. Personifying physical media as the protagonist is a lovely idea, and "find Hob Wombley and make him the proud owner of the last CD in existence" is a great line to build a game around.
The title screen background being a wall of corrupted text scrolling behind the menu is really effective. It says "data degrading" without a single word of explanation.
And the best detail: on the level select, locked levels don't say LOCKED, they say DENIED. in red. In a jam about revoked access, that word choice is perfect. Small thing, big impact. The studio screen with Hindbodes scrawled in neon green with a gem has personality too, and showing "Version 1.0.0-b (Jam Version)" in the corner is honest versioning that I appreciated.
Where I got stuck: I couldn't get into the level. The one unlocked stage (Windy Rocks) highlights in pink, but single click, double click, Enter and Space all did nothing, so I was stuck on the selection screen. Play Game on the main menu also only responded after several attempts with the keyboard.
Your page describes a jump with a 2 second recharge that sounds genuinely interesting and I never got to try it. The packaging here (corrupted text, DENIED., a CD with a will of its own) is among the most creative in the jam, so it's a real shame the level wouldn't open. Worth chasing down, because everything around it made me want to play.
That is... really weird. I'm baffled as to how that happened, because I've tested the game plenty of times and other people have gotten into the levels. Yes, the menu is arrow keys and space, I didn't think I had time to add mouse input which is the reason I didn't. Very concerning if the "Windy Rocks" button is not working for just some of the players. I don't know where to start, but I have to investigate. Did you try the downloadable version? I also think it's worth trying to go into the level really fast as a testing exercise, just in case there's an errant timer or something.
Thank you for your glowing review of... the menu details. Hehe. It's really positive but that does tickle me. I wasn't expecting the text in the background to mean a lot to any of the players.
In case you never get to play this game, I should tell you how I implemented "score". There are various timers and counters in the game, but instead of saying "87", they say "4 score and 7" when you read them. Yes, like the antiquated counting system the west used to use. Almost all of the stats for things you've collected show up as "score and something", including your health if you get it above 19. The pause menu shows a timer for how long the game's been running and for how long the game has been paused, both of which run through the filter of "x score and y seconds", and the ending credits screen gives you a "3 score and 5 years life expectency" if you beat the game with 65 life expectancy points. I really wish this Level 1 for you was working...
I really love the concept of the game! However, to be honest, In my oponion the controls a bit confusing. The UI not having mouse support and relying completely on arrow keys, plus using Space instead of Enter to select things, felt a bit unfamiliar to navigate. But you've built a really solid and fun foundation here. With just a few UX tweaks, this could be amazing. Keep up the good work!
fun game, though i had to stop shortly after beginning the 2nd level as the noisy ground and background started hurting my eyes, but i liked the first level. couldn't get passed all the enemies to the left though
I'm not fully sure if it'll help, but the second level is probably better in full-screen mode. That way it's better for Natalie and me. (That functionality is in the non-web version.)
Short but nice game! Physics is like you're on the moon and collision with enemies is inconsistent. In the end though, I think this is a fun platformer. :)
On the moon? That sounds suspicious. Are you sure I did the runtime speed right? Because last year I screwed up the update loop and I've been paranoid about it ever since. The game-speed on all people's computers is supposed to look like this.
I might have fixed the collision problems if I'd just had another person to playtest it during those first seven days... Earlier in the week I tried asking various people I know from my personal chatrooms and IRL but everybody I asked couldn't do it. Frustratingly, I think I actually thought of a pretty easy way to solve the enemy hit detection this morning. I could probably have implemented it in 4 minutes...
Might be just me then. It's not enough to ruin the game so don't worry about it. ^^;
concept is nice, good stuff
It's an unusual funny game, the graphics are interesting, and the music conveys the atmosphere well. It's a pity that I lose all my savings as soon as I lose one life.
Thanks for the compliments you gave. And feedback is important. Tragically in spite of having numerous options things were out of alignment for my fate and I couldn't get anybody I know to playtest the game before the end of the submission period for this game jam. I know how important that is.
I understand that this game has flaws. I found some flaws in it even before I had a second person play it. However, something about this doesn't add up. In defense of this one mechanic, I will try to analyze and document the savings through process of elimination.
There are basically three collections you can lose in some amount when you die. Your health, your spin points, and your years of life expectancy.
Life expectancy, unless I've missed a truly terrible bug, never actually resets instantly to 5 years or 0. It goes down by one when you get hit, and it goes down by two when you die. That one can be stockpiled pretty well if the player is either me or is uncommonly good. Now I do really hope this is actually happening and the game isn't bugged. That number should be able to go down slightly the way I think it's going down because that is basically this game's version of a leaderboard. It's not exactly a resource.
Health is how many hits you can take, and you have to lose health to die. That one replenishing after you die ordinarily does not make much sense. However I can imagine a possibly not-overpowered version of the mechanics where some kind of stockpiling for health occurs. Maybe it'd take a highest-point value from the previous level you just beat, change your health to that when you die and respawn, and each time you die the max reset health value is decremented so you can't just go through a level with 12+ health repeatedly without fear of the consequences willy nilly.
Finally, there's the spin points. At first, I didn't think of these as something that should stick around purely because I hadn't resolved what chests should be like yet, probably expecting that their drops were going to replenish after a player death. Things in the development changed since day 4. As chests reappear after death but don't reset their contents, I now can see spins decrementing the same way as life expectancy.
For all of these "items", I tried to make sure they'd carry over from previous levels as you go through a campaign. And then I found a bug very late into all this that made them not reset upon reentry from the main menu, which I had to fix on the last day. (They still do carry over when you're playing the levels in sequence.) That's how we ended up with Jam version 1.0.0-b.
So, for savings... Did you lose all your savings? Health was more nuanced in terms of bringing it back, something I only figured out last night, and years of life expectancy have a different algorithm altogether. That basically leaves spins, the one collectible I definitely could have done more about. What is it exactly that you specify when you say savings? This might be very important because suddenly I'm not so sure if the life expectancy counter is working as I designed it. There is also a 100% completion condition with a small reward output that works by saving whether or not each level was completed while all the chests were broken. It's probably never been seen by anybody else yet.
If y'all want to see it, I made a short video last night of my own gameplay of The Last Compact Disk and uploaded it here. For some reason I couldn't crop it right. My recording software was being a pain, too.
Love the art, love the music, love the text to speech. HATE myself for not being able to make it past level one after 20 minutes of trying. I couldn't make it to the warp, and the door to the right which I assume is the goal does nothing.
This game obviously has a lot of love, thought and effort put into it, and I wish I could experience all of it. The spin counter being divvied up into SCORE? That's BRILLIANT. Even just the description and this rating page drips of passion. You've got a follow from me, I wanna see more stuff like this!
Make sure to rest up after this jam, keep making good shit!
Oh, you're supposed to press S or the down arrow on the door. You can get to three further levels. It's described in the About menu. I hope you're feeling confident enough soon to try again.
Thanks a lot! I've been nervous about this game's feedback ever since the voting started. Yeah, when I saw the theme I decided that I might as well count like Abraham Lincoln. And the "score" thing returns in a pretty major way by the time you get to read the credits.
Ooooooh that makes sense, I kept pressing W hahaha. I'll definitely try again later, thanks for responding!