Jam Favorites: Ludum Dare 33 Part 1 Become the monster in some ama...

9 years ago

Jam Favorites: Ludum Dare 33 Part 1

Become the monster in some amazing games!

The Ludum Dare 33 is a two part event; a Compo and a Jam. I played about 430 of over 2,725 games that were entered, in my YouTube video series. The theme for this Ludum Dare was “You Are the Monster.” Below are just some of my favorites out of the games I played, in a random order.

Note, there are going to be two parts to this favorites article. Below are 18 of my favorites, in a random order. Part two is here.

Intergalactic Love Machine is a super cute space-themed dating sim. You are Astro, a spaceman on an adventure to get with every species in the galaxy. Each alien comes over to you to talk to the new space human. You must pick the best response to win their love. If you get three answers wrong in a single conversation, the alien will get mad or bored with you and move on. If you get enough answers correct, the alien will fall in love with your smooth talking and be with you. This game, complete with cute graphics, strange species, and some pretty funny dialogue, will have you searching for love in a strange place.

Sasquatch Loves Soup is a Pac-Man inspired game about Nini the Sasquatch. Nini takes great pride in her homemade soup, which feeds her wonderful children. She spends lots of time tending a large garden that produces ingredients for this soup. One day, farmers come and burn down your garden. Now, how will you find food to put in your soup for your children? You are able to go back and forth from cooking mode to gathering mode for the pursuit of soup. There are three different local farms, each with different ingredients, that you can forage from. You must collect these ingredients Pac-Man style, while the farmers roam the land. If you run into a farmer, he will kill you. Once you have gathered the food that you want, you can leave and use it to make soup. If you gather enough dots, you can rawr - scaring the farmers back into their gates for a small amount of time. Will you be able to keep your children fed?

Lady Bug is a challenging platformer about a half bug, half lady experiment. This thing is attempting to escape the research facility she has been placed in. You are part bug, so you can move super fast, climb walls or ceilings, fit through small tunnels in walls, and super jump. Moving around these levels can be super fast, as long as you master the controls. Once you do, you are able to kill the guards quickly - leaving bloody splatters on the walls - and get to the next level. This lady bug is nothing like the gentle insect of the same name - this one is out for blood. Kill everyone quickly, escape the facility.

The Congress of Monsterdom is a charming endless shooter where you must zap humans with your laserbeam. The Congress of Monsterdom is the most prestigious group of monsters in the unknown universe. You want to be in this group, but are not a prestigious monster at all. You look like a giant huggable pink cloud. To prove your monsterdom, you have been sent to Earth to climb the ranks by slaying humans. You must use your giant eye to shoot lasers at the humans on Earth and their military people. After a short time of destruction and death, the military will start shooting rockets at you. These rockets, as you can imagine, will hurt you. You must shoot them down and continue to destroy, to level up into a better monster. Destroy Earth to be accepted into The Congress of Monsterdom.

Jack Edwards is a tower defence-esque game that has you scaring children in a haunted house. You have been hired to create a haunted house that makes children run away in fear. You must pick out different decorations, on a budget, to make your haunted house the most scary of the town. Each time you scare a child out of your haunted house, your popularity and money goes up. If too many people make it through your haunted house, you lose and your attraction is remembered as the lamest thing on halloween. Creating a haunted house is pretty challenging. You need to make sure you put decorations up in a way that children may see it more than once in the house - because of your small budget.

PokEscape: Magicrap’s Stealthy Journey for Survival & Gyrodeuce has you trying to survive as a Magicrap. You are looking to eat enough tall grass to survive and collect enough coins to keep your family afloat. In each level, you must eat grass and make it to the exit. It is also a good idea to collect some coins to send back to your family. At first it’s a walk in the park - well, until a bunch of capped kids start looking to capture you. Each time a pokeball hits you, you must fight it to survive. Starving is easy to do, so you’ll need to watch out to survive the forest.

Brood is a drag and drop management game where you must look after your children. Your monsters, which grow from strange spouts on your body, start off as eggs. They then grow into little monsters that look like they are trapped in a sack. Once they look monster like, you must gently place them onto the ground. There, they will walk around your cave growing and waiting for food. Humans are brought into the opening of your cave by your hand. You must drop them into the bottom of your cave so that they can be eaten. You can also feed your monsters under-developed egg sacs (as long as you lower those sacs slowly to the ground.) Bigger monsters will always eat little monsters, but over time bigger monsters will want to be released to the world. Make sure you keep your children happy, keep your threat level good and make sure you are a good mother!

Museum City Boat is a short game about a monster who has been locked in a glass cage. You have been put in a museum for tourists to come and see. Locked in a glass cage, only looked at for entertainment, is no way for a monster like you to live. So today, you have decided to escape! Once you break out of your glass box you can roam around the city destroying everything in site. Military tanks come to shoot you down, but they are easily pushed over by your monstrous strength. You can stay in the town destroying everything, or attempt to escape civilization. The developers of this game have a couple of goals listed on the game page - like not being seen by cameras or people. You can choose to attempt these challenges, or just cause mayhem of your own accord. This cute little monster does not deserve to be an artifact!

Hitogochi is a sweet, Tamagotchi-inspired, game about a monster and it’s caretaker. You are a monster who has been assigned a new caretaker called Nadine. This caretaker is quite new to the job, never having looked after a non-human before. She is trying her best despite the agency not giving her any food to feed you. Each day she wakes you up and asks what you want to do. There are a few options: play, eat, sleep, talk. You will interact and get to know this new person through these tasks. This game can go many ways - you can be mean towards her, or be kind and accepting. Each night when you go to sleep, hungry due to not having tons of food, you will ponder eating her. It is up to you if you eat Nadine before her week of caring is done, or if you let her live and bond with her. What fate will you give this new caretaker?

Escape From Twump Tower is a charming platformer where you must get higher and higher in Twump Tower. Twump was re-elected for a new term and, on a whim, fired all of the United States. This caused a massive uproar. With mobs coming for him, Twump has decided to climb to the top of Twump Tower and collect as much of his riches as he can along the way. As you scale the inside of the tower you must collect coins and break safes to ensure you have some of your own money to survive on. Elevators and boxes help you move upwards on your quest, but along the way rockets and people are trying to stop you. Rockets can hit you and people can shoot you - causing you to lose lives. Thankfully, you can throw extra boxes or people and hope they smash into hearts or coins. How much money can you make it out of Twump Tower with?

Play is about a girl named Betty. Betty is afraid of fires and monsters under her bed. You are a monster under her bed, but you are not there for scaring. Instead, you are working to help Betty cope with her fear. You can move around her room, knocking different toys off her furniture. Once the toys are on the floor, she will play with them, which will help her cope. However, if she sees you, she will become fearful. Soon, little fires start popping up which move the room. You must push these fires into the darkness under the furniture to make them disappear, so that they will not cause Betty fear. Some fire-related toys will help Betty more than other toys, but all in all, just keep Betty happy.

Monster Academy is a school for monsters who want to learn how to be proper. You play as a young blue monster who is looking to learn. Each class is quite fast: you have only 30 seconds to adapt to what is going on and do your best. Tasks like squishing bugs, biting people, shooting down balloons, and more. You must quickly do your best at each task and get a high score. If you get too many low scores, you will be dropped out of your university. If you do well, your monster will be happy and the lessons will get quicker and harder. Help your monster become a proper monster!

Mornings of a Seventeen Year Old Girl is a game about a different kind of monster. You are a 17 year old girl who is getting ready for school. Each day you look in the mirror and see the same freak-like monster-face you see every morning. You do not have much time, but you must pick different grooming products and cosmetics to change your appearance to look somewhat acceptable. You must also get dressed and look good enough to go to school. After each level, you will take a selfie of how you came out. This selfie is given a caption accordingly, then you move on to a new day of make up. You must hide the monster you think you are.

Monstre De Coiffure is a charming monster makeup game. Each monster comes into your makeup parlor looking to make their appearance that of a human. You are given a model to show you what needs to be done. The game is quite simple really, you pick up the matching makeup to the model, and you put it on your ugly monster. The different cosmetics work in different ways: when you use the lipstick, you must click and hold until the arrow is in the green area; when using the hair dye, you must shake the bottle then spray it onto their hair. Once you have the desired look, you can hit the bell. If you have done a good job, you will get more time. Once time has run out, the game will end. Monsters deserve to be beautiful as well!

Treatment and Control has you distributing medicine to the workforce of your city. You have been assigned the new job of distributing medicine. Each day you show up in a classroom-like setting. There are many people in this room - most of them grey. You have a sheet on your table of people to give medicine. Once you give these people their medicine, most of the time they will turn grey. When you go near each person, they will say a little line. Some lines have more character to them if they are colorful. Others don’t have much to say. Sometimes, the people you give medicine to have noticed strange things. Do your job, suppress their thoughts.

A Crown of My Own is a cute game about crafting your own crown. You are a monster that has been thrown out of a castle because the king believes that monsters do not belong in his kingdom. Angry, you decided to start your own kingdom that accepts everyone. To do this, you figure, you need a crown! You must go into the forest and find different objects to craft together, using your cauldron, anvil, and workbench. You also have a small garden where you can plant different seeds or sprouts to produce more vegetables. Each night, items in nearby areas are replenished - though they may be different. Things like fruits, sticks, skulls, and eyeballs are just some of the items you can find. Once you have collected a couple of things, you can start crafting. The goal of the game is to create a crown, but there are many, many different objects to create! Attempt to make some useful things and a crown for a kingdom.

T.A.G.W.Y.H.O.P.P.D.a.a.D.o.S.S. is a charming game where you get to be a dinosaur mascot who is looking to hand out flyers. You have the worst job ever: handing out flyers for a restaurant. People are walking around the streets. You must hop over to them and hit them with a flyer. Once they have it, you will gain money and they will continue on their way. If you run out of flyers, you must go back to the door of your restaurant and stock back up. If you hit someone without a flyer in your hand, it will cost you time. Sometimes meteors fall from the sky. If you collide with one, a burst of flyers will take over the street, giving you a higher score and higher number of flyers in your hand. Make the most money you can and try not to hit anyone!

Gleeok is a Legend of Zelda inspired game where you play a dragon! You are the dragon guarding a triangle piece. Thieves keep coming into your lair. You must use your fire breathing abilities to kill them off. You can also bump your head or neck into the thief to cause him damage. Once all of the enemy’s hearts are gone, he will die. Sometimes he will drop some meat you can eat for a health bonus. Over time, you will get stronger by killing more enemies. This will cause you to receive another head. These extra heads are not controlled by you and will do what they please. You must use them in your favor to get rid of these thieves and survive as long as you can!