Trijam 181 - unplugged mayhem

Hello there!

Dive into a wobbly-chaotic server room where you need to fix server storage problems; grab the cables and plug them into the servers with red dots to avoid total internet MAYHEM! The internet needs you to sort out the server storage issues; how else are all those influencers supposed to make a living if they cannot store their video snippets on the servers?

Download game for best experience

Enjoy a chaotic game with a wobbly character (I had fun playing around with 2d softbody and spring joints to create wobbly movement).

Instructions:

• WASD to move, SPACE to jump
• Walk into the cables and move to the servers with the red dot to plug them in. That's it!
• Plug in 12 cables within the limit of 50 seconds to win
• There are 4 obstacles (computers) which are really only there to be annoying and create more chaos to make the game and the movment a bit more chaotic!

Known issues

• Stuck in the right wall when things get too chaotic - the circle collider for the spring joint can get stuck with the level barriers and makes the player stuck in the wall -> I could fix the barrier, but ran out of time
• Sometimes, after plugging in the cable, it does not get removed from the player, allowing the player to jump to the next server and plug it in again -> Made it into a feature instead of fixing it; 
• The red dots to indicate where to plug the cable in could be more visually appealing (there is an animation for each new dot at the moment, but it is too subtle to be noticeabe); this might make it hard for people to spot the next target

What went well

• I really focussed on removing text from the UI - replaced timer and XP counter with relatively nice UI bars
• I managed to summarise the instructions in one image, instead of creating a tutorial level or spamming insutructions in the game menu screen
• Had fun playing with the softbody - I can imagine doing more games with wobbly/wonky movements
• Focused well on player feedback through sound and visuals - i.e. making the game more juicy than usual
• Might be my best, most-fun Trijam submission so far!

What's next

• Depending on feedback, I might want to add an extra objective of "keeping the server room tidy": Move all four obstacles (PCs) in one corner within the same timeframe to incentivise the player of playing a few more times to achieve the secondary objective

Credits/acknowledgments

Typically, I do all assets myself (as it should be for all jams in my humble opinion); however, this time I decided to free up time to REALLY work on the juiciness of the game (visual and audio feedback to the player) and thus decided to use some artwork and the audio from the following sources. I also decided to save time and didn't go for a menu or tutorial and instead managed to create a image instead (working on improving conveying instructions via image rather than text)

• Server artwork: "Backup" vector created by vectorjuice - www.freepik.com
• Panda artwork, amended: "Mascot" design vector created by catalyststuff - www.freepik.com
• Cable artwork, amended: "Electric wire" vector created by pch.vector - www.freepik.com
• Music: Monkeys Spinning Monkeys Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ 
• Sound: https://99sounds.org/free-sound-effects/ (retro chip power)
• Great tutorial on 2d soft bodies: YouTube channel "Binary Lunar"