FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD34 → Bellows

Bellows

By tayloranderson

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness1100
Audio743.98
Fun1413.68
Overall1433.77
Innovation1673.65
Graphics2114.00
Mood2423.58
Theme2843.93
Humor4032.83

Comments

tayl1r 2015-12-15 01:22

This looks so nice.

rnd 2015-12-15 01:31

looks nice, but difficult to controll it.. keep it up

infinitysquaredgames 2015-12-15 01:40

Great game!

fanatrick 2015-12-15 01:43

Polished and fun, a bit too hard tho

solifuge 2015-12-15 01:43

This is absolutely a fantasy I can relate to. So cool :O

That song is gorgeous, and chock full of ennui. It does a lot to build on the "escape from a dingy city" narrative. I love the second part, when the orchestra breaks into the motiff; unfortunately, I rarely last long enough to enjoy it, since it loops. Good motivation!

I really dig the art style too; the monochrome background draws attention to the black and white objects standing out against it. The way all hazards are black with white outs makes for a great, easily-recognized visual cue. I knew to avoid rats the first time I saw them, without instruction. Good game design!

The gameplay feels great too, and the rough steering is a new challenge my brain isn't used to. I'm glad you can recover from hits too; that makes things more forgiving. Though it's subtle, I also love the ability to spam the bellows after I run out of gas, to squeeze just a bit of air out and hover fruitlessly in the air for a few moments, before plummeting down; the way the game recognizes my desperation and characterizes it that way is adorable, and feels great.

Top marks, all around. You guys did great!

teamdromedare 2015-12-15 01:43

Wow, really enjoy the look of this game! Also, the music was freakin' sweet :)

The controllers are rather difficult though, but the game itself did become more fun once I got used to it.

yumaikas 2015-12-15 01:44

It's funny how the music for this game sets it in a very steampunk place, even though the art is rather abstract. Good Job, TaylorAnderson.

gfm 2015-12-15 02:04

I really liked this game's idea, but two points really annoyed me:

1 - Lack of quick turn: If there were a "double tap A" to switch directions, I would find this really fun and challenging. Without it, it feels like the difficult is too cheap. I'm either forced to spend a burst of air so I can be thrust vertically (which may not be an option if there are no bubbles nearby) or I may be forced into an enemy because there's not enough time to steer.

2 - Too random: Some times (3 runs out of 8, I think) I got no bubble until I was on my last "jump".

The music, however, was great and the graphics really cute! :)

ryandali 2015-12-15 03:44

Only complaint would be the spacing of the bubbles. ran into a couple spawns where there were no bubbles to collect, so ran out of air and died, or while travelling along, missed one then just as I ran out saw 4 above me just out of reach.

Great visuals, great audio, cool gameplay, impressive stuff.

logon13 2015-12-15 03:45

I loved the difficult control scheme made for a great challenge :D

threelivesgames 2015-12-15 04:11

Fun, hard and good graphics.

bulletsarepeopletoo 2015-12-15 04:18

A lot of fun. Looks and sounds great!

On one playthrough, I don't think I missed any bubbles, but I still died because it was too long between bubbles...

tweedle 2015-12-15 04:22

A lot of fun! I had to play with two hands to get a better grasp for the controls. Nice art style too. Damn rats!

firellon 2015-12-15 05:44

Excellent graphics, nice theme interpretation, and procedural generation is assuring that every game will be unique. Still, it's a jumper, so it's not very novel mechanic.
Nicely done, anyway. Should become a pretty mobile game filler-style.

troma 2015-12-15 05:44

Good mechanics, beautiful art and song. Well played!

lkfumagalli 2015-12-15 05:51

You guys did an amazing job with this! The sprites, the sound-effects and the music all fit the mood perfectly! I think the mechanic of using bellows to launch yourself upward is incredibly creative and naturally you fit the two button theme. I also find the situation, the character and the death by enemies to be funny and enjoyable.

My main gripe with the game is the spacing of the bubbles. They feel too random and near the start, too sparse. It's fine to be challenging, but death due to lack of bubbles feels unfair. By contrast, I enjoyed it when I lost due to a crow collision. Another problem is it's too difficult to control your turns, but this might be more forgivable if the bubbles were more common.

Nonetheless, I found it entertaining. Well done!

rockhoppergames 2015-12-15 06:26

Excellent variation on the runner/climber genre! I particularly liked that enemies didn't one hit kill you, and that there actually was an ending!

Personally, I found the game a little easy, though I see plenty of people talking about the difficulty above me. Maybe I got a good spawn, but I found spacing my puffs helped a lot. Maybe adding faster scrolling for people who rush would even it out a bit there?

rocketship 2015-12-15 09:13

Uu it's so hard, the controls are fun but definitely need a couple tries to get a grasp on. Also looks really pretty. I didn't get very far in the game because the difficulty was quite high.

r8berto 2015-12-15 19:46

Really nice but I find it very hard. BTW This could be a good mobile phone game

rogberth 2015-12-15 19:47

Great game but insanely hard.. Maybe a 3 buttons theme would have been better!

taffaz 2015-12-15 20:10

Really good game, the music was great.

h-attila 2015-12-15 23:37

A bit hard but very well presented. Fun twist on the endless jumper genre.

miketsunami 2015-12-16 00:26

Fun game mechanics and love the music and graphics. Nice work!

peekotus 2015-12-16 00:30

lol, i thought the bellows was a peg-leg.

chuigum 2015-12-16 01:51

Some awesome music, and a great concept. Liked the nice graphics too. Great job!

danex317 2015-12-16 01:53

This is so cute. I had trouble not bashing into walls. Otherwise it was great! Very different.

steboots 2015-12-16 01:55

Wow! The gameplay was smooth and the music was nice, but damn it was hard. Would love to see some stats to see how I'm doing and what the goal is. Feel like I never got better at the game, only less worse haha

elliottd 2015-12-16 02:14

wow, this is great. normally I don't like the asymmetric control (one button switches, the other is an action), but I think you've hit a sweet spot with the speed of turning and the range to cover. I love how gentle the puff sound is.

gkxd 2015-12-16 02:19

I thought this game was really fun.

The controls were a bit frustrating at times. I think a press left/right to turn and press both to use bellows would be a more intuitive control scheme.

The RNG has also killed me multiple times in the early game by not giving me enough bubbles. (Though whenever I got past the early game, there would be enough bubbles.)

enchae 2015-12-16 02:28

Wonderful! I absolutely adore the sound choices, the graphics were nice (Although I think I a sepia color palette would've added more to the atmosphere), and it's challenging.

Although I do think this game would benefit from three button controls, overall I gotta give this a some nice ratings.

Good job!

nodens 2015-12-16 02:49

The aesthetic is fantastic. I could listen to this music all day. Really wanted to reach the end, but I'm just not good enough :P

onlyslightly 2015-12-16 02:53

AMAZING GAME! Loved so many things about this game. The music and graphics were beautiful. And I kept on playing wanting to hear more and more of the song. i loved how floaty and precarious everything felt. It made me really feel for the little guy. It was adorable. Thank you so much for making this game. We had so much fun playing this!

lawendt 2015-12-16 03:08

Nice game! Just think you need to work a little bit more on the generation. There were a few time that at the beginning I run out of air before I even see a bubble.

lawendt 2015-12-16 03:09

Nice music and sound btw!

phocker 2015-12-16 03:38

that was really a fantastic game - great feel - interesting but solid controls - well done

acorn 2015-12-16 03:40

This game looks and feels fantastic. Would love to see this expanded post-jam! I think it would make a great mobile game (perhaps having the bellows moving at all times and then tapping to blow). Do you have a twitter?

tayloranderson 2015-12-16 03:49

hello! yes i do, at @ttl_anderson.

archonthewizard 2015-12-16 04:16

WHAT'S MY SCORE?!

Seriously, though - really fun, strangely addictive game. I could have played for hours.

danielsann7 2015-12-16 04:29

beatiful game, graphics and mechanics works perfectly and the music is awesome too, good work!

jimmothysanchez 2015-12-16 05:06

This was a very clever game. I liked the idea, and I loved the art. But I felt like I wasn't in control of my character though. It made me feel like how well I did was totally random.

tayloranderson 2015-12-16 05:14

it takes a little practice, but you can get the hang of it eventually!

ruka 2015-12-16 06:23

pretty cool idea! kinda hard at first try, but I can manage to understand the mechanics. well done!

imagossoftworks 2015-12-16 06:45

Really nice!

esayitch 2015-12-16 06:49

Wonderful music, great visuals. Very cool idea and usage of the theme as well, but controlling the bellows is pretty tough xD Guess it needs some getting used to. Cool, stylish entry. Good luck!

felilix 2015-12-16 09:29

Wow, beautiful and fun!

videodog 2015-12-16 09:39

Nice looking game!

pjimmy 2015-12-16 15:03

Awesome! Creative gameplay, great fun to play, nice visuals, very challenging, well done :)

gamecook 2015-12-16 16:54

The game is great. My only issue was that using one button to realign the bellow make it way too hard. I'd suggest using left right for direction and maybe having the player auto fire to move up so it's more about timing and anticipating where you want to go. Great job!

sir-magic 2015-12-16 17:53

Nice work, it's pretty hard but looks and sounds nice.

x92rwzb 2015-12-16 19:57

Cool idea for a game. I liked your graphics. The gameplay was also pretty cool. Nice job!

reccy 2015-12-17 00:55

Cool little game, had fun with it!
:D

publicidadeba 2015-12-17 01:32

If you balance the difficulty...this can me a hit on mobile! Awesome work guys

krafty 2015-12-17 01:50

Fun and I like the graphics and the game mechanic, but it's a little bit too hard, and hard to control. Great job though! The atmosphere is really good :)

nunesbarbosa 2015-12-17 02:32

Nice game! Loved the music and the art style. The game controlare are pretty hardcore

cremagames 2015-12-17 08:09

One of the best games I've played, nice little game here. Loving the music and the art style.

mitya1234 2015-12-17 12:34

I think that your game should have not 1:1 display fromat, because it is very simle to get out of screen to the top. But your game is very good. It has very good controls.

francoisvn 2015-12-18 00:29

Great little game, but a bit too hard

kgs0142 2015-12-18 14:27

Nice one! the smooth animation feels really good, and it's also challenging to me, good job! :D

lukezaz 2015-12-19 04:13

Decently fun, but quite difficult. The animals moving down made them hard to dodge and I'd frequently get hit twice in a row and be unable to recover in time. Additionally, the controls were a bit difficult to use and as such made getting where I wanted to go problematic.

On the plus side, the graphics & audio were enjoyable and fitting and the instructions were nice and clear.

kepons 2015-12-19 21:23

That was pretty great. I loved the gentle sounds and the color scheme of the game. Also an interesting use of two button controls, if a little difficult to get used to.

crucknuk 2015-12-26 22:20

Excellent entry! I love everything about it! I juste wish there is a score to it. Excellent job !

jeasonfire 2015-12-30 18:50

The idea is great, but I would've found the controls a lot better if the bellows rotated between only 2 angles, for example, -45 and 45 degrees (if 0 would be pointing straight down). That way you could kinda toggle the direction and it would require less looking at the bellows' direction and more looking at the (beautiful) game.

That said, the graphics are quite good, music is great and the gameplay is very fun (minus the point made in the first paragraph). A clever idea with a pretty good implementation.