Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Shrimp Tank
By slash-random
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 616 | 2.95 | 25 | |
| Fun | 660 | 2.56 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 562 | 2.78 | 25 | |
| Theme | 121 | 3.91 | 25 | |
| Graphics | 613 | 2.78 | 25 | |
| Audio | 221 | 3.39 | 25 | |
| Humor | 208 | 3.13 | 24 | |
| Mood | 321 | 3.33 | 23 |
I like how the music changes when you're in danger. It's a nice little touch, and it simultaneously is useful to the player and adds to the mood.
I think the camera should try harder to focus on the "player shrimp", though. And it's a little confusing how the "player shrimp" faces the direction you're going in, rather than the direction you're trying to go.
The multi-layer music and the snail theme and behaviour never fails to make me smile. :smiley:
The game has some flaws, but i like how it creates a nice mood with very few elements.
Camera needs some work, but the music was implemented nicely. It was a very good way to warn the player. Snails were fun, using them as elevators to get to the top. And then to be eaten by a fish. Dying seems a little bugged in graphical way, the shrimp flattens to a long thin line.
Loved the music, and the theme of the game is interesting. I found weird that you only move and the actions execute by themselves, but it is fun and I would love to see this developed further. :)
The camera needs to focus more on the player, but other than that the game was good. One thing I'd suggest is a bar or other visual display showing how much you've eaten or how much more to eat for the player to keep track of progress.
Need to know the controls - could put them at the beginning or in the description text. Might try making the player look more obviously different from the other shrimp so that when you first start you immediately identify who you are controlling. Also could give feedback on the food you collect so you know you're eating it. The music changing near the predators is great.
It's a cute game, but mostly you need a little more feedback for the user. With no description of the controls, and no audio/visual feedback when I was jumping, it was difficult to tell what was actually doing something. I couldn't tell at first if I was eating, or even what I was supposed to be eating. I thought maybe you had to push a button to eat, but then nothing was happening? And it took me nearly the entire game before I figured out that you could actually jump more than once and actually swim through the tank. I had actually ridden the snails up the sides a few times to get high enough to reach more food! (which is a neat touch, by the way).
I played it again knowing everything and had a much better time. I got super anxious about getting eaten whenever the fish got close!
Thanks :)
Thanks for all your comments. Here are some comments of mine to some specific problems that were mentioned.
Camera: Yes the camera didn't worked out, as it was intended. It runs ahead with the players speed-vector and whenever you change your direction (especially when you jump and drop down afterwards) the camera rushes around and doesn't show you, what's going on above. Needs some tweaking.
The controls: There are only few buttons but I should have mentioned them somewhere (just forgot about it). You can move "left" and "right", with ether "a" and "d" or "left" and "right" arrowkey, and jump hitting "space". You can use your jump after each second to swim upward or damp your fall, since there is no need to be grounded. I will add this to the itch.io discription.
Feedback on eating: It is missing simply because I ran out of time. It was planned to play a simple eating animation whenever you grab some food. It was not planed to add any sort of food progress feedback except your own grows, but it is a good point I will think about.
Graphical bug when dying: Yes I am aware of it and I will try to fix it.
One last thing: Sometimes the fishes get to close to the ground just due to pure RNG. This can lead to undeserved death, so the fish movement needs and will get some tweaking. But I will wait until the end of the votings before I update my game again.
Thanks again to @narve, @zorg, @rabbittortoise, @killerkun, @toonteamj, @huminaboz and @kosmo for your comments and constructive critique.
Nice work. You've already addressed all the feedback I would have given (i.e more feedback on player actions, and camera control). I know the movement is underwater so it's supposed to feel very damped and floaty, but it felt like I was battling with the controls a lot when I was moving around the tank. I had to hold a direction for a while before actually moving in that direction, and I felt that when I jumped I lost too much directional control. Perhaps this was the intention, since it also wouldn't make sense to have a super agile shrimp underwater.
I really like the danger music. Specifically how it fits in with the normal music. The transition is very smooth, so it doesn't feel jarring, but it does a great job of notifying the player that they are in danger.
I also like the art a lot. The art style is nice and consistent, which is always the most important thing. Everything looks like it indeed belongs to the same universe. The other creatures in the tank that didn't directly interact with the player were a nice addition. It made it feel more realistic, and lively.
Good job!
I like the mood, especially the music when the fish get you! With a little more work i can be a very funny simulator!
Congratulation for the good entry!
Cheers!
Honestly, this game didn't really work for me. I didn't feel in control playing the game and didn't really had an idea what I was doing and why I was doing it.
I really liked the multi-tracked music, and how it changed as you moved up. I was hoping that I would eventually get big enough to not be eaten by the fish, and then could swim higher to find even more scary fish. Oh well, at least all of my spawn are safe. Great job!
I liked the idea - was very similar in concept to a game I made myself a few LDs ago. But I found it is a bit slow to progress, and that the fish feel far too difficult to avoid (as soon as I see one it ate me), although it was hilarious when I realized I could swim up, and suddenly encountered one. Another problem was with the camera, I like the idea that it tracks a bit forwards in the way you are going, but I felt it was too extreme to have your character almost end up at the edge of the screen.
The music is also somehow really funny, so kudos for that.
nice job, i think i really don't have more comments that the listed above me, the camera was the main problem for me, ccontrols aren't explained but wasn't hard to deduce... good job and keep learning! take all the feedback and make a post LD version!
I feel like our games are cousins in some way!
The slow, lurching camera was making me a little sick, but otherwise cool game!
I like the idea, it is fun. I didn't have difficulty to find the controls but as someone else said next time don't forget to indicate them (I give up to test a game after 1min if I didn't find the controls).
At first I was a bit confused trying to find my character, but after that everything went smoothly. I like the idea of an animal ecosystem and the concept of growth. Cool tricks with the music too. Nice game, good work!
Very funny entry. I laughed when I got eaten. Cool entry. Keep up the good work.
Wew, the camera gave me a bit of motion sickness as I was playing...As a general word of advice, for a 2D platformer, I would only move the camera if the player passes a certain threshold in the viewport (generally the midpoint) and keep it stationary otherwise. :)
Aside from that, I thought this was a charming little game! The aquarium setting is certainly unique, and I loved the way the music added the dark piano as you started to swim with the predator fish (immediately before I would meet my untimely demise...)
Perhaps some more obvious feedback queues for the player would be appreciated I couldn't tell when I was eating something or just simply pushing it around. Maybe some munching sound effects, or some particle effects could go a long way.
Great job with this one! :)
nice game , good music and graphics, great idea , i have a lot of fun. good job (ps. sory for my bad english) :D
This is a very _shrimportant_ game... Ugh. I'm sorry for that. :D
The camera moved away in strange ways, but I see other people already pointed this out. The jump mechanic was a bit slow and wasn't that satisfying. Moving around in a platformer is an important factor to get right, so it'll feel crisp.
The music was entertaining, the art was basic but sufficient.
Did not expect that fish to suddenly shoot forward like that, as everything else moved slowly. GOod job on defying my assumption. :D
Very *shimpressive* little game :)
Nice music and cute programmer art. The fade in to the fish danger music was neat. Camera/controls kind of annoying to deal with but not so much I automatically stopped playing.
Also the sudden game over when a fish defies the otherwise slow tempo and darts forward was hilarious in a good way :)
So relaxing!... while you avoid that big pesky fishes!
Nice work lads! We also did a very original too, ye mid check it out?
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/hype-time