Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD41 → Frogs vs. Cats
By cincodenada
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 643 | 2.75 | 28 | |
| Fun | 632 | 2.60 | 27 | |
| Innovation | 601 | 2.78 | 28 | |
| Theme | 470 | 3.32 | 28 | |
| Graphics | 301 | 3.36 | 28 | |
| Audio | 490 | 2.24 | 27 | |
| Humor | 252 | 2.93 | 26 | |
| Mood | 486 | 2.75 | 24 |
I like the retro art and the game reminded me of the good old days of MUDs and text based descriptions of what you see. I found the controls and general movement a bit stale and it didn't feel too aligned with jumping onto platforms etc. I also had some issues with not being able to inspect/enter, X key had no effect. Aren't the cats supposed to damage me btw? =)
The cats were supposed to damage, but I didn't get around to that, so they're just...intimidating? :wink: I'll be working on it post-dare, to flesh out the later areas. And X is for hopping vertically, Z is to inspect/enter. You should be able to finish the game, although it's too easy, I forgot to make the grate need a key. Lessons learned for next time on planning and priorities :stuck_out_tongue:
Great concept, controlling a text adventure by platforming and going into doors. I’d definitely appreciate the cats being actual hazards. Also I couldn’t really figure out where to go to finish the level, but I might have just not been paying close enough attention.
I like so much your animations, feel like 80's games and good concept!
Ha ha! Great idea - it was a bit confusing for me because the first door I came to was "UP" and it says the joke about hurting your eyes - but just thought the doors were not usable! Figured it out after that though.
Raining cats was my favourite bit. I'm glad you didn't get around to making them deal damage!
Thanks for the feedback - I'll make it more obvious that the joke door is special, that's a good tip! And I added a hint to the description above. The goal is, as tradition would have it, to find and open a ches...but it's locked, of course!
Really liked how the frog looks. Its animations are very well done. And the boucing cat head made me laugh..!
Good job on making the game :)
Nice 90s style art, a bit buggy sound then moving the frog. Also very interesting genesis of the game idea. Good effort.
So, I was skeptic until I checked the description and found out that the game is winnable and saw the hint. For some reason, the small details really get me - the catsle, the contents of the chest and the credits. Great job!
Game felt a little clumsy but the artwork made up for it! Thanks for adding the hint btw :wink:
Cool idea but the execution needs some work.
First of all the usual suspect of controls. Sure, being a PICO-8 game, it was easy enough to guess the controls. But having three different jumps was just weird. And it took me quite a while to realize that I can jump through the platforms with the straight up vertical jump. frogscats.gif
It was really lacking on sound department. I think you only had two different sound effects, the jump and collision (which played way too much on stairs etc). They got annoying and repetitive very fast.
The text portion of the game wasn't flawless either. The text was way too fast (at least for me) and had some weird positioning/repeating glitches. frogstext1.png frogstext2.png
Then the items. It would have been nice if there was some visual indication of the chests, keys etc. Well, it kinda takes me back to early 90s point and click games where you sometimes had to methodically try to click on every pixel of the screen.
Anyways, good job!
@antti-haavikko Thanks for the detailed review! I appreciate you taking the time to try it out and write this up :smiley:
After playing a bit more with your comments in mind, I agree with you on the controls - there's no need for a separate forward hop and up-one-block hop, it could just automatically hop up the block when you run into them. It's definitely on my list!
The through-platforms thing is a callback to the old games where that was prevalent (the Keen games were a big influence on me!), but it's not as prevalent these days. I think I'll add a little intro screen demonstrating the moves/controls to make that clear.
Definitely could use more sounds! I actually disabled the collision sound in my latest version, cause it was far too prevalent. It should be just to indicate you've hit the edge of the world, basically (which it doesn't even do now, so :shrug_tone1: )
The repeating text is also high on my list - I just need to keep track of which texts I've shown already and not duplicate them. The text is intended to be "part of the sky", but your screenshot is a bad combination of that and another bug, where you spawn off-screen, it renders the text at the edge, and then it scrolls to you, which scrolls the text away.
I wanted to keep the items in the tradition of the old text adventures, where you pretty much just got a mention of a thing (stream, weeds, etc) existing and had to examine them. The weeds are a stand-in, and I might add an NPC so that if you're stumped you can ask and they can give you some clues. I *don't* intend for it to be the every-pixel frustration of the point-and-clicks!
I've linked an updated post-compo version that addresses some things, and I'll keep updating that link as I go, you've given me some great todo items!
@cowa @TomekS @croewens Glad the artwork won you over...the dorky frog turned out better than I had hoped, I'm not a very artsy person, and it makes me smile watching him flop around :)
@Zinkler Glad you persisted, and that you noticed the details! I tried to include some silly jokes.
Good job with your submission. It is a bit rough but I like the idea and could be pretty fun game with a bit of extra development. The movement can feel a bit awkward at time and it seemed like I was clipping around a bit when I jumped into stuff. I did enjoy the retro art style.
cool style
Interesting idea, nice implementation, awesome graphics! The controls are a bit awkward, though.
Loved the credits :-)
The idea is interesting, although the controls can be improved. Sometimes I found my self trying to jump higher and forward, but the frog didn't do that, it fix one axis and go there. The cats didn't do anything for me, I read that they was supposed to do damage, in that case it would be more interesting and challenging. The graphics are nice, and the whole entering doors and grates are cool, you don't know where you are going to show up next. Overall, good job!
I had fun exploring the world but the game was plagued by a lot of issues I felt was holding it back from its true potential. First the sound effect that plays when you collide with a wall on a jump is absolutely grating on the nerves. Maybe you could lower it a bit. Next I would really have liked to have some music. The only sounds that hear right now is the jumping and colliding sound effects. And this is a minor nitpick but if you jump with x you can't jump forward which pretty much makes this button useless. But despite these flaws this is still a fun exploration game.
I really liked the descriptions of the scenarios, they gave life to the maps even though they were graphically the same. It's a pity we could not see more of it. The sprites and animations are pretty good. Great game!
I love the graphics, but the game was a bit hard to control. It very much had that 80's feel as well as the "what is this, how do i play it!?!" feeling that was so common back in the day. Everything had a nice feel to it. =)
I like the graphics and animations. It was a little hard to jump up the steps, but I think it really matches the theme! Good job!