FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → TightFloe

TightFloe

By catgol1

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall6582.7339
Fun6512.5439
Innovation4553.0139
Theme5483.1239
Graphics6332.4840
Audio3073.0039
Humor3832.2736
Mood2153.2439

Comments

tinamil 2018-08-12 23:44

Good try for a first Ludum Dare. It's tough to both complete a game and learn a new toolset like Unity at the same time, but hopefully you've learned a lot from the experience. I think the game is feature incomplete, like the penguins can just walk over the water or ice regardless.

ethan-nachreiner 2018-08-12 23:53

Well that certainly was an experience... I love it. No seriously, I thought the concept was great. Also, "Peace is dead" made me laugh 😄. Learning a new tool can be difficult, and I hope I'm not being harsh when I say that it shows; but I still had fun playing the game. Also (in my first attempt) when the iceberg started drifting away I jumped off of it and waited on the mainland, and watched as other Father Penguins murdered (?) others as the camera drifted further away... so that was neat.

smilewood 2018-08-12 23:54

What a sad game. I thought that it was really well done, although the controls were a little confusing at first. It was incredibly difficult to keep track of the two babies and their needs and the disintegrating ice sheet. I liked your sounds, they added a lot to the atmosphere of the game. Well-done representation of the life of a penguin stuck on an iceberg.

allan-kong 2018-08-13 00:08

The game was little confusing, I didn't understand the mechanics, but the audio effects were clear and crisp

stephen-coley 2018-08-13 00:10

This was pretty unique, and tragic. At first I was annoyed at my two chicks always running away and having to find them hiding in the noises flock. Then as the ice started to melt, I got frantic trying to keep them both with me, fed and warm. Good work!

tombus 2018-08-13 02:16

Music was on point! Game has very somber feel.

shinysteel 2018-08-13 02:28

Good use of music! Matches the gameplay extremely well with all the penguins trying to survive and the ice melting. Great job!

dalbinblue 2018-08-13 04:14

Congratulations on your first Ludum Dare entry! Your game is a bit confusing; it feels like the game was a bit more commentary than game (in that you will always lose), but I did manage to at least keep peace alive until the second to last tiny piece of ice. The audio is good, but there were some odd effects on the penguins' graphics that didn't make as much sense. Specifically, some penguins would turn completely black but still be moving around, and one penguin turns blue for reason I can see.

catgol1 2018-08-13 05:48

@dalbinblue the things you didn't understood is part of the mourning system I tried (failed ?) to implement :wink:

The idea is that each penguin has one chick to take care of (except your penguin who has two). When it dies, the penguin will first start to cry over it's corpse, and that is when they make a sound. At first I thought it was not clear enough what penguin was crying so I added a blue-blinking effect at the last minute because I didn't have time to make an animation. I see now that : 1. it wasn't necessary to add this blinking effect because it is not chocking to hear penguin noises in a game with that much penguins even if we don't know which one is crying 2. nobody got what it was supposed to highlight :cry:

Anyway, when a penguin cries, those who aren't doing anything usefull come to confort him, and he gradually turns black while mourning and accepting his loss, which is why you saw that.

Obviously, the lack of animations, the quite uncomplete gameplay (I intended to have an option to allow the player to mourn on a dead chick, which could have helped to understand the behaviour of the AI) and AI which is not good enough don't help to understand this mechanics, and the link between a chick and his father is not obvious when we look at how they behave so all of this don't make so much sense.

Seeing the comments, I think I really should have added some animations, but I lacked both the time and the skills. Or maybe if I spent more time on the AI... :thinking:

Overall, I was not so happy with my performance but I am pleased to see that so many peoples got most of the feeling with so few arts, it is quite encouraging, thank you very much :hearts:

(By the way @tinamil penguins have their speed divided by two when they are in water, but the hit-boxes are not so good, and speed is already divided by two when a penguin holds a chick. Furthemore it is common knowlage that penguins are good swimmers :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: That being said, frost is supposed to grow faster in water but it doesn't seem to be working well, and it doesn't make sense that a penguin could still have a chick on his feet while swimming + I should have made an animation for the swim but I didn't have time :cry:)

sublustris 2018-08-13 07:22

don’t give up! Complete the PostCompo version and everything will be fine!

naemis 2018-08-13 07:58

I'll have to agree with the comments here, the controls were pretty confusing so starting the game was a bit weird. Also don't really know what's going on. It'd be nice if you highlighted or I was able to select the small penguins by clicking the top-left icons.

furtive-pygmy 2018-08-13 08:03

Music suited this very well, I was a bit confused but picked it up fairly quickly.

call-me-nutty 2018-08-13 08:30

I agree with others saying that the game needs some more polishing. The visuals are fine, the UI is fine, the gameplay is fine, the music fits the mood, problem is that none of it is explained so I didn't really know what to do. The sound of penguins dying/ yelling (not too sure) was a bit excessive in the later parts of the game though it did add to the tragic overtone.

With some more work you should be able to make a really nice, sad game. You have an interesting idea it clearly just needed more time, which you know have! Post-compo version here we go!

bill-wheatley 2018-08-13 08:47

A great concept with really nice music, thanks for putting this together. :)

gmaker 2018-08-13 09:04

Hey don't give up! Good try for a first participate. I loved the concept, however it took a time to realize what is happening.

sdrrv 2018-08-13 09:55

Hello mate! Its my first time too! Dont worry! my game is a real mess too! i Think that for the first game its really good! I love the concept. A few bugs at least but the game play is solid and i really liked the music!! Keep on trying mate! Next year its our year!! ;)

mrjorts 2018-08-13 10:27

Very sad to play, but good job building atmosphere.

eric-kulbiej 2018-08-13 13:05

Nice game, enjoyed it very much. Keep it up!

lars-erik 2018-08-14 16:02

Pretty sad. :( The music made it pretty gloomy. Well done for a learning run!

awix 2018-08-15 06:08

Good Gaming Idea, Music needs to be improved Graphics good

dcrdro 2018-08-19 17:21

Heh, it's non-standard idea, but realization is unsuccessful :( But anyway, it's your first attemp, so good luck in future :)