FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD45 → Flappy Bat

Flappy Bat

By druvsaft and jlindell

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3773.6137
Fun2133.7137
Innovation3773.4437
Theme9222.7736
Graphics5133.5837
Humor6172.5935
Mood7283.1336

Comments

los 2019-10-07 18:30

Cool idea! My "highscore" is currently only 11 :D

raomer 2019-10-07 18:46

Thats fun! I actually started to apologize to the poor bat everytime i smacked it against the ceiling. Again. And again. Its a pretty hard game, the handling of the controls itself is easy.

adrupen 2019-10-07 18:48

Not just a flappy bird clone, this game has some innovation to it. I like it!

nikadra 2019-10-07 18:51

What a creative idea for a game! It's an interesting take on the Flappy Bird style of games, while still managing to feel unique and original. My high score is currently 40, although the game gets quite hard after a while, so I don't know if I'll be able to beat it!

The gameplay is the most impressive part of the game, I'd say. The way you handled making echolocation is intruiging, given it kind of reflects how it actually works in real life to a certain degree. Coupling it with dodging obstables, it actually becomes quite challenging, but still manages to feel very fun due to its originality! It certainly helps set it apart from other similar games. The only I'd really like to see added is some more variety in the obstacles, but given the time constraint it's totally understandable, and it's definitely not something that ruins the game experience! As previously stated the game gets pretty hard, which is a good way to make it feel more intense as you progress.

The visuals in the game look very cool, especially the echolocation feature lighting up the environment! The cave surroundings are also very neatly designed and do add a lot to the mood. The bat itself also has a pretty cool design, with its glowing red eyes and dark wings flapping about.

The game's audio is enough to make flapping the bat feel just a little more pleasant, and it's a fitting sound to be sure. The only thing I'd say is a bit unfitting, at least in my opinion, is the music. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely not bad in its own right, but personally I think something a bit darker would have helped make the mood more immersive, although that's just my opinion, and perhaps that wasn't what you were going for anyway.

Overall, it is a fun game to play, with a creative idea for making it a little more unique. The only thing I'm left wondering is whether or not you decided to followed the theme, and in that case what your thoughts were about how it was represented, because I wasn't quite able to tell. Then again, it might just be because I'm totally oblivious to it, and just didn't realize it. In any case, nice job!

kodiqi 2019-10-08 05:12

Interesting twist on Flappy Bird, though it may lose some of the addictive quality of the original. I got 17 after a few tries, so I think it's a bit more forgiving too.

namnam 2019-10-08 10:48

Nice use of the theme, very simple but well done game :)

druvsaft 2019-10-08 11:02

@los, @raomer, @adrupen, thanks for playing, glad you liked it! Keep at that High Score!

@kodiqi, thanks for your comment, we wanted to avoid making it __*too*__ similar to the original, so we focused more on a faster gameplay from the start, but I'm sure there are many variables to tweak to make it more interesting :smile:

@nikadra, Thanks for your extensive feedback, glad you enjoyed the game for the most part!

We didn't really have the time to work on our own music for this Jam (hence opting out of that category), but we'll give some thought into what mood we're trying to convey with the music for next time, it's a good point! We think the music has a good __*cave-like*__ feeling, but perhaps it's clashing a bit with the overall mood of the graphics like you say.

> __*The only thing I’m left wondering is whether or not you decided to followed the theme, and in that case what your thoughts were about how it was represented, because I wasn’t quite able to tell*__.

We had quite a hard time with the theme originally, trying to come up with a solid idea was very difficult! In the end, our main interpretation is the darkness before starting the run playing on the _nothing_ part of the theme, and the fact that it resets to the original state if you don't keep flapping. Hope that makes sense to you, but perhaps we could have been more clear in conveying the theme :slight_smile:

druvsaft 2019-10-08 11:05

@namnam, thanks for playing!

nikadra 2019-10-08 19:46

@druvsaft I can totally agree that the music was cave-like, now that you say it! I guess I just expected something a little darker, but that might just be what I imagine when I think of a cave. I kind of felt it would've fit really well with the gloomy esthetics, but, of course, all games aren't meant to be dark, and it totally works with this music too!

Regarding the theme, I absolutely understand the struggle. It's really hard to think of a good idea for anything, having been given just a simple phrase for inspiration. But your explanation did clear it up, and when you mention it i totally remember a black screen before the game started! Like you said, it might be a good idea to convey it a bit more clearly, but the fact that you did use it to some extent is obviously great in its own right! I really did think the game was good, though, and these things are for the most part just nitpicks!

zhorky 2019-10-09 07:34

Basically i flappy bird clone with a twist that isn't really one. Still good game and is fun to play. Audio is quite good too.

corny 2019-10-09 11:41

This one's not the freshest take ever, seeing how at its core it IS a clone of flappy bird, but the echolocation mechanic manages to give it some original flair. Overall I enjoyed it - my highscore is only 10, though!

jutjuan 2019-10-09 13:19

Really cool and addicting game in a flappy bird style! Even though the game is pretty simple it looks and feels really polished. I didn't get the relation with the jam theme though. Good job!

elhombrebanana 2019-10-09 17:36

Best flappy bird I've played so far. I love how you implemented the theme into the core gameplay, one of my favourites so far!

Congrats!

superunknown 2019-10-09 17:38

Nice work! I was worried about another flappy bird clone, but this is certainly a unique take that works with the theme. Well done!

ajahks 2019-10-09 17:41

Yo that echolocation mechanic is super cool! It brings an innovative take on the flappy bird style. I liked the music, however, I also felt that it did not really match the atmosphere given. This is still an awesome submission to the jam!

firtage 2019-10-09 18:28

cool game but i would delete the blackscreen after the highscore.

stefanie-leitch 2019-10-09 22:03

The echolocation mechanic is definitely what made this game interesting - on the surface it looked like another flappy bird clone, but the echo location definitely made things a little bit deeper than how they first appeared. Good job.

druvsaft 2019-10-10 08:03

@zhorky, @corny, thanks for playing, while the game takes a lot of inspiration from flappy bird, we also looked to [Canabalt](http://canabalt.com/) for reference, to get a different feel from flappy bird, especially with the speed. We feel that the echolocation twist puts it apart from its inspirations enough, and with more time we would have loved to explore more ways to make the gameplay truly unique.

@jutjuan, @elhombrebanana, @superunknown, @ajahks, @stefanie-leitch, thanks for playing and for your kind words!

@firtage > __*i would delete the blackscreen after the highscore.*__

I think you're right, that would probably make the general flow of the game, at least for successive runs after the initial one, a bit smoother. Thanks for playing and for your feedback! :slight_smile:

baski 2019-10-10 12:35

My highscore was 35. Really good original clone of flappy bird :) Audio was okay and graphics are nice :).

Overall good job.

druvsaft 2019-10-10 15:17

@baski, thanks for playing, that's a good score!

selkkie 2019-10-11 10:17

This was a cool little game! Echolocation was a really cool idea, and you handled the visual communication in a very neat way. I think the game would be more challenging with less access to echolocation. Maybe something like a larger screen, and a different button for it? The glide button was a good addition also. I also think calling it Flappy Bat was a little on the nose, heh. I enjoyed it though, nice work!

druvsaft 2019-10-11 11:03

@selkkie, thank you for playing! I agree that there are probably ways we could tie the echolocation even more to the difficulty of the game, we had some ideas about obstacles that would be activated by sound, so you would have to wait until you passed them, but we never got that far! Glad you liked it overall, and thanks for the feedback!

asue 2019-10-13 14:44

At first, I thought the game didn't work, I didn't understand that you had to press a key to start it x) Graphics are nice and the game is quite original ! But I think that the music doesn't really fit the atmosphere of the game :o

mikeliosus 2019-10-13 14:56

Hey, guys!

Played your entry, very nice idea! I liked it!

I tried to play from HTML version but then switched to PC one, cause with my hundreds of tabs opened HTML version was a bit laggy. xD

Cave art looks really nice, I see you put much effort into it. :3

Well done! :3

Flappy Bat.png

druvsaft 2019-10-13 17:15

@asue @mikeliosus, thanks for playing, glad it was enjoyable! Feedback about the music has been noted, thanks!

roka-josh 2019-10-13 18:09

A very interesting take on the theme and certainly well executed. I would like to see this be turned into an app! Good job!

tort60091 2019-10-13 18:16

Cool visualization for echolocation. I really like the flow of this game. I want to replay this game again and again )) I think for this experience will be better with less dynamic mechanic, but anyway Great Work!

druvsaft 2019-10-13 18:17

@roka-josh, thanks for the kind words! Funnily enough, the web-build is perfectly playable in a phone browser, because of the simple controls :smile:

druvsaft 2019-10-13 18:21

@tort60091, thank you so much! Glad you liked it!

jam373 2019-10-14 22:45

Really great evolution of the "genre". Love the new mechanics a well as the darker art style. Solid entry!

druvsaft 2019-10-15 10:59

Thanks @jam373 !

dane-tesla 2019-10-19 00:10

A really fun entry! I'm not a huge fan of Flappy Bird-likes but this one was a neat one. Really clever mechanics.

druvsaft 2019-10-19 09:11

Thanks for playing @dane-tesla, glad you liked it despite not being something you'd usually play!