FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → The Adventures of Eggbert

The Adventures of Eggbert

By battlecat

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall6003.3649
Fun6463.1448
Innovation9342.7148
Theme8523.2148
Graphics3143.7248
Audio414.0147
Humor5662.6546
Mood6593.0448

Comments

furfel 2020-04-19 22:43

Is the name origin related to "the Speedy Eggbert"?

battlecat 2020-04-20 06:11

@furfel I don't know who that is, so no :)

corporation 2020-04-20 06:51

Really good! Pixel art is nice. Made to 1500 points. You should make foxes not to spawn on player face) and remove walking sounds, this is too much. Anyways, game feels really complete!

tomeks 2020-04-20 06:57

Very coherent art style and I love the background music you made. Only thing I'd love to see is WSAD controllers, as arrows scroll my webpage :>

esben-jensen 2020-04-20 07:15

This is so cute, I went 'aaaw' at the Game Over screen. You really manage to get that 80s arcade game feeling, both with graphics, sound and music. The music is great btw and impressive for such a short time. The game is also very good fun and very complete. One thing I found a little unintuitive at first, was what to do with the eggs. I expected I had to deliver them somewhere, and tried the doors in the trees. The use of a timer going down, usually suggests a time limit until something bad happens. In this case maybe having a bar growing instead would make more sense. Of course I figured it out by rereading the instructions. It's a minor thing just something to keep in mind. Overall very impressive I think.

battlecat 2020-04-20 07:24

@esben-jensen Thanks for the very positive and constructive feedback. I did actually consider placing nests in random places for the eggs, but decided against it as I wanted to be sure I would finish.

@corporation Good point, the walking sound could definitely be lowered.

@tomeks I'll be sure to add that if I update the game

jk5000 2020-04-20 09:24

The graphics and music is amazing. The gameplay is simple and fun. The controls is good for platform game. The foxes could have used a better AI, but it is okay for a jam game. Overall a very well made jam game. Well done.

battlecat 2020-04-20 09:28

@jk5000 Thanks for the kind words :) I actually tried implementing a fox that would chase you, by changing direction, jump etc. but it became too much of a hassle to do it within the time limit.

murrzipan 2020-04-20 16:13

The music is my favourite part, my only complaint is that it's too easy to grab the egg and stay on a safe branch until it hatches. Lots of fun though!

battlecat 2020-04-20 17:37

@murrzipan I actually agree. Given time, the foxes become fast enough that they can reach the safe platforms but it seems you don't often get that far. I considered removing the safe platforms all together - what do you think?

murrzipan 2020-04-20 18:22

@battlecat I'm not sure, but I would probably take them away

automatonvx 2020-04-20 18:44

Nice, does defintely feel pretty complete, the artwork was nice and cute, death screen especially,the music is my favourite part, had a nice fun 80s synthpop kind of a feel. The gameplay is ok in typical high score way (mine was 2100) agreed with @esben-jensen that was initially confused y the egg timer going down that i assumed was bad and i expected to have to do something with the eggs. having the progress bar going the opposite way probably would have been more expected. Tend to lose all teh hearts pretty quickly once you get hit and stuck where you are, could have done with longer invincibility or something. My strategy was to hand at the top of the screen next to a ledge, seemed basically safe there, only died when going down to get eggs. So maybe could have done with some other enemy or something later to negate that strategy, which would help the fun factor i think. Overall good job though, especiialy on the music.

battlecat 2020-04-20 21:54

Thanks @automatonvx + everyone - I've noted down all your feedback as I plan on updating the game after LD46 ends.

matootsy 2020-04-21 07:30

Simple and efficient. Before playing, the screenshots remind me the old game chuckie egg. I like the idea of keeping a long time the eggs. This kind of game would be adapted for a infinite scroll (If you go out at right, you appear at left) My score : 1296 ^^

digitom 2020-04-21 15:34

Very polished good job!

100th-coin 2020-04-21 16:25

Wow this was fun! I loved the music, great work! I though it was a bit easy though, there were a few safe spots, but I guess those are pretty much needed or else the game becomes impossible after a while.

nickavv 2020-04-21 19:15

I really like the art and the music! It's a classic arcade type of challenge that fits the theme very nicely, and I don't think I've played an arcade game quite like it before. I can imagine this having been a hit at arcades in the 80s. Great work

gamegenesis 2020-04-21 19:22

A very awesome game with stunningly good art, an awesome aesthetic, and great audio. The gameplay is very polished and well-crafted. The game is a tad too easy at times, but with the little time you had, perfectly fine. Overall a polished and wonderful experience!

battlecat 2020-04-21 19:35

@matootsy @digitom @blobo @gamegenesis Thanks so much!

@nickavv Considering how impressed I was with your game, that's saying a lot. It means a lot :smiley_cat:

hadb 2020-04-21 19:43

Really cool! I liked the way the egg is animated when opened. Sad that you can stay in the middle and make the counter increase but good job anyway :) Congrats from Belgium (sorry for bad english)

battlecat 2020-04-21 19:52

@hadb Thank you for the kind words :) I've already fixed the the current version. That version will only be released once LD46 finishes though. With this design you will not be safe from the foxes, but you will have much more room to jump over them.

Here's a sneak peek :)

eggbert07.png

vaanrile 2020-04-22 08:58

Really cool production ! The graphics, the sound design and overall esthetic are well executed, and the concept is pretty interesting. The only issue I would have is that the Jump Button is on the Shift Button, which doesn't feel as intuitive as putting it on the Space Bar for example, but this is just a minor detail, considering all the great things achieved in this project. Great job !

amkingtrp 2020-04-22 15:07

great 80s/early 90s style arcade game. I'd echo the comments about not using shift as the jump button, but that's what they used to do in the 80s/90s on home computers.

literal-games 2020-04-22 22:10

Cool, looks like you're already making the improvements that the game would benefit from! I hope you get to a finished product because this is a really cool start! Love the graphics and the sounds fit just right!

theaidency 2020-04-23 13:46

Amazing production, loved the concept and the gameplay is wonderful. Great job, and thanks for rating my game!

silkworm-sweatshop 2020-04-23 19:04

Nice little arcady game with polished presentation. As someone mentioned the "safe spots" definitely break the game but it's an easy fix and you're already on it. Adding some enemy variety would be nice too.

waynetron 2020-04-24 13:57

Love the music. Very classic arcade feel. I think the horizontal movement of the player feels quite slow. Would be nice to see some more interesting movement as that is the core of the game. Perhaps the bird could hover for a short time if I keep the jump key held down. Perhaps when picking up the egg the players movement is altered in some way.

spirits 2020-04-24 17:12

Awesome Music and Nice pixel art! I have a few comments on the game-play and controls: - It felt very weird to have the Jump button on "Left Shift" I actually died because of it (The sticky key not Pop up in middle of game. - There were some platforms in which no fox could ever reached (I just pick the egg and jump into those unreachable platforms) - When you get damage by a fox you continuously get damage since there is like no wait time or cool down for the hurt effect.

Overall very nice little game! Congrats on your entry.

xel 2020-04-24 17:14

Great game! The concept works really well with the theme. Really love the graphics (including the dancing flowers). The title screeen is super reminiscent of old NES games. Altogether it feels like a pretty complete package!

boxedmeatrevolution 2020-04-24 17:17

Fun arcade game. Great pixel art, and one of the best soundtracks I've listened to so far. I also found the "safe spots" that others have mentioned, but the game remained challenging so long as I forced myself to venture out and collect the eggs. I think that some arcade style power-ups would have been fun, or some more enemy types, but there's rarely enough time for that sort of thing in a game jam

nakami 2020-04-24 17:21

Nice game -> graphics and sound/music, the gameplay part is a bit to easy I think because the enemies don't chase you, they are making there life and if you are on there way they bit you so you can just stay on a corner to wait the score getting up without caring of the eggs.

battlecat 2020-04-24 20:45

@literal-games @theaidency @silkworm-sweatshop @waynetron @spirits @xel @boxedmeatrevolution @nakami + others

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Many of the things that have been brought up in this thread have been invaluable to me. If anyone is interested you can play the latest build here: http://lazernaut.com/games/eggberttest

If you want you can shoot me a PM on Twitter/itch or something with your feedback. Thanks in advance :smiley_cat:

ironjeff 2020-04-25 14:00

Nice game, i like the graphics and sound. In term of rythm i found some pretty safe spot so i wait here for the score to come, it became a little boring at a moment, maybe the eggs should never spawn on the top floor because it's too easy and repetitive.

Great job anyway =)

bjornkri 2020-04-27 07:00

Nice effort, a bit easy once you figure out the parts where the foxes can't reach. Liked the music, the death sound was a bit jarring. Well done!

marcusnystrand 2020-04-27 08:52

Overall well done, but I had loud noises which I believe is because the audio is clipping :/ I'm not sure though.

By the way, very nice aesthetics. Reminds me of the good old game boy

congusbongus 2020-04-27 09:11

Amazing amount of polish, great graphics and really good music. Amazing this was all done in the compo time, well done!

solah 2020-04-29 07:45

I love the music, the graphics are good also.

I think you should remove the save spots there are in your game and add a way to dodge the foxes to make the game more nervous.

Very well polished game, great job!

lcstark 2020-05-01 19:43

Well done, it's a great platformer! The artstyle is pretty good and the music is just wonderful.

Reading through comments it seems everyone has already notified you about all the issues I had with the game and you are working on them, so I won't have much to add here. If there is one additional thing I'd change is to perhaps make the character move faster - right now it makes the game feel a little bit too slow.

A well done entry to the compo, great job!

antti-haavikko 2020-05-01 19:51

Press any key to return... except the one you used to come here! :smirk:

There is bit of a cheese. You can just chill here and let the score rack up while you're idling and already writing a comment feedback for the game. :sunglasses:

eggbertsafe.png

Oh, it seems like the eggs have death timer. Didn't even get to screenshot my score because of the "any key" but it was something a bit over 4k. Took quite a long time for the idling game over though so still very abusable.

Went for a "proper" run just about the same score there too. Should have just idlet after this point, it quickly went downhill from here...

eggbertscore.png

Best strategy seems to be to grab an egg and then just go chill on those safe platforms. Still very boring to just wait on a completely safe space for like forever until you can continue playing. Without changing the mechanics, it could detect when player has been still for like, umm lets say few seconds, it would hatch the egg right then and there and spawn next. There could even be a cute hatching animation that would start when idling for a bit. That would hint about the functionality without any additional tutorials or whatnot.

Nice sprite work! The fox sprite wasn't quite up there with rest of the sprites in my opinion. It looked comparatively flat and even the animation was stiffer than even the flowers that are just decorations.

This was bit cheap. The foxes could have had some sort of warning indicator on doors just before they were about to appear.

eggbertlame.png

The controls felt super good! Not something that can too often be said about jam games. It's surprisly hard thing to get right and too often neglected. The jump could have used a bit more horizontal movement for my liking but that's just nitpicking really. :ok_hand:

Also, you kinda stole the name from my Animal Crossing neighbor...

IMG_0326.JPG

Anyways, good job! :thumbsup:

battlecat 2020-05-02 07:31

@antti-haavikko Wow, thank you for spending so much time on the game :) I'm quite close to getting a post-LD version out on Steam (for free, ain't nobody gonna pay for 5 min. of gameplay).

Some of the features included are no more safe spots, passive points have been removed to encourage egg grabbing. Also, the foxes now have tails. I'm sure they appreciate that.

You're totally right about the animations though. The sprites I made are my version of "programmer art", I mean seriously, this game is the absolute epitome of what I can do graphics-wise lol. Still, one should always strive to improve.

In the future I might add extra levels, enemies, gameplay elements (bring the eggs to nests to score etc.). We'll see what the future brings.

Anyway, I appreciate the thoroughness of your report.

antti-haavikko 2020-05-02 08:43

Oh right, they didn't have tails! That is probably one reason they looked a bit off to me too...

kaeveris 2020-05-02 10:17

Audio is really cool, I liked listening to it! Artstyle is cute. I like how the arrows show you where the egg appeared. Would be cool to have something similar to let you know when the fox is going to appear especially when the egg appears on the door. I felt it was a bit too easy to grab an egg and go to one of the branches where the foxes do not jump into.

battlecat 2020-05-04 19:19

@kaeveris Both of those have been addressed in version 1 of the game. You can find it on Itch or Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.battlecat.eggbert) if you wanna see.

jared-york 2020-05-06 05:02

Great game! I enjoyed the overall experience. You may have addressed this in your post-LD version, but I think it might help to add something else to help spruce the gameplay up a bit. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is great, but the fox AI just kind of gets predictable after a while. I really like the graphics, the style works great! Nice job.

battlecat 2020-05-07 07:37

@jared-york Thank you for the kind words :) In the beginning of LD46 I tried to create an enemy that would chase you, jumping to the platform you were on and such but it was too troublesome. The updated release actually doesn't have any new enemy types. I'm open to suggestions :)

zubspace 2020-05-10 19:13

Good job! It's a simple game and the more games I play on Ludum Dare, the more I enjoy games which are easy to get into. What took away the fun a bit was the middle platform, where foxes could not reach me. I spent a lot of time on there, watching them go past me. And when I reached 5000 points, they could suddenly jump to that platform and killed me quite fast, lol.

All in all I enjoyed the game. Could be awesome with higher jumps and more places to jump to.