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Crocodial
Crocodial
By GoogleFrog, avareii, mankarse, david-liddelow, Aquanim and istaera
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 646 | 3.60 | 49 | |
| Fun | 269 | 3.81 | 49 | |
| Innovation | 243 | 3.86 | 49 | |
| Theme | 619 | 3.78 | 49 | |
| Graphics | 1038 | 3.30 | 50 | |
| Audio | 761 | 3.18 | 50 | |
| Humor | 184 | 3.75 | 48 | |
| Mood | 668 | 3.50 | 45 | |
Comments
How I hate it when my neighbor lizards start shouting profanities at me 😅 fun game, the control over the rolling lizard is very smooth. I did not get to the end, at some point the amount of information just becomes to much. Enemies and bullets flying from every side, spells for which I did not know what they do, it was pretty hectic. I think that a slower introduction of elements would have made that a lot easier. That being said, there is definitely a lot here, had a lot of fun replaying it and trying to beat my high score 😁
snotax
2020-10-05 18:27
Very fun little game. The implementation of the theme was a new one to me. Very innovative.
aquanim
2020-10-06 01:20
> How I hate it when my neighbor lizards start shouting profanities at me 😅 fun game, the control over the rolling lizard is very smooth. I did not get to the end, at some point the amount of information just becomes to much.
@lamasaurus Thanks :) The game does indeed get pretty hectic as you go further.
If there aren't many enemies around (like near the start of the game) you can slow down, turn across the slope and go looking for spells/sort out your spell wheel/work out what the spells do in a bit more peace and quiet.
fonics
2020-10-06 04:44
Excellent game! Fits the theme in many different ways, the visuals are fun and appealing, and the gameplay loop is hectic and fun. Awesome work!
ice9
2020-10-06 04:55
It reminds me of the old school skiing game where the abominable snowman shows up!
Pretty fun. It felt strange to me that you had to click up at the corner to choose a powerup when that also moves your characters. And I wasn't clear on the tradeoffs of choosing different powerups once my circle of powers was full.
Lots of cute/fun art. Especially the bazooka bear :)
aquanim
2020-10-06 04:58
> It felt strange to me that you had to click up at the corner to choose a powerup when that also moves your characters.
@ice9 You can click anywhere on the screen (in fact, where you click doesn't affect the spell switch at all). I've clarified this a bit more in the Controls section.
The movement felt incredibly smooth and the gameplay really captures the feeling of careening down a hill curled up in a ball, It really felt like I was willingly giving my body over to the force of gravity and letting the force take me where it thought fit
also absolutely love the bee spell, more bees please
This game is indeed one of the most innovative ones I have played. Had fun making builds for my runs and beating my best score! Great art & fun enemies :)
This is very pretty .. i loved it GameDesign was great and music was very different and cool All the spells and everything is great .. keep up the good work
leggy
2020-10-06 13:36
it is not clear how to run on linux... could you please give me info?
le-slo
2020-10-06 13:41
This was a genuinely interesting and fun game! Despite having fun I couldn't reach the end after several runs. This is what I thought while playing: - There should be some kind of invencibility frames after a hit. I died a couple of times with full health in less than a second. - Some obstacles are hard to read at that speed! Specially the rocks, in general obstacle design could be much more contrasty with the background. - The last problem was specially hard once I wanted to look at the wheel, trying to place a new spell, so in the end I stopped looking to the UI. That maybe is my fault, because there is a way to slow down (risking getting hit by bullets)to look, but when I tried to play like that I felt like the game wasn't at its fullest. - Moving and rolling the crocodile felt and looked incredible, great work on that. Congratulations!
aquanim
2020-10-06 13:59
@leggy to run the game on Linux you will need to download [LÖVE](https://love2d.org/) and then run something like
> love Crocodial.love
in the command line. It's a bit of a bother but unfortunately LÖVE doesn't have an easier way to distribute games for Linux (that we know of, anyway).
We haven't tested the Linux or macOS distributions; I would really expect the Linux one to work at least since it is basically just the source code, but if someone runs either of them and they work (or don't) that would be good to know.
leggy
2020-10-06 14:17
@aquanim okay, I managed to! and I'm really glad I succeded, because is was quite surprising. The music is catchy and pleasant and the game scales good in difficulty and variety. I cannot think at the momento at something that was not okay in your game. Good job
imod
2020-10-06 15:00
Very cool game! Good gameplay and pretty nice graphics! I like it!
natpat
2020-10-06 16:28
What a take on the theme! I love the story and character. The gameplay is very different and interesting - trying to work out where to put your spells at the beginning and then just rolling down the mountain trying to pick up health as you go faster and faster.
I will say that there was a lot of things going on - at some point I stopped looking at my spell wheel and just hoped that what I picked up would upgrade my current spells, which seemed to work. Later on, I found myself ignoring the enemies entirely and just picking up health, as I couldn't really focus on much else! I sadly never got to the end in three attempts - too much happening for me!
The music was very fitting and I enjoyed it a lot. The sound effects fit well and helped make everything pop. Nice job!
(I managed to get it to work on Linux - this series of commands worked for me: ``` sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bartbes/love-stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install love love [downloaded .love file] ``` )
m7rk
2020-10-06 16:56
I love the concept! I think the game is too fast paced though. I read the instructions but still didn't really understand what was going on until i played the game a few times, a tutorial would have been awesome
That was great! Love the pacing and the music. I had absolutely no idea what was going on at first but rolling around shooting magic was fun.
I liked how the attack speed was attached to your movement speed which incentivized you to go fast, but going fast made it difficult to stay alive which made it difficult to look at the wheel to place spells where I wanted to without getting hit or slowing down.
Definitely a fun little game with a creative integration of the theme.
The basic contols for moving around are easy enough to understand and the small amount of enemies and obstacles in the beginning is nice to get used to it.
Pretty soon it becomes very fast paced though, so I never really found myself actively using the spell wheel mechanics, but instead just tried avoiding obstacles and collecting spells and "heart bushes", hoping for the best , but it's still pretty entertaining :)
I also found that the humourous description added a nice touch to it.
All in all I would say you did a good job :)
Very nice! The game-play is trully original and innovative, and fits the theme with a lot of humour... a fun experience.
Very funny premise, I love this world you've come up with :joy:
The game felt generally pretty fun to play, although I couldn't focus on avoiding obstacles and the spell wheel at the same time, so I'd just collect everything without checking what it was. At some point the difficulty spikes HARD and suddenly the screen is full of enemies.
I don't think the enemies attacking are what makes it difficult, more that I just become completely visually overwhelmed, I can't tell what's going on, and I crash into obstacles. It felt like no amount of collecting power ups could prepare me for those enemies, because just them being on screen broke my ability to see what I'm doing, and I'd die. I think I got to about 11 left as my best score.
Really creative idea!
I really like this game. The music provides a great introduction and I love the fast pacing. However, I think the game could use some balancing. The rabbits often ambushed me, shooting an impossible to dodge cloud of bullets that would instant kill me. I think providing i-frames would definitely help prevent those situations. Additionally, I feel there are many moments in the game that would be improved if I had some way to save myself. Use some kind of limited ability to escape the corner I'm in.
Overall, really loved this game. Would definitely like to see a post-jam edition.
Ah yes, Crocodile: the most naturally circular of creatures! :D
I thought this was great, really builds up to a manic crescendo.
I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection
fabiole
2020-10-07 11:08
Very good ! I enjoy the game overall ! the crocodile mobility is nice and i like the fact to have spells. I had some difficulty to see the crocodile as its color was close to the background colors ! Nice entry ! congrats
Thanks for all the feedback. We've made a post-jam version, the main changes are: - Spiky rocks are easier to see, and rocks don't spawn behind trees. - Adjusted the post-rival scaling to keep up with spell scaling (playing enough to tune the post-game has so far been out of reach during a jam). - End stats (press 'tab', it is prompted if you get far enough). - More bees.
Link: https://github.com/NeptunianAxolotl/LD47/releases/tag/v1.1
I worry that the game may be a bit hard as I like to err on the side of challenge. The bullet hell aspect is a bit deceptive too, as it is more a game of clearing waves faster than they can breach your shields than it is a game of dodging everything. I find it hard to be particularly sad about how that part of the balance shook out because I think shields are a core part of wizard battles.
enzoup
2020-10-07 15:21
Amazing entry! I had a blast playing around with it, the spell loop is a really intelligent concept for the theme, and the graphics are perfect, the music is also really nice and fits the game very well, and when you realise you are a crocodile rolling down a hill makes it 10x better. I would just like to point out that I didn't really like the stones/trees, they are everywhere and it's really hard to not get hit every time, but it's a very fun game, great job!
Awesome game, definitely a challenge, but all justified by the lore, which is also awesome!
I like how the character is in a loop! The animations were pretty cool. The spell loop was really original and cool. Great work!
istaera
2020-10-08 05:05
I took a few tries to actually beat this game, so I thought others who are having trouble might like some hints.
Firstly, it does get quite hectic. I find that I can't focus on everything at once, so I just need to sort of "flow" - see the enemies out of the corner of my eye and try to take in everything at once without focusing on anything in particular. And, except at the beginning, I basically ignore the spell wheel (see next point).
Secondly, I treat the game as having two phases. In the first phase, there are very few enemies around, and you spend this time slowly travelling side to side, collecting spells and allocating them to your spell wheel. I tend to look at my spell wheel during this time, and try to avoid trees out of the corner of my eye. Then, once you've allocated each spot on the spell wheel that you wish to, you then start watching the enemies and travelling down quickly. Going down helps to point the spells towards your enemies.
Also, it might be useful to have a list of spells and what they do:
- shield (blue): makes a shield which circles you. Absorbs projectile damage - energy orb (purple): makes an orb which circles you. Does damage to enemies it hits. Does not kill projectiles. - fireball (orange): shoots a fireball. Does AoE damage. - busy bee (yellow): shoots a homing missile that looks like a bee. - ice shards (light blue): shoots a cluster of ice shards, a bit like a shotgun. - haste (black): makes you go faster - serpent (green): shoots projectiles that wiggle through the air.
Generally, spells deal more damage at higher levels. Many also make more projectiles at higher levels.
Pretty great game! I really had a lot of fun with this one, I think the closest I got to my rival was 9km though, it starts pretty easy to learn but the difficulty curve never left me feeling super overwhelmed or that my death was the game's fault or anything.
If I could make a change, I'd maybe find a way to move the spell wheel somewhere closer to the centre of the screen as I felt that most times when I went to look up at it to see what it was doing I'd almost, or crash into something. So I ended up just spam clicking my way down the mountain :P not sure if that was intended.
The sound effects are good! minimal and not too overwhelming, some music would be nice if you end up spending more time on this game. The art is really cute, I loved the bazooka bears? Very scary once they were mounted on cars too. Haha.
Good work!
avareii
2020-10-08 09:12
@noteworthy there should be music playing! Sorry you missed out :/
sharks
2020-10-08 15:14
Pretty tough game but it was really innovative! I did think for a person who isn't very experienced in the game the only way to go is to sort out your spell wheel at the start of the game allowing you to focus on other things later. Perhaps you could instead have a hotbar of spells with 1-9 keybinds in the middle of the screen and when you pickup a spell you can just hit 1-9 to swap or combine but keep the spinning wheel at the top to show spell execution? Some shots in the dark here - it's just that having to wait and time the swapping of spells is a little tricky. Solid entry and very fun nicely polished and some really good animation cycles in there, bravo!
Cool game, I love the idea of having a loop of spells that you swap in and out of! Got a bit hectic at the end. Good job!
somogy
2020-10-10 19:30
Game very well done, I liked the fun provided, good job!
joedev
2020-10-11 13:51
Haha very fun game, and I love the design of the croc ouroboros :D A fun and unique entry, kudos!
Definitely one of the more unique takes on the theme! I had a lot of fun rolling down the mountain and the zany music complements the gameplay nicely!
Oh man this game is just insane! The game felt like a classic shmup in the sense that you can just keep tacking on more and more upgrades and become a whirling ball of death. The best thing to do is to try to stack only one attack and see how nutty it gets.
My only regret was that it's so hectic I don't have time to appreciate everything that's going on. There are a lot of interesting visuals or icons or UI but I only have a slight memory of them because my eyes are hunting for spell orbs or heart bushes more than anything.
Really crazy world you built and the music selection fits it well. Solid experience overall!
Btw, you mention if you use a duplicate spell, it makes it stronger. How strong can it get? It was hard to tell just with experimentation.
aquanim
2020-10-12 13:46
> Btw, you mention if you use a duplicate spell, it makes it stronger. How strong can it get? It was hard to tell just with experimentation.
@peachtreeoath If you "level up" a spell by combining two of the same kind (this happens automatically between a spell "in the hand" and one in the wheel unless you hold down LMB) they get stronger as follows:
* _Shield_ and _Energy Orb_ get bigger, rotate faster, have a longer maximum duration, and can deflect more projectiles/hit more enemies before dissipating. * *Fireball* explodes in a larger radius, travels a bit faster, and fires an additional projectile for every five levels. * *Ice Shards* fires more projectiles (2 per level) in a larger arc, they travel a bit faster, and do a little bit more damage. * *Busy Bees* fires more projectiles (1 per level) in a larger arc; in the post-jam version they travel a bit faster and do a little bit more damage. * *Haste* makes you go faster for longer at higher levels. * *Serpent* (the green ball things) fires 2 more projectiles for every 2 levels to a maximum of 8; they also do more damage, travel faster, and oscillate faster at higher levels.
In general you would have to get a *lot* of levels for most of the damage upgrades to matter much (the Serpent one is relatively substantial, at 40 + 10/level). The bigger impact is in how many more things you can hit with each spell at higher levels, and in increased survivability from high level Shields. If you survive long enough to level it up that far, a sufficiently high level Fireball volley can wipe out most of the screen.
If anybody really wants to know *exactly* how the spells work, the source can be found here: https://github.com/NeptunianAxolotl/LD47/tree/v1.0/spells
Ahh that's for the clarification, I love that kind of stuff in games. Like in Diablo 2, charged bolt shoots out 1 bolt. And each time you level it you shoot out 1 more bolt. That's all I need to keep going...
Nice game!