FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → Fishing the Deep

Fishing the Deep

By ddesigndude

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4573.4524
Fun7182.8624
Innovation634.0924
Theme4163.6324
Graphics1573.9524
Audio2493.5024
Mood3223.4522

Comments

scalphamission 2021-04-26 14:22

the ds stuff really intrigued me.

appix 2021-04-26 14:33

It's really cool to make a NDS game on ludum dare! Very simple and interesting games! Well done!

ddesigndude 2021-04-26 18:37

Thank you to everyone who played my Nintendo DS Game!

If you want to learn or try to make your own homebrew DS games, check out DS Game Maker.

It's basically Game Maker, but for the DS, and it's free. See the DS game Maker fansite for more info:

https://dsgamemaker.jada.io/vmrelease.html

mduo13 2021-04-26 19:50

I wish I had a flash cart so I could try this on my actual NDS! It's been quite a while since I used it, but the DS is one of my favorite consoles ever. But since I don't have one, I caved and used the Desmume emulator (I'm on Linux).

I really like what you've done here. The graphics and music are both very pretty (and honestly kind of impressive for something done in 48 hours). It might've just been the emulator but the sound got a little choppy at times.

The gameplay is the most under-developed part; the timer goes for a generously long time but there isn't much to do in that time. It definitely would be rewarding to have a few more different types of fishes with different rarity, movement patterns, etc. but obviously that's the kind of thing that takes time. And I don't really see what the point of moving the ship left to right is, since the position of the hook seems to depend mostly on where you touch the screen... but it's nice that it can move. But there is a strange kind of satisfaction with pulling a big haul of multiple fish in one cast.

The pixel art of the fishes and the boat are both top-notch. And the main menu has a help screen and everything! That's polish.

ddesigndude 2021-04-26 23:53

@mDuo13 Thank you for your constructive feedback!

I definitely wanted to make more varieties of fish but ran out of time before I could do so. Totally agree about the gameplay needing some work, would love to do a possible sequel of this game with far more added and gameplay enhancements. :)

kevin-s 2021-04-27 10:56

The game has a polished presentation and a tune with a catchy melody. I also love the pixel art graphics.

Great job on getting this done in 48 hours!

p0l4r 2021-04-27 16:51

Love that you made a DS game! Also smart to include good instructions for people on how to play. Nice music and visuals, but i ran into what i think is a bug every time i tried to play. After i got a couple of fish, the sea was just out of them, and i was just sat around hoping more would spawn, but they never did.

Regardless, this was a breath of fresh air in the sea of games made on the big platforms!

train27 2021-04-28 00:48

:heavy_check_mark: It seems amazing that you could make a NDS game in 48 hours!

Special props for also recreating the NDS games style to perfection! Both in visual style and in sound.

Maybe it could be expanded with additional gameplay, but I'm not sure of its reach with being a ds game.

:x: I feel like the manual could include an example for keyboard/mouse, since it's the configuration most people is going to use.

ddesigndude 2021-04-28 04:55

@p0l4r Thanks for playing my game! The fish disappearing on you is actually not a bug, you just have to scroll the Bottom screen camera down using the Down arrow button. I probably should have made it more clear in the control screen that the descending part was a feature and was tied to the down button. But thank you for pointing this out.

ddesigndude 2021-04-28 04:59

@train27 That's a good idea, I could display a recommended control scheme for nds emulators on my itch page or on the control screen as I imagine not many people are familiar with the default emulator button mapping. Thank you for your feedback!

theg 2021-04-28 20:01

Really cool to see a DS game made for this. Sad there isn't much to do in it, but I really appreciate the effort here, plus the game looks and sounds authentic.

osterzone 2021-04-28 20:04

I know there's probably nothing you can do to fix it but I couldn't get this working on my flash cart. I have this one https://www.r4wood.com/r4i-sdhc-3ds-rts-card-for-3ds-all-systems.html with the latest firmware and as DSi XL. When I try to boot it I just get stuck with both screens black. It worked fine on Desmume though, and holy shit i'm impressed by your technical skill.

daniel-whittaker 2021-04-28 20:07

What an awesome idea! And not only that but polished too! Game itself is a little simple but fun enough. Nice work!

sebbernery 2021-04-28 20:15

Hello ! That's amazing, an NDS game in a Ludum ! I don't have a flash cart, I have a new 3DS and I usually launch NDS games with TwilightMenu++, but I have a black screen with your rom :( (Unfortunately this can happend on some games, the compatibility is not 100%). But if by miracle you know some clues to check to make it work, I will be very interested ! Tomorrow I'll try to change some settings and check if this solve the problem, but not sure where to start.

ddesigndude 2021-04-28 21:39

@osterzone and @sebbernery, sorry that you guys had compatiblity issues when attempting to play the game on your actual hardware.

Unfortunately the code libraries used to create the game are not compatible with all flash carts and emulators.

I could modify the game to possibly boot for a larger variety of hardware but you would loose the game's audio since the sound library is the one that I found to have the least compatibility for my flash carts.

I know for my R4 flash card, the YS menu and the default R4 game launcher sadly don't work. But the Moonshell menu works with the game, however, there is no sound. If you happen to have that installed on your hardware you should be able to at least play the game.

Regardless, thank you for still trying out the game with an emulator!

sebbernery 2021-04-29 09:52

My sister has a DS with a linker somewhere, I will see if I can borrow it next time I see here.

dis0rder 2021-04-29 22:43

Always great that there's people crafting stuff for a variety of platforms.

I used to fool around with DS-homebrew on my brother's device 10+ years ago. I think it was actually a surprisingly neat multimedia-device in a time before modern smartphones started to be a thing.

---

Your game was short and simple fun. Probably the experience would've been enhanced on real hardware, but I had to use an emulator.

Keep up doing the stuff you enjoy!

ddesigndude 2021-04-29 22:59

@dis0rder Great to hear from someone else who has fiddled around with DS homebrew. The DS is truly the "Developers' System" :)

andrewkennedy 2021-05-01 23:51

So cool, I love it when people do homebrew games for LD!

Loved the art and the music. It really did feel like it was designed to run on the DS!

The gameplay itself got dull after a while, since it seemed like there wasn't anything to do but just catch more fish.

Great job on your first compo game!

lex 2021-05-02 12:37

Dude, I'm impressed! Never thought about making a console game for a Ludum Dare. In fact I don't even know how to do that!

Anyway, I came here because you played my game and said it was similar to yours and it really is! I like your music better though :)

soarendev 2021-05-02 15:05

Really impressed, big DS feel you have there mate!

Maybe it lacks a little feedback on some actions (like sound effects when you catch a fish, or just in general), but honnestly it works well.

So sad I don't have my DS anymore to play on it :/ But big Bravo to you on this, really happy to see some original entries like this !

dylan-fries 2021-05-05 19:10

Pretty impressive just making a DS game in a compo! The emulator was easy to run on Windows. Enjoyed the audio and great tone to the world. Could be a little longer with more fish but a good effort!

vixenmink 2021-05-06 04:31

Wow i wish i had a NDS flash card to play this around the house. Such ingenuity.

sevkron 2021-05-06 13:02

Props for using an original platform for your game. I'd love to try it on the hardware since the game feel would be totally different than playing with just a mouse. The graphics and music were really nice. It's a shame you weren't able to use the top screen for more than just showing UI elements. Good use for the theme though !

hykosit 2021-05-06 17:18

the overall is very inpressive for a compo ! however once you've understood that going the deepest and hoping for catching a maximum random number of fish is the best strat, there is not a lot of fun ... Maybe having add a mechanic to drive the hook when it's returning to the surface would have made it more interesting !

chris-hay 2021-05-07 02:11

It's really neat you made a DS game. Your instructions were clear and appreciated, for how to set up the emulator and load the game. As others (and you) mentioned, too bad there wasn't time to add more fish species, and the timer was a bit too generous - probably you'll edit those things if you make a post-LD version. Great job on the music and graphics!