FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD49 → Wacky Pachyderm

Wacky Pachyderm

By fishbrain

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4613.7235
Fun2733.8435
Innovation7293.3135
Theme1174.2536
Graphics10803.2236
Audio4283.5734
Humor1813.8836
Mood5953.5433

Comments

dob 2021-10-04 20:33

I tried to download, but McAfee gave me a virus warning and deleted the .exe. Could be that McAfee is stupid - that wouldn't be the first time.

yaroslav-kravtsov 2021-10-04 20:45

Gameplay is challenging but it is 100% match with the theme! Good work!

hayart 2021-10-04 21:01

sensational, i loved the idea and the mechanics, very fun and challenging

hiisileiri 2021-10-04 22:28

It is too hard to play, while the game idea and look is mainly good.

fishbrain 2021-10-05 03:03

Thanks for feedback so far,

@yaroslav-kravtsov @hayart Thanks, a lot of time was spent on player control/balancing which was key theme-related mechanic. Tried to start with nice simple levels so only the last few are really challenging.

@dob Unfortunately, yes, some antivirus gets upset. You need to "allow" it to download/run.

@hiisileiri There are only 10 levels, and first 7 levels aren't too hard. That only leaves 3 tricky levels. I thought this was a good balance for a simple game with 10 levels.

nehvis 2021-10-05 08:52

Very funny idea and nice music + the elephant sound when you fail is hilarious! A little hint though: using Z and X as inputs is not very QWERTZ keyboard friendly. Not a big problem, but I wanted to point it out as even big companies keep making this mistake

alexascher 2021-10-05 11:43

Great idea and pretty clean implementation. This game is too difficult for me, but I probably have a bad sense of balance. Good job!

geoblackru 2021-10-05 14:33

strange input but nice game

fishbrain 2021-10-05 15:30

@nehvis can you suggest an alternative keyboard input rather than Z and X?

stoffe 2021-10-05 18:05

Fun but a bit to hard for me, couldn't make it past level 2 :-(

@fishbrain if you lay your left hand on the keyboard, you feel that WASD is natural, so A & D would probably be better, if you use Z and X people have to use a "claw" grip which is straining on the wrist. Alternative you could use Left/right arrow if you want to allow right handed controls too.

fishbrain 2021-10-05 18:33

Ok, I been gaming for 40 years didn't think using Z and X was such a big deal - will have to change that.

sherwood 2021-10-05 20:25

My girlfriend and I had a really good time playing your game. It's really fun and the gameplay makes it challenging but not frustrating. Maybe adding lives was unnecessary and just being able to try hard the same level is enough. Good work :)

fishbrain 2021-10-06 04:25

@sherwood Thanks :) yes, I did think the same thing regarding levels, but ran out of time to implement something. I decided 5 lives would be enough, as there are only 10 levels. But OK I'm starting to think that maybe it should be a purely level based game.

But I'm glad you found it challenging (not frustrating), that really is the tricky part.

alex-chertilin 2021-10-06 18:49

Pretty unstable flying circus

teegan 2021-10-06 18:56

This game was so challenging and fun, i really dig this kinda creative movement system and the are really well setup so that the optional rewards provide an added incentive for mastery on the control scheme. Only thing I would change, and I think this was mention in other comments, is that its a tiny bit too punishing to restart the entire game on game over, although that's also just personal taste. I had a fun time playing this, great job!

hobzone 2021-10-06 19:02

A cool funny game. I liked it a lot. Took me long time to close it ;)

abregado 2021-10-06 19:06

My partner really wanted to see the end so I was forced to push through my frustration. Very polished use of physics. Every time I made a physics jam game I regretted it, but Im glad you made this.

fishbrain 2021-10-07 03:20

Thanks for more feedback guys,

@teegan Yes, this occured to me, I wanted to make it "level based" and ran out of time, so simply dished out 5 lives. I might do a quick and dirty bug fix and just boost the lives - maybe 10 or even 15 or even 20?

@abregado ....respect :) cool, thanks.

zapturk 2021-10-07 16:22

Pretty neat idea. Could totally see there being other skins for the player like a clown on a unicycle. Love to see where you could take it from here.

kiwi663 2021-10-07 16:37

Great job, fantastic music and graphic. Simple idea but powerful. Very nice and fun game. I love it !

justcamh 2021-10-08 14:58

Hey FishBrain, thanks for submitting your game to the stream! The stream had some issues at the end of playing yours, so if you wanna rewatch, the first bit is here; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1170760844 and the final bit is; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1170771627. There was also a bit in between which shall remain lost to time...

fishbrain 2021-10-08 16:10

@zapturk @kiwi663 Thanks or your feedback, glad you enjoyed it! :)

@justcamh 'No worries' (from a fellow Aussie). Yes, your criticisms as regards graphics (cohesion) is perfectly valid. I prioritize gameplay and mechanics over graphics and sound. Sound/music I can generally do pretty quick. Graphics, I usually grab CC/free assets, do minor processing, and use them for "placeholder", and come back to them if I have time. Of course, time is a luxury so sometimes that doesn't happen.

(Ha, and no, sorry for misunderstanding, my video wasn't a "speedrun" - just a [test] run...)

Enjoyed your channel, thanks again for playing. Cheers.

2021-10-09 09:54

Pretty solid entry, especially for a one man team! Cute concept, and didn't run into any bugs, so nice job on the polish as well.

chillertyp 2021-10-09 14:32

Your pixel font is nice. The other people, with pixel games, should have used it. It doesn't fit your game soooo well. But your game makes fun. :-)

wizard 2021-10-10 13:00

Really fun and novel concept. That is one skilled elephant:).

xiyou 2021-10-10 15:30

So difficult to operate, but so much fun! I almost used up all my lives in level 9

erikkire 2021-10-11 19:09

Fun! Full score for that soundtrack! Difficult but not too difficult.

animawish 2021-10-12 07:33

nice game! pretty fun once i got the hang of it, you really have to plan your path through some of the levels. cute theme too :elephant:

ommadawn 2021-10-12 19:11

Level 9 is so hard ! Nice game, fits well the theme.

fishbrain 2021-10-13 04:09

@holbinski @chillertyp @wizard @animawish Thanks for playing! :)

@erikkire Thanks - I enjoyed making a little circus/blues chip tune.

@xiyou @ommadawn Thanks for playing, yes I agree - level 9 is the hardest.

viperux 2021-10-13 15:36

Funny game! On my first few levels I struggled to undestand the commands. I liked the music and the retro style (I played the C64-base palette). The levels difficulty were well balanced. Probably I would have added a time limit for each level (maybe a curtain that descent over time and cover everything). Well done!

This is my best score (I tried the whole game a couple of times):

Score.png

lima-victor 2021-10-14 13:46

So simple and so incredibly awesome! I like the music, I like the art style, I LIKE THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT ON THE BALL man! Great game!

p.s Thanks for 20 lives though I thought I would lose even them xd

fromthechasm 2021-10-21 14:03

Great game! It all fitted together well. The music was just right, and the difficulty was spot on. Combining the balance with the movement, was cool. Perhaps more pixels for added perfection, and maybe a hop to avoid the pesky mice. Excellent!