FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD50 → The Itsy Bitsy Jumper

The Itsy Bitsy Jumper

By sakura-magika

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4223.7343
Fun1993.8443
Innovation3303.6543
Theme8323.5343
Graphics8883.4043
Audio3393.6943
Humor4293.4142
Mood8063.3842

Comments

tankou 2022-04-04 19:15

Great game! I had a lot of fun climbing the spider up to heaven. Innovative idea and unique art style. I am just not sure if I won or lost or.. nothing of both. Anyway 4 spiders got their heaven by 666bpm. xD

nafos-games 2022-04-04 20:37

You nailed it!

gamedevtraum 2022-04-05 01:45

hahah nice! good mechanic, nice draws and sound and music on point. Got 13 escapes in 3 attempts

reulan 2022-04-05 02:23

was able to get to escape attempt 10! would be great to see high score of all time persist through runs

nicolekg 2022-04-05 02:28

Super fun and very satisfying when you get an escape at a high bpm! I kept trying to press space -> select leaf -> release space to move which didn't work and it took me a bit to get the right pattern down, but getting the right timing adds another level of coordination needed.

sakura-magika 2022-04-05 21:43

@tankou as long as one spider was saved, there is still good in the world!

@nafos-games <3 thanks for playing!

@nafos-games nice score! I actually just broke my record and got 20! feels so good.

@reulan thanks for playing! a high score is a great suggestion, I'll try and get that done soon.

@nicolekg I'm so glad you liked it! the controls are definitely tricky and non very traditional. I considered just using the arrows to jump instantly, but because the spider has a certain horizontal and vertical range she can jump to, (and sometimes there is no valid target at all), I thought it would be good to have a way to aim and see where you'll jump before committing to it. I'll play around with a version where you instantly jump in the direction of the arrow key you press and see if I can make it feel good. what I want to avoid is players needing to hammer on the arrow key to keep attempting to jump until a leaf comes into range and they actually can jump.

I got more feedback from a friend that the rain drops should spawn above the "Heavenly Landing Leaves" so you can see and avoid them for the final jump, otherwise you could get rain spawning right on top of you as you land on the final leaf. I'm also going to look into synchronizing the rain spawn location with the cloud, perhaps randomizing between the three columns the cloud is currently hovering over, to make it a bit more predictable and avoidable.

Screen Shot 2022-04-05 at 1.36.35 PM.png

ping78 2022-04-06 16:19

Nice game. I got 13 escapes. Controls worked quite well which I did not expected at first and where intuitive while being different from most games. Good job.

mistagiggles 2022-04-06 20:20

Super cute and very fun. Got 10 escapes on my first attempt, gets very tense as the beat speeds up! 18 is my best score

itzemii 2022-04-06 20:50

Niiiiccccceeeee!!!!!!! This is so refreshing, nice, cute, well playable, cool! I do normally not play beat/ rythm games, but this one is great and I enjoyed playing. Got 666bpm ... I like electronic music, even drum and bass, but that has a limit of about 180bpm. Your music is absolute hardcore 😜 Very well implemented, controls are tight and fair. Music is fitting. Graphics are lovely. I like the style and feels consistent. Maybe another font would fit better. Overall: congratulations to this pearl in the game jam!

cube-logic 2022-04-06 21:11

Oh wow this is so fun, both the music art and controls just kept me going Same with the rising bpm, added a lot of cool tension Besides that, the raining cloud is a really cool mechanic, I wish the sun would've done something like that as well, for example a laser beam that you have to dodge, because without it it's kind of a free pathway Also it feels right that the arrows would advance you to specific platforms instead of pointing to platforms and then forcing you to press space to go to them Got 12 escapes so far, really great job on the game!

sakura-magika 2022-04-06 21:54

@ping78 thanks for playing! the controls are a bit unorthodox, and take some getting used to, i'm glad they eventually became intuitive for you!

@mistagiggles woah, 18 is a great score, well done!

@itzemii who knew folk / nursery rhyme music could be so hardcore?? ;) thanks for all the positive feedback! i agree the font isn't the most fitting, bodoni is kind of my default, but yeah, something more whimsical would be better.

@cube-logic thanks for all the feedback! as for the sun, i wanted it to be a source of safety and comfort, matching the lyric "out came the sun, and dried up all the rain", and to provide a flow of tension and release to the game. however, i agree that doing something more with it than just appearing when the rain stops spawning would be good. i'll have to think on this more.

as for the controls, i definitely considered instantly jumping when an arrow button is pressed, and am still considering it. the problem is that the spider has a limited horizontal and vertical range for her jumps, and i didn't want the player to feel like they had to blindly mash the button until they could jump, otherwise the game might not feel responsive. also, the auto targeting algorithm will change what leaf you're going to jump to as they fall, since they all have different relative speeds, so by aiming your jump, you can know exactly where you will jump to before you commit to it.

one solution i'm considering is to constantly run the algorithm that detects all possible leaf targets, and keep them all highlighted. then, you can just press the arrow you'd like to jump towards without needing to aim first.

peachtreeoath 2022-04-06 22:45

LOL this is the first game that genuinely made me laugh out loud. Other games have humor and I might smile or acknowledge it, but the crazy speed at the end totally caught me off guard! 17 was my best:

end.png

I liked the controls a lot more than I thought I would. You roll your fingers like right->up, creating a galloping effect and sound which is very pleasing. So maybe that might run counter to what you're thinking about regarding QOL. I think being able to blindly mashing would be a mistake in a game that's already fairly simple.

I didn't realize I was going to be timed so I didn't try SUPER hard. But even with that in mind, I thought the raindrops were implemented well and kept the player motivated. They sucked when you got hit with them and I would decide to try a little harder each time.

I really enjoyed the game. It has a lot of character and bold execution. Awesome job!

ffffchai 2022-04-07 02:49

The feelings it provided are charming! Great SoundEffects, even the mechanic about choosing then jumping is kinda cool to me. Overall, good job!

6smith 2022-04-07 02:56

i suck at this game

okamit 2022-04-07 11:43

This was really hard, but fun! Love that you made a game out of a nursery rhyme haha! It was hard to predict where drops would spawn since they didn't spawn from right under the cloud, making it a bit frustrating when a drop spawns right on top of you when you are almost at the top, but other than that, very solid little game.

Great work!

SkƤrmbild 2022-04-07 134702.png

sakura-magika 2022-04-07 22:07

@peachtreeoath thank so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the controls! I have also done the ā€œgallopingā€ technique but I actually prefer to use left hand on A/D and right hand on space to go the fastest. I’m so happy it made you laugh :3

@ffffchai im glad you liked the SFX, it was fun to come up with them, going for ā€œheavenly and slightly unsettlingā€

@6smith :0 ganbatte kudasai

@okamit thanks for the feedback, I definitely want to do something about the raindrops spawns, make them higher up and try to make them mostly under the cloud, but a bit random too. It was a fun challenge to make a nursery rhyme into a fun and challenging rhythm game. Nice score!

sprunth 2022-04-08 08:23

Something about the graphics on the spider when you reach the top made me crack up. Love it!

The audio was simple but fit really well.

chingle 2022-04-08 08:47

Great game! Nice sound design, it's good that the music is also getting faster, giving the player some sense of urgency

skyward4d 2022-04-10 02:11

I really liked the accelerating pace of the music on this one, and how the game becomes increasingly frantic before descending into absolute chaos. Really enjoyed this one, the art assets were nice too. Great job!

ItsyBitsySpider.png

daniel-username 2022-04-10 04:12

Wow, I don't think I've played a game quite like this before! Really interesting. I like the idea about timing the jumping to the beat of the song, but I couldn't quite tell how it affected the gameplay. Cool game and execution.

cakts 2022-04-10 04:41

Capture.PNG

This was a super fun jam game! I can't think of anything I didn't like about it so great job! :smile:

sakura-magika 2022-04-11 21:36

@sprunth yay, i had fun with the art for getting to the top! i imagined the spider catching on fire as she goes to heaven, because the sun is too hot, even though the sun is what makes the rain drops go away, it ultimately kills her.

@chingle glad you enjoyed, that's what i was going for!

@skyward4d thanks for playing, i hope the absolute chaos was a fun ending for the game

@daniel-username a jump takes exactly one beat to complete, so if you time your jumps to the beat, you will jump (and ideally ascend) as fast as possible. if you jump slower than the beat, you're just not getting as many jumps in as you could. if you jump faster than the beat, it's not strictly bad, as long as you're still getting a jump hit in on each beat, but pressing the jump button more often than necessary makes it more difficult to also press it as soon as the next jump is possible, especially because as the song speeds up, so do your jumps, so you need to press jump more frequently to get as many jumps as possible in.

@cakts yay, thanks for playing!!!

i just watched my friend play the most incredible round, i honestly couldn't believe it as i saw it happening, but now, 27 escapes is the highest score i'm aware of: unknown.png

pureimprov 2022-04-12 00:55

I like it! One thing is I found the game easier as it got faster - I had a similar mechanic where time was the only thing stopping the player, maybe that could change. A fun rhythm game, I got past 666 (:

fueelin 2022-04-12 07:11

Really nice game! It was fun, creative, and, in the end, pretty silly. You did a good job integrating the gameplay and music, and the game has a lot of personality in its small package. Nice work!

allax 2022-04-12 18:19

Interesting mechanics, but the game is too easy

bearding8 2022-04-12 18:39

Hahaha funny little game! Nice twist with bpm 666 :P

itskdog 2022-04-12 22:59

Interesting jumping game. I liked the visuals and the concept. I know the comments have been moving to the beat, but I just moved when the rain wasn't going to hit me.

sakura-magika 2022-04-13 06:05

@pureimprov yeah, i think there is a sweet spot for the speed of the music and ease of gameplay. you made it up to heaven at 666 speed? that's awesome! i've done it once too.

@fueelin thanks for playing, glad you liked it!

@allax that's interesting feedback; the game is a "score as much as you can in the timelimit" type of game, so of course, it's easy to get one or two escapes to heaven, but i felt like it was pretty challenging to get "a lot" of escapes. based on the comments and watching some of my friends play, here's how i would grade scores:

* 0-5 escapes: F * 6-10 escapes: D * 11-15 escapes: C * 16-20 escapes: B * 21-25 escapes: A * 25+ escapes: S

what was your top score?

@bearding8 \m/ 666 \m/

@itskdog jumping to the beat is the fastest the spider can possibly jump. it's true that it's not always a good idea to jump on every beat though, if there are raindrops all around you.

knexator 2022-04-15 21:08

Great game!

papaver 2022-04-20 22:50

Haha, fun game! Original mechanics, but even after completing the game I wasn't completely sure about the controls, haha. I just kept randomly jumping around. It seemed that the raindrops only really hit you when you are standing on a leaf, so I just kept jumping around. I tried a few times and my best score so far is 16. I had fun! :)

mark-a-pressler 2022-04-21 02:22

Cool game! I wish the jumping sound worked a little more harmoniously with the music. I also kinda wish water only took you down 1 level instead of taking you all the way back down to the bottom. But overall great job!

ivana-gigova 2022-04-21 16:54

I liked the art style and had a lot of fun playing! Maybe the water drops taking you down all the way to the start is a bit too punishing. GJ <3

matthewrobo 2022-04-21 17:00

1650560262-chrome_YxLnThgFcb.png

I guess I got a C?

Neat, I like the BPM it ends on. I do wish I could have a preview of what I'd jump to without pressing the A/D keys.

sakura-magika 2022-04-21 17:49

@knexator meow!

@papaver you can jump left or right by holding down the corresponding arrow, or up by not holding any arrow. the spider has a horizontal and vertical range she can jump, and the game will highlight the leaf you will jump to in the direction you are currently aiming (left/right/up). raindrops and leaves both spawn in set columns, so for the most part, you will only get dropped when you're on a leaf, but sometimes you can get dropped mid-jump if you're jumping across a column. 16 is a respectable score!

@mark-a-pressler heheh, yeah the drops are pretty punishing, especially as the game speeds up. i think it would be too easy if it only took you down one leaf (and wouldn't be faithful with the original lyrics haha), but i'm considering having the leaves speed up more along with the music, so it doesn't take as much time away from you as you fall. as for the sound, i was going for something kind of retro-arcadey, but yeah, it doesn't exactly fit with classical strings.

@ivana-gigova i'm glad you like my art style! it's my refined, signature solid circle brush technique.

@matthewrobo C for Cool! i hope to put the score ranking into the game soon. as for the previewing, it's definitely a good idea, and one i've been pondering. essentially it would be removing aiming, and constantly targeting in all three directions (highlighting up to three leaves at a time), then just instantly jump when you press an arrow button.

kate-black 2022-04-21 18:48

its nice and fun)

peace-of-cake-games 2022-04-21 19:39

8 8-legged creatures escaped, how nice!

Screenshot 2022-04-21 143255.png

Highlighting where the spider will jump to is a *really* nice touch since the falling leaves aren't exactly predictable! The cycles of rain and sunshine are really nice too, without the rain to wash the spider back down to the bottom the game would be a bit too easy. The game's difficulty curve is perfect, I love how chaotic it gets at the end.

Nice choice of song, too. I wonder why you chose that.... 😜