FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD56 → Familiar Bones

Familiar Bones

By emmagsmith and barryrichter

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2673.83111
Fun5253.43111
Innovation5033.35109
Theme4383.80111
Graphics1934.24112
Humor4953.13104
Mood1424.06108

Comments

sted 2024-10-07 23:22

This game is so cute! I like tge style of it and that you are playing as a cat. Great job!

suno 2024-10-07 23:31

cute! Especially the interaction animations

chariot 2024-10-07 23:32

I really love the art style!!

miles-michell 2024-10-07 23:33

Lots of animal tippy taps, pretty dang cute!

edali 2024-10-07 23:37

Very cute! The art is nice and the little interactions are fun.

dianavi 2024-10-07 23:37

Good job! I like the mood; the mix between the graphics and music is interesting. Thank you!

erasemenot 2024-10-07 23:39

I stuck by the door when it says "I'm too small to get through". I press E to hide the message, but it activates the door again and I can't move anywhere. Otherwise it's wholesome game. The music sucked me in along with minimalist 1bit art!

tubadude99 2024-10-07 23:40

Beautiful atmosphere! The one thing that was a little confusing was that some screens you needed to press e to change whereas with some you could just walk off screen.

smielke 2024-10-07 23:41

very cute game

jaycee-sandvig 2024-10-07 23:46

Very cute! Loved the atmosphere created by the graphics, music, and story together. Really nice.

frostbeak 2024-10-08 00:15

Super wholesome, this has alleviated my stress from the last three days :D

xandergoodwin 2024-10-08 01:53

I put a mouse in my cat pocket! Yippeeeeeeeeee

emmagsmith 2024-10-08 02:26

hello all! if you get stuck in dialogue at any point, hit A and E at the same time to get out. Also, to enter rooms with doors and the cave entrance/exit, press E! sorry for the small bugs, hope you enjoy the game!

coopizcool 2024-10-08 05:39

Stupid cute. nuff said

blue-pin-studio 2024-10-08 05:44

Very cute and wholesome game! Especially the dancing and blushing at the end :) Switching to different animals was a little bit janky in some parts and i got stuck on the pumpkin because i didnt know i need to use my mouse, but overall a great experience!

daybreaker 2024-10-08 07:02

I loved graphics and idea! Felt really cozy :)

nonigirl 2024-10-08 07:08

Thank you for your submission!

OMG, I absolutely love the look of your game! Creating such a sense of space using just black and white is really impressive! And I adore the animation of the cat—it’s especially well done when you press "E."

Unfortunately, I got stuck at one point... when I pressed "E" to dismiss the text, it triggered the text again, and I couldn’t progress. Do you have any tips on how to get past that? I’d love to keep playing!

pic.jpg

emmagsmith 2024-10-08 07:20

@nonigirl thank you so much for playing! sorry about the dialogue bug, if you hold A (the opposite direction you're facing) and hit E it should get you out of the dialogue!

ssiannas 2024-10-08 08:52

Nice game, thanks for your submission! I see the dialogue bug has already been mentioned haha I got back in the house and got stuck with the witch talking to me :stuck_out_tongue:

One thing I'd like to see is maybe a smoother change in scene when you move in the hole.

Great aesthetic overall!

hlebnay-kroshka 2024-10-08 09:20

owww i like the atmosphere of the game. its so cozy, and halloween <3. Good job guys

reecemungus 2024-10-08 09:37

I really enjoyed the vibes in this game. The music fit the atmosphere perfectly, same as the art. It felt so heartwarming to just walk around. I love this game, well done!

patomkin 2024-10-08 09:40

What a great little game! Loved the old adventure look.

P.S. It's MORBING time! xD

nanamaki 2024-10-08 09:58

I love the cute 1bit pixel art, so nice to see the dance😌 The atmosphere is really cozy. I hope I can make the pumpking the way I carved :D I also got stuck at the small door and after a close conversation with the witch(solved after seeing the comments). And the entrance of some map is kind of confusing to find. Overall good job guys!

steamhat 2024-10-08 10:10

this is a delightful little artpiece! I like the simple art style and would love to see more of this vibe :)

I encountered several game stuck moments and reloaded a few times! something that might help is a second tone used to show a path you are expected to take so there is less getting stuck on level bounds

wisstopher 2024-10-08 10:46

This is extremely sweet, such a good entry!

marra 2024-10-08 11:08

I must have missed something, so i couldn't cross the river😕 Anyway, the game itself is so cute, enjoyed it! Would love to play it till the end.

emmagsmith 2024-10-08 11:14

@marra if the river was the one in the cave room, try going back to the front yard of the house! there may be a small animal that can fit through a gap in the front left side of the fence (it can be tricky to spot, but some flowers lead to it)

marra 2024-10-08 11:34

thanks for your answer! continued playing immediately after seeing it. gasped so hardddd!!didn't expect such a sweet ending. great job!

sockenpuppe 2024-10-08 12:26

Encountered the dialogue bug at first, as well but then I saw that you mentioned how to get out of it.

Really wholesome game with nice artwork (I absolutely love 1bit pixel art)! The dancing animation at the end was soo cute <3

barryrichter 2024-10-08 13:07

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your helpful comments! We just did a few bug fixes and would love if you gave our game another play. @sockenpuppe @marra @nonigirl @nanamaki @ssiannas @erasemenot

We love getting to hear what you think of the game!

Thank you, The Familiar Bones Team.

peringo 2024-10-08 13:13

Lots of jagged edges gameplay wise, but it sticks to a style and mood and executes it well.

sutt00 2024-10-08 14:22

Liked the art style and the dreamlike plot. The interactions feel a little weird. I couldn't figure out how to fly. I was also very sad that i couldn't see my jack o lantern masterpiece after i was done :(

shadowmitia 2024-10-08 15:14

I got quickly confused about what to do after getting the mouse... But the style is super cute! Well done!

One nitpick: please think of adding arrow keys for movement, or use a system to not hardcode your keys, so that players from other countries with different keyboard can play easily :)

broheartttv 2024-10-08 15:55

Thank god you auto-tuned my pumpkin because it was about to ruin Halloween. Love the art style!

autotune.png

prussichger 2024-10-08 16:47

Very cute cat :cat:

emozdemir 2024-10-08 16:49

Cozy and cute one. The final scene was really fun to watch i loved it.

nikolas-van-rus 2024-10-08 16:50

Nice graphics and well-chosen music.

tomas-longo 2024-10-08 16:50

In the theme for the Jam and for Spooky Month

2024-10-08 16:51

very lovely! I love the art ))

alice-andronova 2024-10-08 17:00

I like the style,but sometimes i didn't understand where to go

xandergoodwin 2024-10-08 17:03

Untitled, 2024 Screenshot 2024-10-08 130228.png

kirass 2024-10-08 17:30

Cool game! I liked it.

velvetlobster 2024-10-08 17:44

I appreciate how, all of a sudden you are drawing a pumpkin.

I got stuck here twice. If you go back to talk to the witch, with the claw, when you press E in the last dialogue, it triggers a new dialogue again. So, the trick I managed to pull off to get out is to press and hold the opposite direction while pressing E, because that way, Pata doesn’t trigger the conversation again.

The other time, it happened at the gate again. I used the same trick to get out.

Anyway, I found the text delightful, the blending of art with that somewhat melancholic music in the background, and you get to play as a cat—something that's always welcome. 😄

codeserk 2024-10-08 20:44

I really like the paw movement animation! Artstyle in general is nice and emits some nice vibes! good job :)

designernap 2024-10-08 20:59

This is lovely. Really enjoyed the carving pumkin and then the surprise of the mouse joining! Got stuck at the door though as after I slashed the vines, the mouse nor cat could go through. Lovely audio and visuals though.

detectivelosos 2024-10-08 21:47

I did have some technical difficulties moving between the screens and getting stuck on some collisions, but other than that it was a sweet short experience. I thought it would get sad in the end but it ended up being very wholesome with the "resurrection", dance and all. I had a pretty morbin time playing though it and gathering all the tiny creature friends. P.s. pumpkin carving was a really nice touch!

frikilight8 2024-10-08 23:48

It's excellent! I love the minimalistic visual style and how it goes hand in hand with the tiny creatures. I think the narrative could have been developed a bit more, but it works. I like the idea of creating your own roster, but it could delve a little deeper into the mechanics of each creature and their relationship with level design.

imberny 2024-10-09 00:13

Simple and cute!

monochromatic.jpg

blackcat508 2024-10-09 04:59

I love the art!

jkyd 2024-10-09 05:34

Lovely game! The art and music choices are great, and 1-bit style is always fun :) The mechanic of switching between tiny creatures to progress is a really cool idea, would love to play through more puzzles using that. I enjoyed playing, awesome submission!

A non-game related nitpick: the background image of the viewport on itch blends in to the actual game, making it a little confusing to see where to go (and fullscreen doesn't display properly on a widescreen monitor).

webgl_backgroundimg.jpg

athospap 2024-10-09 08:18

Very nice art-style!. It reminder me of undertale. The mood perfect

beastwood 2024-10-09 11:33

I looove the art style! So cool! This game was really fun, but when it came time to fly across the river to grab the key all 3 characters were stuck so I couldn't progress. Super in love with the art :)

lachlan-james 2024-10-09 11:42

Beautifully moody :) Loved what you were able to achieve with the 1-bit palette.

Unfortunately got hard-stuck at the bat section unable to move, but really enjoyed it up to that point. I loved the touch with the pumpkin carving, and the bat's dialogue absolutely sent me :')

I know you didn't make the music, but it was a really cool vibe across from the art. Love aesthetic and feel throughout. :)

chrisbeck 2024-10-09 12:34

Really enjoyed this, love the 1-bit art style - it's hard to make just 2 colours look good but you got it perfect. Only thing I'd say would be to invert the colours if you're flying over water so you can still see you bat. It's Morbin Time

lyamgtt 2024-10-09 12:46

Absolutely love the art style and the mood your created !!

ansible 2024-10-09 13:10

The 1-bit art is beaut! Nice to be able to interact with stuff and draw a little nice touch. The characters are very cute and the mood is amazing. Nice!

pijinguy 2024-10-09 18:28

i loved the artstyle. very cute creatures. had fun decorating the pumpkin. lovely game to explore. good stuff!

zastegnushka 2024-10-09 20:45

Minimalistic and beautiful, nice one

lunaria-rava 2024-10-09 22:05

Beautiful art and sound, touching story!

The colliders are really unforgiving though. I got stuck permanently three times and had to restart, was able to finish it on fourth try.

There's not much gameplay in it, but the cuteness makes up for that!

pimping 2024-10-09 23:01

Nice art, like graphics also like idea and concept!

dywanix 2024-10-09 23:33

Very lovely idea and art!

littleblackdog 2024-10-10 05:32

This is such a cute game!! I really love the art, the animations were so great!!! I loved the ending too <3

loveschach 2024-10-10 05:32

I'm sorry that you died Barry, but I am happy that you are bones. I'm in love with the walk animation for the mouse and the cat.

plasticsword 2024-10-10 09:56

I like the subtle way you show where to go by using the grass, fun little game.

sf2 2024-10-10 16:40

the game is very interesting I like the plot and simplicity of drawing

aweskybear 2024-10-10 18:29

This is a *beautiful* experience! I completed it. The final dance is absolutely adorable!

Cannot nitpick a single thing, to be honest : ))) The lack of sound effects actually *works for* the game with its minimalistic style. You did something very unique here. Animations, art and puzzle elements fit perfectly. Congratulations!

sofia-miglan 2024-10-10 19:46

This game is very cute in graphics, I'm so glad that we're playing as a witch cat, what could be cuter than this? Only I was stuck at the moment with Nora, and I didn't understand what to do. Everything else is very cute, the gameplay is good. It's cool that I was given the opportunity to draw a pumpkin myself, it was fun. One drawback of the graphics is when the white pixels merge, but this is a small thing

dis0rder 2024-10-11 05:07

I see three different possible routes but I can't seem to access any of them.

And the mouse ran off to eat somewhere! :mouse: :corn:

Pumpkin.png

But either way, here's a pumpkin I carved! :jack_o_lantern:

This was quite a cute game!

avi 2024-10-11 08:22

The minimalistic art style was awesome and idea of the game was a lot of fun! I loved the little critters' animations :)

Thanks for making this :)

laywelin 2024-10-11 14:21

Oh... your submission is so cute! I felt it IN MY BONES no sorry but for real I thought it was quite beautiful and well done. Definitely reminded me of Undertale, I love the attention to details (showing corns as a hint where is the cornfield just in case, carving in the tree next to the river...)

I loved being able to carve the pumpkin, but my favorite image is this one. Capture d'écran 2024-10-11 161433.png

Thanks for your submission. Not all submissions are able to provide emotions, yours definitely did. well done <333

gamebuilder 2024-10-11 19:13

The poor cat got stuck in the bottom of the bookcase (even when I pressed A/E, there was no escape). Other than that, there were no game-stopping bugs. I like the B+W aesthetic very much — the graphics are very impressive, and the sound-track is well chosen.

Screenshot_2024-10-11-15-12-27_1920x1080.png

I will give this another go to see if I can make more progress. Anyway, a beautiful game you've given us.

gamebuilder 2024-10-11 19:20

To give you an update, all I had to do was change back to a mouse again, and I could free myself. So it wasn't a game-stopping bug after all.

calcopod 2024-10-11 20:18

I was hyped for this game ever since I saw some art pieces during the Jam's runtime. I was not disappointed. The art is amazing, the atmosphere is incredible, and overall a joy to play.

As opposed to others, I do think SOME amount of SFX and or music could help, but, for a jam game, this is already absolutely incredible!

whitefox 2024-10-12 22:33

Lovely artstyle and fun puzzles. I liked the mechanic of changing animals to do different things. Unfortunately I got stuck at the tree after getting the bat and I couldn't leave this scene. Great game overall!

oduvan 2024-10-12 23:20

This was such a beautiful and relaxing game to play. The puzzles were fun, and the art was just stunning. I did get stuck for a bit, but it didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed this experience. Looking forward to seeing more from you!

emmagsmith 2024-10-13 02:02

@calcopod Thank you, I’m so glad you liked it! There’s no SFX, but there should have been music when playing ^_^

emmagsmith 2024-10-13 02:04

@whitefox this is something we’re updating… you have to exit the tree room towards the bottom of the screen because that’s where the gap in the maze is! we’re currently making where the gap is more clear

emmagsmith 2024-10-13 02:07

@dis0rder Sorry to hear you got stuck! A hint if you wish to finish the game… the mouse didn’t run off, he joined your party and wants you to take him to the corn field through the fence ;) you can use the 1, 2, and 3 keys to swap animals!

osh-studio 2024-10-13 07:18

LOVED this submission! Such creative challenges, the pumpkin carving was so fun to be able to change the pixels! I absolutely LOVED the one coloured element being their flushed cheeks when they were reunited, such a sweet touch, the colour in each others black / white worlds *aw* Such a great submission congrats!

tastical 2024-10-13 18:46

Cute visuals, sweet story. I loved this. My only issue was some collision issues when swapping between characters, but nothing huge taking away from the experience. Great entry!

gord10ahmet 2024-10-14 21:53

Cat, rat, bat... That was such a cute game, I especially loved its 1-bit aesthetics. Well done!

exa 2024-10-15 07:50

Nice game,very interesting plot!!!!Nice job!!!!

daria-toni 2024-10-15 18:43

It's creepy, cute and halloweeny! Love it :) The game stubbornly kept getting stuck on the borders of locations, but in the end I beat it. I wish the story was a little longer, of course, but otherwise everything is great. Cool pixel art, a little humor, October theme. Old but gold joke from the bat lol. Anyway, good entry :)

whalejam 2024-10-16 10:30

So cute! I love the little paw when you interact! and the walking animations are so fun! I really laughed at the bats dialogue, was not expecting that lol. Everything was super clear, and I liked the little controls reminder at the start as that made it really easy to do what I was trying to do. I'd love to see more, nice job ^^

barryrichter 2024-10-19 02:29

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your again helpful comments! We just did a few bug fixes and would love if you gave our game another play. @shadowmitia @detectivelosos @beastwood @lachlan-james @tastical

We added: - Arrow Key Support - Updated Hitboxes - Some automatic interactions for smoother gameplay - Removed swapping character into softlock bug - Improved look and feel

We love getting to hear what you think of the game!

Thank you, The Familiar Bones Team.

louiewu 2024-10-19 09:25

I really loved the game's ending! The art and music effects are fantastic. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to tell if you can jump off the edge, so maybe adding some visual hints or making the screen scroll a little earlier could help?

samuel-hollywood-summers 2024-10-24 08:10

A lovely little game. The perfect length for a jam game. I did think I ran into a bug for a while at the pumpkin, but it was a fun discovery to get to carve it. I was a little disappointed that my face wasn't preserved on the zoom back out, and it was a pre-authored one, but never mind. I'd love to hear SFX added to the various interactions and used to (for example) point out the appearance of the mouse etc. I love the simple, high contrast visuals. Good work, and thanks for sharing.

helperwesley 2024-10-24 21:05

The animation and art is adorable, very in season.

I loved the creature switching mechanic, but I started the game feeling a little salty because the face I drew on the pumpkin wasn't what I saw in the game scene after I was done carving it. 😅

savi 2024-10-25 00:32

I really liked that I could draw something on the pumpkin, but I think it would have been better if what I was drawing remained on the board, still good job, I liked it :D

emsea 2024-10-25 02:08

Charming art style, the game sets the mood well. I had a chill experience playing as a little kitty. 👌

nerolee 2024-10-25 02:31

so cool art ,good job !

midnightmist 2024-10-25 02:56

Very lovely! Love the minimal colour palette and the charm that comes from it! A good amount of world to explore and very cute characters. Wonderful work :smile_cat:

deadroach 2024-10-25 04:15

Complete, lovely game with a sweet ending. I really enjoyed this one.

barryrichter 2024-10-25 17:08

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for the amazing support and feedback over the course of the game jam. I know that there isn't much time left but we just posted an update were your pumpkin carving stays. We would love if you took one last look at it.

@nanamaki @broheartttv @detectivelosos @lachlan-james @pijinguy @sofia-miglan @dis0rder @laywelin @osh-studio @samuel-hollywood-summers @helperwesley @savi @deadroach

Thank you, The Familiar Bones Team.

ginxel 2024-10-25 19:49

Absolutely love the art, it reminds me of the game Minit! Would love to see this develop further into a full game!

detectivelosos 2024-10-25 21:22

Hey, I did check the updated version (even before the final deadline :D), and indeed it was much-much smoother than the initial one. All the collision problems are basically gone, I also like the new screen transitions (I think they are new?). And the much needed exit/enter prompts are a very welcome addition. Well done not giving up on the project after the jam and adding all those quality of life features! The story is still sweet as before and my time with the game was once again pretty Morbin.

detectivelosos 2024-10-25 21:25

Oh, I almost forgot, here is my pumpkin, I tried making it a 4-faces-in-1 :DScreenshot 2024-10-25 221235.png