Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD56 → Gettin' Squirrely!
By cliff-coffee
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1001 | 2.90 | 40 | |
| Fun | 895 | 2.92 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 749 | 3.03 | 40 | |
| Theme | 587 | 3.63 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 764 | 3.26 | 40 | |
| Humor | 603 | 2.93 | 38 | |
| Mood | 979 | 2.79 | 39 |
Hey, I wasn't able to play this as my browser doesn't support WebGPU (that's a pretty recent feature: I think maybe Chrome is the only browser that has it by default). Could you provide a build with just WebGL? (I have Chrome at work, so could test it there tomorrow though!)
@mrspeaker The project is built on WebGL2 and Firefox was used for test. Are you trying to play it here or on itch.io, and what browser are you using?
I'm getting the same result here and on itch.io. This is Firefox 131, on Mac. WebGl2 stuff works for sure. I'll test this on my work machine (Linux and report back though).
weberr.png
Update: Ah, I just remembered after I uploaded that screenshot that I had did have Firefox Nightly installed because I was testing out some WebGPU stuff: and it worked in that! (Not sure why the WebGL2 version is using WebGPU as well though: you might need to investigate)
Annnyhooo - I loved the game! It took a while to get a handle on the controls: the turning speed it really fast, but after I got used to it was ok. The climbing mechanic was kind of hilarious and fun how you snap vertically to the tree - I loved running up the side of the building wall too.
My main complaint is that it's too hard to see the nuts! The blended in too well - making it hard to tell I'd missed one in the trees or on the ground. Though, that did become part of the fun once I got the hang of it. My secondary complaint is that I shouldn't need to click on the platform when I return them: I demand auto-harvest.
(Also, the first time I encountered the dog, I nearly jumped out of my chair: very effective)
Great work!
@mrspeaker thanks so much for your review and persistence! I def would like to add some see-through effects for the squirrel and the nuts when they are nearby when I get the chance, and nuts that drop out of the tree as you climb the branches was planned.
I had trouble getting it to run on firefox (version 131) but eventually it loaded here, but not on itch.io. It would also randomly freeze every now and then. Maybe consider releasing a desktop build as it'll likely run better on most PCs
The game itself was pretty fun. I loved the movement mechanics and climbing trees. It felt very polished and well made. I also had a hard time finding the nuts and my playthrough ended after I climbed a fence and tried to get back down by jumping towards the ground which clipped me through the floor lol
Overall good job putting this together solo. Just try to fix the build or upload a desktop version for better compatibility
@skleembof thanks for the feedback! I'm definitely learning texture sizes matter, and shader streaming/loading too. I had to re-upload the itch version a few times to fix a loading issue, should be better as of today (5:30 CT on 10/8).
So the climbing mechanic is pretty great, that's definitely a feat to do. But unfortunately it was hard to read the text which spent time, and then handling it to grab nuts from the trees was a bit difficult. I wish the hitboxes for the nuts were bigger and there was more contrast to see the nuts better. I love the idea but the execution needs a bit of work and polish for sure. Polish is so important!
The climbing mechanic is cool but sometimes I get knocked off :(
@nuin thanks for the feedback! Collision in the trees could definitely be improved, I only gave myself a few hours for all the collision stuff - ultimately a better tree collision mesh would improve this I think.
@pious thanks for taking the time to review and give feedback. I agree, and I wish I had a little more time to add the menu to show he controls/tutorial bit up-front. Solo gamedev and sleep are always a tug of war! =)
I liked the idea of the game and I think the UI looks really good! However the game seems pretty buggy. I was often going under the ground then popping back up when jumping, climbing in the trees without falling is super hard, and climbing down a tree then jumping was making me go under the map, the dog AI feels a bit broken, it sometimes stays in place while playing a walk animation and it didn't feel very threatening, I could mess around him without much trouble.
A little buggy (which is absolutely to be expected in a game jam game, ha) but overall a lot of fun and a lot of potential if you decide to take it further. Very impressed with the ability to walk on walls and objects. Great job!
@master-yeet thanks for the feedback - I agree the logic on the dog's animation triggers are off - setting the animations based on nav mesh agent desired velocity was probably an oversight. Dog can only attack once every so often, likely too long. I tried to use custom physics/collision here, and getting all the different raycast checks to work was difficult but they def can be improved.
@adrelladev thanks for feedback - definitely hoping to fix some of the collision issues (particularly with the trees) which I presume might be the main bugs you experienced - if other bugs, def let me know if you get time!
felt the squirrel inside of me!
I got a high score of 8 nuts! I had some difficulties climbing the trees, but I found the movement and animations to be quite endearing. The objective was communicated well enough that I had no difficulty understanding what to do or how to accomplish it (aside from not realizing that the "drop" button only dropped one nut, not all of them).
I encountered an issue in which there was what seemed like an invisible restart button, so when I clicked in a certain area the game would restart :cry:. I also had issues getting it to run in the browser- on Firefox it simply wouldn't load, and on Chrome it would load into a white screen, so I played the desktop version.
@sabrina-ross be the squirrel!
@jaker Thanks for the feedback! Sounds like it is possible that the UI is still interactable or selected - thats a good call - I will check that out. I did intend to add a different button for routine to drop all the nuts in random time delays to look chaotic, but didn't get to it - great idea. The original thought was you might want to keep a nut for a certain special nut toss move (to distract the dog). But again another feature I didn't get to!
This is cool little game, I'm a big fan of the stick to walls mechanic. It's definitely super jank, but it is a lot of a fun and opened up the level a lot. I will say climbing the trees is super hard with this mechanic so some refinement would really help the game feel better (especially since they are covered with acorns incentivizing you to climb them). I also really appreciate the small details like your cheeks being filled with nuts and the jumping and landing effects. For a solo dev, I really liked how you were able to get those small details in. Overall it's a fun game that you should be proud of, great work!
It's a cute game!
However, not a big fan on how disorienting the camera can be when climbing up the tree.
@mistercarson Thanks a bunch for you feedback! Definitely much to be improved with all the raycast checks for climbing and the tree colliders themselves (they are proceedural so I'm kind of surprised they work even as well as they do). Appreciate the kind words too.
Squirrel animations are very nice, and climbing the walls is a really neat mechanic. The camera being locked to the player's rotation made it very hard to control while climbing though. Great job overall!
Oops, totally forgot to mention the bugs haha! Yeah, there were a couple collision issues where I fell off the tree and one where I went through the fence but I may have bumped the jump/dive button when that happened so may have been my fault.
Jumping and climbing looks fun! But I keep clipping through stuff and the jumpy camera movement makes it hard to control where you want to go.
Nice game :) Camera is a little bit disorientating
I think all that's missing here is some polish. Your core idea works and is something I haven't seen before, so it feels very innovative. A charge meter for the jump strength and a line that shows the path I'll take/where I'll land would go a long way.
I did get some super jumps that were a lot of fun!
For your first Ludum Dare game and working solo, this is really good!
It was cool overall. Good game!
@tavevil Thanks for your feedback! Its definitely "squirrely" and can be vertigo-inducing when branches and other things are thrown into the camera foreground. I've been experimenting with simpler trees, camera improvements, etc.
@djtequila thanks for your feedback! I'm definitely going to be improving the cameras and adding camera controls/preferences, this is a good callout.
@adrelladev @jellyfishhunter thanks for your feedback, definitely going to be looking into the custom collisions I used - theres something in the jump routine that needs some work.
@joshua-reumann thanks, definitely something I want to improve in the future.
@mhorth thanks for your feedback. glad you enjoyed it, the jump charge-up UI and jump arc visualization was planned but I couldn't get it in, but really wanted to.
@cloudya thanks for the kind words!
Pretty good for a solo project. The camera gets pretty wacky when you go up the tree; it kinda reminds me of the Alien camera from AvP2 (2001 game by Monolith), which was one of my favorite games as a kid. It's a bit too easy to fall off a branch though. I can definitely see the potential here. Keep it up!
it is a good project but dog is not in the shape I think 😄 camera needs a revision I think since it's almost impossible to play like this but for a jam I think some broken stuff is always our problem in the end
@k6l2 AVP was one of my favorites too! definitely took some inspiration from that. The tree collisions definitely could use some work, right now they are procedural mesh collisions and move with wind which makes things weird with some of the very gnarled branches.
@malibaturhan thanks for your feedback! yeah I spent very little time on the dog and needs some work on behavior for sure. Camera fixes are also on the roadmap.
Good job for the climbing mechanic. It is hard to control and something I fall by just climbing straight upward. My maximum is 11, and I tried to run as fast as I could ^^
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@curtis-pelissier thanks for the feedback! My best ever is 24. 11 is pretty good! Tree collision needs some work for sure. I find its almost easier to jump up the trunk, then move to get the nuts horizontally.
Great idea, but the tank controls and fixed camera makes it really quite difficult. Especially on the thinner branches, where a tap of a key can spin you around and disorient or knock you off the tree. Some tweening/smoothing on the camera would help a lot, same with the inputs to allow some softer moves. Overall it looks great, great UI and art! Good job!
@mistagiggles Thanks. Its definitely easier with a gamepad, and there were some problems with the tree collision meshes. Have a lot of fixes prepped for release soon.
Squirrel game was very fun and humorous. sometimes I clipped through the floor and would fall forever. The camera was frustrating in a fun way, and sometimes it was difficult to transition from tree trunk to branch. A lot of fun overall, great job!
It's nuts!
I love this. The climbing mechanic was a little jank, but I had a lot of fun with it climbing up to the roof of the house and jumping off! I'm just a little disappointed that I couldn't go *inside* the rain gutter :P
I think you could expand on this and turn it into a silly squirrel simulator type thing. That sounds like it would fun.
Great entry!
@crid626 Thanks for feedback! I am curious which version you played, this was an issue in early version I thought I had fixed the falling through the terrain issue.
@ale thanks for the feedback! Rain gutter initially "worked" but was super buggy so I had to turn climbing off for it (for now). Definitely will be improving this game and releasing!