ayuv 2025-04-08 07:49
I kept dying because I didn't realize it was thorns/vines and not grass LMAO. Love the swinging mechanic. Fun experience overall. Not a fan of the background music though.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Descent Protocol
By duke-ua, 3Deimos, SequoiaSan and Hoggerhead
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 361 | 3.65 | 62 | |
| Fun | 267 | 3.62 | 62 | |
| Innovation | 563 | 3.06 | 62 | |
| Theme | 571 | 3.45 | 62 | |
| Graphics | 336 | 3.87 | 63 | |
| Audio | 308 | 3.51 | 61 | |
| Humor | 323 | 3.09 | 57 | |
| Mood | 533 | 3.42 | 62 |
I kept dying because I didn't realize it was thorns/vines and not grass LMAO. Love the swinging mechanic. Fun experience overall. Not a fan of the background music though.
Wow, great game! Feels very fleshed out :) Really enjoy the graphics!
This was fun! The swinging back and forth on the grapple rope feels really good. I occasionally got frustrated with the grapple not connecting but it always felt like 90% a me problem and like it was fair. I got to an area with a bunch of falls and platforms going left and right before i hit a skill wall (though i also felt it was something that if i'd stuck with it i'd have come out on the other end). There was some nice level design and some fun traversal challenge here -- spent more time with this than most of the games i've tried out so far : )
This is fun! Nice expansion on the jump&run genre. I like the graphics, the music and sounds. And it's difficult to play but just the right amount of challenging. Great!
enjoy the graphics and the sounds... same problem here about the grapple not connecting in some cases
What a beautiful game, looks vibrant and polished!
Music was a bit quiet though, had to turn up the volume on PC to max to hear it.
Really liked the grappling hook, even though I had trouble handling it :)
The theme is well-executed, I completed all the levels but didn’t collect all the items. The character is cute, thumbs up for using UE. The physics are a bit wonky, but it’s fun to play.
Love the swinging and double jump mechanics
Wow!! I don't want to think about how hard coding the rope mechanic has been. Is it a chain of fixed joints with physics? If so, changing them to pulley joints with a veeeery low elasticity would enable new tricks, like using it as a whip to pull yourself slightly up. Great entry, graphics, game... thanks!
Super fun art direction! Great work!
Hey, great submission! I really liked the swing mechanic here, it was fun to interact with! Great graphics also!
Models all look really good for the timeframe! The movement feels a bit floaty and hard to control, other than that really cool
Great job! Really loved the voiced character! There are some bugs with the hook movement, but what can you do without those, right?)
Great game. Hilarious and charming character. Cosmo gnome in underwear. Just 10 out of 10. Platforming mechanics are not very convenient and controls are slightly inconvenient. Project with good potential, do not give up.
Sadly this run quite poorly on my laptop, so the gameplay was a bit more frustrating than it probably actually would've been. Still, a solid implementation of a classic idea!
A bit repetitive but cool game. I really liked the level art. The rope simulation feels a bit randomly choppy and leads sometimes to unexpected behavior, but I guess the physics engine of Unreal is what it is.
Very interesting game, interesting style! There are many interesting sji, I also invite you to experience my game ^-^
Very nice 2d platformer!
I like the swing mechanic, although the music was too relaxing for the idea of the game, also I didn´t get how to get to the both top platforms of level one. In general was a good experience and well guided tutorial.
@turkissh Thanks for the kind words. to get to those platforms you need to build the momentum while swinging and launch yourself up there
Wooow I'm impressed you were able to develop those mechanics in 3 days :') it's really fun to play, I love the designs, and especially the little guy in a suit :3 GG guys!
Nice game! Had some fun while playing it! The only problem I´ve encountered (skill issue) is that sometimes a fall is not big enough to kill me, but sometimes it is? So i got a little confused from how far I could fall without dying. Great game overall!
Hey! We're like game-name brothers! I like the game, it's a classic platformer!
I just found it a little floaty, but challenging anyways.
The only feedback I can give you is that the falling damage is way too frustrating, specially while beign so floaty.
Anyways, great entry! 😉
Loved the atmosphere, the abandoned facility vibes were spot on)
Felt like I cheated my way through by trying to mitigate fall damage with hook. Had fun swinging around the levels :laughing:
Great gameplay and cool graphics
A fellow Unreal game! I think the visual polish on this game is top notch, I can definitely relate to how hard it was to get it looking this good. The models and animations felt very shippable. I thought the music was great and I loved that there was voice acting! I think my issues with the game are all gameplay and physics related.
I think the base swinging mechanics didn't feel snappy and fun, and had a very weighty sluggish feel because you're relying too much on Unreal's default physics to move the physics body. I can see the effort to give us an arrow to indicate if we can attach to a wall or not, but the hook shoots out with some delay and so even if the arrow was green for a second it can still miss; it adds to the overall sluggishness. As people above mentioned too, the distance you fall to die feels very short for a video game. If you're trying to be realistic, ofcourse he would die at that height, but then again this guy is a cartoonish character jumping off crazy platforms and doing impossible hookshots, so I feel like leaning to the way of video game fantasy is the way to go.
The level design was also not too great because there were many moments where I could soft lock myself if I failed to collect a vege but landed on a checkpoint further down. I reached the end of level 1, and there was a sign saying I needed to collect every vege, but I didn't have a way to go back or restart the level, so I had to quit to main menu and start over.
11.png
I feel you should include more details about how long it took you all to make the game, which assets exactly were created during the jam, and also detailed credits of who did what on your team. If this was all created in 3 days then I am super impressed! I know how hard it is to make a jam game using Unreal, it's such a heavy engine. Great job, and thank you for the game!
@jag Thank you so much for playing and for leaving such thoughtful feedback! We really appreciate the kind words about the visuals, music, and overall presentation—it means a lot, especially coming from a fellow Unreal dev who understands the engine’s quirks.
All game assets were created by our small team of 4 created everything during the jam (models, animations, music, voice, level design, etc.), and yeah, it was a crazy push to get it all done in time. Unreal definitely gave us some surprises, especially with how differently the physics behave in the editor versus the shipping build. We relied heavily on the built-in physics for the rope and swinging mechanics, and we’re already thinking about how to refine or rebuild that system in a post-jam version to make it feel snappier and more responsive.
We also totally hear you on the game feel and level design concerns. While every level *can* be completed both forward and backward with the right technique, we realize that it’s not always clear or forgiving, especially if you miss collectibles and hit a checkpoint that locks you out. That’s great feedback, and something we'll definitely take into account if we keep working on the game.
Thanks again for taking the time to write such a detailed comment -- it really helps, and we’re glad you checked it out!
Very cute game! I love the swinging effect
The fall damage seemed very punishing, to the point of making the game way more frustrating to play than fun. Otherwise the grapple mechanic was fun, the art is extremely well done, character animation is great, stylish main menu. Even if there was a health-bar or lives or something to let the player fall a few times, I'd personally enjoy that more than insta-death. Also, just from a design point, I think giving the player a score based on how many plants they collected vs locking the end of the level out *feels* less frustrating that falling down the level and having to go back.
Understandable if you're going for a more old-school super-difficult design like Crash Bandicoot or something. Really good job overall, especially for 4 people!
@deadjolly Thanks for the feedback :) Fall damage was done this way to encourage player to use rope for descent. Maybe not the best solution but it is what it is :)
Really solid game, I had a good time playing it
A big bravo for the level of finish, I would have liked the controller to be a little more dynamic and less buoyant, but it was a lot of fun to play. It reminded me a lot of the Worms grapin, was that one of your references?
Nice game! I really liked the depth of the swinging mechanic — at first, climbing a single platform felt impossible, but by the end of the game I could do it anytime. Makes me wonder if there are other tricks like that hidden in the mechanic.
I did miss some kind of fall damage indicator, to be honest. Maybe a falling sound, or a visual cue like a speedometer with a red danger zone?
Very charming little platformer, good fun with this one, wouldn't mind the character controller to be dialed in slightly more to give off a bit more precise control. Should definitely expand further on this
@glurgludor Thanks :) Of course worms were big inspiration on this one
Wow! I love taht one!
The physics need a bit of polish, but I had a lot of fun swinging around in the game. The little animations at the end of the levels are quite charming, and they pair well with the great music and SFX. Well done!
Firstly, this looks lovely with a lot of mood in the audio, great work there. I was shocked by the acceleration coming off the swing! and I think the falling damage is a bit too strict, but something good here.
Really awesome job! This was difficult and fun! I agree with others feedback on there, the fall damage does feel a bit punishing. The hook mechanic could also use some work, a lot of the time it felt like the hook didn't attach when it should have, and sometimes the hook attached to something way further than it should have.
Small bits of feedback though, otherwise I really enjoyed it. :thumbsup:
Very nice game :smile: I like to spam grappling hook a little in these type of games, so I found out you can yeet yourself pretty far if you time it just right :D I had fun! I wish there was some explanation in-game what each collectible does. (Played version 1.0 for accurate scoring). Super well made game :100:
Great entry. The swinging is really fun. My main nitpick is the auto-release of the rope. I often just got close to a moving platform and it auto-released resulting in me falling down. Same sometimes happened when being attached to a wall.