Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Small Among Storms
By penagwin, astraltraveller and shanzpro
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 411 | 3.58 | 239 | |
| Fun | 559 | 3.19 | 240 | |
| Innovation | 663 | 2.95 | 240 | |
| Theme | 561 | 3.44 | 240 | |
| Graphics | 208 | 4.15 | 239 | |
| Audio | 156 | 3.91 | 238 | |
| Humor | 473 | 2.63 | 214 | |
| Mood | 261 | 3.91 | 238 |
Listen for danger! Oh I love that, it feels relaxing yet I am on edge. The graphics are clear and I suck at platforming :sweat_smile: For me it was a little difficult, and the text was a bit small to read when I was not fully focused. Did not get far but got a good view of the intent and mechanics. The natural vibe was cool and art eyepleasing.
I got eaten by a hawk, would recomend. In all seriousness this was pretty fun, I liked the sound design being part of what alerts you to danger. I think this could have some legs to it.
Updated — turns out the problem was on my side. Sorry.
Looks very juicy. The squirrel is awesome!
Very cool! The vibes are immaculate. Great art, great music, neat concept. Nice work!
I like what you did! The symbols for people on silent/audio impairments is a nice touch, and also helps remind people what dangers are coming up. I do wish there was more control over the dangers/how to dodge them. Very thematic, and I love the mood!
Thanks for the generous checkpoints, I sure needed them! Love how the theme and audio and lighting of the scenes all came together. Took me a minute to figure out how to swim :)
Nice game! The visuals and sound effects made for a great mood. The gameplay was tense, challenging and fun. My only criticism would be the text on screen, as I think a more stylized font/look would go a long way. Great work overall!
Amazing game! I loved the art so so much! the atmosphere is incredible. Definitely worth the blood, sweat, and tears 😉
I was exploring a similar vibe in my LD entry too, but the mood you pulled off here is chef’s kiss.
I like this little squirrel guy so much. The sound design for him dying is so good yet so sad.
The graphic and sound design fit together very well! Loved the use of the 2D lighting effects.
Love your game! The lighting effects and level design are amazing—I learned so much! P.S. I saw your comment on my game. Turns out I just forgot to turn on access permissions. Thanks so much for the heads-up; I never would’ve noticed otherwise!
game is really rally nice and polished but Screenshot 2026-04-20 211115.png what am i looking at?
Really cool idea! A squirrel's life is incredibly difficult. Stormy effect was very well done
Wow, what a nice game! I really appreciate the abundance of checkpoints, as I was constantly risking my luck with the lighting and bird strikes. Nice work!
Beautiful style, the game looks fantastic. The main character is really great, and the environment feels really rich and well polished. I wish some of the platforms were slightly larger to make it easier to jump, also i feel like the bird timer could be slightly shorter. Great entry.
Super cute and atmospheric, I enjoyed that a lot :)
The visuals and animations are excellent, and the level design is quite engaging. Unfortunately, the overall game feel is somewhat mediocre, and the margin of error (or coyote time) for jumping at the edge of platforms is a bit low
Excellent atmosphere and sound, I like it
One of the most complete experiences here! The visuals are superb and the mood is just amazing! Congrats on the work, truly! One thing I don't know if it's a bug - after dying past a checkpoint, acorns doesn't seem to be persisted.
@tanjou Thank you so much! It's not really a bug, we were on the fence about whether they should or not. If they were a collectible that was a certain number, for example 0/3 on each level, we would have had them persist. Instead they're more of a "high-score" where you try to get as many to the end as possible. Someone has already joked that they are a "0 acorn squirrel," haha.
I love the mood of this game! The pixel art is super pretty and the music is very relaxing. It's a very polished experience for an LD game. Well done!
Every time owl chase me, I get goosebumps. Excellent work on atmosphere!
Pretty cute game. It looks really beautiful. The idea of using signals from nature is unexpected — I wouldn’t have thought of that! Very clever. (My squirrel died so many times I don’t think I brought a single acorn home, haha)
The jumps feel a bit floaty, and the camera is a bit too low for my taste. But it was fun — I played it through to the end and even found the key in the pond (by accident, lol).
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Very pretty game! Love the atmosphere and the art. The gameplay is a bit bland though. Also I could never figure out how to avoid the bird and the only way seemed to be to keep running forward to the next checkpoint. I guess with how pretty the game already is, I would have liked to see more narrative and less challenging gameplay!
Love the concept of the signals of enemies and nature! Such a good game and well done!
Very cute and fun. I didn't quite understand why I died in water sometimes and other times could swim as long as I wanted, but it was a nice quick platformer with really nice sprites and solid gameplay.
Hey, This is a really cool game!
Major props to the pixel artist
Good game, was fun!
the life of a squirrel is a tough one ! art was fantastic. the sound was good and the game play was fun. i liked the little podiums that give you the tutorial and the check points. thank god for checkpoints or i would have had a lot of resets im guessing that id the player can hear crickets you can move but if they stop the owl is about. really nice mechanic but it was not super clear that was what i was looking out for so it lead to a few deaths all in all fantastic atmospheric game !
When I was playing the game I found it really annoying how you had to hide inside a log every 5 seconds. I get that's the whole integration with the theme, but I'd honestly rather play without it. I did really like the art though well done.
This game is absolutely gorgeous! Awesome audio and visuals! The mood and atmosphere of the forest are really great.
Unfortunately the gameplay is a bit lacking. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any coyote time or input buffering (as in, if you press UP just a frame before landing from the previous jump, the follow-up jump doesn't trigger). Also the movement in the water seems kinda off. Like, when you jump into water you just drop down to the bottom like a rock. Overall there isn't much margin for error in the platforming mechanics.
Thematically the signal gimmick is strong, but I'm afraid it makes for poor gameplay. I spent a good chunk of time just waiting out the dangers, as the owl and lightning were sometimes staggered so that when the lightning hit, the owl warning would play right after.
Overall this was still a very enjoyable entry. Excellent work! :grin:
Full of atmosphere! From the first look, I knew I want to play through this and get the squirell to safety ^^
Very cool game! The ambiance is outstanding
The game's world logic makes total sense. It's a pixel game, but the lighting and shadows are amazing.I lov it!!
wow, this is so beautiful, with a great atmosphere, and a fun gameplay concept! loved it
fun but I would love if I could jump with space
I really enjoyed this game. The graphics and atmosphere are great. I really liked the idea with the squirrel. If the controls were more responsive, it would be a masterpiece.
I would like the acorn points to be saved for each checkpoint; improve the mechanics a little .
Terraria Nostalgia 2012 LTS Dislike Pixelart
Super cute graphics, great mood of scary forest. I played it with my daughter and we had a lot of fun! :)
@lizelive My idea of what a skull looks like when I'm sleep deprived, haha!
@nyxkn You can hide in the logs to avoid the owl and the lightning.
@shanzpro ah i can see it.
The lack of saving with checkpoints was a little disheartening, nice work!
Had fun on this, very polished contribution :two_hearts:
Moody music and environment. The underwater sections felt like Flappy Bird. Reminded me of the hiding sequences of the 2005 The Chronicles of Narnia game.
Cool idea for interpreting the theme. Loved the visual style and the art. I hadn’t even thought about the idea of exploring the theme through sound. Really great work!
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I love the pixel art
Incredible visuals. Every bit as good as Animal Well. The game was also punishingly difficult, at least if you were trying to finish with a decent amount of acorns. Would've liked more of a motivation to do that and perhaps not losing all of them at every checkpoint. But it was loads of fun and "atmospheric" is definitely the word. Wonderful job!
Nature is truly dangerous in this forest. I’ve been struck by lightning several times when getting out of the water.
This game is really lovely :slight_smile:
Awesome game! I was pretty bad at it though, kept on panicking when I heard the owl and then running into the nearest thorn lol
The pixel art and music are nice, but the controls are clunky
I rarely play platformers. This one is amazing, the atmosphere felt like I was in a real forest hiding from an owl.
Pretty cool and fresh idea! GJ!
Great Theme Idea!
- Why are you crying? - I feel sorry for the squirrel( The visuals and sounds are very pleasant. I like the atmosphere of the game
Stopping killing meeeee! I'm just a lil' guy! Cute, cool, fun, kinda tough!
You play maybe the most fragile squirrel the word has ever seen. Try to get home with your acorns. Watch out for birds, and fish, and lightning, and water, and sharp plants. In fact, don't touch anything. Just live in a closer log.
What a cute game and great little platformer. Loved the incorporation of the theme through sounds. Fantastic entry
Very awesome stuff here, the movement feels nice, the pixel art is glorious, the audio and ambiance fits so so SO perfectly. Having the side mission to collect the acorns is also fun. It's a nice short level with some fun dangers. However, my one GRIPE, is the underwater movement, sad to say that was annoying to move through, but, if y'all continue this game I'm sure that'll be an easy fix. Some fixes with that could be holding up moves the player consistantly up instead of having to spam tap, the drag horizontally is way too much. But of course, not a lot of time to polish something so miniscule like that, huge props on the art work again, absolutely gorgeous. That was the only issue I had tho, really nice and chill game to play, keep up the good work :D
Great art and mood! I found some of the platforming was finicky, particularly trying to jump off ledges and such. I also liked the level design.
@mr-flower yeah for sure, we'd like both to have controller support, and a swimming movement that is less flappy bird, haha. it was definitely a time constraint choice.
@mr-flower Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah the underwater movement could use some improvements, we plan to improve that after the jam. We wanted to put a checkpoint after the swimming section on the second level to make it a little less annoying, but ran out of time to implement it as the current checkpoints don't remember if you've picked up the key already.
The sound effect is vivid and immersive!! The feeling is very consistent with animal behavior~~I like this game！！
Very nice game. I wish i was better at platforming :( Art was nice good post effects and very cool calm music. Good job team! :)
The mechanic of judging danger by sound is quite interesting, and this level-based game really makes me want to keep playing🥰🥰🥰
Nice pixel art !
Nice entry here guys! Loved the visuals. The Audio and the signal interperation is on point.
I stopped caring about acorns after dying to "not having a coyote time". The lightning always targeting the poor guys was brutal :D I think this listen to the signal approach is fun, it has room for improvement for sure.
It was a nice journey and I'm "home sweet home".
The atmosphere is great, really opressing in the best way! The music kept you tense the whole time through! Personally I would like it more if there wasn't a symbol denoting the looming threat so you would be forced to be more careful and discover how the signals work for yourself. More diversity in threats would be better, obviously, but this is a really solid game jam entry!
I'm glad I managed to guide the poor little squirrel safely home :) Cute little game!
Some gameplay things: The platforming could be improved by adding a slight amount of "coyote time" because it can be pretty unforgiving if you walk over an edge, especially since the dropping speed is so high. And the water didn't feel very natural, having the same sinking speed as aerial dropping speed. On the other hand, ground and aerial movement felt really tight!
What do the acorns do? edit: found the answer in your comments!
Excellent atmosphere and audio, but it seemed to me that the controls were not the most pleasant, but the graphics were simply wonderful, I really liked the game
Loved the atmosphere and visuals! Gameplay is interesting, parallaxes are well made, and overall the game feels extremely polished.
It's a pretty enjoyable platformer. The visuals and sound design are simple but pleasant. That said, the mechanic of constantly having to hide can get pretty tedious and makes it hard to progress smoothly. But overall, great work!
有点难！这个小松鼠真的跳得超级高！对我来说感觉操作有点过于灵敏了，很漂亮的美术！鸟叫作为一种危险信号这点很还原自然，喜欢背景配色，有种神秘感
A bit difficult! This little squirrel really jumps incredibly high! The controls feel a bit too sensitive for me, but the art style is beautiful! The bird calls as a danger signal are very natural, and I love the background color scheme; it has a mysterious feel to it.
I suck at platforming but the game is super fun and cute!
It is a cool little game. Nice pixel art, good sounds. Good Job!
i liked the pixel art and great work on the sound, the controls were a bit difficult in some places. Overall enjoyed the atmosphere it has.
Pretty original approach of the theme (thats a good point !!). Beautiful and the ambiance is really good :D Good job !!
That was such a cool take on the theme. Really cool game. And yes, I died quite a lot :D
This was such a nice game! Love the creative take on the theme, the adorable art, and the music. It had such a nice vibe, I hardly even noticed how often I was dying haha. The frequent save points were a great call - it made each section feel like a mini puzzle to solve.
pretty cool game, pixel art is awesome
A pretty interesting platformer. Stylish visuals and sound design. Controls feel good, though personally I missed jumping on Space. I'd also appreciate some visual feedback showing how much time is left before a lightning strike or bird hit - not necessarily a timer. Something like a danger bar that fills up as a bird gets closer, that kind of thing.
That is a wonderful game ! Love the feel !
very nice game, feels like from a totally different era. good idea about the theme. A bit frustrating pacing of the saves. Great Job, keeping going with it.
Very lovely game art and great atmosphere.
A unique spin on signals for sure! I made it to the end eventually, and overall had a fun time! I will say though, from a purely audio perspective, a couple things:
+The bird sounds need to be more immediately predatory, like a hawk or eagle. Yes, I know lesser known bird of prey sounds are a thing, but to most people, an easy to recognise hawk or eagle scree will do the trick perfectly. That bird sound doesn't instill fear into a human ear, so it takes a few goes before you pinpoint the thing actually making the sound!
+Similarly, the thunder sound is not loud enough in the game mix, a threat to the player like that needs to be much more potent, I had no idea when the thunder was coming a lot of the time, since the thunder was so blended into the rain sounds it felt too natural.
+There could have been a few more detailed sounds in there, like swimming sounds or more jumping sounds etc +the music was cute, but it looped a little weirdly.
good job :3
@JynxAudio I totally get that! We would've added more sounds if we had more time. The bird noise is the bird from the beginning who told you he would warn you of dangers so it's a chickadee! Owls don't make noise when they attack. Thanks for pointing out the thunder, it's always hard to tell if something is too subtle!
Cute! I lile this atmosphere so much!
Amazing! Like some I would prefer acorns to persist but they popped randomly so it's not too bad.
I liked the approach to theme and the attention to details a lot, well done!
a neat idea, but could use some more refining. The events happen on different timers, so I ended up just "waiting" a lot for a good cycle, since there was really no time between the lightning and owl attack most times. Also, the acorns I got kept resetting after each death, and it was too time-consuming to go back to the beginning to re-collect them, so I ended up just giving up at a certain point. good concept with the audio and visual cues, definitely could use more polish for a better user experience. great pixel art graphics!
Super Fun! Very origional cutesy platforner with audio cues! Though I do second improvements to the danger sounds being more distinct or louder. Maybe there could also be some space between sounds? It felt like the bird or thunder popped off every couple of seconds, reducing tension. Overall great job though!
Really beautiful pixel art and quite an original idea of listening for danger! I didn't expect to get hit by lightning, what an unlucky squirrel 🥲
I'm a sucker for good pixel art and this was a super cute platformer. I like how you incorporated the theme into the level progression it works really well. Great artwork, game feel and level design. GG!
Lovely pixel art and animations. Very fitting sounds and music. The platforming was a little tough. I wished there was a little bit of coyote time for the jump to be more forgiving :P, but I made it through. I totally thought the acorns were saving when I reached a check point but they weren't, losing all of them each death made me kind of ignore them after a while, maybe I'll try and maximize survival another time. Great job!
Sweet game! I've always loved playing quadruped creatures so the hitbox is more horizontal than vertical. Atmosphere is captivating with beautiful pixelart, soundtrack and ambient sounds.
Nice idea of telegraphing the dangers too.
As others have said, the underwater movement could use some love. I almost quit playing when I thought I was stuck in the pond. Nothing in the animation gave me the hint I was swimming instead of jumping, so it took me many tries and deaths before I realized it was mario-like jump swim.
Also, even when I had realized it, it was difficult to control underwater. Also, there were some points where I jumped down from a tree and landed on something lethal without seeing it beforehand, maybe that was just dumb of me or maybe level design. There was always constant hurry to get to next shelter so I didn't feel like slowing down for too long.
Anyways, the game feels mostly polished and the survival theme keeps player on the edge. The feeling of being just a small squirrel is well transmitted to player. good work!
I really like the graphics. The overall style is coherent. The animation when the squirrel is digging is so cute! :)
As someone before mentioned, I also didn't like it to wait so long in the logs. Felt frustrating for me. Having the bird or lightning only in some areas would have been better in my opinion, because the system in itself is nice (reminds me of Ori).
More audio or visual impact while getting killed by thorns would be also great. An additional impactful sound effect (besides the squirrel) would help quickly.
The controls felt good and the mood is also a strong point of the game. The music was very fitting. I like the house of our little buddy. :)
Beautiful artwork. The atmosphere is very well done. The audio complements the pixel art perfectly. I would have preferred not to have to spend most of the time waiting for the bird to fly by.
Very cool concept and an interesting take on the theme, I would be interested to see how you would expand on it! The movement felt a bit stiff to me, and it took me a bit to adjust to listening for the bird and thunder cues since they felt more like ambient noise than mechanical indicators to me (but maybe that's the point). Overall great job, I think this is a super cool entry!
it's not bad, although I don't like platformers 😁
An excellent platformer with warm, pleasant visuals and a cozy ambient atmosphere. The gameplay isn’t too difficult, but it still offers a nice bit of challenge.
Cute little platformer! The pixel art is fantastic and the music compliments the mood well. I wish there were more sound effects though. The patter of tiny feet 🤗
The platforming is mostly good, but the branches annoyed me a little. I fell to my death more times than I like to admit because I misjudged how far you could walk on them. Also, kinda funny/kinda annoying how the game turns into Flappy Bird when you’re under water 😅
Overall, great entry!
nerf the thunderbolts ;(
Super nice to play with headphones, and the art is beautiful, congratulations on a great entry
Nice forest atmosphere! You should maybe not lose all acorns each time you die, but it's a good, unique take on the theme
cool, very relaxing, but challenging too! i definitely like the unique listen for sounds, watch for icons to hide mechanic. i did like collecting the acorns, but they don't seem to have any purpose, maybe a health bar should decrease, or it's a high score at the end (if it was I didn't notice when i got to my tree home). overall great feel, graphics and style, nice job!
Really nice pixel art, and great atmosphere, but understanding how I was meant to react to each signal was difficult, I feel like I ended up brute forcing it too much.
A fantastic piece that cleverly links the signals to the calls of forest animals. At first, I thought it was just a standard platform-jumping section, but this design makes the whole thing feel completely seamless.
I live the pixel anr and ambient. Good platforming. Great job!
I love the tranquil atmosphere brought by the serene visuals and gentle music. It’s a beautifully crafted game. However, the controls lag quite a bit on the web version, and the overall difficulty feels a little high.
Hi! Nice entry, I enjoyed playing it :) The art is nice, the audio is nice, and the take on the theme is interesting. My complaints would be the icons displaying the incoming dangers that didn't feel in their right place, I believe that focusing on audio only or visual signs in the environment would have been way better for immersion, although I can understand that adding UI icons ensures the game is easier to play as a game jam entry, and playable by people playing w/o sound. The jump could have been a little bit nicer, I sometimes has trouble jumping from the small moving platforms and fell to my death, luckily you're being generous with checkpoints which I appreciated a lot. Last thing is the acorn counter that's reseting after each death, I'm not sure why you did that because it made the acorn less interesting to collect as I expected to die a lot in the game (since the game is pretty much about that and that there are lots of checkpoints), and backtracking to collect previous acorns is definitely not something intended here.
Anyway, all of that is easier said than done, but overall it's a very cool entry!
I like the simple gameplay and controls coupled with the well-done pixel art, music, and sound. I appreciated being able to start playing with minimal instructions. There were some difficult areas, but I felt like the checkpoints served to mitigate most of the frustration. I do wish that the acorn count was saved at each checkpoint.
Good pixel art. Cute squirrel.
such great atmosphere! thank you for making this!! reminds me of amiga games! the music is also excellent
Extremely pretty game, reminds me a bit of animal well. The mechanics are clever and well done. I like the little squirrel and its quest for acorns, reminded me a bit of Sid in Ice Age. I have two issues, first the hit boxes are somewhat unforgiving especially for the moving platforms and some of the dangers where to frequent, I had the feeling that I constantly had to hide from the bird. Lovely game all in all!
Very good game, with a great sound design and atmosphere (thunder visual and sound effects, while it's raining are insane) <3
Super Cute! The soundtrack is super fitting! I think it would feel even more smooth if there was a vertical jump animation for the squirrel! Love it!
tHE Owl StoL3 MY SOUL AND my eyes i couldn t h1de it in th3 sad log but i COUld hide iN it froMM the sledNerm4n From this FORSet hE WAnted only mY bODy
The lightning and the owl made have some violent outbursts, but other than that the game was good!
very nice atmosphere and artstyle. liked the interpretation of the theme and also the gameplay itself! following the sound cues did not seem overly challenging but added some difficulty to the gameplay, because i had to time some platforming parts to not get eaten
Pretty game, cute main character! I died a lot. Honestly I didnt understand what I should do to prevent attacks. I tried to dodge lightning and go up a tree to get away from the owl, but there was to chance but to go forward? Also I expected jump on space, took me way to long to realize! Impressive result!
@fabelay hide in the logs to escape the lightning and the owl!
Always impressive (and refreshing) to see a JAM game this polished. I do wish it were a bit more forgiving for those of us who aren't great at platformers. But hey, the problem is probably between the chair and the screen haha 😅
@shanzpro Well now it made perfect sense, thank you, I DID IT! My ancient old super mario world skills from the original gameboy helped me a lot in this game, haha! I also just realized you talked to my partner on LinkedIn too, lol. Its a small, small LD world! 🙈
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Woah! This definitely was more brutal than I was expecting! I may have gotten into a situation with loading where the owl and lightning were pretty much back to back and repeating, but I think you still made something pretty cool. It's definitely an idea I haven't seen done before and it was good that you had the icons for accessibility. Reading through the comments it looks like you plan to keep going with it post-jam which is awesome. Nice job! And thanks again for reaching out on Threads and playing & commenting on Please Press Button!
super pretty! It sounds great and the atmosphere is perfect. Plays very well even if I think the platforming is difficult for me. Sometimes waiting for the swoop when you're already hidden feels a bit wasted (if it could just triggered when safe or something). I think its a really interesting use of mechanics, hearing and reacting to the signals is fun!
The atmosphere on this one was so beautiful and moody--I love it. The gameplay was incredibly challenging for me, but I'm also not an avid platformer...
The graphics are very beautiful, and the music is a great complement to it.
The diggable squirrel mechanic is really awesome being able to burrow and hide is super cool. One thing I’ll definitely take away for future games is the audio hint in the top-left corner: when something relies purely on sound, it’s great that it’s also represented in the UI so players notice it even if they don’t have audio on.
A small piece of feedback: a settings menu where you can change keybindings would be the cherry on top. Otherwise, great work!
@ansible
It triggering immediately when safe is a great idea that could really improve things! Thanks for that.
Cool use of the theme! And the ambiance was super cool. It reminded me of a level of Donkey Kong Country that was too scary for me when I was little. Nice work!
Nice game. Liked digging and hiding. Felt like a squirrel.
I'm going to remember from now on to hide underwater during a thunderstorm or if I happen to be pursued by nocturnal predators. This game was nuts, i dig it.
Great job! Love the art and the overall vibe of the game! The character movement could use some refinement. And not sure about having to "sit and wait" inside the hollow log to avoid the owls and lightning. Would have preferred if there was a way to skip the wait time or something to do while waiting since it's a pretty long while you have to wait for.
[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2756337981?t=03h10m11s)
And more importantly, thank you for tolerating our on-stream shenanigans. :sweat_smile:
The vibes of this game were excellent, well done! :ok_hand:
Very atmospheric, took me a bit too long to realize you could swim, was stuck at the first water section for 5 minutes, lol
radio active critters killed me 10/10
Insane level of polish!
Ambience music gave me goosebumps. Not sure if lighning is needed here, owl alone created sense of danger. You really feel like vulnerable squirrel, remind me of an old animation about hares hardships :D end.jpg
Very cool graphics! I like the way you implemented the theme!
Cute game with great graphics and audio!
Died way too many times to the last ground-spike at the root of the tree after the water. The controls were a bit too snappy, and would benefit tremendously from more fluidy movements with building momentum. Highly recommend to check https://deepnight.net/games/game-feel/ for ideas to improve movement.
Well done!
I really like the idea, and the design the overall mood is perfectly set, just the jump was bugging out for me 5/10 times and could have been a bit tighter. Great entry! :)
Really nice graphics and the game gives an impression of being well polished.
The fact that I had to hide from the bird and lightning like every few seconds started to feel annoying after some time though. Especially as you lose all your acorns on every death, so trying to pick them up and risking dying to the bird/thunder seemed not worth the risk. I think it might be more fun to have local dangers, like snakes etc that would signal their attack so you need to dodge it, or wait for them to fall asleep etc, rather than having a global threat you have to hide from very often.
Controls felt a little weird, perhaps I have high bar, since I just played Hollow Knight ;) But I feel like the movement seems a bit fast, while the jump a little slow? Feels like it was too easy to fall of platforms, maybe adding some acceleration to movement would help.
The pixel art style is very harmonious. I love the level design and the feel of the jumping mechanics. Digging up pinecones is such a joy! However, losing all of them upon death feels a bit frustrating.
Really good atmosphere and sound design. Controls felt a bit off which made platforming difficult but other than that great polish.
Sound design was really good in this and made it really stand out as a platformer! Very, very nice work!
These graphics are beautiful! You chose your color palette very well. They are strong and striking. And your design is also very beautiful.
I love platform games, so I had a lot of fun with your game, even though it's short.
I had some setbacks with the hitbox, just because I'm not used to it. I have nothing to complain about.
In platform games, I always try to identify the type of jumping mechanic before playing: whether I jump first and then aim, or vice versa. Because if I start playing before figuring it out, I'll be in trouble. In a future game, try putting some obstacle right at the beginning of the game so that the player gets used to the fluidity of their character's jump.
Congratulations, squirrel!
Very impressive pixel artwork! I love the animations and a big fan of the dig ability:)
Crappy platformer.
Interesting take on the theme and the classic platformer genre. A bit on the simpler side in the gameplay department but there is enough in the story and environment to get through the game. Personally I would've kept the "collectibles" after resetting and then hidden a bunch out in some weird place just to see who got them. Overall a nice jam game.
Very atmospheric and fun game. I really love the art. The gameplay is rather simplistic, but that doesn't take away from this game to be enjoyed. The movement is very smooth and the music is amazing.
Loved the atmosphere and the animations. Fairly long level and not too easy. I like that You can set your own pace and play it rather save or storm out to try to make it to the next hideout. What i don't like is loosing all my acorns on death... Good entry, i had fun.
Very cool game for that amount of time given. Cute little squirrel, i like it
Not bad
cool simple platformer, the pixel art is pretty too
I never managed to get that nut in the water, plus the owl showed up at the worst possible time...{F2465629-71EF-4F81-86D0-6B7593DD6424}.png
Very nice. I liked the atmosphere and audio visuals for all the dangers. I wonder if the frequency is random though. At one point it seemed I was just constantly getting danger after danger without any chance to progress in first level. That made me stop caring for the acorns. Maybe I was just impatient but at least I finished the game!
Good work.
Wow you really would not think this was done for a game jam! I really liked the art and the animations are so smooth!
Also the platform controls feele very nice and responsive, not like your usual game jam game!
This is your first ludum dare entry, although one of your accounts is 9 years old :) So what inspired you to finally go for it and make an entry? Really cool!
Beautiful game! The music was fantastic.
This game has done well about graphics, concept and audio but platforming aspect lacks. A lot. The controls are clunky, no coyotee time, etc., but overall the game is very sound
@Ausstein We're glad you enjoyed it! :D
Unfortunately a lot of the Ludum Dare's data has been lost to time, [but I actually participated in LD31 in 2014 and LD37 in 2017](https://web.archive.org/web/20170912224905/http://ludumdare.com/compo/author/penagwin/)
I saw there was only a few LD's left, and it was a great opportunity to work with some long time friends.
Here's an old screenshot of my entry for LD37 that didn't survive the archival. Unfortunately I lost the later versions of the game. early_prophunt.png
@penagwin
Ah thats too bad, I started participating in Ludum Dare 44 and have not missed one since. Has become somewhat of a bi-yearly ritual.
Coming back was definetly worth it, you guys have delivered a really great game! Are you professional game devs, or just Hobbyists? Because this is on a similar level to what the celeste team delivered on ludum Dare 53!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/neo-city-express
@Ausstein
We're hobbyists but would love to make this a complete game, I'm not sure when someone is no longer considered a hobbyist at that point, haha. But this was my first time and Allison's first time doing a game jam and out of all three of us, none of us have ever finished or published a game unless we count Paul's Ludum Dare entries from when he was in high school. I've been drawing pixel art since 2019 and I've been programming since high school and have always wanted to make a game. Thank you for the kind words!
There's a ton of work that's gone into this, and it shows! :clap: well done! perhaps a few tweaks, like acorns sort of lose their value when you realise a checkpoint doesn't keep them, and a few interesting camera moments where it was harder to see what's coming, maybe the cooldown on the owl and lightning is a little too short (frequent) - but managed to get to the end and watch my squirrel tv. Great game, impressive for the short time frame!
Very nice game! The thing i feel I dont like is the jump, I feel spacebar will be much better for it!
@shanzpro best of luck with that, feel free to tag me if you release some post jam updates :)
When I was playing the game I found it really annoying how you had to hide inside a log every 5 seconds. I get that’s the whole integration with the theme, but I’d honestly rather play without it.
I did really like the art though well done.
Fantastic pixel art and the sound-based danger mechanic is a neat idea! My only complaint would be about the movement. It feels a little bit imprecise, maybe some more air control would help but maybe it is my skill issue. :D On the other hand, the jumping does not feel too floaty, which is great! Overall, it feels really polished and is a neat game! Good job! :D
WOW. The mood and sounds and atmosphere on this are SO GOOD. Love the setting and vibe.
I'm not super into hard jumping puzzles, so after missing a lot of jumps on the tiny leaf, I had to bail. Maybe it's my keyboard? But sometimes I thought I hit jump, but walked off the edge instead. And died. But I really didn't want to bail. I wanted to see the end so bad. Everything else about it pulled me in so much.
I loved the digging. I loved the sense of danger and needing to hide before moving on. All of that was so great. Such a neat take on signal.
The way the animations and audio and background all come together, it really set an amazing mood.
I've played it before update! I remember that you really could feel the mood, how you are just a small critter traversing dangerous forest, and I have to say that update kept those qualities.
Also I'm so glad swimming was changed, it's much better experience now! But I think some regen would be great when you out of water, as I don't know if it's possible to gather all the acorns from water without dying. And I'm also not sure if it's intentional (maybe water is supposed to be poisonous) but squirrel still loses hp when it swims above water, like that:
squirrel_in_the_water.png
I like also other polish changes like faster owl and increased amount of acorns. And yeah persistent acorn count made it so much more satisfying