ANT SURF HERO: THE SURFENING

Great game with an original concept, I had plenty of fun with this! :D

Loved the graphics :)

The dialog at the end was perfect. Loved your game dude!

I really enjoyed the attention to detail in things like the swaying of the grass that the enemies stand on, and the idea of spawning on the ant. I feel like the Ant could have been used to even better effect though if you had more opportunity to use it as a shield. I saw some of this early on but once you are halfway through you lose this.

Not bad on the whole!

Thanks for the nice comments everyone :)

dr_soda - I completely agree about the role of the ant. I put him in very early in the game and his role kept changing as I developed the game further. At first I wanted a platform game with the ant as a little but of fun, but the focus moved to him more and more and his role could definitely be more clear cut.

Nice Game, It was a great Idea. I'll play later again until the end! :D

76,840 with 47 star \o/
the surfing hero is surfing a bit too much from my point of view. Like if he was walking on ice. But this doesn't realy affect the overall experience.

The end is funny, and introduce the theme in another way.

Awesome story. Especially the final part. Well done.

great game with lovely graphics and nice sound effects. Very action packed!

Tight controls, good concept, and although jumping felt a bit floaty, an awesome experience overall in a tight package. Nicely done!

Great pixel graphics, audio and gameplay, though I would have liked a bit of challenge.
Loved it.

Loved it! The controls feel great and the graphics are really good. I like the attention to detail in all the animations.

47 stars 73785

one of my favs so far.. good job ..the surfening :)

GReat Games, i love Ants :D

What can I say more than.. I liked every bit of it! Very cool stuff.
40110 / 22stars

Thank you for all of the nice comments everyone! It's really rewarding to see people enjoying the game :)

this isn't my usual sort of game... but I played it a while anyway and that says a bit about the game.

The graphics fit and it's a unique concept. Good job, dude.

I like the humor inside this game. Good job :)

Very polished product!

The ant surfing mechanic is fun and a creative use of the theme.

Best of all, the game made me feel like ONE BAAAAD DUUUUDE. I like it when games make me feel like that. And a bad dude that rides an ant no-less.

It was actually challenging to decide what to rate low... but I felt like I should do that so that I could provide some kind of dynamic range to my feedback. The graphics were great and I felt like stylistically they were right on but could have used a bit more polish. The "pew-pew" sound effects were perfect. The music was good but got repetitive quickly--I would have liked a longer loop.

The game made me laugh. I like games that make me laugh. Thanks!

great to see you finished this :)

I hate ants. I hate them on most days. But this game really brought out a sense of camaraderie between me and my ant. Like Gandalf and Shadowfax. Or Calvin and Hobbes.

Back to the real point, it was VERY fun! I actually felt stress while playing, but the good kind where you just perform better because of it. Great job!

Strangely, it reminded me strongly of the original Duke Nukem for some reason. And Out of This World/Another World.

@Gremlin - I had Another World in mind when I was developing the character art and the bullets especially :)

I definitely liked how i wasn't really sure what to do with the ant -- do i wait? push on ahead? Nice ant animation too, btw!

seigenblues - Thanks! I had intended to make the ant better, but in the end I didn't have time. It's good to know you thought it was nice :)

And the way you interact with the ant is also up to the player, so I'm glad you felt like you had a choice in the matter. The player can run all the way to the end if they want without the ant, or they can use it to help them the whole way :)

Thanks for playing!

Best final boss fight ever. That was brilliant, I am still laughing.

That was delightful. Great ending.

This game has it all. Even one of the most popular internet memes (obviously, the good kind).

@blob, johnfn - I'm glad you guys liked the ending! :)

@davidpeter - Are you referring to cats? Or did I subconsciously put in other memes without realising? :P

I *really* enjoyed playing this to the end. Great graphics, fun to play, good controls. Especially loved destroying all the computers - gave me a bit of a "Hammerfist" moment, there. Best so far.

Really good! It was fun to play and I love the graphics!
I also liked the variety of the level design!

Good job!

Favourite game so far. Like how you die in one shot, and the graphical deaths. =)

Great game! Good graphics, funny, nice audio and also innovative!

Nice. Quite challenging but would be better with more meaningful death penalty, I like the look and music of this. The ending was... well... surprising.

I like to ride ants ! The change of mood from the jungle to the *server room* was great. I love the art, that was fun to play.

This was... Quite interesting, and indeed a great accomplishment in 48 hours. I finished with I can't remember how many points (over 70,000) and I had all the stars.

I'll get what I didn't like out of the way first: I'm not sure if it's the game or my computer, but the gameplay was pretty slow, and also I thought the first part was kinda boring, having to wait for the ant all the time (but it was cool being on the ant when I was and had nothing else to do). And the game was pretty easy - all I did was run in one direction while mashing S, most of the time.

Now what I did like: I like the way the ant interacts with the enemies. I thought that was done well. I liked there being computers to destroy along the way, and stars to collect. This was a very satisfying excuse for making the ant walk slow. I shot every computer (and enemy) in the game, I think. The graphics and sound, I don't really have much to say about, although they do indeed add to the game, and not subtract. They are well suiting. I also didn't get bored of the audio track looping, even though it was a short loop. And the end, for me, wasn't laughable, but it was engaging, and I did smile when the cat killed the guy. Also, this is just my assumption, which could be wrong, but I thought it was also cool how (seeemingly) the computer system (sorry, I've forgotten names >_<) was freeing itself from the control of the boss-human, by killing him with an operation the boss endorsed, so that it was free to be it's own boss, I guess, and do whatever it wanted. But I could have just interpreted that whole situation incorrectly in your favour, lol.

Overall, its a pretty good submission. I expect you to make it into the top end of the spectrum again. :)

This was great! Really felt connected to my ant friend, was sad when we had to part ways :(

Good stuff Andy!

Very fun to play and well implemented. Two thumbs up!

Great attention to detail and a lot of fun to play. :)

Absolutely awesome. I love that we die in a single shot.

I do want a "60's style" comics "Ant surf hero"!

Great idea regarding the theme! Riding friendly ant which kills your enemies? Awesome! Hilarious ending. :D

I was laughing while playing this. I thought it would be just more of the same but it became awesome when you went down into the secret base.

Such a great game! I loved the ending. =) Nice work!

It is a fun game! Why is red the universal color for evil? Is it because of trafficlights?

46/50 stars isn't too shabby I think.

this game is very well polished, all those little details (like bouncing leaves) are making the game so much better and I was surprised that the game was only half through after reaching the ant whole.

Definitely one of the best games I've seen here ! Awesome idea and realization !

Could have used more enemy ants, but I loved the whole thing. Very funny.

Probably the craziest interpretation of the theme I've seen so far. Very funny and very enjoyable.

Thought it was strange that the ant wasn't in the second half of the game though since it was seemingly the core mechanic. From that point on it became a bit more of a generic platformer and without any real penalty for dying there wasn't much of a challenge. Still a very solid and enjoyable game though!

Very nicely done, played this a few times!

Really fun and funny game. I'm impressed by how much stuff you managed to get in it within 48 hours.

Cute and action-packed! I'd like to see more of this.

Yep, died a lot. Enjoyed surfing.

Wow!....
That was so cool!

I loved that I had a badass ant friend half of the game xD
The graphics, concept, gameplay, even the story, was great.
The game flow was very fluent: I died but respawned fast and kept going. Also it wasn't tiring at all.
Fun from start to end.

Wonderfully absurd!

That was great and fun! good controls and great graphics/audio. It was quite easy, as you can't really die... but fun nontheless. :)

nice one

Great fun, finished it and enjoyed it.

Solid game, great boss dialog and ending.

The ant riding was fun! Great concept, great execution.

Really awesome game! And Very original!
Great job!
Thanks for the game :)

Well done! And now I have that tune stuck in my head :-P

I really like your game and concept. I had a lot of fun and really like the audio. I would be even cooler if the ant played a more important role in the game, because, you could just ignore it and run straight to the end.

Thank you to everyone again for the nice comments! I'm glad that you seem to be having fun!

@artefon - If you read my postmortem here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/25/ant-surf-hero-the-surfening-post-mortem/ The ability to not need the ant to finish the level is a conscious decision. The game never tells the player that you should stay with the ant, but people seem to feel like they should, almost like it's their friend! :)

Excellent controls. I love platformers with a bouncy kicking-ass-and-taking-names feel. You even managed to include a couple of long shaft falls, one of my favorite bits from old 2D run-n-jump games. I'm glad you chose to give the player infinite lives, too, ensuring that most people will play all the way to the end.

I did think the boss dialogue should've been moved closer to the boss--it kind of looked like the computer was talking. But the ending was still fantastic.

Mildmojo - Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad that you like the name, and can see the reasoning why I chose infinite lives :)

I agree, the text should have been moved closer to Dr. Electrostorm in order to make it clearer. It was in odd positions sometimes. The reason for that was that in other alignments, it sometimes didn't fit on screen (as the text is pre-rendered images), and I was making that cutscene at 6AM :P so I didn't have time to keep testing it. So my quick solution was to left-align Dr. Electrostorm's text and right-align the Hero's. Another quick fix to save time!

Cool game. The only problem is that it got a little laggy at times.

Wow, the ending really cracked me up! I thought the concept was brilliant and zany.

Pretty good platformer greatly enhanced by addition of your noble steed.

Very fun to play! It would be even better if the ant would slow down when you are behind and speed up when you are ahead to reduce ant-less times. Also a bit sad that you have to leave the ant behind for the second part. Some more opportunities to actually surf the ant would've been nice too. But those are complaints on a high level, because the game is already pretty awesome. :)

@leafo - I've added an Enhanced Windows build that should be a lot faster.

Hazard - It wasn't obvious in the original version, but you are able to move faster by crouching on top of the ant. I would have liked to implement a third level with more ant surfing and rough terrain, but I was short on time.

Thank you very much for your feedback :)

Loved the art, the music, the idea, everything. It's a really cool entry. My only suggestion would be in terms of control. It's easier for me to move with WASD if I have to use space to shoot. Perhaps accepting both WASD and up/down/left/right would be a nice addition. I certainly loved your game dude. It's damn awesome.

Fast paced and action packed! I loved the story and gameplay, just wished I could hold down space to rapid-fire. Overall a very fun game, great work!

awesome :)

This is great! I really liked the graphics and the story.
Didn't bother shooting many of the bad guys though, because they weren't harming my character. Also, at one point I was all "I don't even need my ant!" and then fell in the water.
Really enjoyed it, the ending was great :D

I loved this game! It was really fun! I'm amazed at how you did so much so quickly (I followed your development on the IRC). The music is great, the story is funny, the graphics are amazing...

Altogether a really good game!

My only regret is leaving behind my ant friend. :C

A fun little game with good graphics and ants ! I like it !

Quite an interesting concept that you have there. A pity the ant was there for you half the time you were playing, but I enjoyed blasting the enemy forces up.

I have not words. It is amazing. Especially graphics, audio and theme! 58920 with 41 stars. I will play again!-)

Nice, i liked this alot.

One of my favs so far, this is a very fun little game. Got some great humor (especially at the end) and I enjoyed running along feeling empowered by my noble ant steed. It was also a very satisfying game to play, especially during those moments when you jump around getting one hit kills, while dodging enemy attack. Has that 'ace' james bond feel if you get a good kill streak.

I really love this game! Great graphics and sound, nice frictive gameplay and really silly and infectious sense of humor. There's a lot to admire here! And the concept of ant surfing is pretty awesome and I like the detail of there being another giant (red, nice touch) ant he dukes it out with.

Amazing effort, especially since you did all the assets yourself! Really nice synergy between the music, visuals and gameplay- chunky, clear and satisfying. Reminds me of classics like Contra and Metal Slug. The level of care that went into this is obvious and highly commendable!

Really loved the ending :D

Nice, really enjoyed this :)

Love all the little details in it. Everything comes together nicely and has great finished feel.

AWESOME!

I got all but 2 stars!!!! (I found the secret 6-star area. :D)

What I like about this game:

The size! Lots of gameplay, and two distinct worlds. I like the shooty feel of the underground levels after the upper ones.

I liked the two-choice path part in the aboveground level.

You out some effort into making the animation the player would perform over and over again (shooting) satisfying!

Your leafy stalks waved in the wind.

An ending!

The ant!

It feels like a complete game, and not an LD size on either!

What I didn't like about it

The movement was too slow.

A game as cool as this will probably get higher ratings then mine. :D

Yay, I got all the stars! Possibly the funniest game so far, the ending is creative too. Great animations and sound. I also liked the good variety in the level design, and change of mood when you got inside the enemy base.

The only problem was that the ant didn't make much difference in the game, except for setting up the theme. Also, I didn't get what was the downside of dying, since you don't even lose score, apparently.

Besides that, there's not much to say, the game was really fun and enjoyable until the very end. Congrats!

this is brilliant. I appreciated how forgiving it was, and I love the ending :0

Chambers - I think you're the first to get all of the stars! Well done! :) You do lose 300 points when you die. If you read my post-mortem you can read about my choices for both the ant and dying: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/25/ant-surf-hero-the-surfening-post-mortem/

Thank you to everyone for your comments. I'm glad to see everyone seems to be having fun! :)

Oh wow. The music and graphics brought to mind my old Game Gear - which is funny, because I think I only ever had six games for it, and none of them were like this.

Still. Not much of a challenge, but brilliant on all fronts - I love how your respawn point is tied to the ant's position. Big nostalgia rush - if only I could remember <em>what</em> game it reminds me so much of!

Well that was crazy! And cool!

could have done with the player being a bit more buff...

great job though seriously

Very cool game! Loved the whole cooperation with the ant and I felt sad I had to do the last part alone :P
Nice use of the theme. The way you are even smaller than ants was pretty clever ^^
Furthermore, lovely graphics and music and overall great presentation. I lolled at the ending xD

A work of rare and subtle beauty about the trials of an unknown civilization.

I would have liked more control over the ant's speed, though.

Completely awesome. The ant thing was really cool. Did not expect it to be so long!

really nice game :D

Ant rider yayyyyyh !

Well done :)

Hahaha I totally love the ending, this is a great game congratulations! It is a complete experience with surprises, rewards, skill and humour. The theme is superbly conveyed and all the elements hang together really well. I think there is scope for more "ant"ics, those are the best parts, but the second act brings the experience to a satisfying conclusion so really good stuff

Yeah, this is awesome.

This was awesome. It would be cool if the ant did more or had some special abilities or little problem solving things it could help with. But this is great as is, especially for 48 hours of work. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up in the top 5.

Cool game mate. I might have missed something, but I didn't see what the ant was useful for. Also, whenever I died it seemed to be for no reason. It was fun though.

This is really fun to play. One of the best all-round games so far.

It's good, but a little hard to control with the ant. A lot of the dudes were at ground level, and I couldn't shoot past the ant. Also if the ant leaves you behind then you have some catching up to do, but I guess that's kind of the point of the game - surfing on something you can't control. It's pretty hard to dodge the enemy bullets, they travel quickly. Otherwise, good game! I like the retro graphics and the humour :)

Haha this was great fun. Good humor too.

Nice - epic boss fight :). Control seemed a little horizontally touchy maybe, and wish I had auto-fire. Enjoyed the graphics & audio and everything else though. And perfect thematic fit.

Loved it! The ant acting as a moving checkpoint kept moving the action forward. Great job, will play again to try and catch those 3 stars that I missed.