Can you best the Queen's champion fencer? Score by striking your opponent with your weapon's beak! First to three points wins the Match. Best of three, the Game!
Here's the catch... The Queen has armed her own champion with a flamingo fit for battle. You however, must make do with a most uncooperative bird.
Left : Retreat Right : Advance Up : Jump X : Thrust (holding Down for a low attack) C : Parry
press "R" to Reset.
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Here's how scoring works: ========================
-Hitting your opponent with your flamingo's beak scores you a Point. The page (white rabbit) raises a flag indicating which payer scores first.
-The painter on the left keeps track of Points by painting roses (black for you, red for the heart). First to 3 Points wins the Match.
-The King of Hearts keeps track of the Match winner, raising a sign for heart or spade. This triggers the painter on the right. Best of 3 Matches wins the Game.
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Notes on Clumsy Combat: ======================
X and C (thrusting and blocking) will result in different motions based on the location/orientation of your flamingo's head/beak. Experiment to find the best times to attack or defend
Trouble scoring points? Try following up a jump with a low attack, or thrusting after a well timed parry.
If your flamingo gets tangled, mashing buttons may help. If you're really stuck, you can click (and drag) with the mouse. WARNING: this will probably result in some wonky physics!
Very nice visual style and theme, really psychedelic. I had a lot of fun trying to break the physics and see all the cardmen flying around. Not sure what I had to do though, can you "win" or something? Anyways, well done.
T
Traumendes_Madchen22 Apr 2015, 16:26
A very simple but fun game. I love your pixel art, it really capture the essence of the cartoon. And it does suit the theme pretty well! Not bad for a game made in only a couple of days ;)
@Muffin: Thank you! 'Preciate your comment about the win condition; at first I wanted the player to figure it out for themselves from the animations going on in the background, but it's hard to watch several things at once. Here's how it works:
-Hitting your opponent with your flamingo's beak scores you a point. The page (white rabbit) raises a flag indicating which payer scores first.
-The painter on the left keeps track of points by painting roses (black for you, red for the heart). First to 3 points wins the match.
-The King of Hearts keeps track of the match winner, raising a sign for heart or spade. This triggers the painter on the right. Best of 3 matches wins the game.
-If you beat the Queen's champion, she is angered by his failure and shouts "off with his head!" (She says the same thing when you lose, referring to you instead)
I plan on adding a couple more features in a post-jam, including hedgehogs and a real victory/loss ending.
Had lots of fun with your game. The physics are really broke but in a way that's what made it so much fun. The cards pushing us forward and the flamingo getting stuck everywhere made me LoL. Nice overall feeling to the scene, grapics and animation. The music is kinda off the theme. Congrats!
I liked the visuals, but I could not figure out the gameplay, even after your comments. When my flamingo's beak hit the opponent, it seemed random whether I would score, my opponent would score, or nothing would happen at all. I actually had my flamingo stuck inside the opponent without anything happening.
I thought I hadn't actually completed a match, but I tried playing a couple more times and realized that there just wasn't enough feedback when a match was over. The background stuff would have worked wonderfully to show important mechanics without distracting UI, but only in a game where the core elements are clearer. A nice flash or sound cue when I hit the opponent or the opponent hit me would've been great.
And then the physics were really wonky. The flamingo's heads would pop off, the opponent would get stuck behind the other cards, everything would go flying... the game really would have been a lot better without the spectators, in my opinion.
@TeslaCoil: Appreciate the detailed criticism, and I agree with most everything you've said, which is I've added sound cues to the post-jam. Still working on debugging the wonky physics, and I think if I can solve the beak-stick bug, the spectators do make the game more interesting, adding a bit of randomness and an accordion-like playing field perimeter.
Cards definitely go flying if you use the mouse, I should've mentioned that this breaks the physics. It was in the game for debug purposes, but I kept it for disentangling purposes. :)
Couldn't figure out what was going but after reading how the scoring works it makes a little more sense. I think because the game never 'ends' it makes it more confusing as to whats going on. The flamingos are also incredibly glitchy but that made it a little more fun for the time being haha. I really loved the cardmen shadowing the players, its an awesome effect!
So this was hilarious, but I didn't really get it. It was a blast jumping around, getting stuck and throwing cardmen everywhere, but it seems like the controls didn't always respond. Still fun though, and that's kind of the point. Good job.
@uvwar: Yeah, I wish I'd had time to put in a victory/defeat cutscene. Half of my wants to fix a few of those flamingo-physics glitches, the other half wants them to stay in. And thanks about the shadowing effect, I quite like how that worked out too.
Really clever theme idea. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are quite fun.
I could never really figure out what a thrust and parry looked like, though. The thrust button seemed to make me run forwards, and I couldn't really figure out why all the backup cards were behind the fencers, since it tended to make everything more awkward. Ditching some or most of the physics and using more fighting game animations with parry/thrust/block etc. animations might be one way to go if you continue this. :)
The background seemed to have some sort of scoring, but that was also not super clear.
@Kate: 'Preciate it! Re your screenshot, certainly. In addition to the match win, you've also managed to get your foe in a headlock *and* disarm him! (The former is intentional, the latter a bug) :)
@GAFBlizzard: Thanks a lot for the detailed comment! You're right, the thrust and parry animations are tough to make out, because they look different depending on what position your flamingo is in when you initiate them, and how far it can travel before it hits something. If I wanted to make this into a competitive game, I would certainly take your suggestion on swapping physics for animations, but since the awkwardness of the weapon and inability to control one's flamingo is the main part of the game, I'd have to leave that in. :)
My flamingo's head came off and kept attacking. Then my opponents flamingo became a freebird on it's own. An already absurd game became completely possessed! Freakin' hilarious.
Took me a while to understand the mechanics, even after having read the instructions, but it is fun and kept me playing, the art goes very well with this kind of game and theme.
A delightful take on the topic I thought, quite a bit of fun. The mechanics can be wonky at times which can either lead to humor or frustration, but for the most part it was a fun silly time.
@uninthar: Why thanks! I'm glad most people seem to think the humor outweighs the frustration; the latter is a key ingredient in this game, but a pinch would've been better than a dollop. Next LD I might prioritize tweaking the physics over background animations.
I love the graphics (outstanding style) and music, it set a very "weird but pleasant" mood to the game. The gameplay is nice too, I enjoyed jumping around and thrusting my flamingo here and there!
My only complaint would be the lack of a clear "end game" screen state - While it's nice to watch the animations in the background to know who is winning, I think that if the game paused after each round to clearly announce the winner, it would enhance the game greatly IMHO :)
@drludos: Thanks very much for the detailed feedback! I'm with you 100% on the end-game pause etc, I'll certainly make that more of a priority next time!
Comments27
-Hitting your opponent with your flamingo's beak scores you a point. The page (white rabbit) raises a flag indicating which payer scores first.
-The painter on the left keeps track of points by painting roses (black for you, red for the heart). First to 3 points wins the match.
-The King of Hearts keeps track of the match winner, raising a sign for heart or spade. This triggers the painter on the right. Best of 3 matches wins the game.
-If you beat the Queen's champion, she is angered by his failure and shouts "off with his head!" (She says the same thing when you lose, referring to you instead)
I plan on adding a couple more features in a post-jam, including hedgehogs and a real victory/loss ending.
@Traumendes_Madchen: Thanks!
I thought I hadn't actually completed a match, but I tried playing a couple more times and realized that there just wasn't enough feedback when a match was over. The background stuff would have worked wonderfully to show important mechanics without distracting UI, but only in a game where the core elements are clearer. A nice flash or sound cue when I hit the opponent or the opponent hit me would've been great.
And then the physics were really wonky. The flamingo's heads would pop off, the opponent would get stuck behind the other cards, everything would go flying... the game really would have been a lot better without the spectators, in my opinion.
@drewdonley: Thanks!
@TeslaCoil: Appreciate the detailed criticism, and I agree with most everything you've said, which is I've added sound cues to the post-jam. Still working on debugging the wonky physics, and I think if I can solve the beak-stick bug, the spectators do make the game more interesting, adding a bit of randomness and an accordion-like playing field perimeter.
Cards definitely go flying if you use the mouse, I should've mentioned that this breaks the physics. It was in the game for debug purposes, but I kept it for disentangling purposes. :)
@uvwar: Yeah, I wish I'd had time to put in a victory/defeat cutscene. Half of my wants to fix a few of those flamingo-physics glitches, the other half wants them to stay in. And thanks about the shadowing effect, I quite like how that worked out too.
@Garris: Thanks man!
Not sure what happened here, did I win? https://www.flickr.com/photos/katekligman/17079168398/
I could never really figure out what a thrust and parry looked like, though. The thrust button seemed to make me run forwards, and I couldn't really figure out why all the backup cards were behind the fencers, since it tended to make everything more awkward. Ditching some or most of the physics and using more fighting game animations with parry/thrust/block etc. animations might be one way to go if you continue this. :)
The background seemed to have some sort of scoring, but that was also not super clear.
@Kate: 'Preciate it! Re your screenshot, certainly. In addition to the match win, you've also managed to get your foe in a headlock *and* disarm him! (The former is intentional, the latter a bug) :)
@GAFBlizzard: Thanks a lot for the detailed comment! You're right, the thrust and parry animations are tough to make out, because they look different depending on what position your flamingo is in when you initiate them, and how far it can travel before it hits something. If I wanted to make this into a competitive game, I would certainly take your suggestion on swapping physics for animations, but since the awkwardness of the weapon and inability to control one's flamingo is the main part of the game, I'd have to leave that in. :)
@bakpakin: Thanks and yes definitely@
@efonsecab: 'Preciate it!
@nameoftheuser: I did consider this, perhaps in the post-jam version I'll put in an option for Number of Clubs and Diamonds. Thanks!
@uninthar: Why thanks! I'm glad most people seem to think the humor outweighs the frustration; the latter is a key ingredient in this game, but a pinch would've been better than a dollop. Next LD I might prioritize tweaking the physics over background animations.
I love the graphics (outstanding style) and music, it set a very "weird but pleasant" mood to the game. The gameplay is nice too, I enjoyed jumping around and thrusting my flamingo here and there!
My only complaint would be the lack of a clear "end game" screen state - While it's nice to watch the animations in the background to know who is winning, I think that if the game paused after each round to clearly announce the winner, it would enhance the game greatly IMHO :)