Fuurbal

by zathnic
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.12
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.23
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.38
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.00
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.65
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.98
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.17
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.93
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Meet *Fuurbal*, a wall-eyed and maybe slightly crazy cat who has just moved into a new home with his owners. His owners forbid him to enter the room where all the unpacking takes place, but it just so happens that all of Fuurbal's favorite toys are in that same room! What's a manic, bouncing and rolling furball to do? Why, bounce the boxes around by kicking his head against the room's floor from the cellar so that they might kick the toys out of the room and into his (nonexistent) paws, of course!

Screen1.png
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I had a large bug/crash with the level transition shortly before the deadline (I fixed that now), so because of that there are only two levels in the game. If I hadn't run into that, I may have been able to add one or two more. ~~But I may do a Post-Jam version of this since I didn't get to play around with the mechanics so much because of lack of time.~~ Done! Added four more levels to the game.

#### Changelog:
- Fixed the level transition
- Added a single button for resetting (rather that quitting to title screen each time)
- Removed being able to return to title screen with Escape
- Added tiny ending message

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#### Controls:
- Left and right arrow keys
- Space bar (hold down to slide, release to bounce)

#### Tools used:
- Java (eclipse) with LibGDX and Box2D
- Krita for art
- BoscaCeoil for music

The name "Fuurbal" is a nod to the game Uurnog, by the way ;)

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The first two levels in the Post-Jam version are identical. It is recommended to download the Post-Jam version, play the first two levels, rate the game, and then continue playing if you like.


screenshot

Comments22

kbf123
kbf1235 Dec 2017, 23:10
I like the physics! I did manage to get the ball off screen though, and it never came back down...

May want to look into that one.
glitchroy
glitchroy5 Dec 2017, 23:13
Great idea, I like physics based puzzle games a lot. It's a shame that you didn't have more time to make more levels.
CatsPawsGames
CatsPawsGames5 Dec 2017, 23:21
I liked the challenge and controls, but I feel like it's very easy for furballs to get stuck. Restart level button is ok solution, but maybe some limited way to shake whole house? Also, rolling animation of player ball can be tighter so it looks like its actually rolling instead of floating. Some effect on hitting the floor would also make the main mechanic more intuitive. Overall it's got potential, core gameplay is fun.
Andrej Hoos5 Dec 2017, 23:23
Quite a nice little game. It's a shame there's not more levels, but otherwise the gameplay is appropriately challenging. Nice job!
Jack Maxwell
Jack Maxwell6 Dec 2017, 01:23
Very cool that you made this in eclipse! Its a very cute little game.
fluidvolt
fluidvolt6 Dec 2017, 02:44
Neat little game. There's something about knocking stuff over from the cellar that's so weird and childlike. I like that a lot.
oskarOlausson13 Dec 2017, 22:05
Nice game, the puzzles seems a bit one solutiony sometimes, I like it more when there is more exploratory solution discovery
Jezzamon
Jezzamon14 Dec 2017, 01:54
There are some better hosting options than Mediafire. A great one is itch.io, that one doesn't bombard people with adds or popups. It'd be nicer if you used something like that :)
Jezzamon
Jezzamon14 Dec 2017, 01:59
This is a really sweet game! I love the music :)
piscythe14 Dec 2017, 04:22
I've never seen a physics puzzler with quite this mechanic before. The presentation on this one is cute as well. However, after playing for a while, the game began lagging to the point of unplayability on my Win10. That's a shame, since it means I didn't actually get to play the post-compo levels at all. Good work!
Zathnic
Zathnicauthor14 Dec 2017, 20:54
@piscythe Okay, I was able to reproduce this and I'm pretty sure I fixed all the performance-related issues. Maybe give it another try if you want :)
piscythe15 Dec 2017, 02:39
And now that it's fixed I can truly comprehend how bad I am at this game ^_^.
DDRKirbyISQ
DDRKirbyISQ17 Dec 2017, 05:45
Wow! What an interesting title screen! ;)
FrozenFractal
FrozenFractal17 Dec 2017, 16:17
Haha, great concept! I'm not sure the left/right rolling adds much value; there doesn't seem to be any use for bouncing up whilst moving sideways as well. But it sure looks cute and funny :)

Also, I love the music!
ludevum21 Dec 2017, 16:10
I like the interesting mechanic! The music is good too, though the game could use some sound effects.
basecase22 Dec 2017, 15:33
Cute! I get kind of a "The Incredible Machine" vibe from this. I'd definitely enjoy playing more levels.
UnidayStudio
UnidayStudio22 Dec 2017, 20:11
lol Interesting mechanics! I liked! Good job!:D

Note: Very charismatic cat art! lol
realryanrogers22 Dec 2017, 21:18
Good mechanic! Would love to see this fleshed out even more
MrPhil
MrPhil23 Dec 2017, 02:02
Great mechanics! I really hope you explore it more and make a full game using it. Maybe instead of a keyboard inputs some sort of aim and launching yourself using the mouse would give the player more control.
AffinityChris
AffinityChris23 Dec 2017, 02:03
I like the physics based mechanics - that leads to some pretty interesting level design!
gustavo.christino
gustavo.christino23 Dec 2017, 12:22
It took me a while, not too long, to understand how to play.

I liked the composition and also the possibility of silencing the game.

Applied physics brings fun, that was cool.
Caroline Costa
Caroline Costa23 Dec 2017, 12:27
Playing this game was funny. I like music and playing with physics. :)

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