'Lil Lost Squashy

by bram-ve

co-authored: @kirk-markarian, @lollidepp

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.54

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.02

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.74

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.73

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.08

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.93

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.21

'Lil Lost Squashy was doing what it does best, living up to its name, being lost, this time in an abstract world where running and dodging and all the fun things are now controlled by entering text in a terminal.

*What's a 'Lil Lost Squashy to do?*

Well, unless you and 'Lil Squashy want to spend an eternity in this abstract world where you need to type in your reactions to the outside world, you'd better do your fancy finger-dance and get yourselves 'outta there lickety-split!

Controls:

Your character doesn't move using the typical WASD setup here, so to clarify for the user, here are the following commands to type in the Terminal:

Text Commands

- Right: Navigate Right
- Left: Navigate Left
- Jump: Jump
- Crouch: Crouch Down (slower movement)
- Stand: Stand Up (faster movements)
- Open: Open Doors

Terminal Shortcuts

- Enter: Submit
- Escape: Delete All Text
- Up/Down: Navigate Through Previous Commands

Hint(s):

Typing in cliché martial video game sounds MAY give you an interesting Easter Egg!

Team:

Bram van Elderen (Code/Level Design/Art)
Website: http://bramvanelderen.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bram_vanelderen

Fabio Lolli (Code/Level Design)

Kirk Markarian (Music/SFX/Art)
Website: http://www.kirkmarkarian.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kirk_Markarian

Genres: platformer

Comments17

GiovanniBarrottu24 Apr 2018, 08:40

Interesting concept, I thought some of the animations were funny like when you write 'end', works pretty smooth but could use some more polishing.

Zessirb24 Apr 2018, 19:20

What a pitiful character, choking to death or waiting for its own end.
A score or some other equivalent would have been nice ; otherwise the game is nice, great job :v:

samboyer27624 Apr 2018, 19:48

Hey guys, this was a really nice looking (and sounding ;) )game! I liked how the voxel terrain looked and how differet pieces were combined together to make a continous path (it became noticeable that certain blocks were repeating, but it wasn't really a problem). I also think maybe a score or distance measure would be nice, but otherwise a really great piece of work :D

smaganik24 Apr 2018, 19:48

Wow, this looks so beautiful.

Bhavin24 Apr 2018, 19:53

I loved the artwork alot!! it was fun to play and the concept was also great!! good job!!

kyperbelt27 Apr 2018, 13:17

Fun concept , great graphics !

Artiko27 Apr 2018, 14:30

Nice implementation of a nice idea, great work!

Alex_Moralo27 Apr 2018, 14:34

Interesting concept!! Works pretty well for a little jam game. The fact that the fog kills you in the very beginning without mercy is a little tedious; there was no time for pressing a single key!
Nice job tho, that was just my opinion ;)

JLV27 Apr 2018, 14:34

The introduction of the commands in the best I've seen in this LD, so props for delivering a proper tutorial ! The gameplay works well, some jumps are a little too close from each other, but I guess that you need challenge at some point.

The graphics and the audio are really neat ! The "cough cough" of Squashy quickly got on my nerves, but the game wouldn't really be the same without it - I just wish it had some more vocal expressions (I think I heard another one at some point in the game ?). Overall, great job guys !

kaytrill27 Apr 2018, 14:38

The artwork looks great. I think the game will do better if you started with typing "start" and removing all other mouse inputs. This way you will encourage players to use the terminal more. Furthermore it was a decent game.

Dragojt29 Apr 2018, 11:26

Well, the art is so nice, and that's a point! The level design is a bit weak I guess. There's one section when you have to jump so many times, and that's a certain death. Good game, with some things to polish :)

swav_gav29 Apr 2018, 11:37

Great jam game, I'm glad all these years of typing have finally paid off! That jumping section was tough, thankfully the previous command option made it much easier! :laughing:

If you have the time, play and rate my team's game! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/check-please

Local Minimum29 Apr 2018, 12:44

I really liked the graphics of the game, and audio was nice too!
Jumping was a bit too hard though, especially when I got those `jump --- jump - jump - jump --` bits. I also found that the best strategy was to enter the texts for all commands and just arrow around, which kind of was opposite to the game idea. My suggestion would be to only allow repeat the last command (if any) and rather make the game easier. At least in the beginning.

Even if I got helpful texts (very nice), I would also have liked to have a command to list commands. And the command `PLAY` and `EXIT` in the menu. Because really there should be no need for a mouse in this game.

Another thing that probably would have kept me trying more would be if there was a score (time survived or such) and possibly also a local or even better global high score.

Very nice game though!

Bentekiller29 Apr 2018, 12:51

To fast increasing dificulty! And the blop wants me to scream at it 2 times? I just can't type fast enough! It looks really cool, but the text asking if you want to go right or open doors threw me of cause I was answering the question and no typing an action to take! I figured it out, but my weak typing skills are my doom!

flukeshot30 Apr 2018, 05:56

Game looks great, a straightforward but well executed fusion of genres and all the assets are of a high quality too. The game-play for the continued jumping sections is a bit tough for me though. Also no PLAY command? Why not, right? :)

Mektidas30 Apr 2018, 15:03

very entertaining, I really liked the atmosphere
great game!

PUR37 May 2018, 18:39

Really liked the game, cool combination! I liked that you could press up to cycle through previous strings too! The sound effects were funny and nice job on modelling! Well done on randomising the level too!

Other games by @bram-ve

★3.04

★3.93

BATTERYMAN RECHARGES THE WORLD!

★4.00

LD39

co-authored