Ludum Dare #46compo

Ballerina

by captandrey

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.02

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.75

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.55

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.77

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.68

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.20

Description

Only with the music in this game can you move on. But even though ballerina’s dance is charming, it circles a lot of other things here. Keep it alive, or music will disappear...

Gameplay

By controlling a key you will turm on "ballerina from the casket". It takes energy to keep it spinning, but collecting energy is not so simple. Energy spins on a level with a ballerina.

- 7 levels
- classic and moderm music
- simple controls

🎵SOUND IS IMPORTANT FOR GAMEPLAY🎵

Controls

W A S D, Arrows – movement

Space, E – Action

#### Turn yourself and wake up the ballerina(Space or E)

#### Collect energy and turn again to keep ballerina's charge

#### Collect all energy on level to go further

#### Keep it alive, do not make music stop

Screenshot

Used soft

Unity, GIMP, Blender, Bfxr

Tools: Bfxr, Blender, GIMP

Comments24

Fictions20 Apr 2020, 11:12

Sadly I couldn't find the last energy source in the second iteration.

DeSpiciestBoi20 Apr 2020, 11:14

It's a very moody game and a unique premise. Though not sure how it applies to the theme.

CaptAndreyauthor20 Apr 2020, 11:19

@fictions when music stops you can start level again

mhykah20 Apr 2020, 11:19

Interesting idea and take on the theme. I'm probably just bad at the game but I found it quite hard! Played a few levels but couldn't find the energy.

tomdeal20 Apr 2020, 11:24

Somehow on my first try the hole for the key was very hard to interact with. Restarted the game and it was ok. The idea is nice, got a bit stuck in the second loop where no yellow clouds where around anymore and the music kept playing.

CaptAndreyauthor20 Apr 2020, 11:27

@despiciestboi ty for feedback! Charged ballerina become "alive", and player must keep charge in it. Not so direct "alive" concept truly. But close enough in my mind)

PatateNouille20 Apr 2020, 11:33

Nice mechanic, went through all levels, finding the last energy ball can be difficult one certain levels, i feel like the rotation of the balerine could have affected the player too

Xeke-Death20 Apr 2020, 11:35

Interesting concept.
Had some trouble getting the key in the hole the longer I played.
The "you lose" effect could be more pronounced because when I first failed, I wasn't sure what it was.
I recognised most of the tunes that played.

Overall a fun game, good to lose some time to.

TomekS20 Apr 2020, 11:52

Original idea, I like that you did snapping otherwise would be hard to play. Solid effort.

GreenDinoGames21 Apr 2020, 14:17

Unique concept that fits the theme. I needed a few tries until i realized that the snap mechanism is slightly off to the left. But the music choice is good and keeps you hooked until you unlocked all of them. Good job!

n.feofentov21 Apr 2020, 15:54

Original idea and intuitive enough to understand that music continues after you collect more spheres. I just wish music doesn't stop while you are rotating the key. Good job!

CaptAndreyauthor21 Apr 2020, 16:51

@mhykah ty for feedback! Powers are constantly moving clockwise - use that fact to find energy quicker

CaptAndreyauthor21 Apr 2020, 16:55

@tomdeal ty for feedback) some power clouds may be outside starting location

Gaming Night23 Apr 2020, 08:22

Good job ! I liked to keep this ballerina alive :)

Sheinxy23 Apr 2020, 15:37

Nice take on the theme!

It's a really original idea, and you made it work quite well!

The game is simple to understand, not hard to play, and quite fun!

Maybe my only complaint is about the music, which I find very strident, not really pleasant to the ears after some time (I guess that's just because it's mimicking a Ballerina music box, but I found it to be a bit too high and strident in my opinion)

Overall, I like it!

Pagetb24 Apr 2020, 04:39

good idea!

Jelle Vermandere24 Apr 2020, 08:20

nice job, there are some things that could be improved:
The keyholesnapping area is a bit small. It could have been a bit larger to snap to it more easily.
There could have been some sort of catching confirmation like a particle effect or sound to give the player more feedback.
The ballerina toys generally have a softer tone than the harsh 8bit sound, something that would be more pleasing to listen to.
But apart from that, cool concept!

BilbyCoder24 Apr 2020, 09:26

Nice job. While I didn't have a hard time getting into the keyhole I must admit that the sound tone you picked was a bit too harsh and detracted from the enjoyment. I would suggest lowering the pitch a bit and perhaps picking a softer waveform (not knowing exactly what tools you used).

Still nice to see something a bit different.

CaptAndreyauthor24 Apr 2020, 12:21

@bilbycoder @jelle-vermandere @sheinxy @xeke-death Thanks for so large feedback!
About sound - to tell the truth its a first compo for me and first usage of sound-generation soft(same as creating 3d models XD). So even receiving single notes to create melodies from it was a challenge for me. Anyway it could be better, and it will be. Also I see some problems on getting into the hole - it will be tuned)

Do you now any tool better that "Bfxr" to get a calm sounds? Or I just didn't use it right?

I personally not a fan of AFTER-DEADLINE-FIXES except actual blockers and crashes. So to be fair, all changes will take place after "Play&rate". Hope for your understanding.

BilbyCoder24 Apr 2020, 12:54

@captandrey You certainly didn't use it wrong :) I used BFxr for my game as well (well I used other things for the music). There are different wave forms each of which have a different harshness. In this case for me it was a combination of the pitch and the wave form, though I suspect the pitch was the majority of it. Had the pitch been a little lower it probably would have been alright, and if a different wave (sin / square / triangle etc) had been used it may lessen the shrillness.

I've given you a follow. If you make announcements here I'll certainly be interested to see how you improve the game.

Euforia Games25 Apr 2020, 10:04

Nice! Rated well!

sorko27 Apr 2020, 06:42

Nice take on the theme! I didn't really get any music box vibes from the sounds, I think softer sounds and spatial audio would've gone long way. Also I think the music shouldn't stop when winding it, would be cool if it would pick up speed when you do it and if you let it wind down, it would slow down (and lower volume) until completely stopping.

Long-as-Python27 Apr 2020, 08:21

quite good game! It would be better with in game tutorial