Bubba's Beach Balls

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.31
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.51
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.02
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.96
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.17
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.90
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.34
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.10
What started off as a normal day at sea quickly got out of control... Bubba, a seafaring countryman finds himself stranded in the middle of the ocean, and it is up to you to keep him alive. How do you do that? It is simple. Use your grappling gun 3000 to swing dip dive and shoot from seagull to seagull, all while staying out of the shark infested waters haunting you from below. In this cute, quirky, and fairly relaxed/easy little game you must collect beach balls that are floating about in order to score points. What do you do with the beach balls you may ask? Well, uhhh.... Enjoy their ever increasing presence. s.pngs2.pngs1.png

screenshot

Comments31

tulipekoni
tulipekoni21 Apr 2020, 02:33
for your first jam game this is great! only complaint I have is I want more! Also the game ending so suddenly got me thinking that did I do something wrong :D keep up the good work, solid entry :thumbsup:
Kosmo
Kosmo21 Apr 2020, 02:36
Great job for your first jam! The hook-shot mechanism worked without any issues and it was fun to swing around. I did get stuck on top of a seagull for a little while -- but that is partly my fault since I purposed tried to land on it.

I think with a bit of level design (mid air obstacles, and maybe an ever increasing risk of failure?) and the game would have a lot more replay value to it.
mhykah21 Apr 2020, 02:38
Swinging around felt really fun and satisfying! Also liked the art style and animations. Good job!
Neon
Neon21 Apr 2020, 02:38
I really like how the player controls, it's very physicsy, but also very fun to control. Not frustrating, like many physics-based movement systems.

Nice graphics, and just very good overall execution. This is a fun entry, and all the more credit for being your first one!
ankou
ankou22 Apr 2020, 03:18
This was definitely pretty fun! The art style is surprisingly cute, and controls were nice and easy. Good job for your first jam!
raphy
raphy22 Apr 2020, 03:22
Hey congratz for your first jam, this is very promising! Very simple but efficient concept, is easy and fun, controlling the hook feels right and not frustrating at all. I would enjoy a bit more challenge on aiming at the birds though as the aiming seems automatic.
Also the camera is a bit too zoomed in IMO.
Good job!
devilskeyStudio22 Apr 2020, 09:26
the game looks and plays amazing. the game can easily be picked up and played. the menu looks also great.
Bastian Bresson22 Apr 2020, 09:39
Wonky grappling physics are always funny, good game! You should probably not link the itch link under WEB build, as there is only download options on your itch page.
HuddyBuddyGreatnessauthor22 Apr 2020, 15:49
@bastian-bresson Shoot I am sorry about that, I originally planned on making it a browser playable game, but for some reason when I exported it as a Web_GL game the camera was extremely zoomed out, meaning that you could see all sorts of stuff you weren't supposed to. I didn't have time to fix it so I just had to make it a download, and forgot to change that! sorry.
HuddyBuddyGreatnessauthor22 Apr 2020, 16:53
@raphy thank you for the feedback, I think I am going to finish this game to what I was planning on making, so I will add difficulty levels maybe, or I might just have the difficulty increase over time. And yeah you are right, currently I have it grapple to the nearest bird from where you clicked, meaning it is automatic, but Maybe i should instead have a small radius around the bird, that way you have to actually aim. Thanks!
Levi23 Apr 2020, 00:34
absolutely loved the charming graphics, and the faces the seagulls made when grappled. The grapple mechanic felt very polished and never caused any problems. It would be interesting if there was more variation in what could be grappled. Such as 'sky sharks' which you have to dodge while swinging! Great fun overall!
SaltFactory Studio
SaltFactory Studio23 Apr 2020, 03:39
Very nice physic in the game, make swinging around really satisfying. Great job!
rjhelms23 Apr 2020, 04:06
Phenomenal job for your first go! The graphical style goes together really well, and the core mechanics here are satisfying to play around with.

I hope to see more games from you!

PS re the problem you mentioned with the web build - taking some time to fix that and get a web build up is the sort of bug-fixing that's acceptable after a game jam, if you're so inclined. I find web builds NEVER work for me at the submission deadline, so mine usually follow sometime later. Which reminds me...
HuddyBuddyGreatnessauthor23 Apr 2020, 05:38
@levi I appreciate the feedback, I had originally planned on adding enemies, but as I am very new I spent so much time on everything else That it never happened :(. I also drew a bunch of background objects that I had coded to spawn in every now and then It stopped working for some reason, which sucked because they added a lot.
HuddyBuddyGreatnessauthor23 Apr 2020, 05:39
@rjhelms thank you for the information, I wasn’t aware that was aloud. I don’t think I will update it this time, but in October I will remember that!
LapisRaider23 Apr 2020, 06:34
The tutorial level was really well done! I understood the controls of the game after going through it. The grappling physics felt pretty smooth too. The game has a lot of potential! Great work on your first jam!
BiOniKMonSTeR
BiOniKMonSTeR24 Apr 2020, 15:36
Hey there! Nice first entry here! We got nice graphics, SFX are cool too, could have used a bit of music to make the game even more catchy. I also liked the gameplay with the grapplin hook but I feel like after spending 1 minute hooking seagulls, the game is redundant. Maybe adding a "progression" system like having less and less seagulls throughout the time could be more challenging, forcing player to maximise the jump between the birds. You can also add jumping sharks that you must not touch otherwise you're dead. I think there are lots of mechanics that could bring depth to that project if you want to continue the development of it further away after the jam.

Congratulation for this game, it was still very good!
Destin71524 Apr 2020, 15:45
Im a sucker for anything with a grappling hook, so I had a fun time!
Ecrush1198924 Apr 2020, 16:02
Great game it was super fun
SAVVU
SAVVU25 Apr 2020, 08:52
That oldschool graphcics and easy drawing design was really on point here! Well done and a great Ludum Dare entry.
Abiral
Abiral25 Apr 2020, 10:19
I love a game which has hook Its a really enjoyable experience. I loved the art and the graphics. Since its your first game jam, Good Luck for for future projects!
ggrusha25 Apr 2020, 10:50
I like the way the character corrects his hat!)
I did not understand the mechanics of the ball. And also I didn't have the inscription "you lost!") And there is no musical tone at all (
The graphics are fun
PeterBuo26 Apr 2020, 21:58
Once i figured it out this was fantastic. Great work
mailman26 Apr 2020, 21:58
I enjoyed the rope physics and the game concept. Would of done well with a background music of some sort not just the ocean sounds. Did a good job with giving feedback to the player with the grappel hook though!
HuddyBuddyGreatnessauthor27 Apr 2020, 15:06
@mailman I actually did make some music, it sounded really cool, but once I added it it just didn't really feel right for the game. I didn't have time to redo it so I just opted to not have music. :/
chtimy27 Apr 2020, 18:34
Nice game! I think it could be good to have indications to show where are the next bird.
Good work :)
guladam
guladam29 Apr 2020, 18:25
Very nice job mate! :)

Simple, fun, creative, seems like you have achieved to goals you have set for yourself!
Keep making games! ;)
Danilo Freire
Danilo Freire30 Apr 2020, 18:47
Congrats for the submission, if you could upload some web or mac builds more people will play your game! :)
Philip Sawyer1 May 2020, 15:45
I like your parallax backgrounds, I like how the seagulls change sprites when you grapple to them, and I like the grappling hook physics-based gameplay. However, the game had little variety and wasn't the most creative interpretation of the theme. Overall this game turned out pretty good.
HuddyBuddyGreatnessauthor6 May 2020, 21:53
@philip-sawyer Yeah I originally had more plans to use the theme better, but while making the game I completely forgot about it.
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord