Bitrot

by maxathon

co-authored: @hellequinne, @catsonmars, @eggloaf, @milkyprism, @simplekoi

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.73

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.38

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.97

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.97

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.84

You are Babbit, hero of the classic platformer *Babbit's Grotto*.

For decades, you have lived cheerfully as the master of your colorful world on a 3-in-1 cartridge.

Clovers? Eat 'em! Mushrooms? Stomp 'em!

But cartridges don't last forever, and strange things are starting to happen...

What's a deer to do when the world stops making sense?

Controls

:arrow_left: — Left arrow

:arrow_right: — Right arrow

Jump — Space bar

Team

*Bitrot* was developed by Team Babbit for Ludum Dare 49. The theme was "unstable."

Art & Engineering

David Frankel — davidfrankel.com

Art & UI

Stephanie Shih — eggloaf.carrd.co

Engineering

Stephen Trinh — stephentrinha

Music & SFX

Tommy Pedrini — tommy.la

Chiyoko Yamasato — chiyo.co

Production & Levels

Max Lieberman — Maxathon

Tags: #2d, #pixel art, #retro, #singleplayer, #unity

Genres: platformer

Tools: Aseprite, Logic Pro, Tiled, Unity

Comments42

Sli4 Oct 2021, 23:51

Wow great job! Pretty finished and polished. I enjoyed playing it.

John Luke Lusty4 Oct 2021, 23:55

This game has a really sweet aesthetic and atmosphere! Felt a little easy and empty, but it is one of the coolest ideas I've come across yet in the submissions. Great job!

fixpoint4 Oct 2021, 23:57

Conveys the feeling of glitchiness very well, good job! :)

ryusui5 Oct 2021, 01:21

Conceptually really solid; I just wish there was more to it. At first I thought there was some trick to Fungus Superhighway, since I kept seeing the same scenery, but no; I just had to persevere to the end ^_^;

Are there any secrets to the game we should be aware of? This feels like a game that ought to be RIFE with secrets.

LandoSystems5 Oct 2021, 01:25

The cute art style mixed with the scanline effects worked together better than I would have expected. The comically long hallway in the upside down level made me chuckle. Played it all the way through and enjoyed the whole thing! Great work!

LelulaGames5 Oct 2021, 02:27

The fact that I almost felt at times that the game was glitching out through the weird music and the scan lines was perfect. It plays very similar to kaizo mario, only not quite as mean...but gets harder as you go. I love that. I was able to get pretty far before deciding to stop. Ya...the upside down just messed with my head too much.

mike091235 Oct 2021, 14:42

This gives off some serious super mario vibes! The music and sfx really fit the game. The game could greatly benefit from some nice transitions between levels to maintain the relaxing vibes!

csLupius5 Oct 2021, 19:27

Overall amazing, just great, one thing would be sound levels.

Johnathan Peres5 Oct 2021, 21:14

Good platformer, really like the music!

der Mondhase5 Oct 2021, 21:24

The music in the underground levels was easily the highlight for me! Good job in making it atmospheric and scenic! I loved the idea of a corrupted game cartridge, when I saw the TARGET with the flash gun hit I had a weird Duck Hunt PTSD :D Congratulations!

ELBIDEV5 Oct 2021, 21:24

Nice job, Fun and I really liked the art style music was really cool too

Haise5 Oct 2021, 21:26

I liked the ambience and the feeling of glitching inside a retro game cartridge, the art really conveyed it. Good work!

blobo5 Oct 2021, 21:35

The only feedback I think I can provide is to warn developers about "Blind Jumps"

At the very start of the game, the player is greeted with this:

The player has no clue what's below them, and has to take a leap of faith. That's generally regarded as bad design. Keep that in mind in the future.

Other than that, I really like the game! Nice work.

Achilles Jiang5 Oct 2021, 22:41

amazing soundtrack, great design, trippy as hell - 11/10, would play again, really nice work!

PeachTreeOath6 Oct 2021, 01:05

Something I liked about this game was that it gave a feeling of unease, like those utopian society stories where things aren't as they seem. The happy music clashed with the visuals of looking in on a game (rather than playing a game), which accentuated this feeling even further. Honestly I half-expected it to go zany DDLC style.

In some ways I'm glad you left it to interpretation. What are the other 2 games? Is Babbit really a game character or is he trapped? The atmosphere really makes you wonder. Very cool!

Cookie Dragon6 Oct 2021, 02:54

I love the crtv effect.

Maxathonauthor6 Oct 2021, 03:41

@100th-coin Extremely valid and thank you. Was planning to use coins to mark a path but ran out of time. Now I want to put an extremely difficult-looking visible jump there that just lands you on safe ground when you miss it.

Juanlu6 Oct 2021, 08:52

Amazing little game you got there! There's nothing I can add to what's already said: gfx, sfx, music... all great. I think it's a nice foundation for a fully fledged game if you invest more time on it. Congratulations!

Zvyaga6 Oct 2021, 11:14

Notes of nostalgia mixed with the instability of being. I really like it

Dinwy6 Oct 2021, 15:58

I finished the game! Game is simple but I really like the graphics & sounds. It matches nicely :D

LDJam user 2333476 Oct 2021, 18:21

fancied the audio & visuals combination. not a huge fan of platformers though

Biku6 Oct 2021, 20:32

The graphics are very well polished and there are different "enemies" which is great but I think the tunnel at the end up-side down it's too much long with nothing in the way apprt from the blind jump named in other comment before

kr4ft3r6 Oct 2021, 20:46

Didn't had much clue what is going on (apart from as soon as seeing walking mushrooms my instincts shout JUMP ON THEM), but graphics is absolutely gorgeous, sound as well. And just when I thought that is all there is to it, strange things started happening, nice touch. The glow effect on sprites is well thought of, gives the whole thing special atmosphere, esoteric and nostalgic. Good job guys, high up there in graphics and mood categories.

GloomyFolken6 Oct 2021, 23:08

I wish real unstable games would be unstable like this one instead of just freezing or crashing with obscure messages :laughing:

Due to the ability to jump from walls it felt a little bit too easy, but I definitely had fun. Art and music are spot on. Nice job!

hwaet7 Oct 2021, 02:47

I wouldn't say the game is too easy, it flows. The scaffolding is so seamless that you can't see it ramping up. Nice work all around. Those graphics!

gmedley7 Oct 2021, 03:39

Had good fun with this one! The visuals were on point (though the scanlines were tad heavy in some parts). And the MUSIC man loved it, it kept me playing until the end (also a sucker for those mario bros 3 ending goals)

OllieOA7 Oct 2021, 04:08

For a Jam I think this is really well polished, it was a fun concept

Bithellio7 Oct 2021, 04:09

Had good fun playing this, loved the melding of the other games on the "Cartridge" found a slight issue in that if you fall down a hole you can hit a wall and jump and it will slide you all the way back up but that isnt a big deal .. game looks well polished and sounds great too .. good job

Cookiezz7 Oct 2021, 04:11

Very enjoyable! Thought that second to last level was going to loop forever, then I fell into the hole once! Great visuals and soundtrack, well done.

dob7 Oct 2021, 04:18

Really cool idea for the theme, and the game is very well put together, with the growing sense of glitchiness. Just great work. Obviously, with more time, you could have added more weirdness, but this is just really neat, and remarkable for three days. Nice job.

posho7 Oct 2021, 04:49

Really loved the music! Please post the soundtrack! 🙏

Reulan7 Oct 2021, 05:12

platforming you know and love with some nice changes, I enjoyed the brush coverage which obscured the player and hid some of the monsters. unstable mechanic was very noticeable!

ashtheevil7 Oct 2021, 06:14

Love music and style - gives 90s console gaming vibes. Like how the game plays with glitching things and theme overall. Would like a bit more challenge platforming though

cubebuc7 Oct 2021, 12:57

I love the music and the visuals of the game!

Glen Chang8 Oct 2021, 02:14

Love the style. I didn't like how the physics of the character felt. The airtime was too quick as if velocity going up wasn't affected by gravity or air, making the movement uncomfortable to play. I would maybe just add a taper to your math or physics so that when he jumps the movement feels more relatable. It doesn't have to emulate real physics but at least feel like there is some grounded physics to it.

nardandas8 Oct 2021, 02:19

Really interesting game, I like glitches being the interpretation of the theme. The camera was kind of tough to deal with. On the backward level, it didn't show enough in front of you, as it still aligned the player to the left of the screen. As well, it was kind of annoying how it "stuck" to your vertical position. With a little camera work, this could be a great platformer!

spudboy8 Oct 2021, 06:12

The platforming and actual gameplay left something to be desired, with the player physics feeling kind of weird. Also the game seemed to end kind of... abruptly?

That being said, the graphics and audio were really good! I love the general vibe of "glitching game" you all managed to capture. Good job!

Maxathonauthor8 Oct 2021, 19:54

@glen-chang For the purposes of the game jam, we left the imperfect jump physics in place since they felt like part of the glitchiness of the game (to us). You're right that it needs tuning overall.

AtomFox021310 Oct 2021, 20:57

The main theme is still stuck in my head

chtimy11 Oct 2021, 18:22

Thank your for your game! It was fun :D
I have some questions : how did you make you screen filter? Is it a texture, or it is computed on the fly in a shader?
I like the references to Mario as the black part at the end of each level ^^
Sometimes I can jump on a enemy, sometimes I die, it is on purpose.
The music is really cool!!!
Maybe one suggestion if I might : Would be nice the level glitches during the level, I don't know if it was planned :)

Hellequinne15 Oct 2021, 16:49

@chtimy The screen filter is a combination of a texture and post-process shaders. If we were less rushed, we probably would’ve only used post-processing and no texture overlay at all.

Some of the enemies are rotated 90 degrees as part of the glitch. In those cases, you just walk into the top of their head to kill them; jumping on them will kill you.

Thanks for your feedback!

Emaigualmc2_art21 Oct 2021, 14:28

What a great idea you have here! I really liked the character design, the color palette used and the music. When the level turned around it seemed crazy to me xD Great job!

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