Ludum Dare #49compo

Larry the Vengeful Balloon

by nick-rafalski

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.73

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.87

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.95

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.40

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.40

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.89

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.94

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.52

Click to play in browser!

Game Background

Larry is unstable. The ground is unstable. Gravity is unstable. Everything is unstable!

How to play

* Hit [space] or tap the screen to switch gravity to control Larry
* Run into other peaceful balloon people to kill them (you ass!)
* Don't run into pointy things. You're a balloon after all.

Tools:

* Unity
* Inkscape
* Audacity

About the development

This was my 10th Ludum Dare! Unlike most times, I actually had a flood of ideas right off the bat for this theme. However, this also gave me an emotion I have never felt during a LD brainstorm session before: analysis paralysis. I couldn't pick any of my ideas. I actually went to bed Friday night without even starting the game. I slept on it, and decided that this 1-screen infinite runner was really the only feasible choice of the bunch given that I'd already wasted a quarter of the compo time.

Genres: action

Tools: Audacity, Inkscape, Unity

Comments26

SlimmerBurger4 Oct 2021, 01:28

Love the sound effects XD

bluemaus4 Oct 2021, 01:36

fun and upbeat game! the sound effects got annoying for me, I wish I could turn them off. graphics are cool and I like the feel of the controls and the world.

Chameth4 Oct 2021, 01:37

Well executed overall, but the real star of the show for me is the sound. The music's great (I've got the game open while I'm typing this, listening to the little uke melody). The sound effects made me laugh out loud. I particularly love the "Wahoo" for some jumps and the "Urgh" when you die. Great work!

High score: 62.

sorko4 Oct 2021, 11:08

Gameplay was easy to grasp and entertaining. Graphics are cute, loved the sound effects and colors, overall very pleasant ambience. While playing I accidentally noticed that you can "surf" with the falling bricks if positioned correctly, and it was quite fun to see!

I was left a bit confused about what is moving the balloon, clearly not air escaping from the end, as it would have to move the opposite way then :laughing:

Fupi4 Oct 2021, 13:58

This is beautiful! I love the absolutely chaotic energy of everything, from the mechanics to the aesthetics, which fits the theme perfectly. Nice touch having a bonus round with tons of balloons every once in a while. Ran well on my phone too. The graphics aren't super pretty, but really there is nothing to criticize here, nice job!

alec4 Oct 2021, 23:18

This game was surprisingly addictive. It reminded me a lot of the flappy bird mobile game that was popular years ago. Because the controls were deceptivly simple I thought It would be easy to master, but I was wrong! I was stuck on 9 for the longest time before finally making it to a high score of 21. The sound effects, though hilarious, became a bit annoying after a while. However the music totally makes up for it! Great work!

PeachTreeOath5 Oct 2021, 05:26

56 is my best here. I like how it's a bit different from say VVVVVV where you can sorta hover on a line by mashing space. It adds an interesting execution part to some of the gameplay, though it can definitely backfire if you miscount how many times you hit space and reverse yourself right into spikes.

Nice job applying various visual effects to help with the simpler graphics. It winds up with a relatively unique look to it. Also, your game desc is pretty funny, I would've expected this to be called Larry the Unstable Balloon!

pcmaster5 Oct 2021, 06:56

Hahaha, shout out for another one-button game. Love it. I think you chose very well to invest time into polish (the bent screen effect), the music and sounds are top-notch. The graphics are more than adequate. The game plays very smoothly. Not sure what to add - ship this commercially today? :)

kbf1235 Oct 2021, 13:39

I like it. I could see myself playing this on my phone from time to time.

(That being said, I'm not very good at this game)

CodeChomper5 Oct 2021, 20:27

I love the quick game loop, die and play again really fast. The only thing I would of liked different is the current score in the corner somewhere instead of the middle of the play field. I also really enjoyed the sounds and the variation of the sounds for a given action. Good entry and I really enjoyed playing it.

popertots5 Oct 2021, 20:33

Simple yet enjoyable. loved the art

Swen5 Oct 2021, 22:05

Super nice compo entry, great job!
Letting the loose platforms move with the gravity change is a nice little touch!

LMB5 Oct 2021, 22:38

Love the title a nice character with an inflated ego! :laughing: Fun to play for a while, with good music and funny sounds (as everyone has pointed out!).

StaticBits5 Oct 2021, 23:05

Very fun mechanic of being able to switch gravity. I feel bad for the yellow balloons I killed XD

Juanlu6 Oct 2021, 09:35

Great game! Very simple and easy to learn but then it seems hard to master. SFX was specially funny. 42 was my best score!

Antrimplato6 Oct 2021, 10:15

Hehe I broke my spacebar

Gus the Shark6 Oct 2021, 13:58

That's a pretty fun game! I get flappy bird vibes from this (because of the controls and fast paced gameplay I guess) but this is significantly better! I really like the contrast of the intense sections and the calm sections. The music changes go along really well with that. Props! :thumbsup:

LDJam user 2508256 Oct 2021, 14:10

Nice! Reminds me of VVVVVV's super gravitron that I used to grind in the past. I like the music change with the yellow spam section :D

thunderkerrigan6 Oct 2021, 14:10

I made it to 31 ! cool little game. No need to be fancy to be fun. A single control suffice. You used a shader for the distortion effect ? congratulation man :clap:

PKZinpo6 Oct 2021, 19:44

I really like the game! Had to get used to it at first, but it is kind of addicting to play. Art is clean and sound effects are fun. I especially like the touch where the screen turns red, the music changes and all of the yellow balloons swarm, it is quite entertaining haha. Overall, a good job!

eyedromeda7 Oct 2021, 20:02

Nice game. I especially liked the sound effects. I do think the way the character stops when changing gravity is a little jarring, and maybe keeping a little bit of momentum each time would make it a bit smoother, but I can't say for certain. Either way, it's a really fun little game.

zimny117 Oct 2021, 23:24

That's so cool! I just love it! The music, sound effects are just amazing, and the effect added to the game screen is so unique. Also, either game is quite hard or I'm just bad at it :P
Great job!

mvasko28 Oct 2021, 18:36

I think this is the most amazing title I've ever seen. Or at least pretty close to one.

I liked the music, as well as the sound effects (nice job with the baloon voice), although I can see how they might become annoying after some time. They are maybe a bit too frequent.

Nice and simple graphics, it feels very nice and polished. The little CRT shader was an unexpected, but welcome twist.

The gameplay felt a bit repetitive after a while, so I don't see myself playing this for very long. It would definitely make for a really good mobile game though.

Good work!

MaxguN9 Oct 2021, 14:38

Nice one! That was a fun experience. A cool and nice little game that works quite well and loved the SFXs :wink:

Great job! :slight_smile:

Erukolindo12 Oct 2021, 11:39

An enjoyable timekiller kind of game. I really like how the blocks you touch fall away. The sounds effects are good, though the ones that play each time you reverse gravity get annoying after a while.

wafflesys17 Oct 2021, 11:25

Very enjoyable to play. I can't get enough of these sound effects haha. There is real work on the music and sound it it gives identity to the game and participate in making it fun to play.
The game itself is good. The concept isn't new but it works. I'm really bad though but hey, that's just me ^^. Still I love popping ballons :D
Graphics are simple but not ugly.

Good job!

Other games by @nick-rafalski

★3.23

★3.55

Slimes and Sandwiches

★3.35

LD48