Balloon Drift

by matt1will

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.34

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.26

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.79

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.92

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.03

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.16

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.47

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.26

Delay the inevitable and stay in the air for as long as possible.

Controls

Arrow Keys: Move left or right
X: Jump

Rules

Stay in the air for as long as you can, without landing in the water. Bounce on the seagulls to get a height boost. Watch out though, as they can burst you balloon. Also make use of your jump boosts for an extra height boost by pressing the X key.

Credits

All code, art and audio made in pico-8 by me :)

Follow me on twitter @mattwilldev

Tags: #2d, #colorful, #cute, #pico-8, #pixel art, #retro, #short

Tools: PICO-8

Comments19

ThatRandomProgrammer4 Apr 2022, 22:48

Great job! The artwork and effects looked pretty nice

alpqty5 Apr 2022, 00:14

Nailed it. Well done.

LDJam user 2801895 Apr 2022, 14:52

Wow I didn't expect to see a pico-8 game here! Great work, loved the artwork!

I managed to get 39 seconds :D

LDJam user 48865 Apr 2022, 17:18

Isn't pico8 lovely for game jams? Nice work!

BurnsDesigns5 Apr 2022, 19:15

The artwork is perfectly charming and matches the gameplay perfectly.

Whenever a bird popped my balloon, I would spam jump until I kill it and then plunge into the ocean like a vengeful Icarus. A+, would kill birds again.

huga6 Apr 2022, 02:12

Simple but well executed take on the theme, good job!

Sodaro6 Apr 2022, 08:04

Oh nice a PICO-8 game! Plays really well and looks great, nice job! :smile:

Jeffrey Hwang6 Apr 2022, 20:50

I wasn't sure if you could get over 20points, but reading the comment, it looks possible! Gonna replay it.

Jeffrey Hwang6 Apr 2022, 20:52

Ohhhh you can step on the birdies! Cute simple game. Loved it, well polished and i liked the sprites too :)

Pequi8 Apr 2022, 01:19

Loved the artwork! It's simple but fun and very well done!

cppchriscpp8 Apr 2022, 01:28

The artwork on this game is fantastic! (As others have mentioned) It was short but sweet, I managed 39 seconds. It would have been really cool if it were a bit longer - if birds respawned or something like that. The controls were very solid though. Thanks for a fun entry!

alanxoc38 Apr 2022, 03:42

Sprite work is pretty good. It would have been nice to have some sort of objective instead of a max high score.

Like what if a ship goes across the water when your score is around 39, so you can get saved by landing on the ship instead of landing in the water.

Also, an easy way to make screen wrapping look nicer in pico-8 is to draw 2 sprites, one on the left and one on the right when you touch the edge of the screen.

LDJam user 195687author8 Apr 2022, 06:30

@cppchriscpp @alanxoc3 thanks for playing. Those are really good suggestions. I'm gonna try the 2 sprite trick for the post jam version.
The gameplay is definitely too short at the moment.
Respawning the birds will make things a bit more interesting. I like the ship idea too.

Skyward4d10 Apr 2022, 03:34

This one was really good as a short experience, the graphics and the audio were both strong and worked together well.

It seems like a "perfect game" nets you 39 seconds, which discourages additional attempts after you reach it. If you expand the game post-jam, having respawning birds like others mention might be a way to get around this.

Overall great little game that fits the theme perfectly. Nice job!

IanTheBee12 Apr 2022, 03:17

Awesome fun game. The graphics were cute, and the audio was really nice as well. Just a perfect little jam game, and it fits the theme very well. Good job!

LDJam user 23365913 Apr 2022, 02:46

I love Pico-8 games and this is no exception! Jump arc felt good, the theme is woven well into the game's design and the little effects like the dust, are really nice! :smile:

ardorugus13 Apr 2022, 04:07

Ok, it's fun, it's retro, I'm from back there, so just nice, tiny, potentially addictive (if more gameplay) with simple yet attractive pixel art. I'd rather play this than some similar polished cuteness around LD50. Thanks for the entry!

lb0113 Apr 2022, 05:30

Simple, easy to pick up, a really good entry. I think it would be cool if there wasn't an upper limit (it seems like 39 seconds is the max you can last), but some sort of difficulty ramping with more birds being spawned in/respawning and them moving faster. But this is still a lot of fun to play.

Lucy Lu13 Apr 2022, 09:33

Very cute and fun game! I got 38 sec. :v: feels good, but the hitbox to jump of the birds is a tiny bit to small.. sometimes I thought I already touched them but I didn't jump. :heart:

Other games by @matt1will

★4.03

★3.10

★3.16