Ludum Dare #51compo

GLUB?

by djtequila

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.52

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.42

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.69

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.96

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.25

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.60

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.72

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.48

My fish memory not so good. I forget how to swim sometimes, but I still need to.... what was I saying again? Oh, hello there! Help me eat please.

Controls are [QWOP] on the keyboard, although I can't remember which is which

Alternate tail buttons to swim forward

Hold down a fin button to turn

Controls are randomly bound to [QWOP] every 10 seconds.

Press [Space] to glub.

Arrow points to the next food.

Don't let the hunger bar run out.

Note: Embedded seems to work on Firefox but not Chrome. The game also works on itch.io, so use that version if embedded isn't working for you.

Genres: adventure

Comments26

ty_3 Oct 2022, 08:35

really interesting concept. the controls got too hard for me to keep track of 😭 but it is really cool!

Flamus3 Oct 2022, 13:10

Interesting game, at first it was very hard for me to get used to the swimming motion, it felt more like ice skating, but after few tries I finally managed to catch some food:)

Aaron Smith3 Oct 2022, 13:12

fun and funny. I die so much. Over and over. Just a blindly brutal idea that does exactly what it sets out to do

DJTequilaauthor3 Oct 2022, 15:59

@ty Thanks for playing. Controls are definitely confusing, that's part of the fun :wink:

DJTequilaauthor3 Oct 2022, 16:02

@flamus Yup, the fish physics is very slippery lol

DJTequilaauthor3 Oct 2022, 16:07

@aaron-smith Thanks, it's difficult for sure. Wanted the player to feel as confused and helpless as this poor fish :laughing:

dreamscale4 Oct 2022, 06:21

Normally I'm terrible at these QWOP games, but seems like rotating with the front fins and carefully mashing buttons to move forward does the trick here. Fun game!

Aes14 Oct 2022, 06:24

I enjoyed the game, I don't use the qwerty layout often so I probably struggled a little more than most but got the hand of it and raced to food. Nice game :)

DJTequilaauthor4 Oct 2022, 12:35

@dreamscale That's a good strategy. Glad you enjoyed it!

DJTequilaauthor4 Oct 2022, 12:38

@aes1 I hadn't even considered non-qwerty. Custom key bindings would've probably been a useful feature. Thanks for playing!

mdotedot4 Oct 2022, 14:04

Ow too bad you need all those keys .. I really had a hard time controlling it. just arrows for the front flapping would be better for me personally.

I like the concept very much. Well Done!

lord_blackheart4 Oct 2022, 22:36

The Theme was very nice!

MsPlanlos4 Oct 2022, 22:37

The controls are very very hard to master. The game idea is neat tho and the little sounds the fish makes are very cute! :D

Secretmapper4 Oct 2022, 22:37

Classic mechanic in a new format! Never thought I'd see QWOP in a top down view haha

rodolfodth4 Oct 2022, 22:44

really cool concept, tho I think sometimes the controls get weird :P my fish was thin :( so hungry

jandourek4 Oct 2022, 22:57

I liked the music and sound effects, they give the game a very nice athmosphere.
It's a very nice QWOP-like with an interesting twist!
Also more games should have a dedicated glub button!
(My high score is 10, but that was mostly luck, lol)

Real_Human_10004 Oct 2022, 23:14

The randomized controls are very destabilizing, but that's the point. A cute and fun little game like QWOP. Nice to look at and the fish is very cute. Simple but does it well!

I'd also like to add that the interface is intuitive and simple. It's very easy to gauge how much longer you have for either controls or life.

Dark Dungeon Studio6 Oct 2022, 15:32

This takes "memory like a goldfish" to the next level.

Really love the concept, and had a good laugh at how retarded I am for not being able to remap the controls in my head. :laughing:

Ale6 Oct 2022, 23:12

lmao this is awesome, too bad I suck at it. My best score was 2 (ALMOST 3). I feel bad about letting glub starve tho :(

Music and sounds effects are great, and the graphics, while simple, work well I think. Great job with this, It's definitely one of my favorites so far!

Aristurtle7 Oct 2022, 03:07

This was quite humorous to play. Just when I'd slowly start inching toward the food, the controls would switch. I managed to get 4 once.

The music fits well with the aesthetic of the game and at the same time can seem at odds with how much I'm panicking to figure the inputs again to get the food that right there.

I don't think anyone's figured out the real secret to the game yet. Just swim around and relax a bit by never eating the first food :wink: haha

Xorel7 Oct 2022, 13:47

I really liked this, it's a fun take on that qwop style gameplay and just when I would get used to the controls, the game became fresh again. The simplicity of the graphics and music fit really well too, good entry!

chaikadev7 Oct 2022, 14:10

I like how the movement is designed but not how the controls are reset every 10 seconds.

Keenan Woodall7 Oct 2022, 15:21

Wow these controls were tricky! I like the idea of a physics controlled fish, but the were controls were hard to get the hang of so switching them up every 10 seconds was a bit much for me XD I'd be interested to see how the gameplay looks when the person who is playing knows what they're doing!

GameDevTraum7 Oct 2022, 22:00

The fish forgetting how to swim is hilarious and also the confusing sound :smile:
Pretty challenging to control, someone mention in the comments about using arrows to control de fish, it would be interesting to see how the game works using for example A-D-LEFT-RIGHT, or A-D-J-L, maybe a more familiar key combination would result in a better experience.
Overall nice work! I admire people that do compo

LDJam user 1137710 Oct 2022, 22:03

Really nice swimming mechanics! I'm terrible at I Am Bread and these types of games but still had fun playing. Great submission and you even made compo! I aspire to finish in 48 hours one day.

benskca20 Oct 2022, 20:28

This is hilarious and SO HARD in a fun way. Really great take on the theme where you're truly dreading the 10 seconds running out. The movement is perfectly frustrating, it always feels like if you could just get which button does what sorted in your head it would be easy but that's a lot harder than it sounds. Great job!

Other games by @djtequila

★3.70

co-authored

★3.04

★3.22