Lucky Lefty Loves Letters

co-authored: @elysiagriffin
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.68
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.81
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.50
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.95
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.34
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.00
Lucky Lefty loves delivering letters to their friends in the forest but the mail boxes are so high up! Luckily Lucky has a new grappling hook to try out. Help Lucky Lefty drop off letters.



Desktop Controls:
- Left click hold while pointing on screen to shoot the grapple hook in that direction relative to Lucky. For ease of use, you can use any mouse button or keyboard key to shoot the grapple.
- Release click to retract the grapple.
- R button to reset level

Mobile Controls:
- Tap and hold on screen to shoot the grapple hook in that direction relative to Lucky. Tap ahead of where you want to see the game better.
- Release hold to retract the grapple.

Bugs:
- Game runs slow on Firefox

Credits:
- Snail - Code
- Elysia - Background art

Leaderboard:
0. 49.20 ausstein
0. 54.77 markais
0. 67.30 ategon
0. 68.77 1minatur
0. 69.54 icylava
0. 83.32 lomby
0. 86.54 jeremy-ryan
0. 86.59 thebooksnail
0. 91.46 kuviman
0. 93.59 pomo
0. 101.08 prologi
1. 109.70 rickylee
0. 129.92 francis
1. 146.76 wendel-scardua
3. 159.09 yoshivb
5. 168.00 jvdwijk
6. 238.18 gmaker
7. 248.17 bixarrio
0. 252.20 rincs
0. 262.38 hitchh1k3r
8. 270.63 magus77
0. 271.72 paveldlouhy
9. 365.38 spacey3d
0. 365.38 johnnysix
10. 423.00 frnknstn

Comments53

Igli2 May 2023, 07:23
This game was very fun to play!
Though sometimes the snail is floating mid air instead of falling down if you spam your grappling hook.
whywhy2 May 2023, 08:00
havent seen anyone making rope mechanics this way hehe pretty cool. took me a while to figure out button meshing as a way to launch myself in the air
Bauke Regnerus
Bauke Regnerus2 May 2023, 14:23
I went for hard mode by playing this game on a laptop's mouse pad. :D The usual slow paced physics gameplay, but it never grows old. That dragonfly creature must have knocked the letter out of my snail-hands a million times. Lovely and addictive!
Attala
Attala2 May 2023, 17:34
Best gameplay ever :) I really liked the "Bling" sound. Most realistic "Bling" sound I have heard in a long time. I enjoyed this. Nice submission!
Hoshinu2 May 2023, 17:40
It was a little hard to get the hang of but I liked the chill wispy(?) kind of feeling this game gave. Very relaxing.
LeYamez
LeYamez2 May 2023, 17:52
Was a lot of fun! I ended up just spamming grapling hook, wish it would retract fully if it hit something and pull you towards it so I didn't feel like spamming was my only option 🐌
frnknstn
frnknstn2 May 2023, 17:52
This is a great game to pick up, great integration of tutorial and difficulty curve. Easy to recommend to others, too. (423)
Movealonghome2 May 2023, 17:54
This was a very fun game to play, using the grappling hook to propel yourself up into the air was a blast. I liked the art style as well its very cute. The fact that I immediately recommended it to others after I played it says it all.
bixarrio2 May 2023, 18:17
Much Fun. Kept on loosing the last letter, but after a few tries got a respectable time.
Jvdwijk
Jvdwijk2 May 2023, 19:59
I love the movement, I expected it a bit more difficult from what you've said but I found it really smooth (even though I only got 168, but I am happy with that! That tutorial is also really good, shows you how to move and gives you a basic grasp. Nice entry!
Jvdwijk
Jvdwijk2 May 2023, 19:59
I love the movement, I expected it a bit more difficult from what you've said but I found it really smooth (even though I only got 168, but I am happy with that! That tutorial is also really good, shows you how to move and gives you a basic grasp. Nice entry!
gmaker2 May 2023, 21:17
Great game! I really enjoyed the mechanics and the background sounds. After flying past 4 birds in a row, I'm not afraid of anything. It took me 238 seconds to complete the long level. I liked speeding up; it would be nice to make a long level with accelerations!
Cinterre
Cinterre2 May 2023, 22:31
Very cute! Grapple physics took me a bit but you can really get flying once you figure it out. Good fun.
My only complaint is I would have like to have some kind of win screen.
Pomo
Pomo3 May 2023, 00:50
cabjhegas
cabjhegas3 May 2023, 01:37
Nice submission! I had fun climbing the trees! Sometimes it got hard to pass some parts, but liked the mechanics. Best luck
Remus3 May 2023, 16:45
This game is amazing :D The movement is really fun, I like the gravity thing when you are pulled up even if you are not grappling anything. The art was decent and the sound effects are exceptional :D
It's very fun, good job!
magus77
magus773 May 2023, 17:49
woohoo. i love how speedrunnable this is. if i have time later tonight i will try another run. there is some interesting speed mechanics in here
rickylee
rickylee3 May 2023, 17:58
I mean who doesn't love leader boards ^^
StrangerYann
StrangerYann3 May 2023, 19:51
all the menu and ui and tutorial work really well --- it took me a while to understand that the letter in the top left corner is part of the ui, it doesn't need to be captured --- I found the fact you can grapple air a bit cheesable but then again it actually makes the game more forgiving, I won't complain --- it gets a bit repetitive, maybe more small levels before the big one could have helped --- 72h is a short amount of time, maybe that big last level could have been cut up in several, IDK --- I think its difficulty curve was beyond my skill, that's what I'm tryna say ^^# --- had a good time thanks for the xp tc :-) ✨
MrTroy
MrTroy4 May 2023, 00:34
If you only could hear the loud shriek I made when I switched browser tabs by accident when I was at the very top of the level. 🤦🏾
aile
aile4 May 2023, 08:31
Grappling hook was nice, overall a fun and challenging game! :) I played in Firefox, which probably affected the performance a bit as the hook reaction felt pretty slow. Watching the snail slooowly flying through air as the time counts made me just spam the hook at the end lol.
Jim jagers
Jim jagers4 May 2023, 12:34
great game. I wonder if it would be possible too do a sub 1 minute speedrun for it
Pomo
Pomo5 May 2023, 02:06
Wouter52
Wouter525 May 2023, 19:24
What a fun game! I once lost a letter and I was very scared that it unloaded, but it fell down several screens. Glad that it did not unload! Now I could deliver all the letters.

At one point I think I heard an airplane in the background. Which made me wonder: did you record the birds yourself? That would have been so cool!

Well done!
MarkAis
MarkAis5 May 2023, 19:38
I AM FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! sub 55 seconds 😅


Amazing game, insanely high skill ceiling. Insane depth to the hook/gravity mechanic, I kept finding new strategies & routes when I though there were none left. Still have so many strategies out of my pay grade that could achieve sub 50s or even 45s (according to the sum of best segments)

Took ~10 hours, I'll come back to it if someone beats it 😄
Wendel Scardua
Wendel Scardua6 May 2023, 14:04
I guess I get to enter the Manual Leaderboard™ at 5th? :)

I was going to post a worse score at first, but the game was fun and short enough that I couldn't resist trying it a bit more until I got a better one. BTW I'm using Firefox and I didn't notice any performance issues.
Prologi
Prologi6 May 2023, 14:49
Did my best
Rincs
Rincs6 May 2023, 15:21
Really cute!!! I'm debating running again now that I know how to fly better... but for now.. xD I'll leave this~
Honest Dan
Honest Dan6 May 2023, 21:26
Snail you've done it again! I am jealous how well you make these games solo that end up having replayability and fun within small scope. You did good!
ruruie
ruruie7 May 2023, 12:54
Fascinating game. The control scheme is very unique, though at times it felt floaty with the kinda non-Newtonian grapple momentum. It's a very tight package though. Simple and speed runnable.
HitchH1k3r
HitchH1k3r7 May 2023, 18:24
I tried 3 times, and this was the best I could do:

The game was very fun, the sounds and background audio were fitting, the graphics were probably the weakest part of the game, but I did think it fit together well, and I liked the background graphics (a bit of parallax would have been awesome though).
Rodrigo Denúbila
Rodrigo Denúbila7 May 2023, 23:15
Nice take on the theme. The climb mechanic worked very well and the leaderboard make the game more replayable and interesting.
Harmadillo8 May 2023, 21:18
This was a lot of fun. The grapple action felt really nice and you could get a good bit of speed going.
Ausstein
Ausstein9 May 2023, 00:03
thx for hanging out in the stream, beat my highscore again after you were gone ;)
Ausstein
Ausstein9 May 2023, 18:03
was not recording video unfortunately
Ategon
Ategon10 May 2023, 21:05
More time than ausstein but good enough for 3rd
PavelDlouhy
PavelDlouhy11 May 2023, 17:22
Great game and great idea with leaderboard! :-)
NuiN
NuiN12 May 2023, 19:36
great speedrun game
Francis
Francis13 May 2023, 01:29
Was tricky to get used to the controls, but it's fun when you go FLYYIN :)
I found that if I spam clicked the same spot when I get close, I get a burst of speed.
Jeremy Ryan
Jeremy Ryan14 May 2023, 03:23
Nice entry! My best time was 86 seconds and change.

Strong points:
- The overall vibe was really pleasant. The characters and background were fun and it was amusing to see a snail with a grappling hook spinning around and flying all over the place.
- The level was well designed and the mail boxes require you to use the movement in new ways to get to them. If you came in at the right speed, you could often get a short swing from the lip of the box and fly right into it, which was really satisfying.
- Adding a speedrun timer was a good move, since it encourages you to try again to improve.

Potential improvements:
- Dropping your mail on damage was an interesting punishment (and suits the game much better in my opinion than, say, a certain number of lives). That said, the mail fell as fast as Lucky does, which sometimes meant your run was entirely over because you dropped your mail down half the level. It might be a tad less punishing if the mail fell slower, while still costing time to collect it.
- The movement was a little finicky for me. I liked that you could build up speed over time and it rewarded clean play and cool maneuvers, but it encouraged a few intuitive play patterns, like repeatedly shooting and retracting the hook because you got a boost every time you shot it. It also felt like the hook could pull a little stronger, especially when you're trying to fight with wind to get out of a corner.
- Music would have been nice if you had the time!

Overall, had fun with this one and always appreciate a good grappling snail. I drew Lucky and added them to the pixel fan art compilation on my profile (complete with cat ears).

Good luck for the rest of play and rate!
johnnysix
johnnysix16 May 2023, 21:18
A fun concept, the grapple could be tweaked a little to fall/retract if it fails to hit something.

Once I got some good momentum on some of the later areas, it felt pretty fluid. Definitely could be added to , post-compo with more moving stuff / puzzles :)

My time was abysmal.
1minatur19 May 2023, 00:04
I really enjoy it! We'll see if I can beat it in a few more tries :)

Edit: Ok this might be as good as I get
Lomby
Lomby19 May 2023, 12:38
Really fun game, had to replay a load of times to try to get my time down! Had a few little fps issues as I got to the top of the map, but nothing that a chrome restart couldn't fix.
Best I could get to was around 83s, might have to try some more soon!

Here’s the stream if you wanted to watch initial thoughts (timestamps in the description to jump to your game!) youtube link
DarchanKaen
DarchanKaen20 May 2023, 09:18
Very funny game, I like that hook mechanic!

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