Ludum Dare #54compo

Hunt for Emperor Littlefin

by pincushion

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.82

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.53

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.06

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.84

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.07

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.86

A really big fish named
Emperor Littlefin
needs to be killed.

To accomplish this task, you need to
become more powerful. In these
winding caves are 5 ruins, each with
mysterious power that will no doubt
help your mission.

Controls
--------

Keyboard only:
- WSAD or arrow keys to move
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to use abilities as you find them (you start with none).
1. Strong bullet attack
2. Starfish AOE attack
3. Full Heal
4. Shield (reduced damage)
5. Shrink (reduced size)

Notes
--------
The game lacks some polish, so hopefully these notes will help.

Respawning
- When you die, you will respawn in 1 or 2 locations (right at the start or near the boss room)
- There isn't an animation or message when you die. You simply respawn with full health.
- No progress is lost. Fish stay dead. You keep your powers.

Powers
- There are two attacks. (one is near the start)
- When you find a ruin, your power will replace one of the five "?" at the bottom of the screen.

Screenshot
--------

Comments12

jk50002 Oct 2023, 17:28

The idea is okay, and the game looks fine. The controls is a bit frustrating, and I did often ran into the walls. The game also needs sound effects and perhaps some music. Overall an okay little jam game.

BrokenBridge2 Oct 2023, 18:06

I actually liked the controls, even though I ran into walls quite often. Some visual variation would be nice, like some plants or clams. I kind of accidentally killed the boss fish and was surprised to win the game. As you said with a bit more polish here and there this would be a even better experience.

Zirrrus2 Oct 2023, 18:45

I really enjoyed the look of the environment. Kind of look like a magic eye thing.
The walls were really the most dangerous enemy, the king eventually got stuck to me and was unable to do anything while I spammed the aoe attack. Cute jam game!

Frogman2 Oct 2023, 19:23

I have vanquished Emperor Littlefin!

Anyway, the game was pretty nice - I enjoyed exploring the maze-like underwater caves. It was pretty cool that you managed to implement so many abilities in such a short time (although abilities 1 & 3 felt a bit broken). I also enjoyed the controls after getting used to them and stopped banging the submarine into the cave walls repeatedly. It was a bit confusing at times where I was supposed to go, and some sort of alert informing me that Emperor Littlefin spawned would've helped, but otherwise, great entry!

txomin2 Oct 2023, 22:21

As other have said, the biggest challenge seems to navigate without hitting the walls too much. Luckily the ability 1 is pretty powerful so the enemies were not that frustrating. I liked the mood, the close camera helps the claustrophobic feeling, with proper SFX the game could be pretty scary! The cave textures are nice too. Nice job 👍

henk2 Oct 2023, 22:31

I couldn't find items 1 and 4, so I killed emperor littlefin with the star shield :P. The damage from hitting the walls felt pretty unforgiving, but once I got the heal item I could just power through everything by spamming "3". Perhaps it should have had a cool-down like some of the other items? Sound and music would have really helped, I think, in addition to some more visual variation in the cave terrain. I like the 2.5D style, and the movement felt pretty solid, although it seemed more difficult to navigate diagonal passages than vertical/horizontal ones.

Plepletier4 Oct 2023, 00:22

I couldn't play the game well... the movement controls were stuck, and I kept falling to the ground.

Dingbat4 Oct 2023, 10:24

Honestly I thought the controls worked fine, really loved the exploration and design of the level and enemies. I don't think there was any audio but I think that would have really added a lot to the game. Some more feedback from taking damage and dealing damage would really help make the game feel better in my opinion. Overall great entry! nice job!

Cam Moore11 Oct 2023, 17:11

This game has a lot of potential, I hope you continue to build it up! Good job :)

funemaker14 Oct 2023, 17:53

Nice, the controls did take some getting used to...but, I never found any of the weapon items...not sure if something not working or if I'm just terrible at it!

someone15 Oct 2023, 16:48

Nice entry. I like the visuals of the tunnels, though they could have done with some extra clutter to break it up a bit.
I win after finding upgrades 1, 2 and 5, then went back to find the other two.
It was quite satisfying zooming around the tunnels, but that usually ended badly, at least until I got the heal upgrade.
Upgrade 1 was powerful enough that I didn't need to use anything else.

LDJam user 24905019 Oct 2023, 22:10

The way the submarine spins when turning around is quite satisfying.

I'd want some clearer feedback on ability use (some light-up effect on the ability bar?), also sound effects would be nice. Also, some visual distinction on the areas would help exploration.

In the end, I vanquished Emperor Littlefin!

Other games by @pincushion

★3.17

★3.18

★3.50