Keep It Up Kitty

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.48
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.31
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.09
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.73
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.80
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.84
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.29
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.61
https://games-by-rjb.itch.io/keep-it-up-kitty

Launch balloons into the sky to keep your cat afloat while helping them grab tasty treats. But beware! Birds, lightning, and gravity are all trying to hurt your precious tiny baby. Keep them safe and go for the highest score you can!

My entry for Ludum Dare 56, I got the idea while trying to come up with a game design and my cat kept jumping on my lap haha. I figured cats are tiny critters in their own right, and this simple game is meant as a cute twist on the game we used to play as kids with leftover party balloons. Hope you enjoy!

GAMEPLAY:

- Launch balloons to stop your cat from falling thru the bottom of the screen

- Knock treats into your cat to increase your score, and to fill up your treat meter

- Once you have 5 treats in your treat meter, you'll gain an extra life

- Hitting birds and/or lightning will make you lose a life

CONTROLS:

mb left - click or click and drag to launch balloons

'm' - mutes audio

SCREENSHOTS:

My high score :) 1.48 billion
Genres: action
Tools: GameMaker

Comments65

gnats
gnats7 Oct 2024, 00:20
Really cute, and seems to be all-around functional! Love to see some mobile games love in the competition. Thanks for making it.
William Corrin
William Corrin7 Oct 2024, 00:20
A very nice complete entry. Nice work!

The pixel art graphics were probably my favorite part of the game - the gameplay was a bit generic but its very impressive that you made a complete game!
Ember44
Ember447 Oct 2024, 00:24
It definitely took a while to figure out what I was supposed to be doing, but once I did I was in the zone! Music and visuals are great, only thing I'd want is more explanation at the beginning.

Specifically, I still don't really get the number at the top---it seems to be my altitude or something, but also my score? I seem to get the highest number by just letting the cat fall, which is definitely not the intended gameplay... The treats also looked too much like gears to me, so I was confused about what to do with them (I think those are treats, right?)
richjbaron
richjbaronauthor7 Oct 2024, 00:28
@ember44 haha yes they're treats! I went for the star shape so the 5 treats = 1 extra life mechanic would be nice and cleanly indicated. Clearly not my best choice!
it is your score. you're probably spamming balloons too much bc they cost points. It's a mechanic to prevent balloon spamming since that's the obvious way to prevent the cat from falling and dying. It's possible to score >1,000,000
Claudeliu7 Oct 2024, 00:59
I love the graphic and the game play!!
Custodi
Custodi7 Oct 2024, 01:56
Cool mobile concept with simple & understandable mechanic.
Maybe too messy with displaying treats, but showing HP around the cat - nice trick!
LDJam user 2792337 Oct 2024, 02:35
I like the clean UI. Great concept and execution! I can see myself playing this on my phone.
MissingPixel
MissingPixel7 Oct 2024, 04:01
Cute game! I couldn't quite figure out what I was doing for a bit, Even tried mashing balloons for a bit 😅. Eventually I got into a rhythm and I really enjoyed it! Great work!
Knipsch
Knipsch7 Oct 2024, 04:24
Pretty fun once I figured out how to play! I think the audio was my favorite part; I loved the music and I also really enjoyed how the balloon sound seemed to fit with it. The graphics and overall vibes were lovely but I wish the cat had been a little more animated (though I understand that's a lot to ask in such a constrained timeframe). Overall, great job!
BrotherBrody7 Oct 2024, 04:37
Fun little game, though the way the treats work is rather punishing. Having to not let any drop past and having to make the cat and the treats bounce into each other is kind of demanding for the player? Good music for it though!
richjbaron
richjbaronauthor7 Oct 2024, 04:56
@brotherbrody haha, I'm a huge souls-like fan so it's not a game for me unless there's a way to punish you lol. Thanks so much for the feedback and for playing!
Zz1p
Zz1p7 Oct 2024, 08:56
It seems simple, but it is actually a difficult game. Cool idea and graphics! And lo-fi in the background gives a vibe!
diabolical-sloth
diabolical-sloth7 Oct 2024, 10:20
very nice stuff. the music and the sunset background really bring a great vibe to it.

gameplay is clean and satisfying. I like it a lot
DogeSquad
DogeSquad7 Oct 2024, 12:06
Awwwwwwwwww XD. Cute little game (: I think the gravity is a tight bit too high though. So its more of a "spam balloons" thing for me which is a bit at odds with the cozy game aesthetic.
Arscene7 Oct 2024, 12:21
You should release it on mobile, there is some skill to it. Congratulations.
RPGWanderer
RPGWanderer7 Oct 2024, 12:41
Wow ! That game is hard on a touchpad ! Very nice pixel art that reminds me of some colorful Amiga games :) The music is peaceful but I think I'll need to play with a mouse to enjoy more of it as I last like, 3 seconds :D I need to git gud :)
rynti7 Oct 2024, 14:01
Fun to play! I felt like there was not much to do against things like the birds coming from the side, but I'm sure it's just a skill issue :P
Mibi88
Mibi887 Oct 2024, 14:34
Amazing music. The game is also very fun and the graphics are beautiful. A really good game!
OldDog
OldDog7 Oct 2024, 14:41
it is hard to see a mobile game here,,love this game so much,art style are so good!!!wish for more content to play
DzejPi
DzejPi7 Oct 2024, 15:25
Love the artstyle and overall presentation here, well done! Gets surprisingly hard after a while!
Sviborg
Sviborg7 Oct 2024, 15:30
🎈 How cute and fun! A real treat for cat lovers! 😻 Controlling the balls to keep the cat in the air is so much fun, and the pixel art style is just charming! 🎨 The music creates a relaxing atmosphere, and the exciting gameplay makes you smile! 🎶 Although the game may seem difficult at first, once you get the hang of it, you get a lot of fun! 🐱✨ Overall, great job!! ! 👍
daflamingpotato7 Oct 2024, 16:35
Really nice entry.
The game is pretty challenging which makes me want to keep playing.
I got far enough that the background transitioned to night time which I thought was a really cool touch.
Overall very good.

I do wonder what happens if you collect enough treats--I could never get more than one or two before the meter reset
Guadalupe Murgo7 Oct 2024, 16:55
Visually the game is very nice! The mechanics are very good, it just lacks a little originality, but I liked it, good job
drludos
drludos7 Oct 2024, 18:24
Woaw, a nice a very polished entry, congrats! I'm impressed you managed to make a full mobile-ready game in 48h!

The gameplay is nice, but a bit too challenging for me when played with a mouse. Maybe, as someone else also suggested, you could try to lower the gravity, so the game would require you to shoot balloons less often, allowing you to focus / think more when to shoot. Right now the best strategy seems to be spamming balloons just to be kept afloat :)

The audio and graphics are wonderful, the game has a nice relaxing/casual mood.

Congrats on this great entry! You should release it on mobile stores, players will love it!
Iluvatar
Iluvatar7 Oct 2024, 19:06
This guy is fun, but not gonna lie, IT'S HARD! I think it's more of a skill issue from my end, but still wanted to give you this as feedback. I really like the concept, and I can totally imagine playing this on my phone while waiting on a bus or something. Cute, simple and fun. As a Jam game should be.
LDJam user 383212
LDJam user 3832127 Oct 2024, 20:49
Super cute game! I really like the graphics and art direction of this game, which meshed well with the narrower resolution.
RPGWanderer
RPGWanderer7 Oct 2024, 21:03
Update after playing on windows : the game is far easier on this platform, for some reason it was crazy fast on MacOS and balloons didn't had much counter strength there. It's actually a pretty chill game on Windows :)
dooskington
dooskington7 Oct 2024, 21:38
The music was quite nice. I didn't really get the "tiny creatures" theme from this much. But nice work!
Adam Gallina
Adam Gallina7 Oct 2024, 23:36
Really cute entry! I liked the mechanics of trying to knock the treats into the cat while keeping both on screen, it was definitely a challenge. I think the click+drag would've worked well on mobile, but it felt a little clunky with a mouse. Overall great job, the art looked fantastic!
stormburpee
stormburpee7 Oct 2024, 23:44
This was really cute! Seeing the cat start to spin really fast was a vibe, and the low-fi music was really good.

this was good man!
purplexy8 Oct 2024, 00:41
Let me be honest, I didn't expect much from the screenshots alone, but the gameplay turned out to be quite enjoyable! For some reason I felt nostalgic for the old mobile games from jar times... Nice one!
BlackCat508
BlackCat5088 Oct 2024, 03:12
was a bit hard at first but quite fun once you get the hang of it!
DragonMain
DragonMain8 Oct 2024, 08:50
I love cats, my too have cats
Lzic8 Oct 2024, 09:08
Lol flappy cats XD
DanoKa8 Oct 2024, 09:29
im so bad but its really fun great game congrats !
peringo
peringo8 Oct 2024, 13:16
I always like controls with mouse gestures, these work really well after you get used to them. Cute game.
Kirass8 Oct 2024, 17:37
I really liked this game! It's awesome!
Cisco
Cisco9 Oct 2024, 01:34
Good music, lovely gameplay and graphics. Could be easily be a mobile game.
HolySparks
HolySparks9 Oct 2024, 12:26
You got a simple and elegant core and worked all the edges off. Lovely game, smooth music. Just great!
tanis
tanis9 Oct 2024, 20:28
Definitely a good entry that could be a damn nice mobile game. The art is cool and sounds fit very well within the game.
It's a bit hard to play with the touchpad, especially on a small screen as you can't really fit the whole screen in there.
It's far from being easy, considering that you are not supposed to spam the balloons and sometimes those treats are really getting in the way at the wrong time :smile:
Cool entry!
designernap
designernap9 Oct 2024, 21:39
Nice audio and graphics on this. I tried slow but realised I needed to spam baloons to play properly. Also, awesome that you have a leaderboard! nice work.
LightningST
LightningST9 Oct 2024, 21:48
Really engaging! Loved sling-shotting the balloons!
richjbaron
richjbaronauthor9 Oct 2024, 23:04
Thanks all for the kind words and I hope you had some fun playing!!

@designernap high scores happens to be a native feature of gamemaker haha, so that one barely requires any work from my part :)
firellon
firellon10 Oct 2024, 18:15
Haha, balloon-bouncy kitties!

Enjoyed this little crazy ballonfest for a fair bit!
richjbaron
richjbaronauthor10 Oct 2024, 18:19
My high score :) 1.48 billion
Laywelin
Laywelin10 Oct 2024, 19:15
Great gameplay and mood! I enjoyed playing it, even if I'm clearly not good and never managed to reach more than 2000 T.T

Pixel art is my jam (uh uh), so I loved the cute cat and balloons. Well done
mdsalomon11 Oct 2024, 01:27
Awesome work! Really punchy and fun, and the effort put into the audio and visual flair really made a difference. Simple mechanic done well, and everything is pretty intuitive.
Whirlwind11 Oct 2024, 03:10
Cute, simple, even a bit difficult
AStrayRae
AStrayRae11 Oct 2024, 03:13
Simple concept that is really entertaining and super well executed! That said, I will not be able to beat your highscore :joy_cat:
Avi
Avi11 Oct 2024, 08:27
OMG someone got 1billion? thats insane, i just got like 80 lol

I think i need to try this again on my cell phone..
Antonin Browne
Antonin Browne11 Oct 2024, 21:36
Really nice game! i like the fact you choose the direction of the ballons
really cosy game
WhiteFox12 Oct 2024, 21:30
Loved the graphics, the music and sfx, and the game concept was really nice. I'd like to be able to control the force of the baloon (eg. clicking down for more time would push the cat further). Kudos for the polished submission
Tetrergeru
Tetrergeru13 Oct 2024, 15:56
Very cute game! i LOVED the heart particles :two_hearts:
Roroto Sic
Roroto Sic13 Oct 2024, 17:47
Very cozy atmosphere and challenging gameplay!! Why is this eagle so mean?
Utopia
Utopia14 Oct 2024, 06:25
I just realized releasing balloons will cost scores... Haha it's a challenging but interesting game.
Exa15 Oct 2024, 07:40
Nice game,very interesting plot!!!!Nice job!!!!
bradur
bradur22 Oct 2024, 10:06
Awesome game! I love the soundtrack and the art is very pretty too. At times using a mouse the balloon wouldn't release without doing a click afterwards which was a little annoying. Probably it would work better on mobile :).

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