Moon Picnic

by fractal
co-authored: @filgru
Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.17
Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.17
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.98
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.35
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.98
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.72
Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.00
​Your picnic on the moon did not go as planned, you dropped a bunch of food on the ground and some moon ants seem very interested by it. Will you manage to rescue it all?

Controls

You need to get rid of all of the ants before they steal your food.

Tap/click anywhere to create a shock wave that will crush/repel nearby ants and ant sources. Make sure to wait a bit afterwards for it to recharge, to use it to its full potential!

After a couple of levels you will get additional ways to deal with the ants. Activate them by pressing one of the additional buttons on the bottom and then tapping/clicking anywhere on the screen. The push creates a shock wave that pushes the food item away, the bomb creates a much more powerful shock wave, the hologram diverts away the attention of some of the ants, and the freeze creates an area where the ants move much slower.

Credits
- Art and animations by Filip Grudziel
- Programming by Guillaume Brunerie
- Music and sounds from a Humble Bundle of music and sound effects

Changes post-jam
- Fixed crash on older Safari versions
- Fixed level unlocking not working as intended
Genres: survival

Comments19

Quintec8 Oct 2024, 03:39
Actually very fun concept! But it did take a while to figure out that I needed to wait for the bar to recharge to do damage - a few tooltips would've been nice. I also was confused what the different buttons did. Overall fun and I could see how it could be addicting :)
Avery_Dong8 Oct 2024, 06:23
The unique background adds a lot of points to the game!
Sibi
Sibi13 Oct 2024, 12:47
Damn that was a lot of fun!
I loved frantically clicking away at the ants. And beyond the clicking it had enough depth let me take decisions such as fighting off the ants vs destroying their spawner. It felt really well balanced.
And the introduction of the powers really kept it fresh at every level.
The music and sounds were just so whimsical, I loved it!
And on top of all of that you have a brilliant level selector.
Vittima13 Oct 2024, 12:48
I like the idea, it was fun to play. It took me a while to realize I had to destroy the anthill as well.)
Slava Besckaravainii13 Oct 2024, 16:14
Good game, oftenly used bomb to kill one nest, had to react quick when i almost losed... nice mechanics and attacks, 5 stars
Papaver
Papaver14 Oct 2024, 21:17
I love the choice of music, that really kept me going! I got to level 5 before I gave up. I would have liked to be able to select the different buttons with the number keys.

Well done! :smile:
Prunus Padis
Prunus Padis14 Oct 2024, 21:43
My bigges complaint about the game is that it was TOO SHORT since i had so much fun playing it. Best overral jam game i have played so far.

The difficulty curve felt little weird to me since the levels actually got easier the more power ups and i would liked to have stronger enemies or something. The 2nd ability was useless to me and i mainly used the basic click and bomb. Freeze is way to long for the cd it has.

To me it felt little like a rythm game since getting to groove of tapping the basic attack to the music was really satisfying and efficient strategy. I would have liked to have keybidings for abilities since clicking the ability always ruined my tempo and flow.

I thought at the start that the critters ate the food and and the health bar was how long i had to defend. I realized my mistake of sometime wondering why nothing is happening even though i keep smashing these bugs and realized i had to destroy the nest.

The repairing of nests is really good mechanic to the game.
ejmejm14 Oct 2024, 22:41
This game caught me off guard with how good it was. The difficult was scaled just perfect so that I had just enough time to learn the basic mechanics before being faced with a real challenge. The art style, music, and UI also all come together to form a very coherent vibe. It all feels like it belongs together, not like it was thrown together in a few days for a game jam.
PixelTech
PixelTech14 Oct 2024, 22:48
I got stuck on the cake level, but this game is extremely fun! Great job!
PeytonBrown15 Oct 2024, 00:46
So good! Art fits together well, glad you added different attacks gives the game more depth.
easily 4+
LDJam user 379026
LDJam user 37902615 Oct 2024, 00:54
I think a bit more of a tutorial is needed, I was playing the first level for way to long until I realized I needed to alternate between keeping the food safe and just attacking the hive. After that it was easy but I think level 3 ramped up a bit strong so I lost interest.
Jack S.17 Oct 2024, 17:46
Really fun! Great job
EX3D0
EX3D017 Oct 2024, 20:18
Was really fun.

The abilities were all pretty neat and added additional depth and strategy, but I mostly found myself using the bomb and the normal shockwave.

At first I thought the anthill's healthbar a timer counting down how long a level so I was just spamming shockwave next to the pizza until I realised I had to destroy the anthill, I feel like there should be some signal to the player that destroying their anthill was the main objective.
huntred18 Oct 2024, 18:54
There are levels! And it works, it is fun and I want to get to the next level and see whats up there! Very nice
Dissonance Generator
Dissonance Generator18 Oct 2024, 19:11
Well this is hilarious! I wish I could use the keyboard to pick the other abilities while I'm still clicking bugs with the mouse - it seemed like I should have been able to (1-5 keys, maybe?)
island-jam-2-group-319 Oct 2024, 12:40
Awesome entry! I loved the mechanics, mood, graphics, sound, all!
LelulaGames
LelulaGames20 Oct 2024, 19:25
My bf just asked me if I was trying to protect a sandwich from ants. Why yes, yes I am!
The fact that you have to destroy the den and then kill all the ants actually makes this more interesting than most defense games, and the music was fun. I like it.
deadroach
deadroach20 Oct 2024, 19:53
Ants are tiny creatures! #KILTit
ColeSlaughter
ColeSlaughter21 Oct 2024, 18:26
I really enjoyed this one! I love the polish that y'all put into the UI (particularly the level select) and the game mechanics themselves are pretty novel without being overwhelmingly confusing (which is a huge feat, given the chaos that is constantly unfolding on screen).

I do think that if y'all were to map the abilities to some keyboard keys (like QWERT or 12345) it would make the experience feel a lot better and enhance the chaos and frenetic gameplay, but that's a minor complaint for an otherwise fantastic game!

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