Ludum Dare #56compo
Night Critter
Eat insects and navigate using only your echolocation skills. Will you make it through 12 random levels?
Change flying direction to avoid obstacles and collect insects. You can't see the map, only get a glimpse of it when you use your echolocation ability (activated at the start of the level and again every time you collect an insect)
Collect all necessairy insects to pass the level. If you collide with anything, you have to restart the level. Good luck!
* WASD / Arrow Keys : Navigate Menus, Change Settings, Change Flying Direction
* Spacebar : Accept, Next Level, Restart Level
* Escape : Back to Main Menu (WARNING: lose progress)
Code, Art, SFX, Music: Mateus Boga
The original jam version had a bug where in some devices the game was too fast and was unfairly difficult due to the framerate not being static. The current browser version is a post-jam version that fixes ONLY this issue. If you want to play the original jam version, (again the game is exactly the same otherwise) you can download and play the sourcecode below.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Change flying direction to avoid obstacles and collect insects. You can't see the map, only get a glimpse of it when you use your echolocation ability (activated at the start of the level and again every time you collect an insect)
Collect all necessairy insects to pass the level. If you collide with anything, you have to restart the level. Good luck!
CONTROLS:
* WASD / Arrow Keys : Navigate Menus, Change Settings, Change Flying Direction
* Spacebar : Accept, Next Level, Restart Level
* Escape : Back to Main Menu (WARNING: lose progress)
CREDITS
Code, Art, SFX, Music: Mateus Boga
BUGFIXES
The original jam version had a bug where in some devices the game was too fast and was unfairly difficult due to the framerate not being static. The current browser version is a post-jam version that fixes ONLY this issue. If you want to play the original jam version, (again the game is exactly the same otherwise) you can download and play the sourcecode below.
Genres: action
Comments41
Yoav Kagan7 Oct 2024, 11:44
Wow! Amazing game! such a unique mechanique, my only improvment would be to maybe make it slightly slower, at least for the first few levels, and also maybe make it so the first row/column is safe, since it feels kindof unfair to die straight off. other then that this is a super solid submission with amazing graphics. Well done!
LDJam user 2805097 Oct 2024, 12:01
Awesome game! It can be quite challenging at such speed
MateusBoga7 Oct 2024, 12:29
blobo7 Oct 2024, 14:07
Wow this was difficult, but very fun! Here's a recording of myself playing the game to provide more feedback:
Cheers!
Cheers!
MateusBoga7 Oct 2024, 14:28
@100th-coin damn, now that I've watched someone else play it, I realised I must have messed up the speed, because it's not supposed to be THAT fast! it's like half of that speed on my computer. Sorry! That really wasn't intended xD I needed to make it a fixed framerate or something... It's interesting because this makes the game easier on slower devices!
Yes, the levels are procedurally generated. And no, it's not infinite, it's supposed to be 12 levels.
I chose 12 because I noticed after that it starts to create those inaccessible places you mentioned. I had safeguards for those in place but they aren't guaranteed.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
Yes, the levels are procedurally generated. And no, it's not infinite, it's supposed to be 12 levels.
I chose 12 because I noticed after that it starts to create those inaccessible places you mentioned. I had safeguards for those in place but they aren't guaranteed.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
ovy7 Oct 2024, 14:32
I really like the concept of this game! I feel like some small little tweaks and it would be perfected!!
Sockenpuppe7 Oct 2024, 14:42
Wow, this feels really really polished!
Amazing art (the bat is soo cute
Amazing art (the bat is soo cute
Daff7 Oct 2024, 16:12
I liked it! The moment with echolocation is cool! But it's very difficult when flying across the boundaries of the location. I would prefer the location to be larger.
Daff7 Oct 2024, 16:13
Visually, everything is very cute. Music
Daff7 Oct 2024, 16:17
Today the speed is different, it's become easier and more convenient to play!
MateusBoga7 Oct 2024, 17:01
@daff I changed the framerate in the browser version, that's why it's easier now :) thanks for playing!
Custodi7 Oct 2024, 21:02
Great rework of memo game, art & sound are remarkable!
Sometimes i have to clear all field, cuz at first time i forget to remember where flies are.
Sometimes i have to clear all field, cuz at first time i forget to remember where flies are.
LDJam user 3883647 Oct 2024, 21:22
Super fun, the Echo-Location sound is super satisfying
Jhyke7 Oct 2024, 21:23
Very cool game! Its a very cool take on a game like snake. And love the sound you picked for the echo sound
catnap7 Oct 2024, 21:24
The idea with the echolocation is super original, loved it! Really had to hardcore concentrate to make sure i remember the obstacles x) Really fun and cute, very appealing art.
Shiiro 10psi7 Oct 2024, 22:56
This is really fun. The echolocation adds a good challenge to the simple gameplay. The randomness does sometimes make a level unwinnable if the flies end up too close to a crowded area.
kaviasko7 Oct 2024, 23:37
I FEEL LIKE A BAT!! Incredible game, the art, the music, all awesome. Makes me want to bump into walls.
Shamiya8 Oct 2024, 02:29
The concept and mechanic is really unique, this was a lot of fun!
takhomasac8 Oct 2024, 05:32
really cool entry! haven't quite played something like it before. i really like the art style as well. nice job~!
johnnysix8 Oct 2024, 12:12
Very unique style- really liked the memory aspect of the game, when you start out with the smaller grids , you think it'll be easy, but gets super challenging by level 4 onwards :bat:
Props for recording the soundtrack on guitar - very cool!
Props for recording the soundtrack on guitar - very cool!
SID378 Oct 2024, 12:47
One of the best jam games ever! I love the music played live!! Very interesting and well realized game mechanics, and nice visual style!!!
MateusBoga8 Oct 2024, 16:46
@custodi @letssnack @jhyke @catnap @shiiro-10psi @kaviasko @shamiya @takhomasac @johnnysix @sid37 Thanks all for playing and for the feedback ^^
Kirass8 Oct 2024, 18:08
This game is so cool! I loved it!
Historymaker1189 Oct 2024, 20:53
What a really unique mechanic! I really enjoyed this game, nice music and art direction and very fun gameplay. The only thing that I felt didn't quite work for me was a delay in the time between pressing a direction arrow on my keyboard and having the character respond on screen, I crashed far too many times because I pushed the button to turn away only for the input not to register. If you could fix the responsiveness it would really improve things. Other than that, this is a really polished and complete experience for a weekend's work, thank you for making it and sharing it.
Game-mon10 Oct 2024, 13:06
Very very cool, absolutely love it! It's kinda "Snake, but you can't see" (well, not really, but kinda). I really love how you used the theme, and the black and white graphics are stunning. For some reason, the soundtrack reminds me of the one from Pirates of the Caribbean, which I love haha. Anyway fantastic job!
MateusBoga10 Oct 2024, 13:19
@thomas-bringer Thanks so much! And yes, you're right about it sounding like "He's a Pirate" because I just realized it uses the same notes xD it's funny and completely unintentional, but I used to know that song by heart as a kid
MateusBoga10 Oct 2024, 13:23
@kirass @historymaker118 thanks!
@historymaker118 it's supposed to be snake controls, which I'm not used to coding, but I don't exactly know how to make it more responsive, it detects and changes direction in the same frame you press the button, so idk
@historymaker118 it's supposed to be snake controls, which I'm not used to coding, but I don't exactly know how to make it more responsive, it detects and changes direction in the same frame you press the button, so idk
LDJam user 30422610 Oct 2024, 14:16
Really cool and innovatie take on snake, nice art and nice music as well.
Andreadbx10 Oct 2024, 17:00
Very well crafted compo game, the graphics and attention to detail are top notch! As i said on stream the only thing that needs a little bit more of smoothness is the sudden turning, but i understand doing it on a grid is not that simple, congrats for the game!
LDJam user 39709910 Oct 2024, 19:58
Wow it feels SO nice! Exactly the kind of game I wish I can make one day. It's a snake with a simple twist, but the difficulty curves go so nicely. Thanks for the ride!
Kerdelos10 Oct 2024, 21:41
Wow ! Love what you did here ! It feels like a really nice blend of snake and a memory game. It's super polished, the graphics are really vibrant even though they are black and white and the music is really super cool.
Really I don't have much to say. It's impressive work, congratulations !
Really I don't have much to say. It's impressive work, congratulations !
Lone_Wolf11 Oct 2024, 01:24
This is a neat game. I really like music, and how it ties in with the death sound :P
Only nitpick would be that keypresses aren't in a last-pressed queue, so when I release a key the movement doesn't switch to the one I was pressing before that. I was easily able to change the way I was pressing keys to fix that though.
Minor bug: It looks like you have the bat do a scan when it enters a new area, but I never see anything on the map when it does, so I go in blind whenever I enter a new area. I'm on Firefox/Linux
Only nitpick would be that keypresses aren't in a last-pressed queue, so when I release a key the movement doesn't switch to the one I was pressing before that. I was easily able to change the way I was pressing keys to fix that though.
Minor bug: It looks like you have the bat do a scan when it enters a new area, but I never see anything on the map when it does, so I go in blind whenever I enter a new area. I'm on Firefox/Linux
ferricsbo11 Oct 2024, 05:10
Really fun and stylish game, and the challenge ramped up in a very satisfying way in the later levels! The screen wraps were tough to wrap my head around, especially in those larger, later maps, but thankfully I only ran into one or two layouts that required them. Even with those, I never ran into a map that felt unfair - great work balancing things. Excellent music, too!
MateusBoga11 Oct 2024, 11:53
@andreadbx I'll be working on fixing the issue, thanks so much for the stream and for the feedback!
@lone-wolf Wow, I didn't think of that queue thing, that might be what I was missing this whole time! (Can't reproduce the echo bug unfortuantely, might be a linux thing?) Thanks for the feedback!
@ferricsbo @kerdelos @cortez @thatfirey Thanks so much ^^
@lone-wolf Wow, I didn't think of that queue thing, that might be what I was missing this whole time! (Can't reproduce the echo bug unfortuantely, might be a linux thing?) Thanks for the feedback!
@ferricsbo @kerdelos @cortez @thatfirey Thanks so much ^^
ColeSlaughter13 Oct 2024, 03:33
Thanks for submitting your game to stream!
Although there were moments when I raged a bit, it was only because I was LOCKED IN tryin' to get those bugs. I could feel my third eye opening near the end. :smile:
Great job on this one!
Although there were moments when I raged a bit, it was only because I was LOCKED IN tryin' to get those bugs. I could feel my third eye opening near the end. :smile:
Great job on this one!
SatLess18 Oct 2024, 02:20
Solid entry. only criticism i have is that, while i do like the challenge of always moving and only controlling the direction the characters goes, there's some input delay that makes this a bit less responsive, making it a little unfair imho
MateusBoga18 Oct 2024, 11:50
@coleslaughter Thank you for playing and for the feedback!
@satless Thanks! Yea that's a common criticism, I should rethink the controls a bit
@satless Thanks! Yea that's a common criticism, I should rethink the controls a bit
Tetrergeru19 Oct 2024, 20:45
Great game! I couldn't finish it, thouh. I started to feel a little bit tired, and decided to quit, to finish in a high note :laughing:
Music is just awesome!
Music is just awesome!
fabula_rasa19 Oct 2024, 23:40
I'm so bad at this :laughing: Witness my awesome amount of deaths and weep.
The game is really impressively polished! Music is great and fits perfectly. I didn't really encounter any bugs (except for those I was eating :wink:), although sometimes the game placed the tasty bugs in a purely 'unfair' way. Like here:
A better player than me could probably get those, no problem :grin: I had most trouble with turning on the area wrap-around. It was hard for me to tell, when exactly I should turn. Again, that's most probably on me. I was also thinking, maybe it would be good to make the bugs in a different color than everything else. I know it would sort of screw with the black-n-white aesthetics you have going on there, but it would make the easier to locate in the split second, especially on levels 11 and 12. And after all, Sin City did it :grin: I do realize that it might make the game too easy, though. So might not be the best of ideas.
Aesthetics of the game is great, by the way. Overall, a very cool entry!
The game is really impressively polished! Music is great and fits perfectly. I didn't really encounter any bugs (except for those I was eating :wink:), although sometimes the game placed the tasty bugs in a purely 'unfair' way. Like here:
A better player than me could probably get those, no problem :grin: I had most trouble with turning on the area wrap-around. It was hard for me to tell, when exactly I should turn. Again, that's most probably on me. I was also thinking, maybe it would be good to make the bugs in a different color than everything else. I know it would sort of screw with the black-n-white aesthetics you have going on there, but it would make the easier to locate in the split second, especially on levels 11 and 12. And after all, Sin City did it :grin: I do realize that it might make the game too easy, though. So might not be the best of ideas.
Aesthetics of the game is great, by the way. Overall, a very cool entry!
WeirdBitGames26 Oct 2024, 22:41
This is SO good! An amazing entry! I remember seeing concept gifs on day 1 of the event but never found the game to play it during the voting phase :(
It did feel a little unresponsive when trying to move around. Though it is nice to have the grid movement be in little bursts.