Tardigrade Travels: A Tardigrade's Terrifyingly Terrific Traversal Through Time!
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Travel through dangerous environments as a near-invincible tardigrade!
Tardigrades (pronounced /ˈtɑːrdɪɡreɪdz/), affectionately dubbed “water bears”, are eight-legged microscopic marvels known for their remarkable resilience. But did you know you can now embark on a totally bizarre adventure through time AS a tardigrade? Yes, indeed!
Now you can be a pint-sized powerhouse that defies DEATH!
A game made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 56 (Tiny Creatures).
Credits
Sarah Mak (@Plasmak) - Game Designer, Writer
Joan Wu (@aakarma) - Game Designer, Writer
cydisq (@cydisq) - Tech Director, Programmer
Justin Peh (@pyxel) - Programmer, Audio Integration
Audrey Yong (@audddible) - Art Director, Artist
Angelina Tan (@angiezles) - Artist
Ryan Pua (@Zirunos) - Artist
Yang Quanhui (@qhboiboi) - Artist
Benjamin Tan (@botwoj) - Artist
Jazreel Low (@Jaz) - Composer, Sound Designer, Additional Game Design
Comments2
LDJam user 39989224 Oct 2024, 21:27
The graphics & animations were really good, and the theme, sound and story were fun. I wish it had felt more like a game, like having some reaction when not pressing the button till the bar runs out for example. Something like "see? almost invincible!". I was also confused in two specific moments: when the tardigrade started floating out of nowhere in the radiation scene, and in the last space scene (I wandered for minutes to nowhere, then played everything again to find out what I actually had to do). I don't know to what extent these were intentional, but it would be better with a fix or more context. Anyway, nice game overall! Love tardigrades.
I appreciate the lack of a fail state as a way of conveying the absolute survival machines that tardigrades are, but mixing that with an uneven sense of conveyance makes the experience feel a bit more stressful than it needed to be. The fireballs and nuclear particles are very very hard to dodge, and even though you can tank them and move on as if nothing happened that is pretty much impossible to know on first playthrough, plus I think all stages could've benefited from that counting down bar that the nuclear section had over to the left.
This one is more of a personal idea than an actual suggestion, but if death is an impossibility in game, maybe a score that keeps track of how well you survived could encourage repeated playthroughs and provide a sense of accomplishment to players. However this is only true if that's the kind of experience you'd want to create, as an edutainment piece I think it's already a successful venture.
Graphics are of course incredible, the cutscenes are really cute and the stylization of the tardigrade and its walk cycle (swim cycle?) are absolutely pitch perfect, I couldn't get enough of it dopey lil face. Great job to all involved!
-Boat