I wasn't expecting to see my ant's head explode when he fell from a height, but when he did, I was sure this was a unique game! Brutal difficulty, I'm not sure I've ever seen a 2D platformer where the basic enemy takes 13 shots to go down and with leaps of faith with fall damage that brutal. Very neat visuals, fun music, and ambience. Good job, thanks for sharing.
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Ant Guardian's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #208 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Sound | #472 | 2.333 | 2.333 |
| Music | #506 | 2.400 | 2.400 |
| Fun | #557 | 2.467 | 2.467 |
| Overall | #580 | 2.467 | 2.467 |
| Aesthetics | #580 | 2.600 | 2.600 |
| Story | #597 | 1.667 | 1.667 |
| Mechanics | #623 | 2.133 | 2.133 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
5
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
No, We didn't.
Comments
That gory bit came off the mind of Kojaime, he even prepared for a last level that was pretty impacting, I would say, lol, but we couldn't add it in time.
We wanted it to be difficult, although most critiques say it was maybe a bit too much. With more refined collision, I think the platforming would feel better balanced, but collision was a real challenge to solve in little time, you can see the player character shifts in place sometimes, that's the round collision from the player interacting in an angle with the ground.
Thank you for leaving your impressions on our game, we appreciate the kindness.
really fun and creative concept I loved the pixel art and the idea of defending as an ant. Would be great to have a restart button and a small tutorial for the controls. Great job, especially for a jam game!
Submitted
Teeny RaidNice job on this one. The pixel art and music worked well together and gave it a good vibe. I liked the ant farm setting and the idea of shooting arrows. Controls could use some tweaks though. Solid effort with potential to build on.
Submitted
Mini Golf CarnageThere’s no better feeling than getting your first project out, congrats to the team! Ant Guardian has a ton of charm, and the ant farm setting is such a cool idea. Great work!
Submitted
Byte MedicThe approach is interesting and the components are nicely cohesive. However, I'm not quite sure how to proceed after the second enemy. If you jump into the enemy, it damages you and knocks you back, but there doesn't seem to be another way forward, I'd love to know what your intended solution was for getting past that part, keep it up the good work!
Submitted
InfexWe see now that there should be instructions in-game as well, as you're not the only one who got stuck at that part. You can shoot arrows at enemies, the attack action is bound to "K" on keyboard and to the left button on the right d-pad of controllers, and you're meant to defeat those enemies that get in your way. We're happy you tried out our game and left constructive criticism! I'll be looking into your submission as well.
A very challenging game.
One major issue is that the game closes after each life is lost. The controls (especially the jump responsiveness) didn’t make things any easier either.
It’s a shame, because I really wanted to explore the whole level — the game looks interesting.
Congrats on the idea and execution!
For the future, consider making games with a lower difficulty level to attract more players.
Submitted
AnthillsThank you for leaving your impressions! And the game closing is something we could have thought out better, same for giving control instructions in-game as well, as many didn't see it's possible to shoot the enemies. We'll be looking into making things more accessible next time, it will surely broaden our reach.
It's so good to see other people submiting their first projects! I've seen some other projects related to ants in this jam, and is cool to see that all of you explored this idea in different ways.
Submitted
The Last ReefYes, ants are probably one of the first things that come to mind with this theme and we actually first envisioned something way out there, with collecting resources for your base, but we did what we could with the time we had and used this experience to learn what can be done in what time. It was great participating in the Jam, even if at first a bit overwhelming.
Solids first start! i hope you keep working on it after the jam is over!
Submitted
Embers of Us (Prologue)Thank you for the positive outlook! We'll be working on it further, yes, as we still want to see where we fell short and how to remedy those spots. It's all a great learning experience, I tell you. You only really see how many little things go into the most basic stuff in a game when you actually work on creating them.
Hey there! Im with my 10yo daughter testing games and here's our feedback!
no replay button? need to exit and replay... hmm weird.
first jump looks glitchy to reach - doesnt feel good either... its weird. I thought I needed a 2nd jump.
uhm.. it feels like a game made with rush, even the ant had a black line pixel in the bottom. Was that intended?
I couldnt get past the 2nd enemy... no idea what to do. No clear controls? i see something top right but wasnt clear what to do next :\
also - this could have been uploaded as web game so i dont have to download a zip for this...
thanks for submitting your idea!
P.D. Feel free to check our submission, and if you like it - give us an honest rating with some feedback. That is most appreciated to become better Developers!
Submitted
Dark BugsHi Litoid, thank you and your daughter for playing our game.
Yes, this is our first and we are still learning, we agree that closing and opening the game everytime is very frustating.
The black pixel line at the bottom of the ant is intended. Uploading the game for web is a great tip.
Thanks for your feedback.
We appreciate your feedabck and you're right about all the rough edges. As our first experience, we still ran into a few tight spots when programming, which cost us some more time than we anticipated. Some of us have had a little more experience at working directly with game engines, so we also used this opportunity to learn and share knowledge between ourselves.
The jump may have worked better with coyote time, as Gabl noted. We should have added the controls in-game as well, that's on us for not putting it there. We see now that having a browser version is also a must, if possible, as it allows for a much broader reach.
Today I'll be looking into people's submissions and will be sure to look into each and everyone who's leaving us well thought out critiques.
Thank you for putting your time into writing us your frank views.
Hey there! Im with my 10yo daughter testing games and here's our feedback!
no replay button? need to exit and replay... hmm weird.
first jump looks glitchy to reach - doesnt feel good either... its weird. I thought I needed a 2nd jump.
uhm.. it feels like a game made with rush, even the ant had a black line pixel in the bottom. Was that intended?
I couldnt get past the 2nd enemy... no idea what to do. No clear controls? i see something top right but wasnt clear what to do next :\
also - this could have been uploaded as web game so i dont have to download a zip for this...
thanks for submitting your idea!
P.D. Feel free to check our submission, and if you like it - give us an honest rating with some feedback. That is most appreciated to become better Developers!
Submitted
Dark BugsSo, the game fits the theme perfectly and I love the characters, but Ive been playing this game for 15 minutes and its soooo hard ;_;. Having to reopen the game every time you want to open the game leads to more frustration. Maybe you could add some coyote time next time to make jumping easier. Also, getting fall damage was kinda annyoing. On the flip side: I liked the music and that you used no existing assets is pretty impressive. Seems like this was one of your first itch games and for that I gotta say, you did well, congrats on actually finishing a game and I hope you learned much.
Submitted
Tiny GlobesThank you so, so much for your kind words. Yes, this was our first project, and we engaged in it to force ourselves to get out of our comfort zones and start creating things. We're happy you've appreciated our work and your critiques are on point; especially about coyote time, that's a valuable one! We thank you for giving us your time and attention and actually writing us your impression.
Thanks Gabl for your feedback, We are happy for you play our game. Yes, this is our first game and we are learning how to do everything that involves making a game... Reopen the game is really frustation and we thank you for the coyote time tip.
Hahaha yeah its hard only i and phasma tacticus managed to pass the stage. We wanted to have added more stages but time is a big challenge hahaha.
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