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Scaredy-Ball's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #3291 | 2.350 | 2.350 |
| Overall | #4373 | 2.050 | 2.050 |
| Presentation | #4667 | 1.900 | 1.900 |
| Originality | #4789 | 1.950 | 1.950 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The player's movement will be limited by the ball(the player's character)'s fear of spikes. Every time the player dies to spikes, the ball will get more frightened of them, thus increasing the amount of control taken from the player. Additionally, said mechanic has been used to show a simplified version of real-life problems. Procrastination, fear of failure, self-sabotaging... any of those are things that steal control from everyone. Control that can be taken back only through sheer perseverance and inspiration.
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
We created all audio during the game jam
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Comments
nice game its a lot of fun great job
The physics were really fun in this game, it feels great to go fast as the ball. Something I would like to see if you keep working on it, would be to zoom out the camera as you go faster, so that you can see where to aim. I sometimes felt like I was moving a bit blindly! Quite fun though, congrats on submitting.
Thank you! Unfortunately, I'm not planning to continue developing it(my aim when I came up with the idea and developed it was mostly to "complete something to the point it's playable", as this is the first jam I participated in), but I'll engrave your suggestion in my mind—the next time I'll code a character whose speed varies, I'll put a high priority on fiddling with the camera. Thanks for the feedback.
Fun game, nice job!
Thank you! I'm glad to hear that!
The feeling of having less control on the ball along with the rotating level seemed to work well however I couldn't get my head around the panic metre and cash aspects of it.
The panic meter is coded as a "panic level" integer whose job is multiplying the "fear of spikes". For "fear of spikes", I refer to a force that adds velocity to a direction opposite to the spikes(only if they're within a certain range), effectively pushing the ball away from them(it works on both the X and Y axes). Then, the occasional shiny flying stars(medals?) would give "courage" to the player, resetting the panic level to 0. I guess that a better way to display it would've been a sort of "panic bar" that fills up the higher the panic level is, coupled by a dark, ominous sprite that surrounds the spikes.
As for the cash aspect, it's... kinda incomplete. It was supposed to have a "rewarding melody", but I couldn't get it done in time. Its main role wasn't to be used as a currency, a score or anything similar—it was supposed to mimic an addiction. To be more precise, addiction to procrastination.
While, when you go off-road, you can find small amounts of cash, when you finish the game you'll be given a rather high amount of cash(one billion, if I remember correctly): its purpose is to show the contrast between instant gratification(steering off-path to get small amounts of cash) and delayed gratification. Granted, the poor level design doesn't do a proper job on showing that.
I like you take on the theme, but wish I had more agency as the player to mitigate the panic/control reduction and better indication of just how my controls were affected. Since the platforming mechanic is the fun part, I would be motivated to try and regain my mobility more than I would to try and push through with more difficult controls.
To put it simply, the "panic" mechanic adds velocity to the direction opposite to the spike with a force proportional to the "panic level". It doesn't exactly affect player controls; it's just that the player's input gets outclassed by the panic, which represents, in a way, the relation between courage and fear. Right now, the best solution to show what I said above to the player that comes to mind(that doesn't involve the use of text explanations) would be a dark, ominous sprite that surrounds the spike.
I originally planned to introduce a sort of "temporary courage" mechanic that would allow fighting (partially) the fear of spikes, but couldn't implement it due to the time constraints. Another idea that comes on top of my mind now would be a collectible(similar to the checkpoint-floating stars) that'd lower the panic slightly.
Giving player more agency and displaying in some way how controls are affected—this is definitively food for thought. Thanks for the feedback!