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A jam submission

Parroting PiratesView game page

Made for the GMTK 2021 Game Jam
Submitted by HandODoom — 2 hours, 39 minutes before the deadline
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Parroting Pirates's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#38382.1772.667
Fun#40801.9732.417
Overall#42732.0412.500
Originality#45971.9732.417

Ranked from 12 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 ships are "joined together" in there actions. You cannot control any of them independently, and what happens to one happens to all of them. The fleet functions as one unit, which provides a nice challenge and thing to manage. Every solution must work for every ship.

Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?

Yes

We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam

Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?

Yes

We created the vast majority of the music during the game jam

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Comments

Submitted (4 edits) (+1)

i like how the movement is made - it's rather hard to manage the ships but i think on the sea it should be that way) it's part of the fun)

but levels are hard to read.  some signs are misleading - like the red cross on an island:  when i fisrt saw it I thought it meant something and i should go to it but it only wrecked my ship(

i didn't understand what those sings with arrows were  about either and i didn't know you could shoot before i read it in the comments)

also the game is punishing because you die instantly  and have to restart the game every time you thought you're doing what the game want you to - like this red cross or signs. i would always die whenever i tried to get to them and when i did - nothing happened

and it was a bit frustrating when camera moved with no contstraint to the ships and you couldn't see what's ahead

i think it would help the game so much if you'd make 1 or 2 simple basic levels where you'd explain most of the mechanics and techniques first)  and if you'd give your ships like 2 or 4 lives before wrecking - that would be really cool)

i understand it's hard to make a game in 48 hours by youself when you're not a pro - i surely didn't manage to do that :) - but i hope my feedback will give you some info on what could have been more clear next time)


cheers)

Developer

I'm glad you enjoyed the movement! That was the intention, capturing some of that delay a ship would experience. We also wanted to make it somewhat challenging, so that decision supported that.

In terms of level clarity and communication, I agree the game is severely lacking in those regards. I believe some tutorial levels and UI elements scrolling across the screen, describing what the controls do and what different items in the world do, would help a large amount. As far as the cross on the island, that was an incredibly poor artistic decision I made thinking it would be fun. It should have occurred to me that that would mislead.

I liked the high stakes of instant death upon impact, but the game definitely needs to make itself much more clear for that to work.

The illusion of camera movement/scrolling screen and obstacles was pretty much a mimic of old bullet hell games, specifically the fighter pilot variety. The game is supposed to take place just within the screen present, limiting the range the player can navigate to what is immediately visible. There are killboxes just off screen to create a set of constraints

I initially thought about continuing to work on this project and polishing out the details, adding tutorials and in-game information (I guess the write up on the game page didn't do enough), etc, but given the game's ratings I'm not sure if that's a worth while pursuit. Maybe I'll approach it again later, though it might just be a lackluster game concept to begin with.

Submitted(+1)

i feel like the rating of someones game is really depending on the amount of people rated the game) twelve people is really not that big of a number for it to be fair and mean something) so i think you shouldn't focus on that)  i know i did really bad compare to you but it seems like i have a better score although my game is harldy playable and not even enjoyable) i have a drawing of a game, savvy?)  so let it go :)

the process of pollishing is really up to you  - how much you're invested in the project  and interested in it to make it  "good enough") if this is your side project and you don't like it that much - maybe it's okay to let go) otherwise if you have some interesting ideas to implement, want to learn how to do it right or to figure out how to handle all the UI/tutorial stuff so it won't take much time next time  - it might be useful)

as for me - my submission is merely a ghost of the game and for me this decision - to continue or not to continue - was really simple 'cause I'm a newby developer and have LOTS yet to learn) so i've started to work on "making it right"  next morning after submission  and still working on it bit by bit every morning before work) 


gl hf :)

(+1)

I liked the idea.

I think it needs tweaking performance or camera speed and controls, other than that it's going well. 

Developer

The controls are definitely a little hard to start with and could have used some more tweaking. The camera is actually stationary so it all comes down to the movement speed of the individual items.

Submitted(+1)

I made it through most of the first level without knowing you could shoot lol. It was much easier after I figured that out. Nice job! Also I like the song a bunch.

Developer

interesting! James designed that wall of rocks in the first level specifically to teach the player to use the Cannon, especially against the environment. But it’s cool you found an unintended way to clear the level! I bet that was some adept navigation hahaha!


also I’m glad you like the song! That’s a piece I’ve had in my head for a while and recorded for the jam, it seemed to fit the nautical theme perfectly, at least in my mind. I’d love to do a better/full version with more time

Submitted(+1)

I really like the game so far, but after passing by two islands, there was only ocean and no obstacles or level. Since there is a "Level 1" label, I guess the second level just didnt load for me? :(

Developer

Hi there! I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far! There's a couple reasons I think of in this case:

  1. You passed by the island with the dock. To finish a level you need to collide with the dock to end the level. This likely is not super obvious, as it's a small brown rectangle attached to an obstacle you've previously been taught to avoid. I will attach an image of the dock sprite in case this description is inadequate.
  2. There is something wrong with the build. However, I and a few others I know have played through the build and gotten past the first level, so my guess is the goal is not communicated sufficiently, which I readily accept. The biggest problem with the game is most likely that it is a little obtuse, and if I had more time to fix stuff, that is definitely what I'd address

Hopefully this helps! Thank you for playing, and I hope you can get past the first level! There are three in total, and I would love for you to experience all of them!

Dock Sprite:

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Oh, that makes a lot of sense xD
Yeah, I died at the first island because I thought the treasure "X" means I can dock there and after that incident, I tried to avoid islands as much as possible..

BTW: You can finish level 3 with just holding down "Shoot" (+ steering to the port at the end) o.o

Developer(+1)

Interesting! It is definitely more of a combat level than the other 2. At first the levels were all very hard, if even possible. In the last minute rush to polish I made changes to the base of the mechanics themselves: shrinking some bad hitboxes, adding a delay to enemy cannon fire, etc. This may have made the levels easier than anticipated, so good to know! I guess the optimal difficulty for that level is somewhere between the two extremes hahaha. Also, I became aware of how misleading the X on the island is after release, when I did the art I just thought of it as a fun artistic detail.