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A jam submission

Pond 馃惛View game page

Keep your cute tadpole children close as you unlock your way home. Beware of predators...
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Pond 馃惛's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#15483.3503.350
Fun#18802.9002.900
Overall#19123.0503.050
Presentation#22372.9002.900

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 tadpoles must stay close to their mother, or they will be devoured by a crow. They are joined as a family looking to survive in nature.

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

No

We used pre-existing art

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(+1)

Cute game, I like the idea! I think maybe it would have been better if the camera followed whichever tadpole is "active" as it was hard to see where they were going sometimes, but it was still cool. 

Submitted(+1)

Cute game, I like the idea! I think maybe it would have been better if the camera followed whichever tadpole is "active" as it was hard to see where they were going sometimes, but it was still cool. 

Developer

That's something that didn't really occur to us. We'll fix it in the future for sure!

Submitted(+1)

I like the game, but I question whether doing this in 3D with a moving camera was the best presentation; a simple top-view with different colors to distinguish altitudes would probably be more user-friendly.

Developer(+2)

Thanks for the feedback. I see your point. This was the setup we had from the start and we didn't have time to experiment with others. It's something we can consider and test the effect on the player experience.

Still, with this in mind, the current and the one you described give highly different experiences (some parts for better and others for worse) but it's still something definitely worth trying and experimenting with

Submitted(+1)

This is cute.  I did wish that the mama frog moved a little faster, and/or that the tadpoles I was not controlling had some sort of "recall" or "gather" mechanic so I didn't have to worry about them so much (I didn't see the crow but I felt very protective).  There's a little bit of the mama frog and tadpole sprites having odd collisions in narrow paths, but it didn't cause anything too bad.
Overall hits the theme and I had fun, thank you for making it ^_^

Developer(+2)

We tried to balance the mother's speed as to not make it too easy for the tadpoles to stay close with her, otherwise the predator threat would have been too small, but maybe it could have been a little faster.  Also, if you press/keep pressing the Space key, the tadpoles will realease their objects and walk closer and towards their mother, which I think it's what you meant by a "recall" mechanic. I'm not sure, but we may have forgotten to mention it in the tutorials.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the feedback and for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Ah I see, gotcha.  It explains what happened when I dropped the balls onto the buttons.  I was like where are you going little one? :D
I guess, the mother's speed resulted in my playing very cautiously which probably made the game feel slower than it really should - so, player preference interfering with player experience ^_^
Thanks again, still a fun little game.

(+1)

This was pretty fun! I couldn't get the barrel on the second all 3 level to work, so that's a bug you may want to work out later. but overall pretty fun!

Developer(+2)

Yeah, it seems there is a bug in that level that we weren't aware when we uploaded the build under the time pressure. We'll definitely fix it after the jam. Thanks for the feedback!

No Problem! I'll definitely check it out after the jam!

(+1)

Neat concept. I find controlling the tadpoles a bit too difficult in a lot of scenarios but there's an interesting idea here.

Developer(+1)

Thanks! We also agree there are some places where the controls are a bit inconsistent or difficult. We might try to improve it after the jam