liked the game loop! oh god have mercy on the those lose souls
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Boatload's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #14 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Audio | #35 | 3.412 | 3.412 |
| Accessibility | #53 | 2.882 | 2.882 |
| Theme | #56 | 3.235 | 3.235 |
| Overall | #56 | 3.151 | 3.151 |
| Graphics | #75 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
| Fun | #81 | 2.647 | 2.647 |
| Controls | #91 | 2.706 | 2.706 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
3.5
Wildcards Used
Unspoken Stories
Game Description
Save a soul, slay a monster
How does your game tie into the theme?
Your vessel has a little too much cargo.
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
PassivistEfforts
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
1
Comments
Cool stuff! This is probably one of the more original games in the jam. A ship with a doot-doot and little blue gremlins. Peak material! The audio was incredibly mixed as well (that music soothed me and blended well with my occasional doots).
I guess as for critique, I found the art to clash a little bit with each other. I'd probably look into a consistent pixel brush size and keep that across all environmental and character assets. As of right now, the octopus feels a bit out of place when compared to your high-rez-looking ship.
Another thing I noticed was that I didn't feel the need to use A or D since I was able to do what I needed to do to win the game. I didn't feel like I had an incentive to use it--keeping all my little gremlins alive--since their loss didn't impact my gameplay that much (if at all)
Regardless, super unique stuff, and if you continue to work on it, keep it up!
Submitted
HEAD HONCHOThank you very much, really happy you enjoyed!
The art style is indeed a bit incoherent, the monster and some background elements are just slightly modified stock imagery for now. I went through a few art styles over the week and I'm still not sure how I'll tie it all together.
I had also hoped to make the ship tilt with the waves to have a real reason for balancing but wasn't able to make it work in time.
I'll definitely be working on it a bit more, thanks again for your kind words!
Nice transporting game. The main concern is that some sprites do not work together, for example octopus is pixelated, when water and ship is not, graphical style can be improved
Submitted
Toy GrinderMay all the souls that were lost in the river be forever remembered. I enjoyed this submission. I just feel like the process for collecting more souls was quite confusing at first. That, and progress of how far you're getting. There was a point where I accidentally clicked Space in the middle of a run and I realised once the new run started, that I had no idea how far I had made it on the previous run. Somethign to allow players to understand their progress along the game would go a long way!
Other than that, nice game. I really really enjoyed the sound design you had on this. Nice work!
Submitted
Rush HourThank you very much!
I had hoped to maybe implement a timer and a soulscounter at the end tied to a score, things like that, but had to settle for getting a short run to sort of function. I'm very happy to hear you and others enjoy the sound and atmosphere though, I'm still working on the game and I intend to make music play a real part. Thanks again!
Yeah! I slayed the monster!!! It was a little too long, though and not very entertaining at the end (just spamming “jumps” and “doots”). I like the idea and visuals very much! The concept of ship with giant trumpet is SOMETHING !!! It feels a little bit crazy (in a good way) like something from Rayman series. Audio is well mixed, not too loud and not annoying (even I dooted a lot :D). It’s not very clear how doot is charged and if it matters when you charge longer? Also not very clear what is the “radius” of your doots? What are you affect? I like the game and if there would be final/full version, I would definitely play it
Submitted
bar "OVERLOAD"Thanks a lot for playing! I agree with your points. Right now, the horn basically shoots a big invisible cannonball (as it was a regular cannonball originally). I definitely want to make it so it just affects a certain radius, and apply a ripple effect or something. There is an almost invisible charge bar on the horn to indicate when you can toot, and there is a maximum power as well which is not indicated at all.
I'm definitely gonna keep working on it some more, thanks for your kind words.
Fun little game loop. Took me a few tries, lots of souls were lost, but I did win! I like the atmosphere, and particularly liked popping the bubbles to try and save more souls. Nice first game!
Submitted
Lesson LunacyI managed to beat the monster with only 7 little guys left! This took a bit of getting used to, but there is a good amount of strategy to the timing of your horn blowing! Awesome job for your first game!
Submitted
Temp WizardryThis is a boss battle with the twist that you need to carefully balance and shoot away things to stay alive while blowing at...a mucus rope? Your ship can also jump, and you use that to transition between the water and the cloud.
I had personally gone with the strat of "just blow at everything, it will work eventually", and I somehow managed to figure out the transitions before it was too late.
I don't have more to say that other commenters have already given. You have a strong entry, and even though people have found more specific things than myself, you will grow as you continue to jam.
Thank you! Glad you were able to make sense of it. I definitely think I fell in the trap of "I just made this thing and understand what it does, so it's probably clear enough to others what it does". And a few others. But very happy to at least get a concept across, and glad you enjoyed it for a moment!
Love the atmospheric, echoey sound to this game. As most physics-based games are, it was a little wonky trying to physically collect the souls, so I just gave up on that and went for the boss kill strat, after reading your comment about its health bar (I also assumed that was something related to the souls).
The boat design is really funny to me, as it's just an ordinary trumpet attached to this otherworldly, ethereal soul ship. The physics of the horn blasts were cool and it was satisfying making the boss whip himself with the green chain. Nice crunchy sound fx for the hits. It's cool you went for full physics design in this.
It would have helped to have some indication of the horn's charge, either with a charge-up sounds or a visual bar filling up, or making something glow brighter so I knew when it's at full power. Going for the attack strategy also made it so I barely had to tilt my ship at all to survive. The jumping sea monster fish didn't really do much to me either, so it was a pretty easy win once I knew I could beat the game from killing the boss.
Great job on the project! Looks like you gained a lot of XP in godot's physics from it. The chain turned out great!
Submitted
Ecaroh the WellwisherHey, thank you so much! You're absolutely correct on your points. The trumpet actually does have a charge bar like the mast, but it's far too subtle, like it's just the glare on the thing. It also would've helped if I'd gotten around to animating any sprite whatsoever. The trumpet actually was a very late addition, it still has a small cannon shape underneath it which used to fire big balls of another colour of energy , but this made it all a bit too much to look at. Took me all week to figure out the best bullet was no bullet at all. Actually at the start of the jam it was a regular ol' wooden boat with crates of bananas.
Another thing that I did want pretty early on was to get the boat tilting with the waves, to have something working against the balance, but I changed plans a few times and just couldn't figure it out properly before the deadline. Still, I'm thrilled to have ended up with something presentable.
I definitely learned so, so much, I'm brand new to coding. But really excited to keep working on this and participate in more jams!
Thanks again!
Yeah. Cool. I love the Lovecraftian aesthetic and the surreal environment. I loved the background with the people reaching up. I had fun playing with the physics of it all.
Ultimately, I didn't feel like I was making progress toward a goal, so I gave up after a while. If there's an end-state win-condition, I'd like to see a progress indicator so I don't give up too early.
The rope mechanics was cool. The horn was cool. The balance mechanic was cool. Nice use of the physics engine in a game.
Submitted
NannyBot OverloadThank you very much! :) Right now, you can either lose by falling down a hole or if all the souls fall off your ship. You can win by dealing enough damage to the monster before the level ends, the purple/pink bar up top is it's health. Although I now realize one might assume it's related to the number of souls.
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