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A jam submission

Polar Bear FrenzyView game page

Get home with the fish for your family! avoid the pesky thieving penguins. they will stop at nothing to steal your fish.
Submitted by myked — 2 days, 21 hours before the deadline
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Polar Bear Frenzy's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Freshness#1n/an/a
Sound#23.7143.714
Overall#63.4863.486
Story/Narrative#73.6433.643
Music#73.5003.500
Graphics#123.5003.500
Gameplay#143.0713.071

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

Decent game. I occasionally had issues with accidently hitting space instead of up to jump since I am used to both being jump buttons, though that might have just been me since no one else has mentioned it. Maybe if attack penguin was set to "Z" instead?

After that the game was stuck, music also stopped playing and there's nothing I can do. May be some kind of an error?

Developer

wow! you beat the game! 

(secret: I only made 10 levels in the game, then they start repeating.  The second time around on repeating might be breaking because of the music.  sorry about that!)

Once the jam is complete i think I'll update it to have an actual ending screen.

thanks so much for playing, I hope you enjoyed it!

Yes I enjoyed it, even though I don't really play platformers/arcade games much. Penguins however were constantly getting stuck in little holes, making the game very easy sometimes, moreover if you went AFK for some time in the beginning of the level, almost all penguins would be stuck in these holes, since they're constantly wandering around. I also noticed that they're trying to move in the direction of the bear sometimes (although not all penguins, sometimes there're 1-2 penguins who don't join the crowd), so you can lure them in these holes or to the bottom. It means, that because the time isn't limited, you can potentially never lose a fish or punch a penguin, if you have patience. Timer will probably make this game worse, as currently this game is rather relaxed. May be slowly increasing sea level will work? Or may be your score will slowly decrease, to ensure that players can't abuse penguin AI too much. Or may be you can teach penguins to jump/climb up? :D

Submitted

I wanted to say: there has never been a polar bear that has seen a penguin (except in zoos) - but judging by the "they're not even from here" comment, you probably knew that. ;-)

The gameplay is funny, and I wanted to avoid hurting too many penguins. But when the levels got really hard, I lost all my fish, and then I was put back all the way in level 1. That was a bit disappointing...

Developer

It sure must be confusing to see all those penguins! 

I think after the jam I'll work to make the difficulty curve a bit more even, I know some parts are very difficult without killing the penguins!

Submitted

Well done! Graphics are consistent and I liked how the music evolves as the player progresses.
The jump feels a bit floaty, but with all those sneaky penguins roaming around, I understand that Mr Bear here had to develop exceptionnal jumping abilities.
Oh, and the fact that he fishes with a fishrod too haha that made me laugh =)
I think that the bear's collision box could be a bit smaller, that would help for some jumps that requires precision.
I also really appreciate the narrative justification for hp. The fish you carry is your actual hp instead of traditional hearts and damage.

Developer(+1)

I feel really blessed by the artwork made by ZomBCool, they really delivered on features, including the heart health bar! 

He's a pretty agile bear, whichever pole he's on. :D

Thanks for playing! 

Submitted

Love the music progression and the colors. I chose the pacifist route to avoid killing penguins. 

Developer(+1)

I wonder sometimes if the penguins presence is an invading force, or if the bear family moved to the wrong pole. Either way, saving the penguins is a noble quest!

Thanks for playing.

Submitted

Nice! So this is really fun (poor penguins).

Developer (1 edit)

I think the penguins are so cute they might deserve their own follow-up game.

thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

"Penguins aren't even from here!"  Love it.  Need a penguin origin story game next.

Developer

Polar bear frenzy 2: penguins revenge.

I'm on it :D

thanks for playing!

Submitted

Nice well-balanced game, with a good scoring system. The graphics and music are cool :)

Developer

I got some preliminary feedback that getting negative points for killing the penguins was disappointing.

I think the penguins deserve some love too! It makes the scoring more dynamic. I sometimes wonder if I'm sleeping on the seagulls.

thanks for playing. :D

Submitted

Negative points add the challenge of avoiding the penguins without killing them, making the game more interesting. You have to decide whether you can avoid the penguin (and risk losing a fish) or kill the penguin. I thought this was a pretty cool design :) Well, that's my view anyway!

Submitted

Also forgot to mention: the platforming movement was a pleasant experience. My platforming skills aren't great, even so was able to enjoy this one. Well done!

Really addictive and gets decently challenging as it goes on. Nice work! :)

Developer(+1)

I worry that maybe the difficult is too high, it's a hard needle to thread!

thanks for playing :D

Submitted

Those SFX slap! I felt bad clawing thorough some of those penguins :(

Developer

OGA sure has a ton of awesome assets! I'm glad you like the SFX!


thanks for playing!