itch.io

Is there a Discord channel somewhere for the jammers? Or are we mainly using this forum?

Here's the link:

Sorry, no. I don't have a Pico 4, they don't sell the Pico 4 here in the USA, and I don't have the budget for a Pico 4. I'm going to get a Quest 3 instead - better return on investment for a starving indie dev. But if someone has an extra Pico 4 they could donate/lend me, then I could look into releasing it on Pico 4.

It's been a month since your last post. What is the status on the results and the prizes? Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your journey. I'm glad you came out the other side of all this!

Basically look at the angle between the tip of the middle finger (top beak), and the base knuckle of the middle finger, and the tip of the thumb (bottom beak), and then map that angle to the angle between the top/bottom beaks. 

Thank you! I hope you're alright!

I've posted in the forum thread that the host used to advertise this jam. Supposedly, replies will go to the topic author (thetagamesvr). https://itch.io/t/3063610/game-jam-lumberjack-life-3000-in-prizes#post-8398724

Thetagamesvr, when will the Lumberjack jam be judged and the prizes awarded? We the jammers are still waiting, but there has been no communication from you at all - it's been two and a half weeks since the jam ended. We're worried that something has happened to you or that you've ghosted us. Thank you for your response.

Nothing. I think we may have been ghosted? Or maybe something happened to them? One time I was in a jam and the host's mother passed away - but at least the host communicated with us.

Please make sure to include the data folder in the Windows build. It's currently missing, and the game won't run without it. After you upload the new build, let me know and I can test it for you.

When will the games be judged by your team, and when will the prizes be awarded? There were 3 games, and there are only 3 prizes. :)

Also, where can we find more info about your newly-established studio? Thanks for hosting the jam!

I loved it! So well done - the narrative, the voice acting, the artwork. Looking forward to seeing more VR experiences from you! I loved your very thoughtful use of the theme!

Very satisfying destruction experience. The bowling balls rocked. I like how the mailroom worker is making "one last delivery".

The screenshots, drawings, and youtube video look cool. I wasn't able to open it in VR with either the Oculus nor SteamVR - it always opened in flat screen only. What VR platform/device did you use in development? I'd love to try the game in VR.

Ah too bad the game is broken. The office/boss artwork looked pretty cool though. Very special pants. :) 

Thanks for the feedback! The handtracking controls are just what seemed the most intuitive/fun to me at the time, although not necessarily reliable as I discovered too late. I haven't seen other games that use handtracking similarly. This game could have actually been done with controllers so that they track more reliably (e.g. the mouth opening/closing could have been done with the front trigger, and the head just follows the controller), but my goal for the jam was to play around with Unity's XR Hands package, and this was a simple little way to explore it. The funny thing is that I didn't start making the levels until the final 3 hours and was afraid that they would be too easy. :)

I can see it is a 820 MB .apk file and expected things to take a while to load, but I think there's some kind of issue happening with the scene loading. If you find a fix for the scene loading issue, let me know and I can test it to see if it works. I'm using an Oculus Quest 2.

The 1st time I tried the game, I pushed the "push button when ready" button on the first scene and it went to the black screen, and never loaded the next scene. I waited a whole minute in the darkness while the music played, but it never loaded - the music just continued looping in the darkness, and I gave up.

The 2nd time I tried the game, I was able to reach that the second scene, pushed the button ("push button to flee"), it faded to black, but the next scene never loaded. It just kept looping the music in the darkness.

The 3rd and 4th time I tried - it couldn't even reach the second scene.

I can see it is a 820 MB .apk file and expected things to take a while to load, but I think there's some kind of issue happening with the scene loading. If you find a fix for the scene loading issue, let me know and I can test it to see if it works. I'm using an Oculus Quest 2.

The 1st time I tried the game, I pushed the "push button when ready" button on the first scene and it went to the black screen, and never loaded the next scene. I waited a whole minute in the darkness while the music played, but it never loaded - the music just continued looping in the darkness, and I gave up.

The 2nd time I tried the game, I was able to reach that the second scene, pushed the button ("push button to flee"), it faded to black, but the next scene never loaded. It just kept looping the music in the darkness.

The 3rd and 4th time I tried - it couldn't even reach the second scene.

I loved it. That hanging off the helicopter is an awesome way to ramp up the drama! Excellent polish.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, it would have definitely tracked more reliably using a controller, and you wouldn't have needed to remember the hand gestures. But for this jam, my personal goal was to play around with the new XR Hands Unity package. For a post-jam version, I'd definitely add controllers, or do more where hand tracking adds more gameplay value.

For the jam, I was originally thinking of having the player swing their index finger and pinky finger to make the duck waddle. But I found that detailed hand tracking on the Quest 2 is so unreliable currently, especially when one finger obscures the other, or when the hand isn't at optimal angles, or when lighting is not good even. I wonder how good the hand tracking will be with Apple Vision Pro or Quest 3.

The hands worked fine with the Oculus Rift. What happens next is interesting though - whenever I try to grab one of the dispensers, I suddenly get thrown hundreds of meters upwards into the air. Makes me wonder - what if there is a game of missile command, but from the point of view as a missile. :)

Thank you for playing and for the thoughtful feedback! The funny thing is that it's actually a really simple game, the mechanics implementation is ended up being simple (hand tracking, gesture recognition, and following), and ducks are one of the easiest animals to 3D model, and I use flat unlit shaders for most of it. I didn't get to start making the levels until the final 3 hours. Somehow, my non-gamer wife picked up all of the controls so easily, so I decided to make two quick levels and a tutorial text wall repeated twice instead of a nice tutorial and no levels. I should have put the tutorial text on the palm of the right hand for easy reference at any time.

The interesting thing about the ducklings controllers is that they have a "heartbeat" every 0.5 - 2.0 seconds that gives them a random walking speed in a certain range, and a random wander direction within an 15-30 degree arc towards the player (when following). So if you wait around, the stragglers should be able get over the small ledges that other ducklings that were at the same position previously were able to get over. It's that uncertain wait that can really quack up a duck parent's heart though, especially with moving obstacles around! For post-jam, I'll probably make those ducklings do a little hop on their heartbeat so that they can get over tiny obstacles and cracks a little more easily.

I was using a Valve Index through SteamVR. I'll try it again with my Rift and also the Quest with airlink and let you know.

Congrats for making the game! It looks pretty. The first two times I played, I was wondering why my gift launcher wasn't firing anything. It made a sound and an animation every time I fired, but there was no gift. I looked around everywhere to see if there was some way to load it. I even tried both uploads of the game and restarted them. Then I realized that the gifts were flying behind me over my shoulder - I was holding the launcher backwards. :):):):):):):)

Really well done! I played v0.2. I loved the flying mechanic. It felt very intuitive, and most of all, it didn't give me motion sickness like some of the other flying games. I was able to get past the cannons on the third try, by simply flying very fast. I know that time is very limited in the jam - if you're going to continue the game I'd like the path to be a little more clear so I know where I'm supposed to fly to, when it comes to some of those areas, the caves are easy to miss. But great job on the game!

Great job! Hilarious concept and game, and that you made a game out of the old baby-feeding trick. I love the voice acting. It worked great on PC - Valve Index. Congrats on finishing this for the jam!

I couldn't figure out the controls - I see the red ray from my hand-tracked finger, but I don't know what it does or how to use it.

It would help if there were some instructions, even if it is on the game's description page if you don't have time to put it in game. Thanks!

I can confirm that this .apk file doesn't work on Quest 2.

Unfortunately the current .exe download didn't work on PC either. If you're building and uploading a Unity game, then please make sure you include all the files/folders in your build directory (except for the ones that end with DoNotShip). Zip them all into a zip file and upload that. It won't run with just the .exe file by itself. If you need more help with the packaging, lemme know.

Hehehe. No spoilers, but that ending was amusing. I didn't see that coming.

Somehow the hands weren't tracking with my controllers - they were just stuck on the ground so I couldn't do anything but move my head and look around. I hope you finish the game post-jam. The babies + missile command sounds just like the type of game I'd enjoy.

I don't think anyone can play your game with the way you uploaded/packaged it currently.

Unity games should be packaged with the contents of the whole build folder, except for the ones that end in DoNotShip.

Zip up the contents of the build folder with all those files and folders in it included, and then upload that zip file. Unfortunately, the data folder and the mono folder are missing from what you currently have uploaded.

If you need more help packaging/uploading your build, lemme know! Looking forward to playing your game.

Did you ever get a working build out? In the downloads section, it says "the game is currently unavailable" and there's nothing to download. It sounds like a fun concept. I hope you put a build out, even if it is post jam.

Sounds like there's interesting story in the making/deleting of this game, and then trying to make it back in the 7 hours! You should share more about it, or remake the game post-jam. It's easier the 2nd time around.

If you had fun and learned something new, then you got something good out of the jam - congrats!

I played the original .apk and the v3. It looks like quite a lot of work you put into there in the past few days. Very ambitious game!

Wow! Can the airplanes even shoot you up there?

LOL! You put all the upgrades on the same turret?! I'm curious how that worked out.

Nein, ich mache keine mobilen Apps mehr. App-Stores bereiten echte Kopfschmerzen.

Thank you! The duck can command the ducklings to stop/start following by quacking 3 times very rapidly - it will then show a speech bubble with a stop sign or a gather sign - but that controls all the ducks at the same time. If you want to control just a portion of the ducklings, then you have to block them in behind a wall by placing boards/cubes as a barrier.

Ah you went for the brute force approach. That's definitely very tedious. The dozen ducklings is there to force you to come up with more elegant solutions. I was going to add a timer and leaderboard but ran out of time for the jam.

Hint: Keep in mind that the duck can grab boards, balls, and boxes and place them, move them, or carry them to make things simpler and allow for a lot of different creative solutions. You can even try placing a board, walking onto the board, and carrying the board. Or use your beak to push your body even. Use the wacky physics to your advantage. See the tips on the game description page for more ideas.