itch.io

Weirdly, even though you've described this as a sound experiment, I find it the most *visually* striking. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, or what I'm doing, or how I'm even affecting what's on the screen, but the visuals are so otherworldly that the whole experience ends up kind of spooky.

Oh, now this I love. If you work on it post-game, some thoughts: I think I would have liked to be able to type the letters (and be able to swap letters), to control everything from keyboard. Also, I was stuck for *a while* on Easy 2, because Easy 1 asks you to use all the letters, so I assumed that was the case for all. Maybe a me thing, maybe a direction thing.

(Can confirm the other comment—Easy8 word 2 doesn't trigger.)

Overall, delightful game and a very nice time.

The monster noises were definitely a thing that kept getting pushed aside in the name of more critical things, like the endstates—which still ended up broken in the exported version, hah. Figures. Will definitely fix that bug post-jam!

I'm glad you found the weapon controls fun, at least! Thank you for playing and for the feedback!

Oh no, there ARE endstates so it's crushing to hear they aren't triggering properly, haha. That's how it goes, though—test and test and critical bugs still somehow make it through! 

Glad you enjoyed regardless, thank you for playing! 

Oh no... There ARE end states, it's devastating to hear that they're not triggering, hah. The crystal should gain cracks and visibly suffer damage, but that's pretty meaningless when the end state doesn't happen. Critical bugs going uncaught is peak gamejam pain, so we're really running the gamut here, huh? 

Glad you had fun with it regardless, thanks for playing!

Thanks so much for playing! The html version is broken atm due to a 4.0 beta bug; I've a (hopeful) fix ready waiting for a chance to upload, so I appreciate you downloading to play. We had intended to work in more reason to explore, but things had to be cut for time. The full jam experience, I suppose.

This is amazing. I played for I don't even know how long, far longer than I expected—I try not to read comments or description and go in blind, so let me tell you, I was *surprised* by the first zombie, and realizing the scope of the game. Definitely revisiting this post-jam!

The wee vampire was NOT in safe hands—I did my best but I just couldn't feed the dark altar fast enough. Shame, because the character sprite is absolutely delightful—I love that little *forward jump* frame.

Aw man, this is just plain delightful. I only managed to grab a blue powerup—there was a red one on screen when I ate my final bug and achieved my final form. Talk about bittersweet endings, hahah.

It's amazing just how much you were able to pack into such a tiny resolution. There's a bit of a learning curve but I did figure it out—my city didn't, uh, do well, but I'm gonna come back and give this another go for sure!

The presentation of this game is amazing—the color palette, the sprites, the music. It's all so delightfully warm and soft. Wonderful. The difficulty curve does spike pretty hard in the beginning, but this is absolutely one I'm going to revisit post-jam!

Oh, I adore this! What a lovely idea and a creative take on a "typing game". I've been typing all my life and I could easily press any given letter on the board, but having to think "Okay, I need a letter with a high bar" or "Okay, I need a letter to hit both sides" is an entirely different duck. Bravo.

Some resolution issues, but the dragon is very charmingly animated and honestly I love the idea of the game. You don't get to burninate the countryside often enough in games, y'know?

Never have I ever seen a turtle jump so high. Also—the ground not moving at all gives the impression that bushes and rocks are flying full-speed at this poor turtle. Poor guy.

I cannot I am winner. :(

I adore this idea! Dungeon meat sure is gamey, Tad. It sure is.

Each thing you've pointed to here as a problem was a deliberate choice, so trust me when I say that I did pay attention to such things this time. Thanks for the comment!

Thanks so much for playing! 

I went back and forth on the movement and in the end I chose to favor the experience over gameplay—the rain during wind I do wish I'd had more time to revisit! Ah well, c'est la vie—in the end, the frog dies.

Thanks for playing! 

Thank you so much for the comment! On one hand, I wish I'd've been able to add an ending other than inevitable frog death, but on the other hand, it IS inevitable. 

People are just going to have to go and play your game for the happy ending. :)

The game is—I'm not sure that delightful is the right word, but it's the word that I'm going with. The music, the way you slow it down as the slug starts to dehydrate, the wonderful color palette and the *amazing* slug jump. I love this.

I mean, I can't *play* this, the keymashing destroys me, but as an experience? As an experience, I love this.

The wind was an eleventh-hour addition—one I can't imagine having had to post without—and to be honest because I had very little time and death was meant to be inevitable, I didn't do much of a "raindrops during wind" balance pass, haha. Thank you for the kind comment.

Thanks so much! Glad you—well, "enjoyed" may not be the right word, but than you for playing. :)

Thanks so much for playing! I had to scope *way down* for the time I had to work, but I think (I hope!) the simplicity is a boon rather than a drawback. 

I waffled so much about the movement during development—maybe it would have been a more pleasurable playing experience to have gone with the smoother jumps, but I also kinda think that it would've gone against the atmosphere. Either way, thank you for the comment!

Thanks so much for the lovely comment! 

I desperately wanted to be able to do a grand setpiece, but as you say—the best laid plans are nothing against jam timelines! I'm so glad that what I was trying to convey with the game seems to have come across—that's always a challenge. When your character controls are clunky, even if by design, that can be offputting and that isn't an unreasonable response! Same with the croak, it wouldn't be unreasonable to be given a mechanic that does nothing—if you ignore that it's meant to make you feel hopeless, that you weren't given the tools for this job. 

You are, after all, just a frog.

As another said, attacking up/down would've been lovely, however the attack animations—the slimes especially!—are great! It's a simple game loop, but it's satisfying. Nice job.

I love the way you implemented an incentive to hurry—the threat of the water pushed me into many a poor choice and subsequent death, haha. The music is great and the tune slowing as you descend is a fantastic touch. 

Thanks for playing! 

I really wanted to have more things happen as you hopped along, changing the stage somewhat as you go, but there just wasn't time. You bet I made time for the ribbit mechanic, though! Gotta have priorities. I'd apologize for the sucker punch but the fact that you felt something means I did my job well enough in the end. Thanks for playing and leaving such a kind comment! 

I love so much about this game—the premise, the name! The wee character sprites! It's just that I'm incredibly bad at playing it. Made it into the cave mostly by rushing through any room with more than 2 enemies, and once in the cave Tony Miceroni became Tony Pinballeroni—hit one spike and you're rocketed around the room, you're done. I think I'd like to see the knockback lessened a smidge, but either way I'll revisit post-jam and give it another go.

It took several attempts but I did finally find the treasure. Is its position static? It felt very much like I was chasing it on a couple attempts, though perhaps that's more down to the enemies and trying to dodge their cannon fire. Excellent music, and the tutorial implementation made me laugh. Well done.

Hello fellow frog-game dev! What a pleasant little well-climbing game you've made with absolutely zero hidden bleakness!

Hey, I didn't sign up for *feelings*, where did these come from?!

Ah! So this is where all the frog friends from my game went—to an umbrella-shaded pool-party where nothing bad could ever possibly happen! Your frog sprites are very good and the sound effects are great, it's delightful to hear them all hopping around when you start being in charge of a whole herd of them.

(PS: Your playtime isn't cleared when you hit Play Again—I never would've gotten over 13 minutes if that weren't the case! 5:28 first play.)

A fellow frog game! This game looks fantastic—the different types of frogs are very well done and are distinguishable at a glance, and of course the arcade-style callouts are delightful. "Spicy frog" never fails to make me grin. Tower defense balancing is always difficult but you've done a good job of it here.

I think my one quibble with the stages is that for Stage 2 in particular, there's nothing indicating that the bugs will make a loop around the track! I'd assumed that they'd split at the fork and rejoin at the other side. Not a huge deal, you figure it out after the first play, but something I thought I'd mention.

I look forward to revisiting this post-jam when the known issues are cleared up!

The polish on things like the intro screen and the landing animations are just absolutely *chef's kiss*. Before I had even stepped off the first hill I stopped to start my comment. Aesthetically, you did a fantastic job—the soft colors, the sprites.

That makes it seem like you *didn't* do a fantastic job with the gameplay and that isn't the comparison I meant to set up! I do wish the basic jump were just a *smidge* higher, as traversing the hilly terrain felt a bit more difficult than perhaps intended, but even then I'm not entirely certain because having the struggle maybe makes the upgrades feel even better. However, even with that maybe-complaint I still had a great time—and will be revisiting this one post-jam!

(The terror that peep sound instills in me cannot be described—the number of times I was chased by a bird I could not chance to fight lest I risk losing my backpack full of gems, all the way back to my ship...)

Oh now this I like. Very intuitive and easy to pick up, and having the traps show up in 3 separate flashes instead of only one provides a wonderful twist and added difficulty to a "memorize the path" sort of memory game. The sound and minimal music are also incredibly charming, as is the animation on reaching the door safely.

"Ah, okay, I get this, it repeats puzzles until you get 'em. That one's tricky, so I'll just skip it and maybe I'll get a clue from another puzzle and, oh, game over." 

That puzzle in the last screenshot on the page is the one that did me in. My brain just said "nah man, no solution" and that was my downfall.

I don't know how I feel about the "only play once" concept, but I will say it's a bold choice! And what better time for bold choices than game jams, amirite?

("Figure it out!" Puzzle, please, have mercy—I can't!)

Those slimes didn't stand a chance! Sound would've been nice of course, but more than that I'd've appreciated some sort of description of what the different plants did. Was the big guy just a bodyblocker? I went through about ten waves and wasn't actually sure, but I planted 'em anyway!