itch.io

kinda your first game you say? It's impressive how put-together this submission is. It doesn't feel like it's missing anything except audio. I appreciate how you seemed to have focused on a working and quick game flow between screens/states/rooms. The menu quickness shines as does the charm, I think it is so cute and I got to see the lovely end screen! I also found it clear what to do. I get the impression that the game could have used a little more focus on playtesting to tune the tongue action. Right now it feels like there is only one strategy which is to hold the mouse in one corner of the screen and never move it, and just keep aiming. Some more fun-ifying of that mechanic would put a bow on it imo, but in any case it's a great entry!

this game's idea and presentation is so charming! the different minigames are fun in their own way. My favorite was syncing up the snoring frogs. The voiced narration is quite immersive and I feel like I'm in a storybook while playing. To say nothing of the smooth experience launching and navigating through the game. Only one small thing took me out which was how nerve-wracking the balance minigame is. But it's a nitpick because this game is so nice considering the constraints of this jam! super impressive!

impressive creativity and so cute!

I think it's a bit hard to figure out what to do as a player in this game, it took me a long time to realize just how to attack with my tongue and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right but it my understanding of how to play is that you swipe through flies with the tongue and then their internal HP depletes by 1, then eventually they lose some amount of HP, they disappear and you get one point. I think some visual or sound feedback in addition to some visual effect for each successful damage point accumulated on a fly would help the feedback a lot, if you feel like working on it more. I do think it is appealing in the theme and the tongue sword is one of the more creative ideas I've seen in the jam. Also love the 3d models and the general eerie feel of being out on the fly battlefield and being hunted by flies rather than having innate power over them is intruiging.

The audio is well-sourced/made: that jump windup sound kept me playing, it's addicting to listen to. You also made super satisfying jump control, that was impressive. The only thing weird to me playing this is I can't tell what I'm supposed to land on and I feel like I can't die. I thought that was part of the point until there was a part describing a pit and I was like "what pit?" I did enjoy reading the text in the background as I felt it was legible and kind of a whimsical way to explore the first couple levels. You created quite a memorable platforming experience, I think you could polish this game up if you either work on making the collisions better (correct me if it feels like I'm supposed to just jump and land anywhere on the screen haha) or making the boundaries of the levels muuuuuuch more clear. Let me know if you do make more versions, I will play them and honestly I rated this high because I find the gameplay of the jumping and the windup audio so fun and satisying.

whoa the jump windup sound effect sounds like c64, that is ear candy.and It's so satisfying having a sound map directly to an action like that

I looooove how this fits the theme and the frog is so cute. I am all about the art on this project. The premise pulled me in and I didn't find it hard to learn how to jump, but I did find it confusing being able to compete for both the long jump and high jump at the same time. It also felt like the game state got stuck and I had to reload the page if I wanted to do anything else. Nice work making such a flavorful project regardless!

I am obsessed with the art, that frog is so cute with its lil crouch.. ready set go frog T_T

I'm rating this based on the revised version and didn't play the original (if that's ok!). One quick note I have is that it was hard to get the game focused on the screen on the game page; it felt like I had to manually grab the scrollbar in order to get it right. Other than that (and it might be user error lol), IMO the presentation is excellent with the standouts to me being the audio (music, sound, and its balance) along with the smooth factor of the splash screen and the way the buttons change size when mousing over them. So satisfying!

It took me a few plays to "get it" but I enjoyed this action challenge and how the music suits it. I don't think lack of tutorialization hurts this game, but I do think the mushroom hitboxes are too large. I also keep forgetting what my score was when I get a game over because I'm so surprised when I lose. This surprise also speaks to your game being addicting and fun! Thanks for sharing this nice project.

excellent audio and fun challenge

First impressions: I always enjoy a puzzle platformer and this one is charming. I think the player needs to be taught how to jump before being taught how to make a bubble. I also think you can afford to teach just one new thing per level and not double up on them (for example, a level to teach jumping, a level to teach bubble after it). Your level design shined through regardless - a lot of clever puzzles that I enjoyed figuring out. I do enjoy learning by playing and I think the most satisfying thing in this game is when you start to get a feel for how far your bubble travels out before going up. The least satisfying thing is that level with all the pits that you just have to start over on, that is evil lol.

This game's presentation is strong IMO as it looks and sounds great. There's a little bit of a learning curve with the controls that is not too hard to overcome if you're an experienced PC gamer. The physics feel swimmy but it does suit the theme and isn't hard to get used to either. The way you can "swipe" the line of the tongue through the flies is what truly jumped out to me as a unique and fun experience. I also felt the feeling of relaxation come through with game overs having as relaxing a vibe as the main play mode. The way the music fades out is a nice touch. 

the tongue mechanic is appealing with how you can catch flies by intersecting them with the line made by the tongue! looks splendid too!

add Waffle House as a stage!

thanks, that looks like an interesting discussion and I will refer back to it next time working on a game with devlogs.

awesome, thanks! No, I'm not good or patient enough at it. I also didn't realize that the top and bottom of the screen warped to each other. Cool scene at the end, it makes me want to know more about the world it takes place in.

That was beautiful! I wonder how many endings there are. I enjoyed the music, especially the parts when the shadow shows up.

I remember doing these "bubble puzzles" in school growing up and have been wondering when someone would make a video game featuring them. Nice work, it's very beautiful!

glad to hear you're enjoying it!

is there any longplay footage of this? I’d like to see someone get past the second stage cause i suck at it lol, but it’s fun

the character is so cute I could die

excellent vibes, impeccable art, very hard. I got to hear the looping creepy laughter of someone who scares me. I must play more to experience more.

They've been a lot of fun to come up with! I tried to split the screen up in various ways, try unique wall orientations, and balance a lot of small/easy levels with a few tricky ones. I'm always open for feedback on them. I'm not sure who has tried Prolific mode yet.

That's really hard! I found this from the Most Recent games. I got 6 points as my maximum so far. If you've had friends play, what's the farthest you've seen someone get?

The lack of friction is difficult to deal with but jumping can help which adds some depth and that's cool. I wish dots wouldn't appear so close to the edge and making a make a noise upon getting picked up might be satisfying. Nice work getting the follow behavior to work smoothly and getting a compact game going here! 

MooMoo happy.

is that Dr. House T_T

level 19 "straightjacket" is the most unfair and hard IMO. You need to depend on vertical spawns  and then stick a flower on the outside of the "tubes".

I made a few hard levels too for the "Prolific" mode. Currently there are 44 random levels that can be selected but I'm about to patch in 16 more in v1.01 this weekend :D

(EDIT: this week of the 28th)

wow, your skill has certainly carried over after such a long time! I also found that I could play well after a long time away. I think this game just takes some getting used to and then you can pick it up and put it down any time. I'm glad you enjoyed it - thanks so much for playing and commenting!

Thank you very much, Mark, for playing and commenting! You're right, it's got a high skill floor! It's that old-school kind of design. I added a "Zen" mode in the settings to turn off the timer, for people who want to relax or practice, but didn't advertise it. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and play!

what Smash game? I was expecting Rivals of Aether workshop instead

I appreciate such a quick response! I wasn't concerned about the black bars, but good to know that I can draw in that area now. I might end up doing that. I think I'm getting the hang of all of this now and it's nice to have such good documentation!

I'm finally moving along on another project of mine and dropped Xtend in. It's working great for scaling my game to full screen on Windows. I have one question - I switched  xtend_view.halign  to be set to  va_center. I noticed that this worked to make my game have bars on the left and right in fullscreen instead of just the right side. However my UI buttons, the only objects that employ the Draw GUI event in my project, seem to have not moved in the same way. I have a vague idea of why this is the case, but don't know how to fix it yet, if you have any tips.

Thanks for the kind comments and good feedback! Agent 747 is my oldest game published online. I recently replayed a bit of it myself and agree with your last paragraph. I also find that precision jumping is difficult compared to my later game Solumnoid. 

I'm glad you enjoyed the level design! That's always been one of my favorite pasttimes. I feel like I'm making games as an excuse to make levels half of the time. I grew up making puzzle levels for other games and I think of platform level design like puzzle-making too.

To answer your last question, I've considered making another action platformer but haven't gotten around to it yet. From Agent 747 to the present, my game release history here has been a mix of genres that only sometimes overlap:

• Agent 747 -- GM8 -- Action platformer
• Ghost in the Mainframe -- GM8 -- Action twin-stick shooter
• Spacerslide -- GMS1.2 -- Slider puzzle
• Minesweeper, but with Powerups -- GMS1.2 -- Puzzle replica / redesign
• Solumnoid -- GMS1.2 -- Puzzle platformer
• Chrysanthemum -- GMS2 -- Action puzzle replica / redesign (IN DEVELOPMENT)

I'm nostalgic about the old versions of GameMaker but am enjoying GMS2 now that I've learned how to organize/work efficiently in it. I was lucky enough to get a permanent license before they moved to subscription.

Thank you! Do you also use Game Maker Studio? I like what you're doing over there! It seems like we have been inspired by a similar era of games. I'm working on a replica game right now actually. I think it's a great way to learn. I appreciate your follow and I think your work is impressive too! 

so cool to see this game again, I played it on the Daily Click way back when. I was just organizing my iTunes library and listening to the tunes I grabbed from the game folder and have had in my library for years. Looked up the game and saw people playing the game and I was like... I don't remember all this extra stuff!! So happy to find out it was extended!

these look very nice. They are inspiring me for a game I'm working on, a remake of a very old arcade-style flower-arranging game.

this is very clever. I haven't solved the 2nd level yet but the presentation and concept are cool enough this is probably going to stick in my head and the solution will jump out at me later

super into how the look and feel keeps improving! the shader stuff is inspiring, I've got to learn that myself

nice herobrine reference

the 1st level with the floating number? You have to bounce it in a zigzag pattern from character to character and make it hit the green switch

fun game with interesting levels. Could use an undo function. At the very least for game speed I would prefer something like a button to instantly put the player back in the start position because the falling animation speed adds up when you're falling a lot. I like this style of game though, nice one!