LudumData

Maroon by juju

[raw]
made by juju for LD 41 (JAM)

splash.png Maroon is our entry for this Ludum Dare. We tried mixing a platformer and a cute 'em up (remember those?). Not the most far fetched mix-up, but it was fun, and lots of hard, hard work. We tried to make the game as cute as possible, though remote collaboration brought new challenges we weren't used to.

BUG FIXES: -Ship no longer slides when landed. -Splash screen now works on HTML5 version. -Music now works. -Ship/Player no longer sticks to the ceiling when respawning. -Ghosts now back away when the player dies, to avoid the infinite death loop. -Windows version now available. Recommended.

KNOWN ISSUES: -Parallax scrolling is all crazy on level 3. The sun still scrolls. This only affects HTML5 version.

Credits:

🔹Juliano Reis (@juju) - Programming, Game Design, Level Design

Twitter: twitter.com/djudjubs

itch.io: jujubs.itch.io

🔹Vitória Steckel (@vittusteckel) - Art, Animation, Game Design

instagram.com/vittusteckel/

twitter.com/VittuSteckel

vittusteckel.deviantart.com/

🔹Pietro Gama - Art, Sound

instagram.com/onryou_/

twitter.com/190496P

🔹Gabriel Krieger - Additional Art, Support

instagram.com/krigs998/

All feedback is appreciated!

HTML5 (web) https://jujubs.itch.io/maroon
Windows https://jujubs.itch.io/maroon
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/maroon

Ratings

Overall 1076th 2.845⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 995th 2.805⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1102th 2.551⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Theme 918th 3.085⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 660th 3.366⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Humor 567th 2.909⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 811th 3.013⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Given 45🗳️ 32🗨️

Feedback

La mecanique du plastique
24. Apr 2018 · 12:37 UTC
Congratulations for finishing up ! You pretty much managed to get those two genres working, and that's surprisingly hard ! There is some bugs though, like the saucer reappearing on top of the screen (when the player is also reappearing) and so being unreachable, or the player reappearing and dying endlessly behind a pile of spooky ghosts :)
🎤 juju
24. Apr 2018 · 12:52 UTC
@La-mecanique-du-plastique Thanks for the feedback! I got both of those bugs during testing. You can get the ship back by getting it offscreen, though it is a pain. As for the ghosts, they were supposed to die when they hit the "puff" effect, but that just doesn't work and I'm not sure why :(
Solnak
24. Apr 2018 · 16:44 UTC
Good work on the accumulation of background layer, it is way more beautiful than a simple scrolling image. The ship seems to be more effecitve than walking though, great job overall !
🎤 juju
24. Apr 2018 · 16:49 UTC
@Solnak thanks for the feedback. That was the general idea, though with time I would like to have added more platforming elements, maybe enemies to jump over or something. Also, the ship was not supposed to "walk" on the floor, but I couldn't figure out a way to do that without messing up the jump.
RustyMonky
24. Apr 2018 · 16:53 UTC
The "cute-em-up" combination seems really unique to me, and the game is definitely cute. I also encountered the endlessly dying to ghosts bug, although I got a kick out of it. Good artwork and sound effects for the game. I'd suggest adding some looping music in the background. Good work!
🎤 juju
24. Apr 2018 · 17:43 UTC
@RustyMonky Thanks for the feedback. We actually had music in an earlier version, but it started glitching, so I turned it off. I'll be fixing this (along some other bugs) later today. Feel free to give it another go, then!
Yetman
24. Apr 2018 · 19:33 UTC
This is a really nice and unique mix. I played till I got stuck in an endless revival death loop behind 2 ghosts. It is also hard to kill bees since their shot frequency is too high. Otherwise, it is well done. Good job.
🎤 juju
24. Apr 2018 · 22:39 UTC
@Yetman Thanks for the feedback. I just uploaded a new version in which I fixed the infinite death/respawn bug, among other things. Let me know what you think if you feel like playing it again :)
Mr ChocolateSalmon
25. Apr 2018 · 00:52 UTC
Hey it was good. I think like the others I was experiencing the same glitch where my character would respawn right on top of an enemy, dying straight away. But the game was smooth, and I loved the graphic style. Good job :)
blobo
25. Apr 2018 · 01:00 UTC
Oh my lord this is adorable. I love the animation on the character, you guys did fantastic.
nina
25. Apr 2018 · 02:31 UTC
The graphics are cute but it's too easy to get stuck in a respawn loop. Good job!
FredricW
25. Apr 2018 · 07:12 UTC
I think you have done a good job graphic wise with the time given. I'm glad you opted for the parallax effect, it gives so much more movement and depth than just a simple backdrop. Definitely worth the effort.

The animations lifts the overall feel of the game. The flying carrot animation and movement is just awesome and reminds me of enemies on the NES era.
I can't say I'm a super fan of the flappy bird controls when it comes to flying the ship, but at the same time it adds some difficulty and prolongs the game time.

Always nice to see a female protagonist, we went in the same direction with our game, but in a completely different genre.
🎤 juju
25. Apr 2018 · 12:22 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, everyone <3
@blobo It was our first time making animations, so that really means a lot!

@nina I patched the game yesterday to make it a little more fair. Bees are easier to go around and shoot in the back, but now you have a better chance even if you die near them. Ghosts can no longer trap you, though. Let me know if you give it another go, please :D

@FredricW Thanks again for the feedback. Those animations were also a pain to implement. The carrot has three states, for instance, and figuring out the perfect timing was a lot of trial and error. Im generally not a fan of anything "flappy" either, but I felt it was necessary to make our platformer side of the game work out. It's a ship that jumps, after all. I just wish I had more time to make platforming levels and enemies with it.
ROBOWARRIOR1982
25. Apr 2018 · 12:57 UTC
This game is nice and cute, a mix between flappy bird and an old-fashioned platformer, with slightly more finished graphics, and the modified small bugs of respawn will make an excellent platformer for children (cute game)! PS:Love Music and arts.
freso
25. Apr 2018 · 12:59 UTC
Cuteness overload indeed. :D Also nice music.
Was it fun? well... who cares. :) Finished the game quite easily by keeping ctrl pressed and just flappy birding it to the end.
NerdyTea
25. Apr 2018 · 13:06 UTC
I like the art and concept, but I did softlock the game on the second level when I got caught on a bee and kept dying.
🎤 juju
25. Apr 2018 · 13:21 UTC
@ROBOWARRIOR1982 and @NerdyTea I just uploaded a patch to make it harder to softlock the game. The ship object was already supposed to kill a bee in contact, but I changed it to the smoke, which has a longer animation cycle. It seems to be working now. Thanks for the feedback!

@freso It is indeed quite easy to reach the end by just "flying above the level", like in Super Mario World. However, you won't be scoring any points this way ;~;
Getting all the coins can be quite a challenge, since bees tend to provide covering fire for the carrots, and once those reach your x position on the screen, they're gone. Either way, thanks for playing, and I'm glad everyone seems to be liking the game :D
RockhopperGames
25. Apr 2018 · 13:27 UTC
Thanks for making such a cute game! There's never enough cute games out there, so I'm glad you chose to focus on that!
🎤 juju
25. Apr 2018 · 13:44 UTC
@RockhopperGames I'm glad you appreciate it. It's very hard to make something look pretty in just 72h. Our artists, @Vittusteckel and Pietro slept very little in those days to pull it off.
Toge
25. Apr 2018 · 17:56 UTC
Lovely entry, liked the light hearted feel & mood, the pitched up music got me really kiddy inside! Thank goodness for respawning, it would've been a really hard game without it! Character art was pretty great but the level background was a bit too mspainty for me :)
🎤 juju
25. Apr 2018 · 18:07 UTC
I'm glad you enjoyed it, @Toge :D
The backgrounds were finished in the nick of time, and it shows, but we wanted to keep it because it feels nice when the screen moves. Thanks for the feedback!
HPMNK
27. Apr 2018 · 02:43 UTC
This game is very cute :D Loved the atmosphere
Kristian David
27. Apr 2018 · 03:54 UTC
This is a cute entry. I love the graphics and the music of the game. Although I wish that the ship moves faster when on the ground. Overall good job on this game!
paulhocker
27. Apr 2018 · 05:18 UTC
this was lots of fun and you should be proud of the effort - really liked the concept of flying the spaceship to get over large areas - great work
Yetman
28. Apr 2018 · 12:04 UTC
@juju I played it again today and I was able to finish it this time. Nice job, it is a really cute and fun experience.
🎤 juju
28. Apr 2018 · 22:22 UTC
@paulhocker and @HPMNK thank you for your feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game :)

@Kristian David Thanks for the feedback! The ship was made slower on the ground because it was making the game too easy, and also there were supposed to be some more uses for the player on foot (think of switches, etc), so the idea was to make the ship non-optimal for ground movement. The very first release had it "sliding" over ground, and it looked really bad :P Otherwise, I'm glad you enjoyed the game.

@Yetman Thanks for giving it another shot :D
gamebuilder
29. Apr 2018 · 20:55 UTC
She's definitely cute.
pRoFiT
04. May 2018 · 05:41 UTC
okay that was fun. space ship platformer mix. yah maybe some weapons on foot? a gun? i was like ctrl to shoot isn't doing anything. then i got into the ship :)