Duck Guardian by mahalis

[raw]
made by mahalis for LD 40 (COMPO)

Screenshot

Keep your lovable but rowdy siblings safe. Nudge them towards the center of the circle, or quack to call them to you, but be careful—if too many of them escape, your guardianship is up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsW55pQFUkM


Made in 48 hours using Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, GarageBand, Voice Memos (guess whose quacks those are), and a sock-monkey squeaky toy (ditto).

This is my seventh Ludum Dare entry, but only my second 3D one; I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Give it a try, and let me know how far you get—my all-time high score is only around 350.

Ratings

Overall 55th 3.955⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 87th 3.852⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 90th 3.744⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Theme 40th 4.216⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 6th 4.466⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 24th 4.047⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Humor 19th 4.091⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Mood 24th 4.012⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Given 70🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

valkyrie
04. Dec 2017 · 10:42 UTC
The squeaks are absolutely perfect. Dunno about that quack though ;) My high score is 410.
Patrick D
04. Dec 2017 · 15:43 UTC
Is it wrong that I enjoyed pushing the ducklings off the level more than herding them? Great game.
kkneville
04. Dec 2017 · 15:58 UTC
I love the graphics!! I was imaging a game like this with sheep but don't have the skills to build it yet. Love it!
Tad
04. Dec 2017 · 15:59 UTC
I absolutely adore this!

Brilliantly-well made and absolutely delightful!
Arputikos
04. Dec 2017 · 16:05 UTC
Absolutely brilliant graphics!
pkenney
05. Dec 2017 · 05:14 UTC
Looks and sounds fantastic! I also enjoyed the controls, and the way I could zoom around and then stop to apply a gentle nudge. The cool part about that was how I often created worse problems than I solved and things would get out of control!

Then I started abusing the heck out of the quack feature and basically playing it Katamari style, traveling around the edges as a huge blob of ducks!

Nice entry with style and some interesting gameplay.
SadColor
05. Dec 2017 · 05:45 UTC
I love it!! Ridiculously cute.

...I wish I had more to say but it's pretty much perfect. I did end up playing as a katamari of ducks like the person above me though.
Gus the Shark
05. Dec 2017 · 06:05 UTC
Dude, great work with this game, gotta give it 5 stars in Graphics, Audio, Humor, Innovation. Quack to begin? :grin: I found an exploit though, if you keep quacking like crazy you never lose. The duck sounds will drive you crazy though, haha. I suggest adding a cooldown to the quack.
Blueman
07. Dec 2017 · 04:13 UTC
This was really fun to play. I wish it was controllable with the keyboard as the mouse felt inconsistent at times. The graphics were great, and the game worked perfectly as far as I could tell.
Cozy Bear
07. Dec 2017 · 04:38 UTC
Great submission. Looks like you really enjoyed working on this
lawzy93
07. Dec 2017 · 04:47 UTC
Very fun game to play. Discovered near constant quacking seems to work well, so maybe the power of the quack could be a bit more balanced. Found that it didn't really matter what I did I could never get past level 6. Definitely a case of the more you have the worse it is.
alottabit
07. Dec 2017 · 04:51 UTC
This was hilarious. I think it's a great sign when you so much enjoyment out of simple things like quacking a duck. Great visuals and music as well - all the pieces worked well together, and it's a really polished experience for a 48 jam.
Nillard
07. Dec 2017 · 05:18 UTC
Got to level 12 and only stopped because I had a pizza in the oven... Love the graphics, theme, everything really. As the others above said, the katamari of ducks technique works a bit too well.

Wenk.
cogcomp
07. Dec 2017 · 05:53 UTC
Great lighting and duck models! Well done!
Jupiter_Hadley
07. Dec 2017 · 15:06 UTC
Lovely graphics, cute and well made game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yel2Ap19z6s
gwinnell
07. Dec 2017 · 18:49 UTC
Quack quack! :duck: ( Really good 3d style! )
velvetlobster
08. Dec 2017 · 00:43 UTC
Really beautiful game! I love everything here! Its kinda tough, but also kinda relaxing
professor
08. Dec 2017 · 04:37 UTC
I sent a few siblings flying out of the tub! Great game -- thanks for sharing.
BelowParallel_Ian
08. Dec 2017 · 04:40 UTC
For a small game, this is so demanding on my computer that it lags too much to play effectively.

Even so, great work. The graphics and sfx are beautiful. The gameplay isn't anything exciting, but it's fun enough. Well done.
DrunkardWolf
08. Dec 2017 · 11:44 UTC
Loving the style, art work and audio is great. Very fun entry :D
paulhocker
08. Dec 2017 · 20:36 UTC
quack - wow such a simple game but really fun to play - awesome
🎤 mahalis
09. Dec 2017 · 02:04 UTC
Thanks so much for the feedback, everybody! I totally should have fixed the duck-katamari thing, but oh well :-)
Lukesta
09. Dec 2017 · 15:02 UTC
The quack feature made this too easy, but playing without it was incredibly fun and addicting. The controls felt smooth and the (physics??) fair. The rubber ducky's look cute too this is one of my favorite games so far.
nikchernyakov
09. Dec 2017 · 18:10 UTC
Oh, I love this style and theme entry. Fantastic graphic and funny sounds!
Billeclipse
09. Dec 2017 · 18:38 UTC
I think its one of the best compo and for sure the best unreal entry i have seen so far! The "quack" ability its a little overpower at this stage cause its unlimited and you can spam it and stay at the middle of the circle at all time, maybe a cooldown can fix it :D Overall i love this little game and especially the aesthetics and the movement of the duck, really great use of the engine :D Good work and hope to see more from you :D
shinyogre
09. Dec 2017 · 19:07 UTC
The quacking got real old real fast. Reduce the effectiveness of the quaking, or make the response from the siblings more variable.
shrapx
09. Dec 2017 · 20:47 UTC
very nice 3d game, fun sound effect and tough to get far. I got to level 4 with over 400 points but because i clicked too much i didnt see the final score at 2 attempts ._.
JorgeGameDev
10. Dec 2017 · 03:00 UTC
![2017-12-10 02H41M18.jpg](///raw/e5/z/e687.jpg)

My friends always ask me why I carry a Rubber Duck with me every single day. I was never able to explain them properly why. Was it because I'm a programmer and feel the need to carry a Rubber Duck? Was it the satisfaction of squeaky noises left by the toy? Or was it simply love at first sight? For all of those questions, I feel like this game right here pretty much defines all of the charm there is with Rubber Ducks.

I had a whale of a time with it and let me tell you that this is one amazing and quite impressive _Compo_ entry! Everything, from the gameplay, to the graphics and even the audio felt top-notch and carefully crafted. The only smaller issue that I can really point out is, like other comments have said, that you can use the _Quacking_ ability to an insane level and pretty much make a agglomerate of ducks. Maybe, under all those ducks, an even more powerful duck is rising? Who knows. I did get up to 2500 points thanks to it though.

As a suggestion for the future in case you plan to do a post-compo version, I'd suggest increasing the difficulty curve of the game a bit more beyond simply adding a cool down for the quacking. Maybe make it so the circle moves around the sink as you get into later levels, forcing you to manage your movement and the position of the ducks together with you? Just a suggestion, as I've really had a great time with it and can't think of anything more to perfect the formula!

[In behalf of our team](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames), the only thing I can really say is... QUACKERS! Thank you for this duck-filled experience! :duck:
maybe
11. Dec 2017 · 00:45 UTC
I got to level 6 and the game gets laggy at this point.
The sound effect of the ducklings gets a little annoying as well

Really cool game, it just needs some new mechanic to keep the fun going even at higher levels =D

![Screenshot_24.png](///raw/607/2/z/e761.png)
xclementx
11. Dec 2017 · 15:15 UTC
Beautiful game ! And very addictive. Well done. :smiley:
hiki911
13. Dec 2017 · 21:20 UTC
Wow, that was something. Really enjoyed your game
Tom Panton
19. Dec 2017 · 22:04 UTC
Really lovely game, hands down my favourite art style I've seen on here so far. A lot of fun, and I found it pretty amusing whenever I accidentally sent one of the poor ducks flying out of the water :D Great job!
ambi
28. Dec 2017 · 10:15 UTC
Seems you can just spam quack and keep winning. Maybe a cooldown? The graphics and the audio are really good.