Step-Squish by NumNumDude

[raw]
made by NumNumDude for LD 38 (COMPO)

A small game for Ludum Dare 38

A simple game taking place of a dining room floor. You play as a small ant trying to gather crumbs to eat for dinner with their family, while avoiding being stepped on by people. I developed this much faster than I thought, I should have gotten more ambitious with this like my first Ludum Dare. Hope you like this though, I enjoyed making it.

screenshot.png

Instructions:

Use the arrow keys to move.

Grab crumbs.

Don't get squished.

Collect 20 crumbs to win.

Ratings

Overall 389th 3.04⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 267th 3.16⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 426th 2.64⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 103th 3.84⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 333th 3⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 310th 2.72⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 96th 3.333⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 355th 2.87⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 20🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Querk
30. Apr 2017 · 08:24 UTC
Very simple but addictive, the graphics are cool, but the sounds after a few minutes starts to irritate me, GOOD GAME :D (sorry for my bad english)
Bendev_Games
01. May 2017 · 19:57 UTC
Simple, fun and polished game. I think you could make the feet come more randomly, the times i played it seems it always did the same thing so it was easy for me to know what to do.

Great game overall, congratulations!
Epicsoft
01. May 2017 · 22:01 UTC
Simple,fun,cool. Good idea. Love this
abhimonk
01. May 2017 · 23:14 UTC
Great simple idea. I found it pretty tough, but satisfying to collect crumbs. While it could use some animations for the ant, I still liked the core of the game. Very simple but very engaging. Predicting where the foot was going to be and outplaying it actually felt really good. I like the death screen and the art style is nice and consistent. Good work.
KunoNoOni
01. May 2017 · 23:31 UTC
Its a cute little game. It has a simple mechanic and it does it very well. This is exactly the sort of game you want to make in a game jam. Good Job!
tweedle
01. May 2017 · 23:58 UTC
I wanted some sweet ant ninja moves :smile: after I figured out to stay on the right my ant* life got a lot easier haha, I think just a lil leeway on the foot hitboxes woulda been nice and some tunes in the background would have quickly kicked this up a notch. well done tho, congrats!
eddynardo
02. May 2017 · 00:36 UTC
What, What ???
![AntFinished.JPG](///raw/493/z/376b.jpg)
I wanted to play some more and get a high score. This was addictive. Just ramp up the difficulty over time and add an online scoreboard. Good job !!!
Scornz
02. May 2017 · 00:58 UTC
"Bummer d00d", awesome game, love the gameover text. Follows the theme to a creative extent, nice job!
ruthiepee
02. May 2017 · 01:16 UTC
Cute, simple game. It could benefit from some enemies that are a little less predictable; if you stand about 3/4 of the way to the right, you'll basically never be hit. I like the variety of the feet sprites, haha.
CyManSAP
02. May 2017 · 01:17 UTC
Neat, although I wish there was a bit more to it. Became routine after a while.
Random-storykeeper
02. May 2017 · 06:46 UTC
Hahaha! I like the concept. The art was cute; I love the look of the ants and the different varieties of feet that stomped by. The text was pretty amusing and it seemed like you were having fun with that. The sounds were also good and satisfying, especially that win one.

Couple of issues:

- The ant can die just by touching the part of a foot and not when actually being stomped. Which, I dunno, in a *realistic* perspective, makes no sense. I did find myself losing a lot because I was touching the side and wasn't even under it. You did allow plenty of space so that this wasn't too huge of a problem, but I imagine it would be if you were to continue this and the feet stomped by faster, etc, then it would be frustrating for players to have clipped the sides but not actually get stomped on (and die in the process).
- I have to admit, I don't think I won the game the intentional way. Since it's way easier to dodge just after the foot stomps down, I lingered more to the right and stayed there for the majority of the game. The crumbs that fell to the left stayed there permanently, so I waited in between stomps to collect all the 8 or so crumbs I had remaining in one fell swoop. I suppose, to make this more of a challenge, crumbs can disappear in between waves, or maybe the feet stomping down can move the crumbs around? Those are two things you can consider.

The game was worth playing for a few minutes of enjoyment, and is generally well put together for a 48 hour Compo entry.
Vivoubos
04. May 2017 · 22:00 UTC
Hey! Nice little game. Easy (if you stay at the right for 20 item to fall).
Maybe you can improve collision box, and create a little background music.
The antr is so cuteeeeee!! I love it ^^
Chaseplays
06. May 2017 · 03:50 UTC
This was *fun*, and I mean that! The graphics weren't perfect, but it was *fun*. The gameplay was simple and even got repetitive, but that sort of simple repetition became addicting and *fun*. If you made it a bit more difficult and varied, this could make a great mobile app (using scores and not an ending). This was great!
TBaudon
17. May 2017 · 00:45 UTC
Cool interpretation of the theme, nice !
Moski
17. May 2017 · 01:27 UTC
Despite the looks, the simple sound effects, the lack of music and the small animation after getting stomped made for a very retro-like experience. While possibly unintended, it made the game more enjoyable, so there's that.

I like to dig more on the artistic side of the games (since I am our team's artist), and I must say, I really liked the design of the ant and its small animation. As I said before, it felt very retro, so it went well with this simple game. Sometimes, too much detail can be a negative, so keeping things simple on a simple experience was the right way to go.

As for the game itself, well, it's nothing that hasn't been done before. There's no annoying bugs nor unnecesary material on the game though, so, face value, it shows all there is to see very soon, without clunky interfaces or things that get on the way. Mechanically, it feels right.

If I could give you some feedback with which to improve this game in the future, it would be to either remove jumping or give it a reason to exist. Since the feet come from above, jumping doesn't really do much. Heck, I found some fun in trying to jump over the crumbs before picking them up, or make it so more crumbs fall, and a bit slower, and that give you points if you catch them in the air. I dunno. Go nuts with the additions and balancing.

Got to say, this game is simple, yes, but it doesn't try to be something it's not nor adds anything that detract from the experience. It's not particularly outstanding, but, well, depending on how you decide to tackle it, you could keep adding to it until it becomes it's own thing. I personally would like to see more of this, since it's the kind of games I like to play on my mobile device.

If you happen to have a Twitter account, please share it with us, [Whales and Games](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames). We're following the people we've commented on, since we like to stay in contact with people that like participating in gamejams like us. We'd like to see what you can come up with in future entries! :whale:
marbles
17. May 2017 · 01:30 UTC
fun game hahaha
Nicolas P Leme
17. May 2017 · 01:30 UTC
Good entry! I agree with some comments above, the foot should be a little more random and the sound should be a little more diverse, altering the pitch is a great alternative to do that.
Izunah
17. May 2017 · 01:34 UTC
Simple, straight-forward, cutsy, and frustrating. I didn't end up playing too long because of the hitboxes in the game, I saw it mentioned in another comment but you can die by just touching a foot even on it's way up, or even if nicks a corner of your hitbox. I found myself in a lot of positions where it seemed near impossible to escape the foot (I realize I was also quite bad at the the game.) Good effort, and @ me if you polish up the game a bit and I'll play it again for fun.
Archimagus
17. May 2017 · 01:45 UTC
Simple neat game, and has a complete game loop, which is a lot more than a lot of games on here. It's also really hard. It took me probably 6 tries before I even got 1 crumb. Just getting nicked by a foot is enough to kill.
Joshua Stone
17. May 2017 · 01:53 UTC
Haha, simple but decent. The collision logic could use some work though! :grin:

And let me know what you think of my game!
Yetikatt
17. May 2017 · 02:23 UTC
Good entry. Honestly just the thought of people walking along like that made me laugh, so bonus points for the humor category. I think it could've been even better if you let it speed up (both the ants and the feet progressively) as it would've been nice to see how far I could get. But it was a happy ending though :) Great Job.
Yetikatt
17. May 2017 · 02:23 UTC
Good entry. Honestly just the thought of people walking along like that made me laugh, so bonus points for the humor category. I think it could've been even better if you let it speed up (both the ants and the feet progressively) as it would've been nice to see how far I could get. But it was a happy ending though :) Great Job.
Geckoo1337
17. May 2017 · 05:29 UTC
Simple. Cute. Addictive. Well done ++
Moonleaf
17. May 2017 · 07:38 UTC
Nice little game. Very coherent. I found that there's a winning strategy to it (stay in the middle of the screen and move to the foot) but it was still fun to figure it out.
pascalman
17. May 2017 · 08:43 UTC
Simple and funny, i like it!