Ellipticats by Hotchmoney

Ellipticats is a 2D physics-based platformer in which you search the galaxy for lost cats. You play as a rover sent by the cat homeworld to retrieve citizens lost in a cat-astrophe of astronomical proportions. Use your wheels and thrusters to hop between planets and reunite a community.
Links
Itch page (Web + All Desktop Platforms)
Opt-outs
Music
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/ellipticats |
Ratings
| Overall | 122th | 3.857⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 19th | 4.095⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 31th | 4.048⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 200th | 3.762⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 313th | 3.714⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 79th | 3.7⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 49th | 4.1⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 9🗳️ | 20🗨️ |
I was a bit ham fisted with the controls at first; it wasn't super obvious what I needed to do. But once I got a feel for it I really enjoyed it! The music really helps build the mood, and the gravity mechanics are weirdly fun for such a simple idea.
I did find certain planets a bit tricky to escape; such as the grey metal one. The "double jump" mechanic wasn't super clear to me for a while, so it was a bit frustrating until I figured it out. You should telegraph this better so it's more clear to the player when they are executing one. It was also pretty tricky to land certain shots as a result; but it was challenging in a fun way.
- concept of using gravity (of some sort, as it didn't seem physically correct) is awesome ... but who cares, it was FUN
- audio is awesome, the music and graphics almost perfectly fit the 2D scheme of the game
- gameplay is great, I didn't master the 'sprint' functionality that well ... so I was getting into outer space all the time
Overally, one of the best entries I've played so far. It almost forces me to try making a clone of this - just because it was so good to play.
Difficult, but fun and had a decent aesthetic. I sent it to a friend of mine and she's apparently still playing it hours later.
Getting to grips with jumping and flinging myself off to the other planets was a nice challenge.
Because the little rover is moving quite fast already I wasn't sure whether I was sprinting or not. Perhaps some little dust cloud or small animation would help signal sprinting?
I love the variety of planets you go to, the different shapes really help keep interest going and not have it feel repetitive.
I had loads of fun with this, great job!!
The presentation of the game was great. Starting on a small planet to figure out the controllers before launching into the actual adventure was a nice touch. The music (opted out possibly because it was found somewhere else) was a nice choice, and added to the atmosphere of the game.
I tend to be a bit more anlytic when it comes to the art of the games (since I'm the artist of ours), and this one, to me, looks like it made the best use of the resources available with the given time constrains. The assets on their own are not fantastic (although I love the design of the planets), but them, combined with the particles and how freely everything moves, look great in tandem.
If you'd like to receive some immediate feedback for this build, it'd be to, I dunno, add some powerful force that pulls the player back to the planets when they jump too far away from the playground. For what was built, I can't really think of much else, since the game accomplishes what it was made to do.
I hope that you decide to expand on this game post-ld. If it were up to my team, we'd port it to android, make a left button to run, and put the right buttons for jumping and diving, and make it a time-based game of collecting cats that appear randomly in that small galaxy. Heck, maybe even randomize the planets. But that's us, and some food for thought for you. If you decide to take other paths with it, this can also become a fun puzzle game, pseudo-platformer, or anything else that you can come up with. Add power ups, hazards, replayability, unique cats, whatever!
This game shows an overflow of potential, so we'd really like to see it go places. If you happen to have a Twitter account, [Whales and Games](https://twitter.com/WhalesAndGames) would be happy to follow you around. We're looking forward to your next projects! :whale:
Sometimes I felt I did not have that much control over the jumping, but other than that, great game!