Bellows by TaylorAnderson
BELLOWS is a fast-paced, procedurally-generated action game about escaping the city in a rather...unconventional manner. Use your trusty bellows to avoid crows, rats, and bats on your way to the top, and collect bubbles to make sure you never run out of air.
Music by Grahm Nesbitt
Font by somepx
Music by Grahm Nesbitt
Font by somepx
| Web | http://slimefriend.itch.io/bellows |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=39104 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.77 | 143 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.98 | 74 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.68 | 141 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 4.00 | 211 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.83 | 403 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.65 | 167 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.58 | 242 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.93 | 284 |
That song is gorgeous, and chock full of ennui. It does a lot to build on the "escape from a dingy city" narrative. I love the second part, when the orchestra breaks into the motiff; unfortunately, I rarely last long enough to enjoy it, since it loops. Good motivation!
I really dig the art style too; the monochrome background draws attention to the black and white objects standing out against it. The way all hazards are black with white outs makes for a great, easily-recognized visual cue. I knew to avoid rats the first time I saw them, without instruction. Good game design!
The gameplay feels great too, and the rough steering is a new challenge my brain isn't used to. I'm glad you can recover from hits too; that makes things more forgiving. Though it's subtle, I also love the ability to spam the bellows after I run out of gas, to squeeze just a bit of air out and hover fruitlessly in the air for a few moments, before plummeting down; the way the game recognizes my desperation and characterizes it that way is adorable, and feels great.
Top marks, all around. You guys did great!
The controllers are rather difficult though, but the game itself did become more fun once I got used to it.
1 - Lack of quick turn: If there were a "double tap A" to switch directions, I would find this really fun and challenging. Without it, it feels like the difficult is too cheap. I'm either forced to spend a burst of air so I can be thrust vertically (which may not be an option if there are no bubbles nearby) or I may be forced into an enemy because there's not enough time to steer.
2 - Too random: Some times (3 runs out of 8, I think) I got no bubble until I was on my last "jump".
The music, however, was great and the graphics really cute! :)
Great visuals, great audio, cool gameplay, impressive stuff.
On one playthrough, I don't think I missed any bubbles, but I still died because it was too long between bubbles...
Nicely done, anyway. Should become a pretty mobile game filler-style.
My main gripe with the game is the spacing of the bubbles. They feel too random and near the start, too sparse. It's fine to be challenging, but death due to lack of bubbles feels unfair. By contrast, I enjoyed it when I lost due to a crow collision. Another problem is it's too difficult to control your turns, but this might be more forgivable if the bubbles were more common.
Nonetheless, I found it entertaining. Well done!
Personally, I found the game a little easy, though I see plenty of people talking about the difficulty above me. Maybe I got a good spawn, but I found spacing my puffs helped a lot. Maybe adding faster scrolling for people who rush would even it out a bit there?
The controls were a bit frustrating at times. I think a press left/right to turn and press both to use bellows would be a more intuitive control scheme.
The RNG has also killed me multiple times in the early game by not giving me enough bubbles. (Though whenever I got past the early game, there would be enough bubbles.)
Although I do think this game would benefit from three button controls, overall I gotta give this a some nice ratings.
Good job!
Seriously, though - really fun, strangely addictive game. I could have played for hours.
:D
On the plus side, the graphics & audio were enjoyable and fitting and the instructions were nice and clear.
That said, the graphics are quite good, music is great and the gameplay is very fun (minus the point made in the first paragraph). A clever idea with a pretty good implementation.