Whack a Mole by Tero Pulkkinen

[raw]
made by Tero Pulkkinen for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

whack<em>a</em>mole.png

whack<em>a</em>mole2.png

Controls: a + d + space

(The game is in jam instead of compo because engine source code isn't available to general public)

Ratings

Overall 1641th 2.471⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1572th 2.412⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1273th 2.857⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1250th 3.129⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1504th 1.8⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1096th 1.448⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 872th 2.597⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1512th 2.258⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 33🗳️ 37🗨️

Feedback

Some45bucks
03. Oct 2020 · 23:25 UTC
how do you play?
Sausty
04. Oct 2020 · 09:30 UTC
Nice game! The moles are so fast though O__O
nil4k
04. Oct 2020 · 23:49 UTC
Seems I can just walk off into the air above the moles and hold a key to hit them.. player is too slow to get them when they climb up an alternate platform.
BradyG
04. Oct 2020 · 23:50 UTC
I definitely didn't expect this kindof idea given the theme, so good innovationg in my opinion! The only thing that really caught me off guard was that I had no idea the moles would go so much faster vertically. Otherwise I like it!
FussenKuh
04. Oct 2020 · 23:52 UTC
Interesting idea. With a bit more polish, it seems like this could be a rather fun time-killer
Engired
05. Oct 2020 · 00:55 UTC
The player needs a bit of a speed boost, but it seems like it could be interesting.
Spiderhead20
05. Oct 2020 · 01:12 UTC
It's an interesting way to sitck with the theme of loops, it feels satisfying to smash those creatures, maybe having a deadline by losing if you miss too many of them would add another layer to the gameplay.
Ausstein
05. Oct 2020 · 01:12 UTC
What the *** did I just play :D

It definetly had a giant loop tho!
neonjeff
05. Oct 2020 · 02:35 UTC
I wacked many moles. I really like the particle explosions!
Matt Swieboda
05. Oct 2020 · 07:02 UTC
I liked the particle explosions too! Wish I could reach those speedy vertical moles a little easier, and maybe have them disappear once we can't reach them? All around cool idea though.
Iluvatar
05. Oct 2020 · 09:33 UTC
The gameplay was more engaging than I expected. The pace is a bit oldschool-ish which is a good thing. I kinda had that vibe of playing some arcade game from 1982 :)
udo
05. Oct 2020 · 09:59 UTC
As usual, I like your take on the theme :smile: I especially enjoyed the mole faces and the splattery mole death animation. I think when a mole escapes, the player should lose life points or something, that way the highscore could be more meaningful.
MorpheusZero
05. Oct 2020 · 12:16 UTC
I really liked the particle effect when you smack one of them. Maybe some gravity for the player if you walk off the platform and fall off? Some sound effects for the smack part would have been nice too. Good job otherwise!
🎤 Tero Pulkkinen
05. Oct 2020 · 12:27 UTC
@morpheuszero sorry about not providing sounds. I have it implemented in the game, but it doesnt work in emscripten/webgl build because of some sharedarraybuffer issues, basically it crashes on sound playing code because of that issue. pthreads support requires sharedarraybuffer, but that doesnt work with sdl mixer. so it's a compability problem between two separate pieces of the code
newbieDev
05. Oct 2020 · 15:18 UTC
Moles were definitely faster than expected!!! Great game though
DMac
05. Oct 2020 · 20:14 UTC
This is pretty creative, I like the idea of seeing the internals of the whack a mole machine. Took a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but after I understood the machine it was pretty fun.
MikeSalyh
05. Oct 2020 · 23:12 UTC
That wasn't what I epxected when I saw the word "Whack a mole". Really enjoyed the particle FX, super satisfying to explode the moles. They were pretty quick though, and the guy wasn't always able to reach them in time. Fun concept.
🎤 Tero Pulkkinen
06. Oct 2020 · 08:34 UTC
looks like I got audio working now. \O/
spacecadet
06. Oct 2020 · 09:45 UTC
Nice interpretation of the theme. Some kind of winning/losing mechanism would add more to it (for example time limit or if too many moles escape). I'd suggest also to prevent the player to move off screen and to the mole wheel if that is not the intention. Awesome particle effects!
Noam Blei
06. Oct 2020 · 22:47 UTC
I loved the game's name HAHAHA
Toulou
07. Oct 2020 · 12:00 UTC
I have to say, despite its basic premise and simple graphics, it is weirdly fun to play. I enjoyed playing it for a while, even though the moles spawned too slowly for me. It is frustrating to wait for a mole to come in and do nothing for a while.
Unicornfrog
08. Oct 2020 · 00:12 UTC
Nice dev stack... Creating a game in c ++ is not easy.

I didn't quite understand how the game ends ... = /
aplite
10. Oct 2020 · 03:21 UTC
The concept has potential to be a fun one-touch game. It is slightly frustrating that moles can get by due to timing and the player has no way to stop them. As others mentioned the vertical speed on the moles increases the challenge of being able to stop multiple moles within a moments of each other nearly impossible.
commanderstitch
11. Oct 2020 · 20:40 UTC
I think i won this. It runs fast. I couldn't be stopped. I chopped all of them.
Ava Skoog
13. Oct 2020 · 14:46 UTC
Always cool to see a custom engine! Cute little moles, remind me of the coal creatures in Spirited Away. 👀 Was a bit hard to whack 'em sometimes when more than one charged at the same time, but a good challenge to try and manage them 😅 Cover art is a nice touch!
thesnide
15. Oct 2020 · 13:21 UTC
Nice take on the theme. But the very small collision box makes it super hard, and ruins the fun for casual gamers. Else than that, nice one!
Omar 14
17. Oct 2020 · 22:42 UTC
nice game, i think you should work more on the graphic side maybe pixelate it and you should make the first mole come a bit faster other than that it's a nice one.