Carp'e Diem! by Archonthewizard

[raw]
made by Archonthewizard for LD34 (JAM)
**For the web version you can right click to go into full screen. Otherwise, use "space bar" instead of "right-click" to shoot. Use the link below if the embedded version gives you any trouble! It should work in Firefox.

Carp'e Diem is about a little carp who takes on bigger fish by growing his school of friends and learning the power of friendship... or something!

I mostly followed the "Growing" theme. You grow a school a fish large enough to take on even the biggest fish in the sea. I also tipped my hat to the 2-button theme, by only using 2 buttons (not including mouse movement).

All the art and audio assets were bought or open-source. I worked alone in Unity doing the programming and design myself.

I tried my best to make the game self-explanatory so you don't have to read several paragraphs before playing... so much for that idea, eh?

A special thanks to everyone in Twitch who watched my stream the entire Jam. Your feedback and playtesting was invaluable!

Thanks!
I hope you enjoy my game =)

Ratings

Coolness 96% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.98 60
Fun(Jam) 3.87 72
Humor(Jam) 2.78 432
Innovation(Jam) 3.68 155
Mood(Jam) 3.87 105
Theme(Jam) 4.06 186

Feedback

Kakureta
15. Dec 2015 · 03:32 UTC
This is so strange and fun! I love it!
ZONC
15. Dec 2015 · 03:48 UTC
Nice idea. Very realxing ;)
Wandermayer
15. Dec 2015 · 03:53 UTC
relaxing and layed back controlls and mood! Great use of theme and growing school!

web player had error: fatal content error has been detected.
LavWa
15. Dec 2015 · 03:57 UTC
What a nice relaxing game. Great idea, really interesting, the graphics are wow :)
LostTrainDude
15. Dec 2015 · 03:58 UTC
This was a really pleasant experience, "ruined" not even in the slightest by my struggle to survive deep into the sea!

Sometimes the collisions may act a little "funny" but everything else is great, indeed: starting from the mood down to the actual gameplay.

Easy to learn, harder to master as you go (which is perfectly fine by me).

Even if you stated you bought\used "third party" assets, you did a great job in putting them to work in so few days. Congratulations!
WolfkingW
15. Dec 2015 · 04:09 UTC
Wow. Just wow. When I first scrolled through the images for your game, I saw a coelacanth and immediately I was uh, well... hooked. I really, really love what you've done with this game. Carp'e Diem is simple to play, yet offers a good deal of strategy and a good sense of progression. Letting the player choose which fish to adopt into their armada and offering up new fish was a very good decision. Overall, this game felt really polished, and the visuals were stunning when considering the amount of time you had to complete them. My one caveat to the game is that clicking to reassemble your army felt a little unnecessary, as I ended up keeping the left mouse button down the entire time. Each enemy type also kept me on my toes and forced me to revise my strategy, and there were enough enemies and combinations of them to keep me entertained and the game feeling fresh. I genuinely enjoyed playing your game, and I want to congratulate you on a successful Ludum Dare. Best of luck in the judging round!
uvwar
15. Dec 2015 · 04:22 UTC
I was in love with the flocking (my first LD game is a flocking game as well, the reverse of this), but then you had to throw in my favorite fish ever as the final boss. A++
broknecho
15. Dec 2015 · 05:19 UTC
Really great atmosphere. Control was pretty tight. Upgrade system added a lot. Great entry. Lots of fun!
hyperscope
16. Dec 2015 · 02:41 UTC
The most well rounded jam game I've seen yet, amazing work!
AriaMK
16. Dec 2015 · 03:08 UTC
This was simply beautiful. Wow! Pretty simple and fun too :)
kirilllosev
16. Dec 2015 · 03:26 UTC
I really enjoyed the game. The mood is solid, controls and movement of your fish-school are very satisfying, a lot of variations. Well done :)
Eingya
16. Dec 2015 · 03:36 UTC
Nice take on 2d shooters, might be interesting to find non-shooty uses for the fishies, so that they are not just a replacement for bullets. Overall very enjoyable!
crucknuk
16. Dec 2015 · 03:47 UTC
DJ Coelacanth and the fire fish made me laugh :D
Very immersive gameplay. Liked the sonic-like health system that makes the game more relaxing. Animations when you move are very nice (caught myself trying to make fishes swim and dance around the environment).

Great game overall :)
KZdev
16. Dec 2015 · 04:13 UTC
This is a really clever spin on this type of game. I really like it!
deadpixelsociety
16. Dec 2015 · 04:15 UTC
The fish theme did nothing for me, but that's my only complaint here. The graphics were well pieced together from your sources and were nice to look at. The music was soothing, the special fish were varied and interesting in their own way, and the combat was fun. This was a perfect little chill and click game. Great job!
UntitledQ
16. Dec 2015 · 04:34 UTC
Somewhat lengthy middle part and what feels like a neglected one-time ammo idea, but otherwise all-round a very enjoyable experience!
Sosolol261
16. Dec 2015 · 05:27 UTC
The main idea of the game was really innovative and a lot of fun! The only problem might be that the gameplay can get boring really fast since it is technically the same event repeating over and over again.

Nice work! Would love to see this with better graphics and more mechanics.
TheBreakfast
16. Dec 2015 · 05:37 UTC
Amazing music and amazing atmosphere. Gives me warm fuzzy feelings thinking back to Aquatic Ambiance from Donkey Kong Country, with a bit of Pikmin thrown in for good measure. With a bit of polish this could become a full game. The graphics and sound are amazing and it's very fun!

The fish movement is slightly shakey, and I think it might be similar to a problem I had while developing my game. When I used a combo of mouse-based movement (screenpointto) and anticipated velocity for the camera, I had to set the rigidbody "Interpolate" setting to "Extrapolate." This got rid of the issue for the most part.


Overall, this is one of the best games. I was really glad to see you play my game on your show, and I'm really happy I had the chance to play your game too :) Thanks again! Good luck in the competition!
newbeings
16. Dec 2015 · 20:39 UTC
Really well done - great use of different enemy types - good progression.

Awesome music and atmosphere. I feel like this would be a great game for kids (I mean that in the best possible way).

Bravo!
CustomPhase
16. Dec 2015 · 20:42 UTC
Really fun game! Would benefit from healthbars on the fish, in my opinion. Cause i ended up wasting a lot of fish, when enemy was 1 hit away from death. Fish and background props models are great. Music is good.
NirabazGAMES
16. Dec 2015 · 22:42 UTC
Underwater atmosphere is amazing, like this game
bessdlan
16. Dec 2015 · 22:43 UTC
very relaxing and original game *o*
good job ;)
Troma
16. Dec 2015 · 23:26 UTC
Best game ever
YinYin
17. Dec 2015 · 00:30 UTC
Very well done.

The only gripe I have at times is that the camera doesn't pan out far enough showing me things ahead of me (since that's the shooting direction).
NaoisTheGuardian
17. Dec 2015 · 00:33 UTC
As a wise man once said, "Very rewarding murdering fish"
A lot of fun, and perfect mood for the game.
Robber
17. Dec 2015 · 03:00 UTC
sweet game with beatifull graphics..the right mouse button gave me some options for fullscreen in stead of an action in the game in firefox, i used the spacebar.
thecatspajamas
17. Dec 2015 · 07:06 UTC
I still don't know if I understand what makes the player loose fish, or what my reward fish do. I would send out fish to attack and my total number would reduce, as would the number of fish I "have" it took me a while to realize I could go touch the fish again to collect them, but the tiny fish from the beginning. I don't think I could ever get them back. Is there a way to select which fish you send?

I liked the underwater theme, and the music. I wasn't too challenging, and had a good flow.

Thank you for sharing your game.
bazkur98
17. Dec 2015 · 15:27 UTC
Overall a beautiful game. I did have some issues finding the bigger fish sometimes which made it less fun. But overall the design was good and executed pretty well
Drury
18. Dec 2015 · 22:32 UTC
Amazing, I wonder why you didn't include audio category. The music is absolutely topnotch, especially boss music.
MorganLeFay
18. Dec 2015 · 23:50 UTC
That was a really nice game! You choose some great art assets! And the mechanics were also fun
ruthiepee
19. Dec 2015 · 03:09 UTC
Relaxing yet extremely stressful! I can say with confidence that this is the longest I've played a Ludum Dare game. To be honest I almost gave up when the boss started spewing pufferfish-- those things are hard if you didn't get the speed upgrade. Overall this feels more like a finished console game than a jam game. I am ultra impressed with the gameplay-- the flocking, the variation of enemies... OMG what a good game.
gokottastudio
20. Dec 2015 · 18:14 UTC
Great job, if I had ocean sounds would be amazing!
LukeZaz
31. Dec 2015 · 02:32 UTC
Great game - enjoyed every level. Was a little easy, and some fish types (fire in particular) felt a little weak, but that's all I've really got; this game is very well made.
publicidadeba
03. Jan 2016 · 20:37 UTC
Strangely awesome! The water reminded me of Donkey underwater levels. Had a great time with it, You should totally finish it.
Guard13007
03. Jan 2016 · 22:03 UTC
Pretty fun, the boss battle dragged on a bit too much though. I think the only problem with it really is that it seems to be impossible to lose, since you can only truly lose the one-shot fish.