Soak 'Em Out by Cruise Elroy

[raw]
made by Cruise Elroy for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

screenie4.png screenie3.png

It's raining cats and dogs out there... or should we say "raining ON cats and dogs"?

Overview

Soak 'Em Out is an endless score attack game that takes heavy influence from the Game & Watch Gallery series. You play as Tina, a cat trying to catch a bus that unfortunately is taking an unusually long time to arrive. To make matters worse, a big storm is brewing! With no true shelter nearby and only an umbrella to take cover with, how long are you able to delay the inevitable before getting soaked out?

Controls

Move: WASD or Arrow Keys

Toggle Umbrella Position: Space Bar, Z, or X

Tips

  • Deflect droplets to delay the storm. If a droplet hits the ground, the precipitation meter will fill up faster.
  • Waterfalls cannot be blocked by any means. They have to be avoided.
  • After certain point thresholds, a sunflower seed will appear. Get it to the pot and something good will happen!

Ratings

Overall 3th 4.344⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Fun 9th 4.271⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 136th 3.708⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Theme 131th 3.99⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 4th 4.625⭐ 50🧑‍⚖️
Audio 2th 4.457⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Humor 49th 3.894⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Mood 18th 4.213⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

Dan Livings
04. Apr 2022 · 14:21 UTC
Very polished - cute art style complemented by the music and sound effects. Nice difficulty progression as well. When I found out that I could still move while blocking the cars' splashes I did a lot better at the faster parts.

Great work.
sirJupitron
04. Apr 2022 · 15:59 UTC
Hi!
Found the game on the frontpage of Newgrounds! Congrats!
Amazing style, really sets the mood as a Nes game, incredible.
Addictive and fun, music is perfect.
My score: 157
LDJam user 281643
04. Apr 2022 · 16:15 UTC
Very polished and well-made game!
LDJam user 221199
04. Apr 2022 · 16:16 UTC
This is such a great game. I love how retro it is! Great Job!
chilljams
04. Apr 2022 · 16:16 UTC
Excellent work. The art, music, & presentation overall is very well-made, & the gameplay of avoiding water is fun & engaging. Great job.
Defrag
04. Apr 2022 · 16:18 UTC
Spot on for a retro game with the theme. Felt very complete. Nice chiptunes and NES-style graphics. Gameplay was intuitive yet challenging. Nice work!
Yamzho
04. Apr 2022 · 16:20 UTC
Excellent game ! Very polished, nice gameplay, balanced difficulty progression. Outstanding work for a compo ! WELL DONE !
LDJam user 259213
04. Apr 2022 · 16:21 UTC
nice, clean game. i really like the music
BubakGames
04. Apr 2022 · 16:21 UTC
Amazing game with simple but very addictive mechanics. I really like how soundtrack is faster and faster with raising difficulty.
BrettSchiff
04. Apr 2022 · 16:22 UTC
Super well arted and animated!

Love the simple control scheme and gameplay feedback via art and sound, so it's easy to understand without a big text wall!

Great example of how to scope a ludum dare game and then knock it out of the park with polish!
benskca
04. Apr 2022 · 16:41 UTC
The art and music are beautiful and mesh together perfectly to give the game a great overall style! The music's gonna be playing in my head next time I'm waiting for the bus :smile:
Trev3lyan
04. Apr 2022 · 16:46 UTC
I'm impressed by all the art in this game. Very polished.
LarsDu
04. Apr 2022 · 19:36 UTC
Incredibly well polished and atmospheric.
MikoziQ
04. Apr 2022 · 21:43 UTC
Got almost to 100 droplets!

Pros:

- Great and addictive gameplay loop
- Clear objectives that you learn from try and error (not in a bad way!)
- Great design for the level and the actual idea behind it (Meow!)
- That being said, I'm a sucker for pixel art anyway...
- Color palette feels really warm and enjoying, even though the game is about a very rainy day. Great achievement here
- Nicely done difficulty steepness
- Great visual/audio sound ques for incoming danger
- Soundtrack and music greatly complements the gameplay

Cons:

- I believe the car hitbox is rather unfair, but maybe it's just me not understanding the flow of it fully. Sometimes, I put the umbrella when car is already on screen and then it's 50/50 whether I get a penalty or not.

I loved it overall. A very solid and well-scoped entry. Excellent job!
Ossi
04. Apr 2022 · 22:43 UTC
Everything about this game is great! The art is so good and the music is incredibly catchy! The retro throwback to Game & Watch is so great and it honestly makes me inspired to try making a game like this in the future. You really did a fantastic job on this! I love it!
foxwater
04. Apr 2022 · 23:44 UTC
Great pixel art, especially the cat and the color selection! The music fit nicely and the gameplay (while simple) was super fun!
ManEggAdverureMan
05. Apr 2022 · 00:23 UTC
Love the art,
Love the Music & Sounds,
Love the gameplay.
Loved how actions would overlap assuring the incoming storm and preventing the game from being too easy.
LDJam user 235388
05. Apr 2022 · 01:28 UTC
Got to 419! Great stuff. Movement feels great.
Sheol
05. Apr 2022 · 01:32 UTC
Love everything about this game! The sounds, art and design were all very well-thought out! Such a polished game! I haven't been able to get the sunflower seed into the pot yet but overall I had a lot of fun playing. Really amazing entry!
Agrimes
05. Apr 2022 · 01:37 UTC
Impressive game! Feels like an authentic Game & Watch!
Zachary Shah
05. Apr 2022 · 02:07 UTC
Genuinely amazing work! From sound design to visuals, this game is perfectly polished. The only real criticism I would have is the controls. My brain wants to think that holding space lowers the umbrella, and letting go raises it- but that's pretty much grasping at straws. Impressive stuff.
Cheese Team
05. Apr 2022 · 02:51 UTC
Absolutely loved this!
BadPiggy
05. Apr 2022 · 03:11 UTC
Really great little game. The art and audio were sublime. The droplets and the car were very well indicated as well. My only complaint is that it can be a little unfair when the car comes right when a droplet is falling. Or maybe there's more strategy to it. Either way though, I'm definitely coming back to this game. Great job
theStoff
05. Apr 2022 · 07:00 UTC
That bus is never going to arrive, is it? haha. Incredibly charming and fun! Your game was very polished. Surprised it was all done by one person.

Great work!
Rawb
05. Apr 2022 · 12:38 UTC
This is an awesome game, you really matched that game and watch style and the art and music are perfect
Brusi
05. Apr 2022 · 18:14 UTC
Cute game! I liked the character and the umbrella animation when you move it up and down. Music and retro-style was awesome too!

The game felt a bit slow and tedious at times. I would make it grow more challenging a bit faster, with faster change between modes and lower point thresholds.

Also this would work great on mobile if you are thinking about exporting it...
Anaxie Studio
05. Apr 2022 · 18:31 UTC
Beautifully retro and so cute! I like how cohesive all the elements are.
Yeti Kid
05. Apr 2022 · 19:40 UTC
This is so brilliant! Everything is so well done and cannot pick a fault! Really loved this and is definitely a standout for me!
Mika314
06. Apr 2022 · 05:12 UTC
![Screenshot_2022-04-05_22-10-55.png](///raw/841/c3/z/4cff8.png)
420 haha. This is really good game. Fun gameplay, nice soundtrack.
sdelay
06. Apr 2022 · 08:12 UTC
Hey, I found your game on this vid : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qfbdLhY_F0&ab_channel=LouisGalaxoz
I really love how the graphics looks, everything is very polished : the rain effect, the cars, the city skyline background, the dark effect, the rain drops, and of course the audio, everything ! Nice job, congrats!
LDJam user 284287
06. Apr 2022 · 10:49 UTC
I'm beyond impressed! This is so solid! I got to 710 in a couple of runs, and I would play a lot more if I didn't want to give other games a chance as well. The interplay of the droplets, cars, and waterfalls really changes how you play the game as the game goes on in a way that I think builds upon the foundation that old Game & Watch games laid out. The only complaints I really have about the game I think are beyond the scope of a Ludum Dare... the game suffers from the same pacing issues that many Game & Watch titles do, which could either be seen as staying true to the source material or maintaining an ugly vestige of the time: it takes a painfully long time for the game to really pour it on (pun intended) and become exciting, so you're stuck blocking single droplets for quite a while whenever you want to replay the game. The game speed seems to reset whenever you take a miss as well; it's probably nice to have some breathing room, but it disappoints the inner adrenaline junkie that wants the game to maintain its speed. I think Game & Watch Gallery games would typically include an extra hard difficulty that alleviates the pacing issues a bit; something in this vein would be nice to see if you ever decide to expand upon this project in the future. That's looking at the game through the lens of a tribute to G&W titles, though -- as a Ludum Dare compo entry, it's just a really beautiful and fantastic game. Nice work!
bradur
07. Apr 2022 · 17:42 UTC
Wow that's a lot of quality music for a compo entry! The graphics are very good also. It doesn't feel like a jam game with the amount of polish it has. Gameplaywise it's a good game but a little too easy. You should fail faster and the game should progress to the higher humidity rate faster. The controls work perfectly though and all the UI is done so it's instantly understandable for the player what they have to do. Well done.
CookieDylan
07. Apr 2022 · 22:58 UTC
644 is my high, really addicting. Love the music and the cute little character, the outfit matches her like Lucky from Super Lucky's Tale. Really think this game would be an awesome publish/
Euler Moises
09. Apr 2022 · 00:30 UTC
I just loved it!!!!

Simple, beautiful and totally polished! It looks like an old console game, not only in aesthetics, but in spirit!

Amazing! The most complete for me so far in the LD 50!

It's on my favorites list of all LDs.

Congratulations!
Skvader_418
09. Apr 2022 · 13:23 UTC
This is such a delightful little game
the music, sound effects, idea and graphics are all so adorable and it fits together nicely
and the game is very addicting
Skvader_418
09. Apr 2022 · 13:23 UTC
This is such a delightful little game
the music, sound effects, idea and graphics are all so adorable and it fits together nicely
and the game is very addicting
UnitedFailures
10. Apr 2022 · 17:45 UTC
Cute little game that reminds me of the the old school Game&Watch games. GJ!
Elendow
12. Apr 2022 · 07:24 UTC
One of my favourite entries, cute, fun and addictive. That bus is surely taking loooong.

Good job and congratulations!
LDJam user 195687
12. Apr 2022 · 16:24 UTC
Awesome little game! Love NES style look of it. Really well polished and well balanced.
crazyrems
25. Apr 2022 · 19:14 UTC
This game is very cute, loved the graphics. The execution is nice and feels very polished.
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