Mama Duck Hero by runningopenloop
The four kids and I are back with another HERO game! I really didn’t want to do "no text in game" theme at all. But it actually did inspire me to have my youngest do some “voice acting.” So the idea here for signal is the mama duck is signaling her babies with her quack.
WASD to move (or arrow keys). Space to quack. Mouse scroll to zoom in/out.
I've not tested the windows build.
Spent a lot of time figuring out the grass, only to not add more or have it do too much other than visual obstruction. Originally I had a shader grass system but it slowed down the web too much. Although I was pretty happy with how the grass looks now vs. performance. The other time sink was navigation meshes. So I understand them better - but things are not perfect. One thing I need to do is prevent you from going off the edge... but you should be able to avoid.
Goal of the game is to have your baby ducks survive to grow to adulthood. They need to eat (the yellow cubes) to keep them going.
We had started on a second level, but didn't get that in. The kids also modeled a crow, frog, fish, maybe some other things... but we didn't get that stuff in.
As always, the balance of things is a bit up in the air, we've been playing it for an hour or so and tweaking things. Ideally I should add a threshold for "winning" -- I guess in the wild 2 to 4 ducks surviving to adulthood is typical. So if you get more than 4 to survive, consider that a win. With the balance as of initial release about 1.5 hours before the end, we've got as many as 6 to live.
There are places on the map with more food, but more dangerous to get to.
I have an aspiration to publish a game on Steam (I'll not say goal). I should be having some more time in the next months for development. Not sure if this is the one to try, or one of the other games I'm more excited about when I thought the theme was going to be split.
| Link | https://runningopenloop.itch.io/mama-duck-hero |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/mama-duck-hero |
Ratings
| Overall | 743th | 3⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 701th | 2.88⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 669th | 2.94⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 665th | 3.18⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 718th | 2.86⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 332th | 3.52⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 158th | 3.646⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 629th | 3.271⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 17🗳️ | 28🗨️ |
等我意识到红色的圈=孩子尸体的时候已经来不及了。。。
小鸭子会长大这一点有种战略经营游戏的感觉非常喜欢
居然还有真人配音辛苦了!音量很大很喜欢

A few of you mentioned the controls being difficult, anything specific you think could improve? I didn't really think too much about it. I wonder if there is something that could be more compelling beyond forward/backward and turn left/right. Maybe backward should be eliminated... don't think I've ever seen a duck move backwards.
As for the ducklings. They are using a vector system for movement. Avoid other ducklings, go to mom (with reduced weight when they become adult... need to have them do something more as adult I think). However, I need to add a small vector draw to food so they aren't too stupid and walk right by it. I'm thinking this may allow me to make other things more challenging by not making the picking up of food so fiddly. I was also thinking to have another random direction vector but didn't get that added in.
@super-dario - thanks for the kind words. Kids did great.
@jamope - Mama duck movement was fastest thing possible. Iteration could improve.. as per thoughts above? As for more indications. Perhaps hunger bars atop ducklings? Anything else you're thinking could be improved for indications?
@universeflow - quack, quack
@cat-value - thanks for the kind words.
@midnightmist - thanks for the kind words. I was thinking the pools of blood weren't quite appropriate for the starvation. Perhaps some gravestone.
@shanyu-jin - thanks for the kind words.
@rowling - thanks, kids did all the art/modeling. I was thinking, if we did more work on this... you could start by "coloring" your eggs - then based on the coloring by some method/mapping - your baby ducks are colored.
@anaastaska - thanks. Any thoughts on what could have made the controls easier for you? I wonder if the camera wasn't controlled by the mouse, if point and click would be better? (And hold middle/right mouse button to rotate view -- ahh, maybe no rotation should be allowed. Although ducks as many other prey animals do have eyes on the side of the head for better visibility.)
@guydesu - 谢谢您的美言.
@padla - heh, never thought of it as horror. :) Horror. That's all the rage on steam right? :)
@qqruzkin - thanks for the kind words.
@gdman - Thanks for the kind words. VCamera. Yeah, I spent more time than I should have on the camera. Ended up just going with something simple. VCamera. I did some searches but didn't seem to find the project or add-on for Godot? I found some Phantom Camera on github, might this be what you are referring to?
73,
Timothy
I would have preferred the controls not be tanky/car-like.
Sound effects were great and very funny!
Music was also great - i love how minimal and relaxing it is.
I would have preferred if the controls were more akin to how a typical 3rd person character controls in an action, platform, or adventure game. Similar to how Mario, Link from zelda, or Captain Olimar from pikmin control in a 3d environment. That is, when you move your stick or left button left, the character will start moving left instead of rotating counter-clockwise or turning left.
So in a way, yes, i would prefer movement to be more like how captain olimar controls in pikmin. But, my initial comment about pikmin was in regards to how captain olimar can select/deselect individual or groups of pikmin to follow him or perform his commands
I tried linking to a youtube video, but ludum dare website seems to remove it
so i would just skim thru a playthrough of Pikmin to see what im talking about :)

It's a surprisingly brutal game, did not see that coming. :D Nice idea! As others have said, controls and general feedback to the player could need some work. But now I'll go for another round to see if I can get any of them to actually survive.
Edit: 3 adults! Wohoo. But man, the little ones are a little stupid, I basically have to route them precisely such that they stumble into food and otherwise won't eat despite being hungry. :D