Floppy Fish by Pyspher9
Story
Floppy Fish needs to help his friend Octopus to build a mech so that, together, they can rise from the waters and remove the scourge of humanity that is polluting their home.
Octopus has the highly advanced skills necessary to build such a much; however, even though Octopus has 8 tentacles they are all very busy building their armored vehicle of vengeance. To get the parts needed, he's enlisted the help of Floppy Fish to scavenge from the trash flotsam that makes its way down the river.
How to Play
Object
Get the parts from the trash flotsam back to Octopus to take over the world!
Don't get stuck on the trash or Floppy Fish will die after 10 seconds
Movement Keys
Below Water: (W,A,S,D) or (Arrow Keys) held
- Floppy Fish is a very good swimmer and you can see how great he swims when you hold down any of the movement keys
Above Water: (W,A,S,D) or (Arrow Keys) pressed
- Floppy Fish is NOT a good land animal so you must press any of the movement keys
- Since Floppy Fish struggles on land you might not always be able to move when you want
| GitHub | https://github.com/astro-panda/ldjam-51 |
| Link | https://floppyfish.astropanda.studio/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/floppy-fish |
Ratings
| Overall | 751th | 3.342⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 662th | 3.289⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 756th | 3.125⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1088th | 2.9⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 784th | 3.316⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 347th | 3.55⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 214th | 3.579⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 512th | 3.526⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 15🗳️ | 1🗨️ |
We'll keep the challenge in mind in the future. Thanks for playing!
The game is kinda easy but that is better than being too hard.
Also solid story!
From a gameplay perspective though, I think it would have been really interesting to use this same base to create a game based on fish acrobatics, rather than collecting some parts and delivering them to a single point. Like @druvsaft mentioned, the game is mostly just sitting around and waiting for parts to come by.
What you have is a fun physics simulation, but it just needs a layer of gameplay on top of that. Well done on the execution though!
Definitely the best part was the goofy aesthetic and the fun controls. The split between water and land movement was really fun and flavorful with the fish protagonist. The land movement was just frustrating enough to be hilarious, but the game was forgiving enough it didn't feel bad (I think with a more difficult game, it might feel worse to have such unpredictable movement). This kind of wacky, innovative game loop is *exactly* what game jams are for, and your team nailed it.
The art was enjoyable and goofy. I do think there are a couple areas for improvement for readability:
- *Trash* - it would be nice if the collectibles stood out a bit from the rest of the trash heaps.
- *Water/Land* - A clearer border between the water and air would have been nice. The splash noise when you returned to water helped a bit, but it would have been even nicer if you had another sound when leaving as well. Some particles or a different animation would make it even better, but obviously you have limited resources in 72 hours, so you can't get to everything.
- *Drowning* - I think there could have been a better animation for the fish drowning --- dimming the entire screen looks a little too much like what my laptop does when it gets unplugged! If you're going to do a tint, it might be nice if it was a color rather than solid black, or a pattern like a vignette. Or you could do something fancy like a bubble that slowly empties, like the swimming UI in Windwaker.
The art for the fish and octopus was full of character and goofy. I loved the little sound effects when you picked stuff up and handed it off to the octopus.
The music was also well done, especially the "bass drop" where the other voices come in. There is a bit in the middle that gets a bit repetitive, especially after the first few loops, but definitely very solid work for a weekend jam!
I drew Floppy and added him to the fan art compilation on [my profile.](https://ldjam.com/users/jeremy-ryan/)

Nice work for 72 hours!