Lil Lads Hit the Notes (Or fall into lava and they don't want that) by Josion

[raw]
made by Josion for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

lads2.png

PLAY IT HERE (BROWSER): https://carbon-based-games.itch.io/lil-lads

Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/ve8KPPxRby

Welcome Summoner. Your lads are here to serve and to play you a little tune. Summon lots but be careful!

Controls:

-Left-Mouse to Summon a Lad

-Ctrl-R to Reboot

lads.p8.png

Play it on itch and leave your thoughts in the comments~

Ratings

Overall 527th 3.611⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Fun 464th 3.575⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 608th 3.349⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Theme 729th 3.491⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 634th 3.667⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Audio 218th 3.806⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Humor 528th 3.125⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Mood 690th 3.454⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Given 96🗳️ 191🗨️

Feedback

Antoine Lussier
16. Apr 2024 · 02:12 UTC
That was such a cool little game, a very cool twist on the theme!
LDJam user 383212
16. Apr 2024 · 02:37 UTC
neat lil game :) Controls were nice, and music was good. Graphics were cute, but I think the particle effects on the side were a bit much on the eyes
nox282
16. Apr 2024 · 04:05 UTC
Very cool game, I didn't know about pico-8 I'm exited to check it out. My one piece of feedback is that using the mouse to select the column is a bit jarring because the pointer's resolution doesn't match your actual mouse's. I think I would have preferred to use the arrow keys. I love the mood and the cute pixel art though!
Master-YEET
16. Apr 2024 · 15:47 UTC
The particles on the side are a bit distracting, but cute game well done!
🎤 Josion
16. Apr 2024 · 19:09 UTC
Glad y'all enjoyed the game! Gonna work on hopefully making the side particles a little less distracting. Thanks for the feedback everyone!
![lad.png](///raw/334/f5/z/63d2a.png)
Bry
16. Apr 2024 · 20:06 UTC
Really simple. Love PICO games. I got 438 score. Fun!
Makse
16. Apr 2024 · 20:10 UTC
I enjoyed it, thats a nice interpretation of the theme!
Azure Drake
16. Apr 2024 · 20:11 UTC
I really enjoyed it, the only thing I may have liked was a little tutorial or intro since I spent my first few attempts trying to spawn enemies to far up. Once I realized that there was a specific spawn area though it I got the hang of it pretty quickly.
Tristan Doell
16. Apr 2024 · 20:12 UTC
Cute game. I liked it, I often would click twice though that might just be my mouse. I'm also not too good with rhythm games. So that probably didn't help. I liked the art, and the sound was good. maybe the notes could be a different color. was hard to see them sometimes from I think the side particles don't know my eyes would glaze over and I would miss them. could just be a me thing though. Anyway, good job on making a game! It was fun.
harusame
16. Apr 2024 · 20:14 UTC
A nice little game for a first try with Pico8. Not much to say, it works well. As a minor remark, I am not very convinced by the effect on the side which is a bit aggressive.

Overall, well played!
My best score :
![carbonBased.PNG](///raw/17f/z/63d82.png)
prcastro
16. Apr 2024 · 20:15 UTC
1300ish high score! Very fun game and the graphics were really cute. I just wish both the fire effects on the sides and the cauldrons near the finish line were less distracting. Also, what about keyboard controls? Maybe position the summon with WASD and hit space to summon it. Anyway, those are minor criticisms. Great stuff!
tomrijnbeek
16. Apr 2024 · 20:18 UTC
Once I figured out I could only click in the bottom area, the entire game clicked. What a fun concept. Fits the theme perfectly and is very original and innovative, as well as well executed. Great job!
nohac
16. Apr 2024 · 20:31 UTC
Cute game and overall a fun game, really like the pixel art. Got a bit repetitive after a while.
Artemy Zen
16. Apr 2024 · 20:38 UTC
Great little game. The only issue is that it's hard to tell where the cursor is pointing because of its shape, almost like it's off-center somehow. But after a while, I get used to it.

![Screenshot_2.png](///raw/168/14/z/63da7.png)
Crygos
16. Apr 2024 · 21:44 UTC
I liked the music a lot. The particles on the side were a bit much though. Nevertheless, cool entry.
Xavier7
17. Apr 2024 · 00:37 UTC
Cool game. I feel like collecting the music note could fit more with the background music
luisquid
17. Apr 2024 · 02:21 UTC
It was quite a cool game! The mouse control threw me off a little bit if I was not playing on fullscreen, but it was lots of fun! :D
Smoky01
17. Apr 2024 · 11:21 UTC
It was an unusual experience. I really love pixel graphics and I really liked this, although it would have been fashionable to increase the pixel depth and it would have been great. In terms of gameplay, you can get bogged down for a long time playing this game, but the time is not endless) Overall the game is wonderful
LDJam user 233138
17. Apr 2024 · 13:24 UTC
Nice game, I did a score of 1000. A simple but nice game!
Durrani19
17. Apr 2024 · 18:29 UTC
Cool twist on the theme! Nice and simple :)
Xpizt
17. Apr 2024 · 18:29 UTC
This was fun! Cool take on the theme and very arcadey feel.
Jean-Francois
17. Apr 2024 · 18:30 UTC
I really like pico8 and made a game for the jam a few years ago. I like the overall vibe :) but I don't feel the connection with the theme :/
🎤 Josion
18. Apr 2024 · 01:48 UTC
![Screenshot_20240417-214544.png](///raw/334/f5/z/64414.png)

Thought I'd throw my high-score into the mix ^^

I think the run was over 10-20 minutes

(Got this score on Mobile in web browser !!)
wilsk
18. Apr 2024 · 10:47 UTC
Neat little game, simple but fun. Its a very subjective thing, but I found the mouse movement a little bit too "sticky" in the slots for the notes. This made it feel a bit heavy, if that makes any sense?
JoshAnthony1990
18. Apr 2024 · 13:57 UTC
This was fun for a few rounds. I think I'd have preferred a keyboard input instead of the mouse, and it would've been nice to have a way to recover health so it reduced pressure to be perfect. Overall presentation was nice, good job!
Andreas Decker
18. Apr 2024 · 15:27 UTC
Fun little game, it took me a moment to get what was happening, but it was fun finding out and even more fun when I knew what was happening. The musical element is really, really cool!
angelalb
18. Apr 2024 · 19:06 UTC
Nice game, simple, but fun and polished! The mouse felt a bit weird, and at first I thought you could only summon little lads in the two pink button-like things at the bottom left and right, but I eventually got it.
Baluj
19. Apr 2024 · 13:55 UTC
It's an interesting concept, I've had a good time playing it. Good job!
Jamie Whitmarsh
19. Apr 2024 · 20:38 UTC
Fun! I got to 1219, things were heating up!

I'm not totally sure how the individual tones (when the fish boys eat the music notes) relate to the tune underneath, but it's also not important that I understand how they relate. Nice job, definitely a good difficulty balance!
Mr_Field
20. Apr 2024 · 21:45 UTC
fun, simple & very cute, i wish the mouse cursor could move freely and there was some other representation of which column you were hovering over, since snapping it to the grid makes it feel a little sluggish.
🎤 Josion
22. Apr 2024 · 02:10 UTC
@mr-field Great idea! I may try adding a smooth mouse back in and keeping the extra "column" indicator as well :)
Jimbly
23. Apr 2024 · 03:54 UTC
Neat game, I love playing PICO-8 games, even if I've never made one ^_^. The mouse felt unresponsive, since the cursor was hidden it meant that each time I wanted to move over a column, I had to move a different distance than the last time (depending on where the hidden cursor was inside a column, I guess) - it would have felt much more responsive if the cursor was still visible (and just showed the hover highlight like it did now). Other than that, it was pretty fun =). Poor cats, always ending up in the lava...
Khelian
04. May 2024 · 20:23 UTC
Nice entry! It was fun, and the tune is very catchy! Just a bit too bad that the notes you hit with your summons don't participate more in the melody? Maybe chosing some that fit on a compatible pentatonic scale would have made it a bit better for me. Anyway, it looked good and was fun!