Flea Circus by Adam Konig

[raw]
made by Adam Konig for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

Play here on itch!

Welcome to The Flea Circus! I, Flea T. Barnum, am needing your help to get our flea talent ready for showtime.

You must work with each of our 6 flea performers to help choreograph a jaw-dropping routine that is sure to wow the audience. Earn money during performances to purchase upgrades at the Flea Market. Keep adding fleas until the audience says "Unbe-flea-able".

Every round one flea will perform and the player's inputs will be recorded so that the flea can "remember" it's routine. Then in subsequent rounds you will play as new fleas while the old ones do their previous routine. By the end you should have a flea circus worth raving about!

:rat: :rat: :rat:

And now some shameless plugs for our studio while you're here....

Follow us! We're Tavern Rat Studios! (We've got a free demo of our first major release, Mischief)

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:rat: :rat: :rat:

fleacircusinstructions.png SS1.png SS2.pngSS3.pngSS4.png

Ratings

Overall 90th 4.104⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 213th 3.792⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 6th 4.458⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 30th 4.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 146th 4.333⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 33th 4.217⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 29th 4.25⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 151th 4.043⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

Vipaka
08. Oct 2024 · 03:25 UTC
I am a big fan of this style of core game loop, where you do a task, earn money, and then upgrade. I think you did a good job at it, with lots of possible upgrades, and multiple different performer tasks. The music was on point for a circus, and seeing all the little critters performing together was delightful.
rkhadder
08. Oct 2024 · 22:26 UTC
The art and mood is amazing. The depth of game mechanics is impressive for such a short period of time. This game has potential - keep at it after the jam!
Koolruz
08. Oct 2024 · 22:43 UTC
I loved the little sounds the fleas made as they jump around - There was just something super charming about them! :)

I really like the idea of this game, too! It's really cool to choreograph your routine one piece at a time, planning out when new fleas would step in or out and interact with different set pieces! Unfortunately, I ran into a lot of physics desynchronization, so even on the second round, without moving my second flea, the first one wouldn't perform the same routine - That made it really hard to choreograph, because on one run a ball might be on one side of the screen, but on another round the same inputs would cause it to roll slightly differently and end up on the other side of the screen.

I also had this very strange behavior happen on one of my attempts - Every flea past the first one would spawn in and be stuck endlessly floating down towards the bottom of the screen, and would only accept spin inputs.

![floating-fleas-small.gif](///raw/dec/c2/z/681cf.gif)

Overall, I'd love to see how the game plays if the physics can be ironed out because I think there's a lot of potential to be really engaging and satisfying when everything comes together in a routine! :)
Abex
08. Oct 2024 · 22:52 UTC
I love this idea, I've never seen anything like it. The only issue I had was difficulty getting to higher platforms. There is no going up once you fall down, unless you have a trampoline or a canon but those are expensive.
🎤 Adam Konig
08. Oct 2024 · 22:56 UTC
@koolruz thanks for the thorough feedback! So sorry for the physics issues that's really a bummer. Unfortunately didn't have enough time to test for all the weird cases that you could end up in like the one you found but so glad you liked our idea <3
🎤 Adam Konig
08. Oct 2024 · 22:56 UTC
@vipaka thanks so much for the kind words <3
🎤 Adam Konig
08. Oct 2024 · 22:57 UTC
@rkhadder thanks so much!!!
🎤 Adam Konig
08. Oct 2024 · 22:57 UTC
@abex try holding down jump with the pogo stick, you might just get the height you're looking for ;)
telo.philippe
08. Oct 2024 · 23:21 UTC
Very cool art and movements, a lot of store items, and it's very fun to move around!
I like the noises the fleas make when jumping hahaha
Vary
09. Oct 2024 · 01:18 UTC
What a fun concept! The idea of having inputs recorded and replayed is really clever and really ramps up the flea circus vibes. Love the audio as well, very fitting. Nicely done!
RebeccaX
09. Oct 2024 · 04:29 UTC
A great game! It's highly completed with great artstyle and cute sound effects! Would enjoy more if I cound control multiple fleas with both hands ;)
ArenAvgust
09. Oct 2024 · 04:55 UTC
The ant spin is so silly. I love your idea and concept. So cool!
thatcher roehl
09. Oct 2024 · 13:13 UTC
very silly concept, makes for a pretty fun game though sometimes the fleas get stuck moving in a certain direction and float off for a while without any way to stop them
HexStart
09. Oct 2024 · 13:37 UTC
Awesome idea and execution - everything fits together very well! Really the only complaint I have is the S key for a spin/flip - I couldn't get used to it (I'd probably prefer it to happen on pressing jump mid-air). But other than that it's very polished and feels complete, congrats!
diomont
09. Oct 2024 · 14:14 UTC
Phenomenal concept, in a very charming and humorous package. Love how you can just mess with your previous performances by placing new objects in their paths, making a chaotic unplanned show, or how you can instead meticulously plan each flea's performance so that they never interfere with each other. Big fan of the overall vibe of the game, great job!
Boudichon
09. Oct 2024 · 15:58 UTC
Very strong submission! Art is great and the idea is very original, good work!
🎤 Adam Konig
09. Oct 2024 · 16:33 UTC
@hexstart you can also use left click to jump and right click to spin! Maybe we should add those additional key bindings in the itch page
v1ru6
09. Oct 2024 · 18:41 UTC
Nice art and sound. I like all that flea money.
KaDokta
10. Oct 2024 · 00:21 UTC
Fun idea, love the concept and execution. There's a bug though that allows you to place the same object multiple times on the same spot.
Togis
10. Oct 2024 · 00:43 UTC
Congratulation on you entry, I really enjoy playing it on stream. It is a super fun game and great concept.

You made me smile and laugh at the crazy flee jumping around a wining me money.

The shop UI could be a bit better, it was hard to read the font on a small text and I was lucky to see the scroll bar at the bottom.
MistaGiggles
10. Oct 2024 · 18:09 UTC
Absolutely hilarious, this was so much fun to play! I encountered a bug where my pogostick glitched and sent me flying into the sky, taking the vignette with me! Which only made it funnier.

Love the artwork and sound, great entry
Madbarron
11. Oct 2024 · 04:13 UTC
This game is so clever! It's pretty funny in that I come up with a plan in my head and then the show is just pure chaos. Even my past performances are just getting ruined all over the place. I love it! Very original and a perfect execution of the theme.
Surfa
12. Oct 2024 · 19:09 UTC
Wow what a fun little game you made. A little confusing to begin with and I did have an accident with one flea and the trapeze where it got launched completely off screen never to return. Also it seems like the black tint was parented to the flea so I got to see behind the scenes.

Really cool game though and nicely polished for a game jam :thumbsup:
Surfa
12. Oct 2024 · 19:09 UTC
Hit publish twice because my mouse hates me. Have another thumbs up :thumbsup:
Empyreans
20. Oct 2024 · 18:12 UTC
Thank you for bringing an entire flea circus to the stream! Amazing game :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRDA8U3h-wM

Wish you a good fortune with Mischief :)

~ XpMonster