Tardigrade Travels: A Tardigrade's Terrifyingly Terrific Traversal Through Time! by Plasmak
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Travel through dangerous environments as a near-invincible tardigrade!
Tardigrades (pronounced /ˈtɑːrdɪɡreɪdz/), affectionately dubbed “water bears”, are eight-legged microscopic marvels known for their remarkable resilience. But did you know you can now embark on a totally bizarre adventure through time AS a tardigrade? Yes, indeed!
Now you can be a pint-sized powerhouse that defies DEATH!
A game made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 56 (Tiny Creatures).
Credits
Sarah Mak (@Plasmak) - Game Designer, Writer
Joan Wu (@aakarma) - Game Designer, Writer
cydisq (@cydisq) - Tech Director, Programmer
Justin Peh (@pyxel) - Programmer, Audio Integration
Audrey Yong (@audddible) - Art Director, Artist
Angelina Tan (@angiezles) - Artist
Ryan Pua (@Zirunos) - Artist
Yang Quanhui (@qhboiboi) - Artist
Benjamin Tan (@botwoj) - Artist
Jazreel Low (@Jaz) - Composer, Sound Designer, Additional Game Design
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tardigrade-travels-a-tardigrades-terrifyingly-terrific-traversal-through-time |
Ratings
| Overall | 508th | 3.586⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 632th | 3.293⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 729th | 3.069⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 320th | 3.931⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 218th | 4.196⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 334th | 3.534⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 178th | 3.714⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 549th | 3.5⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 40🗳️ | 29🗨️ |
The game is really cute - love how the tardigrade looks and its animations! I'm not even sure if all of that information is true about tardigrades, but I'd believe it :D this is like a fun children's book.
Some of the sequences lasted a bit too long in my opinion (like the ice age) and I'm not sure if space was the end or if I was supposed to discover something there.
Great job!!
I appreciate the lack of a fail state as a way of conveying the absolute survival machines that tardigrades are, but mixing that with an uneven sense of conveyance makes the experience feel a bit more stressful than it needed to be. The fireballs and nuclear particles are very very hard to dodge, and even though you can tank them and move on as if nothing happened that is pretty much impossible to know on first playthrough, plus I think all stages could've benefited from that counting down bar that the nuclear section had over to the left.
This one is more of a personal idea than an actual suggestion, but if death is an impossibility in game, maybe a score that keeps track of how well you survived could encourage repeated playthroughs and provide a sense of accomplishment to players. However this is only true if that's the kind of experience you'd want to create, as an edutainment piece I think it's already a successful venture.
Graphics are of course incredible, the cutscenes are really cute and the stylization of the tardigrade and its walk cycle (swim cycle?) are absolutely pitch perfect, I couldn't get enough of it dopey lil face. Great job to all involved!
-Boat
A very fun game to play, although I did get lost during the "trdigrade can get lonely" stage. Not sure what to do other than floating in space. Also the radiation particle level is a bit hard to dodge, I basically tanked it through (but the getting hit animation is also really cute!)
Perhaps its some deep lesson about preciousness of life
I'd love to see the little fellas evolve into a bigger project.
also is that a high pitched oof sound when the water bear gets hurt? If so that I thought that was funny
I really enjoyed this one, great entry
love the game, very fun and educational. Also amount of animation work done in just 3 days is insane!