Critter Catchers by ItsAina
WARNING: Contains imagery that may be disturbing for some.
Ready to catch some tiny creatures?
Simple game where you simply have to catch some cute little critters! How wholesome!
Tools used
- Godot 4.3
- Aseprite
- gdfxr (sfxr port inside Godot)
- Furnace Tracker
Changelog
- v1.0.1
- Fixed bug where left click would not work if there was certain objects underneath the cursor.
- Added Linux build. I can't guarantee it'll work properly though, so let me know if you have any issues.
- Uploaded the code to github instead of itch.io
Notes
It's yapping to the void time.
I vastly overestimated how long 48 hours really is and how much I can actually get done in that amount of time, but I still think putting out something is an achievement in itself.
I actually struggled with the theme a lot, and was THE ONE THEME I VOTED NEGATIVE. I actually only got the idea 4 or 5 hours into it randomly while taking a shower, thinking how much I "hated" this theme. I guess the game is a product of how I feel about the theme (jk, and I actually don't hate the theme, i was just frustrated i couldn't come up with anything.).
One highlight for myself was actually the music. I've not done anything music related for a literal decade, so it was nice to actually be able to get something done that was actually pretty pleasant to listen to. It was slightly challenging though, since it was pretty much my first or second time ever using a music tracker (furnace). Pretty cool experience, nonetheless.
Something I also learned during this weekend is how much of a difference simply adding sound makes. Even if simple, adding sound to not only player actions, but to things that happens in the game can give a lot of life to a game and make it feel less "empty", it's kinda like filling a big empty space in an art piece of in the level design. Not only that, but you can use it to your advantage to do things like adding weight to an action, or expressing specific feelings.
There were things I wanted to do that I sadly didn't really have the time to do (unless I switched to the JAM). Some of these include:
- Indicator for the reload time between shots.
- Progress indicator for when wrapping up an animal
- More animal variety
- Bushes where animals can hide temporarily to add a bit of variety to their behavior
- Multiple rounds
- My first idea was 3 rounds, each with another mechanic being introduced.
Overall, it was a really good experience, and I learned a lot from it. I can't wait to participate in future Ludum Dare (and honestly, maybe even other game jams).
| Link | https://github.com/AinaVT/CritterCatchers-LD |
| Link | https://itsaina.itch.io/critter-catchers |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/critter-catchers |
Ratings
| Overall | 69th | 3.861⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 72th | 3.778⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 208th | 3.167⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 84th | 3.917⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 63th | 4.056⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 43th | 3.889⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 52th | 3.917⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 28🗳️ | 8🗨️ |
Visuals, sound, and feedback was top-notch as well. I liked how it got more frantic as time went on, with the music increasing in speed and everything. Wonderful game, extremely memorable. Really enjoyed this one, great job!
After 30 seconds I felt a bit lost because I didn't know whether I should let a bunny escape or bag one on the ground because they both objectives were present all the time. But I prioritized not letting them escape, because I think the text said so. (I guessed that there will be a highscore in the end). :D Sadly, there wasn't, so after 2 plays I didn't have much incentive to play it again.
But other than these minor flaws, the game was really enjoyable and very well polished! :) The introductionary text and animation was also really nice! Keep it up, cheers!
I actually had a whole weighted scoring system that would take the amount killed, caught, and escaped into consideration, but I ended more focused on trying to make the game "f'd up" and had no time at the end. In fact, the post-game stuff (the end dialogue and credits) were made in what... the last 15 minutes before submissions were over? lol
The game itself was also nice - all the effects and sounds here (especially the music slowly speeding up) were great. I also liked having to balancing between shooting escaping critters and catching the dead ones. However, it did feel like 3 minutes was a bit long - by the end it grew a bit repetitive.
I also tried going for a pacifist ending afterwards, and was pleasantly surprised you made one. I still got accepted to the company somehow though :) I later checked out the source code and saw that you created 5 different ones, which is pretty awesome! Overall, really enjoyed this, great entry!
I was actually going to make a different ending for the "pacifist" (where you wouldn't get in the company and other stuff), but I really underestimated how quickly I can get things done. Hopefully I'll eventually get to actually expanding this game into a slightly longer experience with more than this 3 minute gameplay and make all the endings I wanted.
I played the Linux version on Ubuntu 20.04, and managed to crash the game somehow near the end of my second attempt (I was spam-clicking pretty rapidly, so I don't know if that was related):
```
Godot Engine v4.3.stable.official.77dcf97d8 - https://godotengine.org
MESA-INTEL: warning: Performance support disabled, consider sysctl dev.i915.perf_stream_paranoid=0
Vulkan 1.2.182 - Forward+ - Using Device #0: Intel - Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2)
ERROR: Can't take value from empty array.
at: front (core/variant/array.cpp:335)
ERROR: Can't take value from empty array.
at: front (core/variant/array.cpp:335)
ERROR: Can't take value from empty array.
at: front (core/variant/array.cpp:335)
ERROR: Can't take value from empty array.
at: front (core/variant/array.cpp:335)
Segmentation fault
```
I personally found the gap between the cuteness of the art and the violence funny.