The Aardvark and the Manatee by Sanguine

[raw]
made by Sanguine for LD31 (JAM)
The Aardvark and The Manatee is a game about a manatee who's in love with an aardvark.

Controls:

LMB + Mouse to move/interact
F1 to toggle fullscreen

By:
Liselore Goedhart (@lizzywanders)
Aran Koning (@arankoning)

Ratings

Coolness 49% 1385
Overall(Jam) 3.90 70
Audio(Jam) 4.07 27
Fun(Jam) 3.19 397
Graphics(Jam) 4.80 2
Humor(Jam) 2.86 362
Innovation(Jam) 3.68 144
Mood(Jam) 4.28 9
Theme(Jam) 4.13 81

Feedback

Ossi
09. Dec 2014 · 02:29 UTC
What an absolutely beautiful game! The artwork in combination with the music was perfect. The controls were easy to grasp and translated well between the two characters. Now the story at first seemed a bit odd, but after noticing that the manatee was protecting the food for the aardvark it all made sense and really sold me on the love they both have (or at least the manatee haha). Great way to represent time as well, with the little notches for each moment.

Simple, beautiful, and well designed. Fantastic job!
XenosNS
09. Dec 2014 · 02:33 UTC
lovely little game
BadPaul34
09. Dec 2014 · 02:37 UTC
Just, wow ! So beautiful !
Anachron
09. Dec 2014 · 02:42 UTC
This is so cute it hurts! Didn't quite get the protecting the food mechanic until I read the comment above, but then it all made sense. Very adorable :)
fierysquirrel
09. Dec 2014 · 02:48 UTC
Beautiful art, great soundtrack and suitable sound, very well done!
Antworks Studio
09. Dec 2014 · 02:49 UTC
Beautiful!!! *-*
madameberry
09. Dec 2014 · 02:54 UTC
This game made me so sad.
SO MANY FISH.

That said, it was really fun and cute and beautiful.
Gread72
09. Dec 2014 · 03:25 UTC
Well crafted ... I would keep building on this game ... Very fun and Fantastic.
Valandre
09. Dec 2014 · 11:12 UTC
Great mood, graphics and sound fit very well!
TijmenTio
09. Dec 2014 · 11:16 UTC
So aesthetically pleasing! The mood is super mellow and along with the supposed story creates a feeling of melancholy which makes me fall in love with this beautiful dreamy experience.
Daveloper
09. Dec 2014 · 12:12 UTC
Very relaxing and fun. The protect and feed phases of the game complement each other well.
sirdorius
09. Dec 2014 · 12:23 UTC
Relaxing and fun game with great aesthetics!
Diamonde
09. Dec 2014 · 12:38 UTC
This is so adorable!
The theme interpretation is the best I've seen so far as well.
PlonkyDonkey
09. Dec 2014 · 13:08 UTC
This is by far the best game I've played this LD, Well done this is an amazing achievement.
Gungnir
09. Dec 2014 · 14:08 UTC
Lovely experience.

Thank you.
Alex Rose
09. Dec 2014 · 14:35 UTC
Absolutely beautiful, Lizzy's art is always amazingly good.

I got to a point where I could defeat all the fish by just spinning on the spot between two of the.. pear seeds? So I let my ardvark die. :(

But yeah, game's fun, music's great, visuals are absolutely exceptional. Also, do you have some kind of obsession with Aardvarks? :P
sergilazaro
09. Dec 2014 · 16:30 UTC
This is the cutest thing ever :3
rubna
09. Dec 2014 · 17:04 UTC
woah nice style!! loved the unnoticed work the manatee does for the aardvark :3
v/ cute game!
rainshapes
09. Dec 2014 · 17:25 UTC
So, so, beautiful. This completely blew me away.
Rozaxe
09. Dec 2014 · 18:21 UTC
Very nice concept ! I love the graphics !
Great idea
Mike Mezhenin
09. Dec 2014 · 20:54 UTC
The world needs more games like this.
Poupi
09. Dec 2014 · 21:45 UTC
Amazing game!
DesignerNap
09. Dec 2014 · 22:07 UTC
Great work. Love the style and tone. Awesome.
Wertle
09. Dec 2014 · 22:21 UTC
Super cute! I thought it did a good job of conveying a very sad state in a subtle fashion through the gameplay. Once I figured out what was going on, and that I could never be with the aardvark, it made the whole thing really moody. It did take me a bit to understand what I was doing as the manatee. I liked how everything changed with the day/night cycle, it did great work to convey the mode shift (it would be cool if the sound also changed) Nice job!
ruerob
10. Dec 2014 · 01:14 UTC
A very impressive game. I really like all of it. The music, the sounds and the visuals create an atmosphere that is really wonderful. Thank you for that pearl.
slarrimer
10. Dec 2014 · 02:51 UTC
Very lovely game. And sad, so very sad. But I guess fish need to eat too.
kaa
10. Dec 2014 · 07:01 UTC
Beautiful and cute! Great graphics
Sheepolution
10. Dec 2014 · 09:56 UTC
Looks really nice, but I was rather bored by the gameplay. There is no challenge in picking up the apples, so it rather feels like a waste of time. The mood and audio were good though.
louis.denizet
10. Dec 2014 · 10:35 UTC
Really great entry, we loved the graphics and really enjoyed it ;)
Gins
10. Dec 2014 · 13:16 UTC
So beautiful and artsy. I like the idea of having it be 2 different mechanics for day and night but both are in the same screen. A bit repetitive though after a few cycles.
Apple Padle
10. Dec 2014 · 13:45 UTC
PLaying this game is relaxing.. I might've get stuck sometimes in the corner of the screen but overall it's good and has nice BGM

makes me want to stay there and hear it all day
Yaroslav Kravtsov
10. Dec 2014 · 14:31 UTC
Beauty screensaver. I passed few day, but see no evolution of relationship between main characters.
cmayhem
10. Dec 2014 · 15:02 UTC
Very beautiful game! Expertly done.
Vulture Tamer
10. Dec 2014 · 15:06 UTC
this is absolutely amazingly beautiful!

you have got some skills!
hypnoticbytes
10. Dec 2014 · 15:17 UTC
Beautiful game. Great art, sound and concept. Fantastic job!
christopf
10. Dec 2014 · 16:16 UTC
I had a delay with my mouse, maybe it's pc caused.
The game looked promising but it felt later on not really challenging. The idea behind i like a lot also the graphic style looks neat. Good luck!
Manou
10. Dec 2014 · 16:58 UTC
Loved it.
mathmadlen
10. Dec 2014 · 17:26 UTC
So cute! I love the design of the two creatures, the music fits in nicely into the overall mood
DaRaziel
10. Dec 2014 · 17:35 UTC
Really lovely and absolutely beatiful game! Very well done!
(Although it get`s a little bit repetitive once you get down to 2 or 3 nobs..)
elvaq
10. Dec 2014 · 20:01 UTC
Really lovely stuff! Not sure if I got the gameplay or the story completely but I just wanted to spend time listening and staring!!
ENDESGA
11. Dec 2014 · 00:38 UTC
These graphics are stellar! I love them!
Caliber_Project
12. Dec 2014 · 03:46 UTC
This is such a cute game. I definitely like the day/night mechanics that complement the visuals as well.
nkling
12. Dec 2014 · 04:03 UTC
Great idea and graphics. It was really wonderful to play. Took me a few rounds to figure out what the fish did though.
Night
12. Dec 2014 · 08:01 UTC
music is suit to mood very well. but this game is too slow for me ^__^
Maurogik
12. Dec 2014 · 10:54 UTC
What a lovely and beautiful game. Relaxing to play yet still entertaining. Great job.
exoddinary
12. Dec 2014 · 14:35 UTC
beautiful, though i dont quite understand how to play this xD
Rick Hoppmann
13. Dec 2014 · 16:28 UTC
Couldn't emulate the executable using Wine & Linux Mint.
You used Game Maker right? ('Cabinet not valid')
I think I could emulate it if you include the related dll, had the issue with other gamemaker games before.
abdurrahmankh
13. Dec 2014 · 20:55 UTC
I liked the theme, the art, and the Idea. I got bored playing because because you are basically doing the same thing, I had to let them finish at wave 4.

I can't say I didn't enjoy it, its really calming experience, I wish there were more stuff/skills to use, for example playing with the whale was much more enjoyable since you are actually doing something and not just clicking on the apples.
Franklin's Ghost
14. Dec 2014 · 03:39 UTC
Beautiful looking game that's calming to play. Loved the character designs and think with a bit more variety in the gameplay this could be something really special. Liked the movement of the sun and moon and the way it transitioned between the players.
hoqjed
15. Dec 2014 · 02:12 UTC
A pleasant experience overall. Sort of funny how the aardvark just takes advantage of the manatee's hard work.

It's simple, easy enough to pick up and understand (though it took me a minute to learn the manatee was defending the food). It's also very beautiful in regards to the artwork and visuals. It works well overall, but I feel like there's something lacking and I grew discouraged after a while when I realized it was a seemingly endless cycle. So my manatee lost its will to continue defending the fruit and the aardvark ran out of food :(
barryrowe
17. Dec 2014 · 00:15 UTC
This is a nice relaxing game. Until you get to the later waves! The mood and visuals are great. It's a pretty adorable game. Very nicely done.
MonoS
17. Dec 2014 · 18:16 UTC
Artistically speaking, is a really little gem.
The art is superb [but a little lacking in the animations] and the music is really relaxing.
The gameplay is the lacking part on this game.
DrGeraud
17. Dec 2014 · 18:34 UTC
So cute !
Florent
18. Dec 2014 · 11:21 UTC
Very beautiful and nice to play !
davidB
18. Dec 2014 · 12:28 UTC
Like a poem.
sputnik
18. Dec 2014 · 16:47 UTC
Abolutely beautiful graphics!
codeapparat
19. Dec 2014 · 13:05 UTC
The art is so cute and beautiful. Incredible! The art, the relaxing music and the smooth animations create a very unique atmosphere. Playing the Aardvark by day and the Manatee by night is a nice idea to do something special with the theme. I wish the gameplay had more depths, though. More exciting mechanics or an actively told little story would enrich the experience. For example, giving the Aardvark some task that benefits the Manatee would create a nice symbiosis between the two. Overall, very lovely entry.
Victory Garden
22. Dec 2014 · 05:06 UTC
This is really pretty and reminds me of the old Orsinal games in look and feel, so great job for that. I do wish that there were a little bit more challenge of some sort... it didn't make sense to have me collecting apples as the Aardvark and then lose the game if there wasn't any fruit left, when I could just sit there not eating anything and the game would keep going fine. A slightly steeper difficulty curve would have helped too, I think. Still, the graphics and audio are really lovely and work together to establish a mood, and I liked the way you split the gameplay segments in such a natural way. Thank you for the game!
akhilnivarthi
22. Dec 2014 · 21:33 UTC
Incredibly cool art, i loved it
el_kloklo
23. Dec 2014 · 12:31 UTC
Believe or not, when I was playing, my cat stopped wandering around and watched the screen, and when it came to the turn of the Manatee, he chased it, and stop when daytime came. He did it for 3 turn. So I guess he understood that it was some kind of fish.
NicePenguins
26. Dec 2014 · 18:39 UTC
Very cute, beautiful and restful ! But maybe this need more story and mystery, you only have to protect your food and you know that one day it will be over :( (this became a little bit boring at the 5th time)