Cataway by justacookie

[raw]
made by justacookie for LD35 (JAM)
In this Game you don't play the protagonist of the story, but rather play the level itself. You have to change your shape in order to help the cat reach the fishes (that miraculously fly through the air). Oh also the cat is on the run from a dinosaur, so dont let him catch up :3

The Game can be played using the Webbrowser. Press F11 for Fullscreen!
(you could also use the embedded player, but we would love if you used the link below and played in fullscreen mode)

CONTROLS:
-Move your Mouse up and down to shape the terrain.
-To the right you see Fish-Indicators, and the more colorful they become the closer the Fish is.
-It is possible to "ride" the terrain very smoothly and get fast enough to bounce against the top of the screen (creating valleys)
-Experiment and have fun, there is no right or wrong way to play this game

This is our first Game-Jam entry ever and we really enjoyed the experience.
The topic "shapeshifting" was our least desired topic, because we just couldnt come up with a creative idea and it took us two hours to get our concept worked out. We even planned to build something similar to conway's game of life at some point, but we really can't recall how we ended up doing this concept instead. most likely (at 5 AM in the morning), someone dropped "TinyWings" into the conversation.. and we really liked the idea to try to make this work with shapeshifting the level instead of controlling the character. We are very happy with the finished project, and we see potential in the idea, but at the same time its not quite there yet and it lacks in many areas.

We hope you enjoy this happy and lighthearted game and let us know what you liked and disliked :)

The Team:
Programming: ColaColin, InstantKarma, justacookie
Graphics and Art: will be added when screen-names are known :)

The game is written in JavaScript/TypeScript/Phaser.io

Ratings

Coolness 53% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.61 222
Fun(Jam) 3.68 128
Graphics(Jam) 3.39 512
Humor(Jam) 3.41 152
Innovation(Jam) 4.19 28
Mood(Jam) 3.27 404
Theme(Jam) 4.03 81

Feedback

BarkingCat
18. Apr 2016 · 23:56 UTC
This is cute, very cute! The shifting terrain reminds me of solipskier (could be sure used for reference). It took me a while to figure out what to do tho. Other than that, it IS a fun game!
caelanrp
19. Apr 2016 · 00:33 UTC
Cute little game. Would have liked to see it expanded a little bit more, but I like what you've got.
pixel_maniacs
19. Apr 2016 · 00:59 UTC
A very very nice game. We just streamed it for you on our Twitch channel andiFromPixelManiacs and showed it to our fans too!
urfbound
19. Apr 2016 · 01:29 UTC
Great game! I really like the way shaping the terrain works. It's a lot of fun to make ramps for the cat and launch it in the air. Good job on the dinosaur and cat animations. The controls are really smooth and responsive, and I also like that you don't get to shape the terrain to the whole height of the screen, forcing you to learn to make jumps. My recommendations would go into two categories (don't take them too seriously - it's my first successful game jam entry too! but i like when people give me ideas and so i try to come up with some for those i review for too):

1.) Theme-related: To match the theme better, maybe different kinds of terrain could change the cat/dinosaur to a different creature. Imagine say it changed to a cave, then instead of shaping the ground on the bottom half of the screen, you shape it down from the top. The dragon could turn into a snake and try to jump at you from the bottom. Or, maybe there could be pickups that would change the cat or dinosaur to something else.

2.) Gameplay-related: For the pickups in the air, it can be hard to time your jumps. Maybe you could fix that by being able to change the middle of the screen instead so that you could see the pickups coming a little further in advance. I would also recommend making it so that you can more actively control the distance between you and the dinosaur, like in SkiFree.

Overall I had a blast playing your game, I had a great laugh launching the cat in the air and tripping up the dinosaur. Congrats on your first entry and thank you for your submission! Hope you had a lot of fun! :D
pixel_maniacs
19. Apr 2016 · 11:20 UTC
We love the car!
MalyTimi
20. Apr 2016 · 14:50 UTC
Simple and fun :) It's funny that cat use only one leg to run XD
fb_holzbaum
20. Apr 2016 · 17:34 UTC
Interesting concept. A bit to easy at the moment. This game could surely be expanded into something fun. Right now I'm also missing some music or sound effects.
s0wbear
20. Apr 2016 · 17:42 UTC
Cute little game!
I also had a little trouble with the flying fish, maybe the cat should be more in the center of the screen so one can estimate the distance to the next one better.
A_Cupcake
20. Apr 2016 · 23:24 UTC
Lot's of fun. The threat of the dinosaur was pretty much zero once I got moving but the challenge of reaching the fish was still fun. Simple to learn, hard to perfect. ice work.
Freank
21. Apr 2016 · 16:42 UTC
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
Larzan
21. Apr 2016 · 19:55 UTC
Wow, this is a great idea for game mechanics, never saw anything like it, very innovative!
Love the style you used, very cute :)
theOnlyGoodDrcz
22. Apr 2016 · 00:19 UTC
wow! very funny use of the theme, and sooo cute gfx! would love to hear some music (even a silly short loop).
suppi
22. Apr 2016 · 08:14 UTC
nice idea! I really liked the graphics :)

I'm not sure i understood how to not let the dinosaur catch you. also it was a bit hard anticipating when the fish comes to change the terrain to catch them.

also, I'm sure some music would made the game even more fun to play :)
LoneStranger
22. Apr 2016 · 21:37 UTC
Fun and interesting game. Reminded me of making ExciteBike levels, and how certain shapes either did or did not go well back-to-back. It was satisfying to see the cat take a hill well and launch himself into the air. Good job.
MattWoelk
27. Apr 2016 · 13:08 UTC
Very Innovative! Well done! :)
IonProgramming
27. Apr 2016 · 13:17 UTC
Good fun game with a simple yet interesting mechanic. Great work! Audio would be nice though.
Jin47
27. Apr 2016 · 14:07 UTC
great gameplay and the concept is pretty funny. My only regret would be that it is hard to anticipate the distance of the fishes to jump at the right time (maybe a meter counter for the next one could have been the solution). Good job !
siryakko
27. Apr 2016 · 21:44 UTC
Fun and cute game, what else do we need
deadbodyoutline
28. Apr 2016 · 15:40 UTC
Cool entry! I like the way you control the terrain and indirect control the way the cat on the run :)

Just one thing: when you run too far from the dinosaur, it's practically impossible to the enemy catch you. Maybe adding some obstacles, or something being dropped from the sky can add a new level of difficult, so the player should care more about the terrain ;)

See ya
Mordokay
29. Apr 2016 · 01:16 UTC
Loved the game and loved the idea! GJ!
BitDare
30. Apr 2016 · 13:54 UTC
I really like the mechanic. It made for a fun play.
mikedirl
01. May 2016 · 11:44 UTC
Great idea to use the terrain as part of the game play. The game had a nice feel to it, the characters were cute and the graphics were very bright and appealing. Enjoyable game.
rhastapunk
02. May 2016 · 16:06 UTC
Nice and original! Interesting and different mechanic. GG
Madball
02. May 2016 · 17:37 UTC
This game is funny in many ways: story, graphics and especially physics. There seem to be some complex mechanics behind the cat's movement which I couldn't quite figure out. I guess, if you don't lag as much as I do, it can be an enjoyable and challenging game. (I don't see a lot of lagging people in the comments...)
FengeR
02. May 2016 · 18:29 UTC
It's a really nice and cute game. However, I think it lack difficulty or, I don't really know, but to be honest, I had a hard time trying to kill myself because the dino was too slow trying to catch me XD
Anyway, I had a very good time playing your game. This is a really cool game. Keep doing fun games ;)
Steven Pinto
02. May 2016 · 19:05 UTC
Great game :D i like the idea but it was hard to grasp at the start.. overall good art and fun to play ... all the best :D
3T3A
03. May 2016 · 17:38 UTC
It's the 1st time i see an arcade game when you build in time-real the level. Great innovation. But to be honest, the games goes infinity when the cat is on the right of the screen. It's impossible to get aught bu the dinosaur at this moment, or maybe i don't gone too far in the game.
Great entry ;)