Whale Fall by theslate
When a whale dies in the deep ocean, its carcass slowly floats to the ocean floor. It can take decades for the body to reach the ocean floor. During that time, colonies of bacteria and small critters make a life out of it. This small world is called
Whale Fall
Get to the surface. Where are all these whales coming from?!
Arrow keys move. Space jumps and does stuff?
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/whale-fall |
Ratings
| Overall | 516th | 2.542⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 499th | 2.333⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 382th | 2.833⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 526th | 2.292⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 419th | 2.75⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 378th | 2.208⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 236th | 2.636⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 459th | 2.5⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 34🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
Sound effects did their job as well, jumping and the 'explosions' toward the end all fit nicely with the art and gameplay.
I didn't defeat the boat, I got to it twice and wasn't sure what to do and died, so that's disappointing on my part, but good game!
Despite this, I liked the concept and felt intrigued about what was happening. Also, exploding whales? :D
Nice job!
That said, this is a bit challenging for me (I'm not much of a platformer myself), and I kept finding myself stuck, and unwillingly riding a whale all the way back to the bottom...
I never managed to get higher than 2 or 3 whales.
The sounds were kinda annoying, sorry.
Besides thank you for the idea and your created little world. I gave it a rate :)
Check up ours, if you want to find yourself in the hand-drawn world https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/stardust
I would like to see some sense of progression while you jump up. I had no idea if there really was a surface or if I was getting trolled. I tried remembering the seaweed/vine shapes to check my progress, but failed to do so to a useful extent. Maybe the volume of the corpses exploding on the seabed going down the higher you go.
The art is a little inconsistent with different resolutions for different elements, resulting in different pixel sizes. The audio was basic and a little shrill, but served its purpose functionally.
Overall an interesting concept that could use a little polish.
But I like the idea of game! It reminds me of Adams Douglas' "Hitchhiker's guide"
An improvement would be to change up the background more. It's hard to get a sens of upwward progress since the the whales/platforms constantly descend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLywFLMDPJc