SittingDucks by Iak
A magical game full of birds and stuff that explodes... IN SPACE!
Jam entry by @iak (Daniel Schruff) and @rik-thunder (Dmitrij Jazunov) !
Published within the Compo deadline as no time on Monday.


Game & Source Code! (Windows and experimental Ubuntu executable, we don't have a Mac to compile with. Linux build still has some bugs.)
config.ini allows to change settings! key names listed here
Default keys:
W - Jump
A - move left
S - sit (lay eggs!)
D - move right
ESC - exit game
R - restart
Used tools:
- GameMaker Studio 2
- Photoshop
- Wacom Tablet
- WolframTones (for Music generation)
- sfxr (program to generate 8- and 16 bit sounds)
~~SPOILERY HINTS~~ (how to win the game and find the secret boss)
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/sittingducks |
Ratings
| Overall | 535th | 3.103⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 534th | 2.893⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 522th | 2.857⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 311th | 3.571⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 542th | 3.036⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 359th | 2.929⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 172th | 3.269⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 524th | 2.964⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 35🗨️ |
Now if I could publish the game, that'd be great. Would like to sleep soon.
-And now that's taken care off, too. Off to bed!
The art style is really great and animations are very cool and smooth, as expected from Rik :D cheers rik! However, 1 thing i'd complain about is the fact that the world spins around the character not that character walks around the world, and as a person with motion sickness, that made me dizzy and slightly motion sick, not bad to a point where i had to stop playing the game or couldn't handle it but just something I thought would be worth mentioning. Other than that, the couple of different play styles make the game really cool, the art is greatt, the idea is funny and the game has a really great sense of humor. The glorious sitting duck ending is amazing and I love the secrets the game has. However, at the same time I'd say it's a downside because most people will never notice the easter eggs and secrets. Very good. Ohh, almost forgot to mention that the sound effects are really nice!
As for motion sickness, we mostly made it like this so the controls wouldn't be weird when standing on the lower half of the planet (y'know, left/right reversal). No idea how to tell what gives people motionsickness other than having lots of people playtest it. XD
Maybe having a better feeling of progression would have been cool, because I have no idea how far I went through the game before dying.
Still liked it :p (Why my baby ducks have to die? :cry: )
The graphics are ok, the audio strangely eerie and a bit off.
I don't think I got very far. Had very little time to lay eggs as jumping seems to be a rather effective measure against the asteroids already. The egg laying is a bit tricky too, there's no indication on when an egg has been laid as there's a delay of some sort. An audio cue would do the trick.
That floating hat probably has something to do with them secrets, but I had no time to deal with it due to them ig bass asteroids.
An ok job, I think.
Controls feel a bit clunky, perhaps allowing rotating the world while jumping would help that, at the moment you are 'locked in' to a given angle when jumping.
As someone else said, an audio cue on the eggs would help a lot.
Decent overall though!
|+ The concept of building an army of baby ducklings to protect the planet is fun in almost a very light pikmin kind of way.
|- The lack of control felt with both creating eggs and picking up the ducklings that grow up holds back the feeling of being able to control/manage the situation, and without also having a sense of progression I didn't feel like retrying more than a few times.
? I think if you just added additional feedback, like a pop sound or something when an egg was laid, and maybe pressing down when you're above a grown duckling to pick it up to give you more control it would quickly become more engaging. Still a neat entry with charming art :).
I loved the scene spinning around instead of the character moving. It's a weird feeling, but fits the game's mood perfectly :)
It got so intense at the end, that giant black thing was coming close and I'm trying to make eggs like crazy.
overall slightly creepy but the ducks made everything better :laughing:. I was unsure when I an egg was laid or even how to on my first playthrough, till I read the controls and saw down.
The artwork looks nice and the music while repetitive and a little bit annoying at first kind of fits with the gameplay loop so I guess that could be labelled a feature. overall it was an enjoyable experience.
Anyway, good game ! This is quite a simple premise but I like the weirdness of it. The music and the graphics are really enjoyable.
Aside from that, the game mechanisms are a bit cryptic, and the fast curve of difficulty doesn't help to be used to the controls. But it's a good game anyway, good job !
I also feel that the difficulty ramps up a little too fast. All of a sudden you are inundated by tons of asteroids.
you thought you were laying eggs but secretly you were hatching the planet ;)
I wish the player would move a bit faster, cause to me it felt a little bit frustrating, but it's a subjective kind of thing. I also think the planet HP bar could be a bit fancier.
Apart from that I loved it! Great visuals, groovy music and secrets.
Thanks for the game! Also, was nice to see a fellow Game Maker user.
Also the idea of a duck saving the planet it's awesome by itself!
There are a few areas that I would say could use a little work though. The music was fitting, but it's important to create a closed loop without breaks so that the player doesn't notice the repetition.
Gameplay-wise I think the difficulty ramp-up is too slow which decreases replay value. In the beginning there is just so much time where nothing happens. The pacing for laying eggs is also a bit off: In the beginning you can lay a lot of eggs because there is still time, but as the game progresses you barely have time to lay new ones. That is really a shame because I found the idea of laying eggs and using the chicks as ammunition really fresh and one of the strong points of your game.
Also there is no clear indication of when an egg is actually laid. As it is, laying an egg is a huge investment because it takes so long. If you let go a little too early that investment does not pay off, which is frustrating. I think, about half a second might be a good value here, as that would give you enough time to lay eggs later in the game. I think defining a separate key for picking up chicks is important, as it gives the player more control over resources. This is again about investment: If the eggs are precious because they take so long to lay, the player should not be forced to pick them up, as this sort of destroys the game's economy. But even with faster egg-laying, having more control is probably a good idea.
While I liked hitting the rocks with your head until they explode, I think the game may be more fun if you could destroy the smaller ones with a single hit. While at it, maybe increase the rotation speed of the planet a little for faster controls, and allow moving sideways while in the air.
Finally, I couldn't figure out why I would win or lose a round. My first play was a loss, because my planet's energy reached zero. My second play didn't throw me back to the start screen, so I assume I survived a round, but since the round ended with my planet being destroyed I didn't know whether I won or lost. Maybe this could have been communicated more clearly.
These points may sound like a lot, but most of them boil down to tweaking some game constants. That will likely change the character of your game, so please consider them only as ideas for trying alternatives.
Overall I liked your ideas despite some flaws and I think with a little more polish the game improve considerably.