Das Riverboot by Sputnik3D

[raw]
made by Sputnik3D for LD 39 (COMPO)

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Das Riverboot was made for Ludum Dare 39 (Theme: Running Out of Power).

In Das Riverboot, you must balance the needs of your fishing vessel by feeding your ship's furnaces for power, and catching fish for sweet profit. Good luck!

How to Play:

Click on fish and junk and then DRAG/THROW them up into the ship's container. The line will snap after 1 second.

The goal of the game is to catch as many fish as you can to be sold at ports. Your ship's furnaces must be continuously fed or your ship will be stranded and you will lose. Fish junk out of the water to keep it running!

Be sure to pull your catches into the boat!

Buttons:

Left Mouse to aim and cast your line.

Left Mouse drag to pull your catch aboard.

Ratings

Overall 545th 2.889⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 568th 2.611⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 249th 3.278⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 332th 3.5⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 289th 3.389⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Audio 305th 2.889⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 211th 2.733⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

PolyWolf
31. Jul 2017 · 16:23 UTC
I don't know about this game. The water and background art style is good, but the boat, fish, and boots don't match that style. The controls are clunky (why does it take so long for the line to shoot out?), the sounds are a bit irritating, and the game would be much better if I could actually catch something.
PixelFormedStudios
31. Jul 2017 · 21:23 UTC
Took me a while to figure out that you had to throw the fish so they land into the container. After that, the game became very fun! The controls were a little slow and sluggish, but overall I think this is a pretty great game!
DankyPants
31. Jul 2017 · 21:25 UTC
I like that you have to balance between catching fish and crates/boots. It would be more interesting if you could see when the level was about to end so you can really min/max. Great atmosphere and art style!
Lazzor
01. Aug 2017 · 00:18 UTC
This was fun and challenging at the same time. Trying to throw the fishes and junk into the boat wasn't that easy and it took me some time to understand the controls, but it was a fun time as those fishes look really funny! Great job!
Shawn Beck
01. Aug 2017 · 02:46 UTC
Didn't know you had to drag the fishes up and was struggling for awhile but a lot of fun once I figured it out. In-game instructions would help a lot here. Nice work!
leesoar07
01. Aug 2017 · 09:57 UTC
It takes me 3 minutes to figure out how to catch those fish. It's really challenging.
designernap
01. Aug 2017 · 21:43 UTC
I love the aim and fling mechanic of the fish :) Caught a few but didnt earn any money?! Still good fun and nice graphics.
🎤 Sputnik3D
01. Aug 2017 · 23:06 UTC
So to make money you have to get to the next port (to sell the fish)
bentglasstube
09. Aug 2017 · 08:03 UTC
It took me a long while to understand how the game worked but once I got it it seemed promising. Unfortunately that promise turned to more frustration because I was not very good at catching anything. This was an interesting concept that just feels a bit rough around the edges.
QuantumZen
15. Aug 2017 · 20:29 UTC
Wow, this was tricky. In 10 games I managed to get to the town once. I twas trying to fling the catch over the top and in some from the bottom. So, collisions of the catch gathering object were tricky.


I like the graphics & music. Consistent with the theme.


cool physics. simple, but convincing.


I found myself surprised trying to play the game more than testing, that's a good sign :)
Rothens91
15. Aug 2017 · 22:08 UTC
I simply couldn't start the game.. :( The menu loads fine, but I could click everywhere, and it won't start.. If I click on 'Quit game', it quits tho... :D
Valphera
15. Aug 2017 · 22:21 UTC
You have a nice concept but you should really balance the difficulty more!
The graphics and music are fine and minimalist (a style i like, it's readabme) and I like you take to the theme
doomshmuck
16. Aug 2017 · 02:52 UTC
I like the concept, but the implementation made me not have fun. The mechanics for catching anything was so clunky that in the few games I played, I barely hooked much, not to mention actually get it on the ship. It felt like the place I clicked was not reflected properly by where the line ended up going. Like I would click directly on a fish, and the line would be well above the fish when it finished (admittedly it was also behind the fish, but the point here is the vertical positioning). There were a number of times where my only option was to go directly up through the ship, but I couldn't do that either. I think once I got the fish to balance on the ship, but it still didn't count, and I guess I didn't realize that the boots and boxes are used to power the ship?
Phlip45
16. Aug 2017 · 03:35 UTC
I'm going to mimic what @doomshmuck said here. The hooking mechanic seems solid but the point where I click should be where the line goes, but it only ends up going about 90% of the way there meaning I have to manually aim quite a bit further down. So I ended up snagging a whole lot of nothing the first two times. Once I finally did snag something it would get stuck directly under the boat instead of going inside which took another 2 playthroughs to get anywhere with it. Once I did understand that I was confused why I got 0 points for catching 2 fish. I had to read the instructions again to realize I'm supposed to balance it out with catching junk to fuel the ship. I gave up at this point cause it would have taken me another 3 or 4 playthroughs to really get the hang of how everything worked.

I feel a simple explanation in game of how things worked would have saved me a couple of plays and I might have actually gotten the hang of things, even if it was a single picture of the game with text pointing to things. Having to physics things into the hold of the ship felt clumsy and if it would have just taken the items when reeled in then it would have been more enjoyable.

Graphics were pretty good, while music and sfx did their jobs well. A little more time with playtesting may have gone a long way here. I feel this is a solid entry that failed to convey what the player was supposed to do in game, and the clunky controls really added to the frustration.

I also had the issue that @Rothens91 had initially where I couldn't click the start button at all. I think that may have had something to do with playing it in windowed mode, so you may want to check if that is a bug and fix it.
KiiroHanabi
16. Aug 2017 · 17:03 UTC
Interesting game! Controls and physics were strange at first but I got it.
Bonus point because I managed to stuck a fish on my boat without being able to catch it haha :D

Graphics and audio are good.

With nice feedback and controls it could become something really great!!