PataPata (Survival Rhythm) by seurimas

[raw]
made by seurimas for LD 41 (JAM)

PatapataInstructions.png

E, E, R, E IS ATTACK (Holy cow, oops!)

Move your body, and your fingers, to the beat! Feel the rhythm! Survive the harsh island environment!

And, most importantly, don't ask why the wolves shoot lasers and the cleric is throwing an axe made of honey.

Quick Rundown

  • Take a moment to memorize the patterns! Time willing, we'd have included a more natural in-game system for teaching them, but Jams wait for no dev.

  • Move around with "Advance" and "Retreat".

  • Gather materials/food with "Harvest". "Craft" or "Rest" to chow down (healing and filling your bellies!)

  • Manage health and hunger! If you start to starve, you're in for a world of hurt. If you're in a world of hurt, "Rest" to heal up and fill up!

  • "Attack" the laser wolves! They're nasty little buggers!

PatapataOcean.png

Ratings

Overall 877th 3.143⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1101th 2.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 601th 3.333⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 516th 3.69⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 548th 3.524⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 676th 2.69⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 712th 2.65⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 777th 3.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

JLV
24. Apr 2018 · 23:37 UTC
Let's that out of the way : your pixel art is straight up amazing ! On the gameplay standpoint, it's enjoyable to get a feel of the beat and advance through the island, even though the combinations are not that easy to remember and use for a non-qwerty user (alt-tab to the game page sure is trivial, but it kinda break the flow that you carefully implemented). Once you get through that little hurdle, great game !
🎤 seurimas
24. Apr 2018 · 23:42 UTC
@JLV Thanks for the feedback! The memory thing is why the instruction page is so prominently featured, actually, lol. If we had more time, there was supposed to be a rhythm discovery mechanic baked in, but the Jam waits for no dev :)
Mister_Kweh
24. Apr 2018 · 23:49 UTC
Loved the concept. Played a TON of Patapon when I was younger. I agree with JLV about the combinations being hard to remember. Maybe add a pause screen to check them again? Also not sure if this is a bug or I'm just stupid, but I was only able to rest 1 time and then the combination didn't work anymore for me. All in all, good game though!!
GregWLyons
24. Apr 2018 · 23:51 UTC
I like the beat and the characters look good. I really could have use a cheat sheet because remembering the button combinations was very difficult for me! I had to write them down. Good job. Cheers!
Lost Dutchman Software
24. Apr 2018 · 23:53 UTC
I really like the artistic choice of altering the shadows on the characters to match the beat. If you were to implement this into a full game you could easily implement the beat into a 4 frame walk cycle with clothes or items moving uniquely for each character!
Roidz
24. Apr 2018 · 23:55 UTC
First i agree that yr art is great. Second, i think this is a great well worked out idea. The only thing that i don't like is that i have to 'remember' the actions. It would be nice to have them on screen the whole time. Excellent job!
oh PS: Thanks for the headup on our game not entering the HUMOR catogery, this was an accident and frankly we had MOOD disabled also ! We just turned both catogeries back on. Here is the link again incase you want to re-cast your votes on humor and mood: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/its-not-lupus
JLV
24. Apr 2018 · 23:58 UTC
Indeed, it might have been a little harsh on my part, the moves being quite intuitive once I seriously tried to remember them and turned my keyboard to qwerty... Do not hesitate to tell me if you implement some kind of tutorial, I would be glad to give it a try _
ThatSommeS
25. Apr 2018 · 16:05 UTC
Didn't understand what I'm supposed to do.. but the game looks good ;-)
Durgan
30. Apr 2018 · 18:17 UTC
I enjoyed the art style. Much like others have stated, maybe a legend or cheat sheet to see the correct combinations to perform said actions. A very solid game concept, great work!
Animaster
30. Apr 2018 · 22:17 UTC
Game looks good but it's hard to remember all combinations, and also need some tutorial which explains what combination i should use in which case. But still good job!
Mektidas
01. May 2018 · 15:41 UTC
the mixture of genres goes really good, although it was a bit difficult hahaha
Mohamed_DKD
04. May 2018 · 02:36 UTC
good job in making a patapon reference :D , it is one of my best PSP games when it was a thing XD.
But the game lacks a proper tutorial (if it is hard to add it in game or time didn't permit adding it, you could still add it to the game page here or in itch. for example, what makes my characters die? what does resting do? what does crafting do? is retreat only to go and harvest things you forgot or it leads somewhere different? how to attack enemies ??!!!!(maybe some of these questions should be answered through gameplay, but to have to figure all of them out with the added complexity of actually remembering the patterns, the game becomes really difficult to understand which makes it less engaging after a while.
You could also add on top of screen the patterns (as letters or as symbols) so that we do not need to switch between different tabs just to remember how to craft
BryceLTaylor
04. May 2018 · 02:39 UTC
I agree with what pretty much everyone says about remembering the rhythms. I also wish that the game itself taught me things. I really didn't know what it meant to harvest or craft. Also, I have no idea why I needed to rest or what to do about a laser eyed wolf. It basically just killed me.

It was fun to enter in the rhythms, though.
MacDoom
04. May 2018 · 03:19 UTC
Patapon was the BEST! There should be more patapon-like games!
didn't get how to fight. Frafted some axes and "things" but the laserwolfis feels impasable.
Really fun game!
MacDoom
04. May 2018 · 03:19 UTC
Patapon was the BEST! There should be more patapon-like games!
didn't get how to fight. Frafted some axes and "things" but the laserwolfis feels impasable.
Really fun game!
MacDoom
04. May 2018 · 03:19 UTC
Patapon was the BEST! There should be more patapon-like games!
didn't get how to fight. Frafted some axes and "things" but the laserwolfis feels impasable.
Really fun game!
MacDoom
04. May 2018 · 03:19 UTC
Patapon was the BEST! There should be more patapon-like games!
didn't get how to fight. Frafted some axes and "things" but the laserwolfis feels impasable.
Really fun game!
🎤 seurimas
04. May 2018 · 23:08 UTC
@BryceLTaylor Oops, apparently the instruction screen left off a critical rhythm: Attack...
Rob White
11. May 2018 · 13:58 UTC
Nice idea! It reminded me slightly of magika, the way they have different key combos for different spells. Good artwork as well. The audio was slightly jarring though.
matsoj15
11. May 2018 · 16:58 UTC
Pattapons for the win! I really love it
Behenate
11. May 2018 · 20:14 UTC
Patapons are awsome, and though this game obviously isn't as good as the original it's still fun to play! Great entry!
Lucas Hoffmann
11. May 2018 · 20:34 UTC
Took a while to performance every command automatically without consulting the commands sheet but was pretty natural after that. Would be nice if there is a way to know if we complete the action or missplay the last command timing and skipped it.
People already mentioned it but having the instructions inside the game would be great
adhesion
13. May 2018 · 02:26 UTC
Interesting concept though not having the songs in-game made things pretty frustrating, I had to constantly refer back to the instructions while playing. Just displaying the songs as part of the game UI would have helped a lot. The game needs a lot more feedback in general, like for when you successfully or unsuccessfully perform a song - a lot of times things seemingly didn't work and I wasn't sure if it was my fault or not. It also wasn't clear why I should rest or what the icons/colors in the UI meant. The rhythm aspect of the gameplay was clear enough, although you could get credit for being way offbeat sometimes. Would be cooler with some music & varied rhythms as well. This concept clearly has some potential but needs some UX/design work to really shine. Keep it up!