Mosquito Hunter by mharring

made by mharring for LD 44 (JAM)

Scientists have genetically engineered lizards to fight the ever growing plague of mosquitoes.

You play as one such lizard on a quest to vanquish all the mosquitoes in the jungle!

To keep the lizard population in check once the mosquito population has subsided, each lizard has been genetically altered to exert it's own life force in order to move. Only the sweet taste of mosquitoes will replenish its health. Every move you make costs you life - you must eat mosquitoes to survive!

Use your extendable tongue to eat mosquitoes and grapple onto surfaces to fling yourself around!

Controls

Use 'A' and 'D' to move left and right. Use 'W' or 'SPACE' to jump. Use the arrow keys to shoot out your tongue.

This game was made solo for the Jam. All content was created during the 72 hour competition using:

Godot (Engine)
Aesprite (Art)
Bfxr (Sound)
Font (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Gloria+Hallelujah)

Windows	https://mharring.itch.io/mosquito-hunter
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/mosquito-hunter

Ratings

Given

32🗳️

45🗨️

Feedback

hernandack

30. Apr 2019 · 02:21 UTC

I like the way you put the graphic into a one world. Everything looks cute and feels connected. It's not just about the graphic but also the presentation and the game itself. Well done.

Pixel_Error

30. Apr 2019 · 02:24 UTC

It's nice to see learning even in such a simple game. Sounds and animations are simple but enjoyable, not enough music. In general, the game feels very nice.

FanManPro

30. Apr 2019 · 02:31 UTC

Neat little game. Got a bit too difficult too early but once I figured it out it was pretty fun. Nice one.

Akros

30. Apr 2019 · 14:44 UTC

Simple but lovely pixel art!

JoshAnthony1990

30. Apr 2019 · 14:47 UTC

Cool concept! Platforming got a bit difficult for me on the later levels, but I think with more attempts I got better at it. Solid effort overall!

syudzius

30. Apr 2019 · 15:02 UTC

Nice game!
Controls were a bit tricky for me, but shooting the tongue around was fun :D
Graphics are simple and lovely, and sound effects are good.

shadow30

30. Apr 2019 · 15:08 UTC

I realy like the tongue climbing mechanic. I love the controls for it. Very good job! :smiley:

yazara

30. Apr 2019 · 15:13 UTC

Beautiful game! :) Dragging around the lizard by its tongue felt a little clunky though and made it really difficult to get around in the level.

jvolonte

30. Apr 2019 · 15:33 UTC

Nice tongue-hook mechanics :P Great art overall, the animations are really good! Good work!

🎤 mharring

30. Apr 2019 · 17:16 UTC

Thanks for all the great feedback! @yazara I struggled with the tongue mechanic to get it to feel smooth. Any suggestions for how to improve it?

GaryS

30. Apr 2019 · 20:43 UTC

I really like the tongue swinging, reminds me a little of the ninja rope in Worms... I think it needs a bit of tweaking though, it wasn't as intuitive as I'd like. Perhaps it'd work better if it were aimed with the mouse?

shubart

30. Apr 2019 · 20:55 UTC

I really good idea. The sprites are really cute. the usage of the tongue is a bit difficult. But this work well. Thank you for your game

🎤 mharring

30. Apr 2019 · 22:33 UTC

@garys Thanks for the suggestion! I actually had the tongue controlled via the mouse at first, but the feedback from testers was that it wasn't intuitive. It probably depends if you are used to the mouse + WASD (i.e. FPS games) or not. In retrospect it probably would have been a good option to toggle via a menu to let the user decide.

good.enough

01. May 2019 · 02:23 UTC

I love the movement mechanic! However, it is sometimes really difficult to use the tongues to move how I'd like to. There's this game called Floating Point that I used to play a lot. This kind of reminded me of it, but it wasn't smooth enough, and frustrated me a bit.

8bit beehive

01. May 2019 · 08:26 UTC

great platforming and cool mechanic

yazara

01. May 2019 · 09:15 UTC

@mharring I agree with @garys , aiming with the mouse would feel a lot better!

Annie Owl

01. May 2019 · 09:32 UTC

Interesting game. Swinging around the level on your tong was fun and engaging. But I think you should add some info to the description of the game about your character abilities, such as wall jumps and ability to grab onto ledges with your tongue. Also, it felt a little bit uncomfortable that you don't have the ability to aim your tongue diagonally. But besides that, it was a fun experience.

jharler

01. May 2019 · 15:32 UTC

This is a fun game. I felt a thrill when I discovered the tongue stuck to the blocks and I could swing. Great detail. The visuals are pleasing and well done. My only issue was when trying to extend my tongue up and to the side while in mid air it didn't seem to place the tongue where I wanted it to (it seems that when I push the button, a point in space is selected and that's where the tongue goes to, instead of traveling with the frog as he's moving through the air). Overall though, this was a fun experience.

🎤 mharring

02. May 2019 · 00:31 UTC

Thanks @jharler! You are exactly right, the tongue position is determined when you press the button. I see your point though - thanks for the feedback!

Raymoclaus

02. May 2019 · 02:30 UTC

- there was some weird graphical glitches in the background which I assume is a bug.
- the grappling mechanic was a lot of fun to play around with.
- the difficulty spiked very quickly because I didn't realise there was a double jump.
- I think the controls could have benefitted from being able to use the mouse to shoot your tongue.
I had lots of fun with this game.

Shuu

02. May 2019 · 07:31 UTC

I had a lot of trouble using the grappling tongue mechanic and wish I was able to control it with my mouse - the arrow keys weren't working very well for me and I ended up frustrated I couldn't grapple how I wanted to. It also wasn't very clear what the theme of the game was, it seemed like you had hearts come of you when you jumped. Good luck on future jams!

Kaisean Games

02. May 2019 · 08:07 UTC

I've had issues with my keyboard rollover (some arrows are not registered when holding two buttons such as A and W), so I was struggling a bit with controls. It would be great if mouse could be used for aiming.

But other than that (which is not exactly your problem), it's really a nice game.

Nice graphics and visual style.

Well done. Keep up the good work.

Mika la Grand

02. May 2019 · 20:28 UTC

Lovely game Michael! The aiming of the tong was quite difficult though, I think it would be easier if you could aim with the mouse. Perhaps you can also make the health deplete a bit slower, because I couldn't get past the first bigger level (I think it is number 3).

Alienplay

03. May 2019 · 14:42 UTC

It's actually very addictive to play. I like that the tongue is dual purpose, it's really cool that you thought of adding that grappling hook kinda mechanic. Really nice game! :thumbsup:

fingamer

03. May 2019 · 18:53 UTC

Fun game! Playing it gave this somewhat retro feeling. The graphics are good, I loved them. The mechanics are unique and interesting. It felt so good to eat those annoying mosquitoes! :sweat_smile:

Nice entry. Good job!

🎤 mharring

05. May 2019 · 17:33 UTC

@raymoclaus Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the grappling mechanic. I should have made the double jump more obvious - thanks for mentioning!

@shuu I described the theme in the description here, but I should have included it in the game as well. Solid note for next time! Thanks!

@kaisean-games Interesting, is this something that happens often with your keyboard? I haven't run into this personally. Glad you enjoyed the visuals!

@mika-la-grand Thanks! Using the mouse may have improved the game for a lot of people - thanks for the feedback. Fair point, I may have made it a little too challenging ;)

@alienplay Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

@fingamer I was going for a retro feel, glad it came through ;)

Aim

06. May 2019 · 03:05 UTC

This is so darn fun. I love using my tongue as a grappling hook. The art is cute and the sound effects are satisfying. Good job.