LudumData

Critter by Skruffye

[raw]
made by Skruffye for LD 38 (JAM)

Screenshot 3.png

Critter has you caring for the needs of a small animal on a small world. The actions of the critter itself are beyond your control, but the power of the elements is yours to command.

Infuse the land with water and magma to forge terrains favourable to the survival of the critter and keep your little friend alive as long as possible through the changing seasons.

Instructions

Click the water or the magma button at the bottom of the screen and then left click a patch of land to infuse it with that element or right click it to remove some of that element. Use the middle mouse button or the arrow keys to rotate the planet.

The critter requires food, water and sleep. In order to fulfil its requirements, you will need to create a forest, a lake and a plain. However, excessive heat in the summer and cold in the winter can destroy biomes, so protect your land by providing a cool breeze with mountains or a warmer wind from a desert!

Experiment to find combinations of elements that create each biome, build your world and keep your critter safe!

Credits

Nathan C. Addison (Design, Art & Animation)

Michael Bohea (Programming & Design)

Paul Gorman (Music & SFX)

Links

(For voting, download from the pre-bugfix “Jam Version” link. The "Post-Jam" version fixes most of the bugs of the original and also contains a couple extra features such as a guide and a quick reset button; try it out!) * Windows: https://skruffye.itch.io/critter

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/critter

Ratings

Overall 187th 3.708⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 361th 3.208⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 112th 3.75⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 177th 3.792⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 85th 4.375⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 40th 4.083⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 51th 4.083⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 36🗨️

Feedback

Tommyflower
02. May 2017 · 13:19 UTC
What a beautiful little game! I loved the character design and the relaxing music. The rippling sound is so nice and I appreciated the big work with the animations. Please I want to see more of it! Amazing job!!
japes
07. May 2017 · 21:34 UTC
Wow this was really beautiful. Art and sound are top-notch, something the rest of us can aspire to :)

I see some Reus influence here! Loved that game and love what you've done here, too.

It took me a while to realise that the arrow keys rotate the world, don't think that was mentioned anywhere...
Also on my first run, my critter died and the game didn't end, which was a bit confusing. I'm still not sure what the top bar is, temperature? Not sure how to alter it, creating mountains or deserts didn't seem to affect it.

Anyway I'm sure you've addressed those issues in your post-jam version, which I'm going to check out right now!
🎤 Skruffye
07. May 2017 · 21:41 UTC
@japes Hi there!

Thanks for the comments! You can also rotate the world with the middle mouse button--I only just realised that we didn't actually write that down anywhere... ^^; I'll put it in the instructions when I get a minute.

As for the rest of your comments, the post-jam version should address most of your concerns. Hope you enjoy!

-Skruffye
zgragselus
07. May 2017 · 22:57 UTC
The game is really relaxing and nice, a bit more combinations would be good and I'd like to see this in more advanced 3D graphics that could be really cool :)

What is misses, probably a tutorial. This is a must for any more complex game like this.

Thank you for creating, it did it's purpose, I had some fun.
IgorsGames
08. May 2017 · 21:22 UTC
Good idea and graphics, I got the green and blue stripes filled, but I don't understand what for is the grey one!
🎤 Skruffye
09. May 2017 · 13:55 UTC
@igorsgames Hiya!

Thanks for playing--the grey bar measures how much sleep the critter's had recently. If you make a plains segment (where the critter makes its burrow), then the critter will go there to sleep and refill the grey bar.
If you're having trouble getting that working, try the post-jam version which is basically a bug-fixed version of the original with a few extra features (like a guide to help you discover new terrains).

Hope that helps!

-Skruffye
yyam
09. May 2017 · 22:43 UTC
Great game! Really love the art and animation, makes it stand out. The music was perfect too. Took me a while to get it but after a bit I was able to keep it alive through the seasons. I guess it would have been nice to have more terrain combinations for a little deeper play, but for the jam time constraints you've managed to get quite a lot in, good job :)
OfficialCodeNMore
10. May 2017 · 22:00 UTC
The style of this game is superb, great music, and what a fun game!
Teslov
10. May 2017 · 22:10 UTC
I'm an extremely terrible critter keeper ( even worse than space safari keeper ) but I've managed to keep my pet alive for a day I think.

It woke up in the morning and went climbing in winter. Still better than boars going for lengthy swims in the ocean...

Art is amazing, music is nicely fitting and overall the game is very well made.

Thank you!
pikopik
10. May 2017 · 22:12 UTC
cute game, very nice execution. the UI could use some love but that's it!
PowerSpark
13. May 2017 · 04:56 UTC
Great entry! Lovely art and music :D Like already stated, it's really hard to start out it as there's nothing showing what each bar means. I figured out that the red health was being affected by temperature... but I'm not sure what the yellow bar is. Once I figured out a method to go about keeping the right temperature, I survived until spring year 2 (which is good?)... really good idea with the lava+water and such. Well done.
phi
13. May 2017 · 17:05 UTC
Haha, when it died in the first year I thought he had just gone into hibernation or something, so I continued to play for another year until I realized... :joy: The main issue for me that I didn't know what the colors of the bars meant (maybe a symbol would be useful), so I just kept trying out various environments until it died. The graphics are cute, the music fits perfectly (I forgive you for making me download 2 GB of game data... :wink:), and the general look&feel is awesome. And if it's taught me anything, it's that I'm a terrible pet owner.
Pecolyte
14. May 2017 · 12:11 UTC
That's a cute game! Very reaxing and the graphics and music is beautiful! Great job!
lord-bobyness
14. May 2017 · 18:16 UTC
So first off, this game is incredibly beautiful! I don't know where to begin. The music, the little particles of leaves and water, the polish on the sprites. It all comes together amazingly well!

As for the gameplay, although it was quite rewarding to discover new biomes, there were so few ways to arrange the water/lava that I could brute force my way through them without much thought. But again, it was just so frickin gorgeous I didn't care :D
NightShadow0
14. May 2017 · 22:51 UTC
This is a really nice concept, but my critter keeps dying in the first few seasons and i'm not sure what i'm doing wrong; having some labels on the bars would probably help with that. I did really enjoy my time with the game though, the aesthetic is truly delightful. Nice work!
🎤 Skruffye
15. May 2017 · 00:25 UTC
Hi @nightshadow0

Thanks for the feedback--the critter needs to eat, drink and sleep (the red bar is his health). He can eat in the forest, drink at the lake and sleep in the plains. Have you tried the post-jam version? There isn't much difference other than a couple bug fixes, but it does include a small instruction page that shows you what each biome looks like, what it does and roughly how to make it. :)

-Skruffye
TeamMonumental
15. May 2017 · 01:50 UTC
Really beautiful game. The animations and artwork are very cozy and relaxing to look at. The music, sound, and ambience all perfectly add to the mood of the game. The game is almost like a strategy/simulator, but it's executed nicely and is a style I've not seen before. You did a really good job!
rjhelms
15. May 2017 · 03:11 UTC
Very beautiful ambience across the whole aesthetics and the concept of the game. Kind of reminds me of the "Creatures" series from back in the day, which was nice for a nostalgia trip. Good job!
James Hartley
15. May 2017 · 03:18 UTC
Loved the artwork, the whole concept is pretty clever aswell haha I was so stoked when my critter went down into the burrow for sleep.

Was really oblivious my first time through, I didn't know why my critter was asleep for so long... "critter... are you okay"

Haha going to go check out your post-jam version aswell. goodjob guys, the ambient sound was a pleasure aswell.
Florian van Strien
15. May 2017 · 11:49 UTC
This game looks amazing and the mood is great! However, the gameplay itself is a little bit simple. This is not bad per se, as this contributes to the relaxing mood, but there are very few options for you to play with. An additional element would have added lots of extra combinations which could've been fun, but that may have been infeasible for a jam game.

Minor points:
- Scrolling with the middle mouse button is a bit slow and scrolling with the arrow keys doesn't work very nicely as then your hands are quite close together (on a TKL keyboard, at least).
- A restart button would've been nice,.
- The colors of the bars weren't really clear, some sort of icons would've helped.
- It was really cool that there were extra combinations by adding less or more of an element!
MrChippy
15. May 2017 · 12:55 UTC
This looked really really nice. The music and art created a great atmosphere. Combining the water and lava was enjoyable. Some things were a bit confusing at times and the animal seemed to focus on eating while everything else ran out which got a little annoying.
JoshuaJumbles
15. May 2017 · 14:22 UTC
Very nice aesthetics. From the music to the illustrations it created a lot of charming presence. I like the notion of the intermingling lava/water ecosystems but it was a bit difficult to fully grasp the causal relationships. Very nice effect for showing magma/water mixing, loved that seeming random pattern meshing so nicely together. Great sound. Seasons changing revealed even more charming art. I think the water/magma control scheme could be a little more fluid, although it might be counterintuitive with the methodical slow gameplay. Found myself wanting to 'god-around' a little bit more. Maybe it could be more of a manual effort to apply even a single water/magma effect, like tapping to fill a bar, showing the roots growing per tap. Or dragging it from the core. Seems like there is some room to design for the 'toy lens' in your control scheme. This may be extended into camera as well, making it a little faster, or able to zoom out to see your whole created world.

Charming little game. Thanks for sharing!

My game Tiny Dentist is so close to getting enough votes! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/tiny-dentist

Hope yours is too, if not already there :). Cheers!
leftright92
15. May 2017 · 15:11 UTC
@JoshuaJumbles We played Tiny Dentist last night, we absolutely loved it. Glad you enjoyed our little submission too.
Nathan
18. May 2017 · 20:15 UTC
Beautiful game my friend! The art, the music, the feel - it was really quite perfect. It is a very simple little game but executed well. Would love to see this extended further (i did only play the Jam version for this review - will check out the post-Jam version next).

Great job!