LudumData

The Lake Of Horrors by WongKongPhooey

[raw]
made by WongKongPhooey for LD 41 (COMPO)

TheLakeOfHorrors.jpg

A Fishing/Horror genre game, catch as many fish as you can during the night cycle (3 minutes approx) whilst avoiding the piranhas that will eat your fish (and maybe even your fishing buddy)!

Arrow keys to move the rod to the puddles in the water, Z to reel in a fish, X to place fish in the boat and/or drop the rod. Puddles tell you where fish are.

Built completely from scratch in PICO-8 for this jam, my first Ludum Dare! Enjoy!

Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/therealjoshwong

HTML5 (web) https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/710087
Source code https://github.com/WongKongPhooey/LakeOfHorrorsLDJAM41
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/the-lake-of-horrors-ldjam41

Ratings

Overall 455th 3.205⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 444th 3.114⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 469th 3.114⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 563th 3.068⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 151th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 382th 2.5⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 388th 2.955⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

spthiel
23. Apr 2018 · 08:59 UTC
I really like the graphics. And it requried me way too long to figure out how it works (but I think that was my fault ^^' ). Doging the mosters is not really difficult tho since they are so few of them. I think you should tweak that a bit.
Belga54
23. Apr 2018 · 09:03 UTC
I liked the art style(as I do for every pico 8 game). Had fun playing it, the idea was good as well, but it would've been so much better and a lot more funny if you added sound effects and some music in the background. Good at overall but needs a little bit of polish.
🎤 WongKongPhooey
23. Apr 2018 · 09:24 UTC
@spthiel thanks for playing! Agree that the monsters are a bit sparse so I should probably add a few more in. And some hints to help people get started too!
🎤 WongKongPhooey
23. Apr 2018 · 09:25 UTC
@belga54 thanks for playing! I wish I had added some music and SFX in, ran out of time in the end (and the audio editor in Pico-8 confuses me a bit too!), but glad you had fun playing it!
Apace
23. Apr 2018 · 09:59 UTC
Hey there!
Really nice game you created! I dig the pixel art style and the rod physics were truly satisfying and fun to control. I agree that the piranhas could be more of a challenge, but it was not that easy to catch fish either.
My best score was 195 by the way (in 3 tries)! :D
🎤 WongKongPhooey
23. Apr 2018 · 11:19 UTC
@apace thanks for playing and for all the positive feedback! 195 is a great score, I only managed to beat that myself once!
ShiMapleLeaf
23. Apr 2018 · 13:48 UTC
Took me a while to get a hang of the controls, moving the rod feels a bit too sensitive to me. I feel like the horror aspect is kind of absent, or at least it doesn't really give me any horror vibes. But that's just my opinion.

Really nice game! The world needs more good PICO-8 games, like this one.
Tero Pulkkinen
23. Apr 2018 · 16:53 UTC
I didn't expect to catch a fish after 2 minutes of fishing, but the whole activity gets boring if it's too realistic. I would prefer more fish and better chance of winning.
bcvery1
23. Apr 2018 · 17:27 UTC
Nice idea, the rod did feel a bit sensitive, and often would get stuck and wouldn't move in one direction. I did like the look of the game
SG Alin
23. Apr 2018 · 18:26 UTC
Nice ..
CiaranW
23. Apr 2018 · 22:13 UTC
I didn't seem to be able to catch any fish, could you go into a bit more detail on the controls? Rod seemed to get stuck a bit too. Game looks really nice though, and I like the combination of genres!

Edit: Ok, thanks for the clarification! I like the animation and feel - just like an arcade game! Although i do think the rod is still a bit tricky to control.
🎤 WongKongPhooey
23. Apr 2018 · 22:16 UTC
@ciaranw sorry, I didn't make it all that clear, in order to catch fish, you must swing the rod across so the line lands in the middle of a puddle in the water. Once it hits, hold it there for a few seconds to hook a fish. Then hold Z to reel it in, whilst avoiding the piranhas. Thanks for the feedback!
zanhava
23. Apr 2018 · 22:24 UTC
I survived the night! Catching a dead body or a zombie, or even just a severed head or something would be hilarious!
drludos
23. Apr 2018 · 22:33 UTC
Cool idea, I love the graphics and the overall mood!

The game wasn't easy to understand (took me to tries to catch a fish), but once I got it I found it a bit easy, as the pirahnas are rather easy to avoid.
But I had fun fishing in this lake, so congrats for your entry!
🎤 WongKongPhooey
23. Apr 2018 · 22:33 UTC
@zanhava Great idea! Didn't think of doing something like that, but it would really add to the horror element. Thanks for playing!
benbusby
24. Apr 2018 · 00:07 UTC
255! I really enjoyed it. I never seemed to get bothered by the piranhas though, maybe I just got lucky? And I agree with some others that music would've been a nice addition. Didn't really bother me too much though. Nice job!
EkkoEkko
24. Apr 2018 · 09:41 UTC
Simple but addictive game. Cool. Nice work
Aterlamia
24. Apr 2018 · 10:54 UTC
Cool game i liked it much, a bit of spooky background sound or music would help to set a bit more of a mood, the rod was a bit sensitive. Also sometimes it was hard to reach the bubble to catch a fish (usualy the bubbles were under the text then).
🎤 WongKongPhooey
24. Apr 2018 · 12:25 UTC
@aterlamia Thanks for playing! My biggest regret is not adding any music or sounds to the game, I know it would helped a lot! Thanks for the feedback, it will be helpful for when I pick this up again after the jam.
GastricSparrow
24. Apr 2018 · 13:43 UTC
I really like the graphics, and especially the fishing mechanics which is not easy or obvious but makes sense once you master it. A good idea combining fishing and horror, as they share the theme of suspense. A fun casual game! For suggestion, maybe bring in monsters, sharks and Cthulhu to spice things up? Well that's for the future, as it is a jam game it's deserving of great props :)
justinooncx
24. Apr 2018 · 14:04 UTC
Started off trying to ram my line into the hopping piranhas, until I re-read the instructions and aimed for the ripples. Still, the rod controls are... sorta wonky, getting stuck every so often. Makes the fishing more of a chore... Art's preeeetty sweet, though. Can't really see what the 2nd theme is; if it's horror/survival, it's not too clear. Otherwise, not a bad game at all~
torcado
26. Apr 2018 · 01:13 UTC
I always enjoy a good pico8 game! little hard to understand what to do at the beginning, and the controls were a bit slippery, but otherwise i liked it! nice fish graphics :smile: