Attack of the Killer Yarn Balls! by Zliebowitz

[raw]
made by Zliebowitz for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

A humorous platformer with great music and assorted items for you to collect in order to go from nothing to being able to defend yourself from the menacing invasion of yarn balls.

  • Click shift to attack.
  • Move left and right with the arrow keys.
  • Jump with the space bar.
  • Go through doors with the up arrow key.

TheShop.png

Enemies.png

Items.png

Equipment.png

Ratings

Overall 875th 3.104⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 953th 2.75⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1039th 2.438⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 824th 2.938⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 583th 3.48⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 356th 3.375⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 561th 2.717⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 819th 3⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 27🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

gamedesignguy
08. Oct 2019 · 06:57 UTC
The music and visual style was cool, but I got a little lost on what to do ( I only could find 2 levels to run through ). Also felt like the yarn balls would always hit me, even if I timed my claw attack, which made saving gold for the shop really difficult. With that, a bigger claw attack or the yarn balls dealing less damage would have made it feel more balanced to me!
bloodyaugust
08. Oct 2019 · 07:35 UTC
I love the art style and the music adds a lot!! I wish there was a sound when you get injured, and that I could see how much money I had in while in the store. Also, you may want to mention in your controls on the LD page that the up arrow lets you use doorways.
Stefanie Leitch
09. Oct 2019 · 01:14 UTC
Pretty fun game! The yarn balls are real tough haha, they hit me basically every time so it was difficult to save money to try out all the upgrades. Overall good job though!
NachtWitch
09. Oct 2019 · 01:39 UTC
Excellent game design work, absolutely beautiful, loved the game
bassguitarbill
09. Oct 2019 · 01:43 UTC
I liked the music, but trying to hit the yarn with that tiny claw attack was kind of frustrating.
stephenwhoskins
09. Oct 2019 · 01:59 UTC
Thank you @nachtwitch! I was hoping to get a giant yarn ball monster in there that you could battle with and well an assortment of many other types of characters as well, heh. Maybe I'll try making this into a much largergame. This experience has definitely been addictive for me.
stephenwhoskins
09. Oct 2019 · 02:00 UTC
But @bassguitarbill, you're supposed to imagine how the kitten must feel! =P

I'm glad that you liked the music! I had so much fun writing it. =)
Danilo Freire
09. Oct 2019 · 03:33 UTC
If you can generate a mac or web build it would be great! : D
stephenwhoskins
09. Oct 2019 · 03:43 UTC
@danilo-freire Many thanks! I actually have an iMac even though I did the development on my Windows machine. I will totally look into this! =D
Cortella
09. Oct 2019 · 04:31 UTC
It was fun! I became very determined to beat the game. haha
Shaolin Dave
09. Oct 2019 · 05:59 UTC
Can't play Windows, if you happen to make a Mac or Web build I'll be sure to give it a go.
Based on the screenshots, I wanted to say I like your choice to stick to greyscale except for key items. A flaw I see in a lot of submissions is that the grapchis are a mess of color that doesn't give meaningful visual feedback, but it seems you got that figured out.
stephenwhoskins
10. Oct 2019 · 01:55 UTC
Thank you @cortella! I greatly appreciate it! I hope you got all the items! =D
SirRed
10. Oct 2019 · 02:47 UTC
Would have been nice to know how much each item cost in the shop. I found myself going back often since I didnt know how much anything cost. Solid movement mechanics. Good job.
stephenwhoskins
10. Oct 2019 · 02:55 UTC
Hey @sirred, the rabbit in the shop tells you how much each item is when an item is selected. Many thanks for playing!
adhesion
10. Oct 2019 · 03:25 UTC
Cool, I like the art style and the music. Was a bit weird to throw you right into the shop with no context, but I got the hang of it after a bit. The melee attack felt a bit ineffective since it was so hard to avoid damage from enemies that close. Still pretty solid, keep it up!
JAAG
10. Oct 2019 · 03:46 UTC
Overall, I liked the game,I like how the money drops like a physics object, and the whole visual style + music was pretty on point; the enemies felt a little too fast, so it was kind of hard to avoid getting hit. Also, Would've been nice to see how much money you have when you are in the shop screen (btw this game works on Linux Thru Wine!)
jusw85
10. Oct 2019 · 04:27 UTC
I loved the minimalist art style and music. Gameplay wise, I could only find two levels though, and I could only ever save up enough to buy the helmet, which didn't seem to decrease the damage I took. Also, when I died, I lost all my gold, making the game that much harder. Regardless, good attempt!
Mikeality
10. Oct 2019 · 06:45 UTC
Interesting premise but the game play wasn't all there for me. The combat didn't feel very good, I wasn't able to kill enemies without always taking damage. It also seems to just be the same 2 levels on repeat, I think more time should have been spent on level design. But the art is very good! The character and enemies show a lot of expression which is great, and the shop keeper is an interesting one. I also love the music! Would love to see this idea cleaned up and improved, for real!
stephenwhoskins
10. Oct 2019 · 13:27 UTC
Thanks for the feedback @adhesion, @jaag, @jusw85, and @mikeality! We definitely wanted the game to be challenging, but we apologize if it wasn't quite balanced enough. As for there only being a couple of stages, we're really interested in making a lot of stages for this if people are generally interested enough in this concept. Thanks again! :D
geoff.nagy
11. Oct 2019 · 04:57 UTC
This was a fun one. The music was very catchy and the movement/jump mechanics were solid---it felt like I had good control of the main cat character. I particularly enjoyed how the yarn balls appeared to get more attentive as you got closer. Would be nice to see more levels in the future. Nice job!
stephenwhoskins
12. Oct 2019 · 01:31 UTC
Thank you @geoff-nagy! You touched a programmer's heart! O_O
Cyrolis
12. Oct 2019 · 12:35 UTC
I coudnt buy anything because I died to early (can you really fight without loosing lives ?). otherwise Graphics were cool ^^
dans17
12. Oct 2019 · 23:12 UTC
Cool artstyle and gameplay. I managed to unlock all the upgrades, but I wish that you didn't have to repeat the same levels over to do so.
stephenwhoskins
13. Oct 2019 · 01:33 UTC
Hey @cyrolis, if you kill all the yarn balls in the very first stage when the game starts and then walk back to the door where the shop is, you should have enough to buy a helmet. Thanks for playing! It's greatly appreciated! We wanted to fine tune the game more, but the time ran out, heh. =)
stephenwhoskins
13. Oct 2019 · 01:35 UTC
Thanks @dans17! Ya, we apologize for not having enough levels. We wanted to do many more. I had boss music all written out, but we didn't have enough time to work it in. I'm glad that you got all the upgrades!
MrsTari
27. Oct 2019 · 12:46 UTC
Nice graphic and art :D Love the Music :hearts: