LudumData

Cat Ball by pabulum

[raw]
made by pabulum for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

This is my firt game ever uploaded!! Ive tried to do Ludem Dare 3 previous times and failed every time. But I finally did a thing!

Dogs have escaped in the maguffin factory and only you can save the last cat-egg from like being eaten and stuff. You and your sweet kicking skills are our last and only hope!!!

Keep the cat alive by getting it and your self to the level goals.

gameplay.gif

CONTROLS:

Keyboard and mouse

  • move with A and D

  • jump with left mouse

  • when in slo-mo kick with right mouse. mouse direction is the direction it will go in

  • hold kick to kick harder!

  • restart level with R

Controller (xbox)

  • move with left stick

  • jump with A

  • when in slo-mo kick with B. left stick is the direction it will go in

  • hold kick to kick harder!

  • restasrt level with X

The Jam theme made me think of the soccor game keep alive (also called keepy ups) and of escort missions. But escorting people is dull. Kicking them is better!! So I smushed the two.

Its far from finished and full of bugs but I hope you have fun!

I used a bunch of art and sounds from people waaay more talented than me. If anyting catches your eye. Here is where you can find them:

THANKS FOR PLAYING. and also reading this!

Youtube https://honk-of-doom.itch.io/cat-ball
Youtube https://github.com/chris-m-cann/LDJam46
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/cat-ball

Ratings

Overall 932th 3.607⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 757th 3.554⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 230th 3.875⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1548th 3.5⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1254th 2.815⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1081th 3.462⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

tsombi100
22. Apr 2020 · 07:24 UTC
Fun game! I like the throw mechanic. It was little hard to land on small platforms, but that might be totally intended. (Or maybe i'm just bad at platforming :D)
redfenix
22. Apr 2020 · 07:24 UTC
The game crashes when you throw a cat
ryan123rudder
22. Apr 2020 · 07:28 UTC
Really fun! The slo mo feels a little bit janky, but its eassy to get over since its a good game
SlimBun
22. Apr 2020 · 07:30 UTC
Cool game! Unfortunately it was too hard for me. I didn't manage to finish the tutorial
Ryano
22. Apr 2020 · 07:30 UTC
That was a very unique experience. I haven't played something like that before. Good job. I had a bit of trouble with the wall jumping and actually getting up certain parts. I could not get past the one where you had to kick it through the 2 rows of spikes to hit the button and then wall jump back up. Great entry though. Thanks for the game!
VirtuaWorlds
22. Apr 2020 · 07:31 UTC
Nice game. Interesting concept and controls. Fun puzzles and a nice look. good job
HireMeDeveloper
22. Apr 2020 · 07:35 UTC
too hard for me fam lol but love the presintation.
lt-farfetchd
22. Apr 2020 · 07:35 UTC
God I was so mad when I got the cat egg through only to die to basic platforming :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
Super cute, polished game though! I had a lot of fun with this one. Pretty challenging, but reasonable I think for the most part. The curve definitely took a steep hike at level 4 though haha. Music is nice, and the art is simple but quite charming.
I think in terms of improvements, my major issue was with the direction of motion you apply to the eggs. It felt like I would sometimes jump at them and smack then, then they'd fly in a totally different direction to what I anticipated.
Miranda
22. Apr 2020 · 07:37 UTC
Fun, but also quite difficult :)
Philarmon
22. Apr 2020 · 07:37 UTC
Congratulations on actually finishing your first LD entry :) Looking good. The steering needs some polishing though - I also had some troubles with the wall jumping and the third level took me ages to complete. Keep it going!
LykaWolfie
22. Apr 2020 · 07:38 UTC
I love the concept! I do like how you can really plan your kicks and have to use geometry while platforming. A personal comment of mine is that the player controls are too slidy. It's hard to control the character especially when you have slo-mo breaks which doesn't feel proportional.

This is great for a first time, and I look forward to the finished version
LadislavOdstrcil
22. Apr 2020 · 07:40 UTC
great animations, nice style and pretty challenging... great job guys... this level just killed me :D ![Och.PNG](///raw/31b/c2/z/32315.png)
Jiri_One
22. Apr 2020 · 07:41 UTC
pretty fun idea and gameplay, though it was pretty hard at times. I liked that it was both a puzzle (where and when to kick the ball) as well as a platformer (trying to reach the positions where to kick the ball).
Enya454
22. Apr 2020 · 07:47 UTC
Really fun, the 3rd level required perhaps a bit too much precision, but other than that, all the game assets were great.
Dandala88
22. Apr 2020 · 07:47 UTC
Super cool! I was a bit confused at first at how to control everything but once I got it it was really fun. The control scheme was something I haven't really played too much with but I liked it. Learning the physics of the "Cat Ball" was quite the learning curve but you catch on pretty quick. The animation and smoothness of the character movement was on point. My largest complaint here is how quickly the difficulty ramped up. Although that is not uncommon from what I have seen from other games in this compo. Very creative - nice work!
dfva
22. Apr 2020 · 07:48 UTC
The puzzles are funny but challenging. But overall very enojyable! Good job!
kogyblack
22. Apr 2020 · 07:48 UTC
Nice game. Physics are good, not unresponsive (that is usually the problem for 2d platform games).

I didn't like the keyboard controls so much, I could control it with arrows or WASD, could jump with left click or space but couldn't use kick on keyboard (or if you can it's hidden haha I tried clicking every key). Having jump on space available made me go on my auto mode (WASD to move and space to jump), but it's very bad when you have to jump, be precise with WASD and also move mouse to aim and hold right click... Too much, and using only mouse to jump and kick was fine (would prefer WASD to move, space to jump and arrows to aim, would feel natural).

Slo-mo was okay, I think it could be improved but I'm not sure how. Aim was hard to predict, I think a better way would be to show a short line (like Angry Birds), it's easier to adapt and understand where to "ball" will go.

Levels were good except the precise kick since I don't think it was necessary. I was even trying to find a good solution because it didn't seem right.

Music and art were great, really nice job.

Overall you did a great game. I would like more levels :( it was fun to play.
InfinityGamesInc
22. Apr 2020 · 07:51 UTC
This is a Great game. The controls are on point, the music is great, the sound effects are great. The pixel art is really good, the game play was awesome. There were no real problems (apart from the scaling but that wasn't a big problem). There were easy levels and there were hard levels, and there were teeth gritting levels. I did have a problem with the cat ball launching, for whatever reason when i tried to launch a cat ball sometimes it wouldn't launch leading me to retry and fall into a pit. But other than that it was GREAT!!!
Connorses
22. Apr 2020 · 07:51 UTC
This was an interesting concept and I had fun with it! I wish mouse aiming were easier, but still it's an excellent prototype game.
The level where you have to kick the cat ball into the narrow space is unfair. I noticed that the mouse aiming depends on where the guy is, not the ball, so you actually had to kick it at the correct time as you were falling if you wanted to aim it correctly. If I had a way to kick the ball at exactly 90 degrees it would be better.
Flamus
22. Apr 2020 · 07:59 UTC
Very intresting concept, it reminded me a bit of super meat boy games. Cool gameplay, with a nice level design. The only struggle for me was the main character seemed a little bit a laggy. Neverless congrats on publishing! Good game!
🎤 pabulum
22. Apr 2020 · 16:01 UTC
Thank you all so much for playing!! And for the great feedback! Plenty of places to improve.

Sorry about the dificulty. It wasn't supposed to be quite that hard. Especially the double row of spikes level. It didn't go in until 1 a.m. on the last day. Turns out thats a bad time to do good things. haha.

Really looking forward to playing all of your stuff!
gnx
22. Apr 2020 · 21:56 UTC
Really fun game! Tragically I played it on the mac trackpad :sweat_smile: so I got an extra challenge. It shows though that the mechanic and levels are finely tuned and the music sets just the right atmosphere. I liked it a lot :)