My Friend Phil by Conroy

A young lad decides to take his goldfish to his friends house, can they make it there alive?
This is an action platform, (An attempt was made), I hope you all enjoy it!
HOW TO PLAY
Attack : Jump on enemies, or throw your fish with left click.
Movement : A, D for left and right
W or Spacebar to Jump
E or mouse click to throw fish
How it was Done
Unity - FL Studio - Aesprite

| Youtube | https://nightember.itch.io/my-friend-phil |
| Youtube | https://nightember.itch.io/my-friend-phil |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/my-friend-phil |
Ratings
| Overall | 808th | 3.664⭐ | 130🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 700th | 3.581⭐ | 132🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1081th | 3.358⭐ | 132🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 590th | 3.958⭐ | 132🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 625th | 4.023⭐ | 133🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 380th | 3.776⭐ | 125🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 502th | 3.508⭐ | 125🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1087th | 3.459⭐ | 123🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 23🗨️ |
The water especially is v nice.
The UI is also v nice.
There's some rendering artifacts between the tiles while moving though.
Overall, great game!

I wanted to like this game more than I did, but I think the controls and the long death sequence are truly what stop me from fully enjoying this game. Something about the combination of AD/arrow keys to move and the spacebar to jump *plus* the mouse to throw the fish made things super finicky. I never really did end up using the fish throwing mechanic because I always had one hand using the spacebar and the other hand to move with the arrow keys. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not used to using the AD and spacebar with one hand simultaneously, personally. It's a shame because the fish throwing mechanic seems like a really clever idea, using the one thing you have to protect as a weapon. Honestly, I do wish W were added as an option for jumping, since I think that seems like a pretty standard set of controls for when you have to use both the keyboard and the mouse.
The other frustrating aspect was the long death sequence (also, when I die, the game says that "Phil dies", so I guess my life force is connected to Phil's, haha). It takes a while to adjust to the physics and how the character responds to movement, so to instantly die on a single hit makes things all the more irritating when combined with a game over sequence that spans several seconds. Just based on the finicky nature of this game, having an instant restart would at least have created more incentive to go through multiple attempts. This particularly becomes a nuisance after the waterfall, where I found it unclear how far I had to fall. It took so long to get up there, too. :weary:
But as vexing as these issues I had were, I found the rest of the components to be on point. I love the look of the game. The graphics reminded me of Hyper Pixel Man with a more vibrant colour scheme, and I love the concept and story overall. Like I said earlier, I like the idea of having to protect the fish but also use it as a weapon to kill enemies. Oh yeah, and the music is on point. I love it. It's got this happy, but upbeat adventurous feeling, especially when those electric guitar-sounding synths play those syncopated chords against those chiptune arps. It's so great! I wonder if there's more music in the other areas (I didn't play past the first level, but the other screenshots do seem to imply there's quite a bit more to this game), but I can say at least the one track I heard was easily part I enjoyed the most about this game.
I think the game has a lot of potential and I may try to pick this up again in the future. As it is right now, it's hard to keep playing it so many times in a row because of the long death sequences combined with the 1-hit KOs.
I found the wall jump insanely difficult, i think having to alternate directional key presses whilst also holding on to the wall and pressing space to jump is pretty tricky.
It took me ages to finish the first level, and unfortunately the first big wall slide on level 2 was almost impossible for me. I only managed to get past it 3 times, and on all of those times i died on the last jump to the finish (where that dude is running on the tiny platform)
I really really wanted to beat it, and I tried for ages. I think at a certain point though it got a bit frustrating having to wait for the death animation, and dealing with the wall slide.
I did have a lot of fun though, and freaking love the fish throwing, and the graphics (water is amazing)
Loved the super meat boy feel.

Overall its a really cool game with entertaining game play, good job!
- p.s i loved the water physics.
I just wish the controls were better and the non-game sequences less time consuming.
Good job and good luck.
Controling is quite specific, but it's justified and you get used to it later. The only thing is, you could reduce the hero's control in the air during the jump. In the place where you want to push off the wall it would be needed. and it would be good to be able to throw the monster up or down - at the mouse pointer.
Pros:
- Interesting game design;
- Pleasant graphics;
- Suitable music;
- Juicy sound of fish hitting an enemy is just adorable;
- UI fonts selected stunningly;
Cons:
- A little clunky controls. Escpecially wall jumping;
- Sometimes graphics has some glitches;
- On the 2nd sevel got "soft-locked" in one of the pools;
- No possibility to restart level without losing;
Finished the first one, twitched, threw the fish over the ledge and it died. Without me.
Then I jumped after it by accident. Would do it again. I'm a monster.
Lovely graphics and really enjoyable music and sfx.
Walljump is a bit hard to do.
Edit: @conroy Yes, I did play the WebGL version :D
I absolutely love the art style. You nailed the color scheme and theme of your art. I also love the little world you gave the game in your writing, but unfortunately I didn't get very far in it.
The SOUNDS, oh my word. The *sounds*... hitting enemies is *so juicy*. You nailed it!
I enjoyed myself, but there were a few things I had trouble with:
1) The wall jump is... weirdly complicated. You have to jump, immediately press to move in the direction you jumped, and repeat very quickly. I feel like it is WAY more natural to sort of cling jump while holding the movement key towards the wall, and bounce between walls while not holding any directional keys. If that were done, the player could go up the wall either way. I could achieve the latter for a short time, but eventually I stopped jumping far enough and fell again.
2) If you try to cling jump, you bounce too far and can't make progress upwards. Doing this would allow players to recover if they fell... down... definitely not like me. :grimacing:
3) I found myself clinging to the edges of platforms instead of jumping on top of them. It would feel a lot better if the player would magically be put on top of the platform when close enough to the corner. Although, I understand this is really just polish. Just thought I should mention it because it didn't "feel" great.
4) In one of the pools, I thought I was supposed to go down because it had no bottom. That led to a little platform at the bottom of the map. I didn't know where to go from there, so I thought I should cling to the edge and slide down. I did that and discovered death to the bottom of the map.
Overall, slightly rage-inducing, but I had a good time :smile:
Wall jumping was fine for a time, but then it became a bit mundane :\
Also a checkpoint system, or a damage system preventing instant death would have been nice. But that's just my opinion, maybe it's just not for me.
Nice job!
The only thing I kinda didn't like was that last enemy on the first level, you can't see him and you have to comit to the jump without knowing if he will be on the danger zone or not... But that was a GREAT game

And frog-jump was beyond me. Way to difficult for me.
Best,
Anna from 4boa team
The high physics sensitivity is super fun and led to a bunch of honestly hilarious deaths, and I loved the crazy bounce you get off enemies. It often turns a victorious moment into "oh crap" in a really silly and enjoyable way. Also love how the water reacts when you drop in it, also neat!
My only real beef is the stickiness of walls even when you've barely started your jump, which doesn't really act as a challenge so much as a frustration that makes certain sections unexpectedly hard. Kept trying to jump too close to a wall and not leaving the ground. I wonder if maybe you could just turn off wall jump for like, 0.2 seconds after pressing the jump button?
I played on controller, which felt really good. As a little note for future jams, maybe, it felt kinda annoying to have to switch to the mouse to restart. Maybe it could just auto-restart after a couple seconds?
Anyway, it was a super fun time with a silly, absurdly difficult little game.
Definitely is challenging, that's for sure. Would be nice if there was perhaps a little ramp-up time instead of just throwing you into the deep end, but hey, it's a jam game. I did wish there was perhaps a bit less acceleration time, it kinda made it feel like there was some input lag (maybe there was some input lag, idk), but the rest of the movement felt pretty good. Wall jumping was smooth and throwing the fish was satisfying. :stuck_out_tongue:
Unfortunately when I restarted the game, the collision was busted and I fell through the walls and died. Not sure what happened there, but oh well. :confused:
Graphics-wise, the game's not super remarkable, but the visual style is very consistent, so props to you for that. Oh and the animating line under the menu buttons is a nice extra bit of flair that I like to see in jam games.
I'll be honest, these kinds of "hard platformers" aren't really my thing, but all in all this was a pretty solid entry. Good job.
At least the GIF in the description told me that you *do* have to make a leap of faith.
Great work and im looking forward to seeing a finished version!
Although, Phil is not the one who breathes in water, right...? (try throwing him and go alone in the water)
A few bugs, but nothing gamebreaking for me, here is a list if needed:
- When touching an enemy on the side and returning into water, can only move up and down until I die from the bottom screen fall
- On level 2, there is a cascade between two cliffs, and you can go inside the right one (and it has no easter egg or anything)
- I had a JS error after finishing the game
- Sometimes after throwing Phil, I still had the character sprite with Phil in hand. So I duplicated Phil!
- Wall jump sometimes felt off (when starting from the ground)
I think the Phil mechanic can make a decent full game, well done
Great game - looks and feels good (apart from walljumps and the artifacts) but please make it instant respawn and not have us wait so long (just a few seconds but it feels loooong)
Jumps feel kinda floaty and felt confused when at times you get to stomp the enemy and at times you don't...
Also, checkpoints would definitely make it more enjoyable, to not have to go through the same stuff again and again.
Kinda cool to have your fish swim around somewhere as you scout forward, maybe there could be a bit more use in that?
Like having the fish as your little sidekick rather than a freeloader.
Keep it up!
I managed to finish the game and was craving for more !
(Too bad there isn't Phill's house :'( )
I only found minor things bothering me :
- It is impossible to go up on the same wall by wall jumping.
This was very frustrating as sometimes I managed to stick on a wall just before the end of the screen and was expecting to survive by wall-jumping my way to the top, but this was not possible.
- It can be very hard to go out of the water. This was particularly painfull in the second level, were you are in a pool and the two walls are very separated.
I think that problem 2 would not be a problem if there were not problem 1
- There is also something I can't really find a solution for, but I found the "throwing the fish" mecanics sometimes frustrating 'cause you had to stop and go back to catch your fish if you were throwing it on an ennemy while running. That's really hard to explain but you can actually see a good exemple at the end of your exmeple .gif :
Just before you finish the level, you kill an ennemy with the fish. And if you look carefully, you have to stay still a fraction of a second to wait for the fish to go down. I don't know about others, but this few miliseconds were super frustrating for me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is bad. I'm just saying, if I could Run, throw the fish, kill an ennemy, jump, catch the fish in mid air and continue running like a BOSS, that would be freaking awesome!!! (I'm actually having the image in my head and I'm super hyped ^^)
Wow, I rarelly say that many "negative" things on a game, and I don't want you to feel like I didn't like it. I LOVED the game, it just feels like changing tiny little things could make this game one of the game where I spend hours just to get this perfect sequence of fish throwing-wall jumping-crazy runnin'-combo breaking !
Two notes:
1. The platforming is a little too slippery for my taste, and the wall jumping is very difficult.
2. I wish there was more to do with phil. The amount of time Phil can be out of water is huge, and I almost feel like I could ignore this mechanic and just move through the levels. I also liked the idea of being able to throw Phil, but aside from the very first time I did it, I didn't find a good reason to throw him ever again.
But again, the game is well rounded, and it's a solid entry. Good job!
* I frequently missed the signposts because of their placement, e.g. falling down the pits beside them.
* The player halts when you change left/right direction, and the acceleration ramp is too long and has a sudden 'snap' feeling at max velocity. The player also can't jump when walking into a wall, which makes the wall jumping tricky, and so progressing quite frustrating.
With some movement/physics tweaking, more interesting use of Phil, and fixes from some things other people have mentioned, this could have been in the top 10 for sure! So I look forward to your next LD. :slight_smile:
As much as I wanted to enjoy the game, it fell short on the gamefeel for me, and made it difficult to like. Moving, jumping, sliding, even more so wall jumping, are too tedious. It doesn't react nicely, and feels weird. The speed at which you rise and fall during the jump is not quite right either. The browser playable version was unplayable for me, the downable version was a bit better. Added to the fact that you only have one life, and need to start all over again made me give up after 4 tries. Making a nice gamefeel is the most difficult aspect of a dynamic platformer like this, so I still admire the effort. It will need a bit of tweaking, but I think it is quite promising! :smiley:
Nice job!
That all being said, this is seriously quite impressive. The game has its very own feel. Even if the controls are tough, I'm almost certain after playing the game for a few hours you would just feel like a god gliding through the levels. Plus the whole goldfish story and mechanics around it are great. Love the idea, and I think with a bit more work (and playtesting by unexperienced players :D) this could turn into something amazing.
Other than that good stuff bruv.
Eu vou dar continuidade! Ainda jogando, testando e (em seguida) faço minha análise. :) \o
I always start by testing the exit button. Hahahahahahah. Nothing more.
I will continue! Still playing, testing and (next) doing my analysis. :) \o

My main pain points are:
- The levels (without checkpoints!) are far too long for enemies-kill-you-on-touch.
- The ultra slow restart. And after I wait, I have to get to my mouse and click. In a game where you die often :(
- Sometimes the wall jumping doesn't seem to work as I want it to.
- Maybe... the game could could start with a little easier levels?
The above combined make it so hard and frustrating for me that I can't even finish the first level. And that's a shame, because it looks (and sounds!) beautiful. The fish-throwing is hilarious, and so is enemies dying from touching Phil. I like the backstory and the concept. I like the idea of having short timed sections with a perfect ingame explanation. This game is extremely impressive, and I you got a new follower - I just hope that the next time you dial down the difficulty a bit!
(In game jams, my mantra for that is: If the difficulty is just right for me as the developer, it's probably too hard.)
Ao arremessar o peixe de dentro da água a gente fica com um "clone" dele em uma animação de corrida.
I am still writing the analysis, first I would like to leave this image showing another error that I found (to favor the corrections).
When throwing the fish out of the water, we get a "clone" of it in a running animation.



Nice game.
1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo:
Gostei bastante da ideia de estar cuidando de algo, que, ao mesmo tempo é a sua arma (a mais segura, digamos, porque pular em cima é meio perigoso/arriscado, hahahahah).
O jogo é um plataforma, com bastante verticalidade (gostei bastante disso).
Aprender a jogar foi bem simples (só gostaria que não fosse usando o mouse obrigatoriamente, colocar o botão "J" para atirar poderia ser útil (mas poderia ser limitador quanto ao ângulo)).
O fluxo de jogo me pareceu balanceado (só gostaria de ter mais estágios e um pouco mais de fluidez no movimento para continuar jogando mais e mais, hahahahah).
2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa:
Gostei muito dos gráficos, achei tudo muito interessante (só citaria que há algo estranho, talvez algo nos layers das imagens, algumas vezes surgem marcas na tela).
Também achei a música muito boa, parabéns por esses dois pontos artísticos.
A narrativa é bem direta: mantenha seu peixe vivo e continue avançando entre os estágios. Fora do tempo de evento poderia ser desenvolvida ainda mais uma motivação para a jornada em questão.
Ainda sobre a narrativa: sugiro aumentar um pouco o tempo quando mostra o texto inicial; ou deixar o jogador apertar algum botão para ir além.
A mesma sugestão para o segundo texto, foi ainda mais rápido (acho que era o identificador do estágio.
3 - Cultura:
Além de lembrar de personagens icônicos de diversas séries televisivas (personagens de "O Máscara" (The Mask), "O Incrível Mundo de Gumball" (The Amazing World of Gumball) e "Procurando Nemo" (Finding Nemo)); o jogo possui narrativa própria.
Creio que possa aproveitar diversas referências para atrair pessoas de diversos nichos para o seu projeto (porque eu acredito que tenha sido um excelente trabalho de "character design").
4 - Monetização:
Acredito que (com os devidos polimentos, correções e extensões) o jogo possa vender em stores como Steam.
Caso crie alguma página no Facebook para o projeto, pode me marcar. :) \o
1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
I really liked the idea of taking care of something, which at the same time is your weapon (the safest, say, because jumping on top is kind of dangerous / risky, hahahahah).
The game is a platform, with a lot of verticality (I really liked that).
Learning to play was very simple (I just wish it weren't using the mouse, putting the "J" button to shoot could be useful (but it could be limiting in terms of angle)).
The game flow seemed balanced (I just wish I had more stages and a little more fluidity in the movement to keep playing more and more, hahahahah).
2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative:
I really liked the graphics, I found everything very interesting (I would just mention that there is something strange, maybe something in the layers of the images, sometimes marks appear on the screen).
I also thought the music was very good, congratulations on these two artistic points.
The narrative is very straightforward: keep your fish alive and keep moving forward between stages. Outside the event time, further motivation could be developed for the journey in question.
Still on the narrative: I suggest increasing the time a little when showing the initial text; or let the player press any button to go further.
The same suggestion for the second text was even faster (I think it was the stage identifier.
3 - Culture:
In addition to remembering iconic characters from several television series (characters from "The Mask", "The Amazing World of Gumball", and "Finding Nemo"); the game has its own narrative.
I believe you can take advantage of several references to attract people from different niches to your project (because I believe it was an excellent job of "character design").
4 - Monetization:
I believe that (with due polish, corrections and extensions) the game can sell in stores like Steam.
If you create a Facebook page for the project, you can bookmark me. :) \O
High marks for humour.