Packed to the Gills by LDJam user 316658
squish into the train
individuals as one
a can of sardines

🐟🐟🐟
Hurry and catch your train, little fish!
A deep-sea train-catching simulator.
🐟🐟🐟
Features: - Four fishy levels with lots and lots of trains (regular, express, and maybe even special?) - An endless current of sea creatures to get uncomfortably close to - Groovy underwater beats to wash away the stress of commuting - Unlockable bonus modes and high score tracker
| Link | https://moonlightjammers.itch.io/packed-to-the-gills |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/packed-to-the-gills |
Ratings
| Given | 50🗳️ | 91🗨️ |
You guys are experienced and it shows, this is a near perfect jam game. Did I mention how awesome that soundtrack is?
Fairly solid entry overall!
With only limited space |
A great game was made
I'm not very good at haiku, but this game is amazing. The music and vibe are fantastic, the game play is novel, and the use of theme was perfect. Very well done!
Big round of applause for Branco and DJ Orca!
Great work with the music and the woodwinds. I love how everything feels relaxed and uplifting but also lively, which is strange given how laid back the rest of the elements feel. But it works! The woodwinds were such a nice touch and the chiptune works well with the art style. As far as sound effects go, I think most of them were satisfying and worked with the music/aesthetic. The only sound I couldn't get behind was the train sound at the beginning of each level. It sounds really garbled - which I imagine is to make it sound like it's underwater, but it comes across as really unsettling and uncomfortable to listen to and it doesn't go that well with the rest of the sound effects. I always felt a little off-put every time I started a level before the music kicked in.
I was also wondering if the game supported keyboard controls in the menus once you're in the game itself. I noticed I could bring up the settings menu with the keyboard, but to progress through the actual levels or even the haiku, it seemed like I could only use the mouse. Honestly it feels like the entire game could have used more keyboard controls for UI stuff or at least when going through the haiku lines.
Overall, I think the game is super well executed and I love the experience it brings and the emotions it makes me feel. I do love that touch of the haikus serving as the in-betweens of levels and hints of what's to come. The soundtrack is lively and fun and I will go and buy it now.

It's really that good. Truly a good game! Congrats for your top rank once again haha
I really enjoyed playing this gem!
A solid entry!
Very simple, but very clever gameplay based on the theme. I appreciated Rush Hour mode, because it felt adjacent to something like a boss rush. And games with boss rushes are just the best!
Super well done game, congrats!
I recorded myself playing, and despite having a rocky start, I figured it out and I seriously enjoyed this one. Cheers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ib_Z3IGvU
The only question now is how that whale got on the train :whale2:

Lovely art style with great looking cast of colorful characters and lovely sounds. Nice pacing and decent amount of replayability with all the different modes and fun poems in between. After playing quite a bit of different modes it does start getting a bit repetitive with so little variety in the different configurations but of course it's not even designed to keep people playing that long I guess.
That one car with a space that kinda looks like it'd be an upside down L but is too tall and needs to go straight was the biggest pain in my ass.
Why was Joel not there in the rush mode?
Going into real nit pick territory here as there isn't much at all to critique about. The scoring is kinda weird. You're scored based on trains caught and time taken but both are partly out of your hands as needing to wait doesn't give you a mark for catching a train (hence not 100 on my rush score) and time can be really hurt by getting hit by needing to wait those filled train cars too.
But yeah, awesome job! 👍 I want more... 🤩
My teammates and me also went with a packed subway car idea, so it was extra cool to see what our teams did differently!
Oh and haikus, that was cool!
Well done!
Great job!
Save some art for the rest of us, and that saxman though.
Here's the VOD with Timestamps so you can click to your game!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NVsG7UOyfw
There is always some tension yet is it always feasible, rarely unfair, congratulations.
i think the only feedback i have is that there's no repercussion to simply spamming space to let the jellyfish on without needing to think about it. the fix for this could be a double-whammy by having space also skip the train, to eliminate the need to wait on full trains. though, i really do like "waiting" as a gameplay mechanic, forces you to appreciate the surroundings more :)
really lovely art, really lovely music. another wonderful experience from you guys :)
Maybe include some icons/visual tutorial at the start of the game indicating what arrow key corresponds to what (i was initially pressing left/right thinking i was meant to move the character to the spot).
My one issue was that I never figured out what to do in level 4 when the giant fish was taking up the whole car.
i only have one question...how'd the whale get in there?
The only thing i would change, would be shorter levels.
It's a very clever theme usage and the game is completly polished for or what it proposes.
I really love this game! It's a master piece!
I also really like the touch with the credits and that all the fish have names.
I really enjoyed playing. The music, sound effects and graphics were all really well done. I also loved how each different position was introduced. It wasn't clear to me what I was supposed to do with the "stolen" trains. Was that good, or bad? It seemed like most of the little jellyfish would have been able to fit after I got on...
Very good job!
the art is so cute!
Congrats!
Anyway - great game and a very cute credit sequence.
Edit: just saw your comment above xD
But enter is a bit out of the way too. I still keep suggesting any key to progress text.
While you did clarify in another comment, enter is so atypical and out of the way of where your hands typically are, other input to advance text would've been nice. Also, idk what caused this but the game took 2 screenshots in the beginning? I'm guessing some UI element unintentionally grabbed focus or sth
Small input issues aside, this was phenomenal! The haikus were cute, the artwork was really effective and vibey, and overall it's just a cool cute game. I found the lantern fish to be a bit too difficult to make out at a glance, like their form takes up so much space I often just missed that I could squeeze into their mouth. but these are all minor nitpicks and I really enjoyed my time!
A simple idea taken to such a polished degree it feels like a retail game. The art is absolutely adorable, super coherent, and goes perfectly with the audio.
Gameplay is simple but has a logical progression, and keeps introducing new mechanics without overwhelming the player.
Great work!
Loved all of this -- one thing is that there's no penalty for just mashing space bar, so the jellyfish added no problem. But the music, graphics, humour -- it's all sublime. Amazing entry.
Lovely vibes, fun haikus, soundtrack eased the pain of being squished every day while going to a job I hate lol.
Wanted to make a clever haiku comment but nothing came out. XD Good job gang!
I think I missed an instruction cause I didn't know what was going on with those little jellyfish. But the music was great, the graphics were great.
Wonderful game.
Art music and sound are great and everything feel connected and fit together well. Great job!
The jellyfish are so cute. I think they are my favourite.
The concept would work really well for some kinda warioware style game and the vibes are so good, I love the music and the art, honestly can't find anything to criticize, it's perfectly short and sweet. Great job!
Well done! Take a candy!
very funny entry. A very interesting and fun game. I have nothing to complain about
Wanted to ask for score chasers if you were fine with me playing some gameplay of your game in the background in the waiting period / intermission. In the waiting period its going to cycle between gameplay of a bunch of different games in the background (with music from games in the jam playing as well)
I like this one too! A very tidy assortment of visuals, music and game :) Congrats!
I had to play with muted audio at work, so I won't rate on audio and mood, but I'll probably come back to play it at home since people are mentioning that the audio is fantastic as well!
Very well done!
Took me a few tries to understand, but then when it started to click, it became addictive :)
Especially the ending
Thank you for making
WE STAN SHELLBY !!!!!!!!
The underwater stations with trains packed like sardines reminded me a lot of Unreal Life. The cute sound and art really helped set the vibe. A perfect 5 on all of those aspects.
The only nitpick I'd give is that it was unclear how to move the jellyfish. I tried different things until I just
gave up and clicked on him... and it worked. Obvious in hindsight but missed a couple of trains because of that.
The fish poses are mapped to the arrow keys. I think a cross shaped layout for the poses would immediate convey that better than a square. It became second nature after doing it a few times so not a big issue.
Overall an excellent entry. You guys seem to be participating as a team in a quite a few jams and I'm definitely interested to see what you'll be making next.
P.S. the music is seriously great! so jazzy
I didn't know you could make games like this in RenPy, I thought it could only handle visual novels. I'm impressed!
Really fun gameplay, perfect music, amazing sound, theme fullfill.
Great game, good job. :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
Lovely concept, amazing execution, I love the artstyle and the characters, the music is very cool too !
I wish there were a bit more different levels tho, there practicall only one level with the jellyfish guy that just comes over and over, maybe something with different characters would be cool too !
Like having to chose very fast between sardine's shape and idk another character (even just the jellyfish who can either stand or lay down on the floor would be an interesting concept.
Still, amazing game ! Hope you can make a fuller version one day, but this one is already very polished and complete (you even have settings omg, and credits ??? damn)
Great lob on this !