Mini Beasts by cassowary
A minibeast is a small invertebrate creature, like an insect, spider, or snail. Technically, frogs are not minibeasts, because they have bones, but I like frogs, so they are in the game.
This game should be playable on smartphones! Please let me know if you run into any issues.
How to play * To move a creature, click on it and then click where you want it to move. Each creature has its own unique movement pattern. * A ladybug can walk in any number of spaces horizontally or vertically. * A spider moves diagonally. * A snail can move forwards and backwards relative to the direction it is facing. * A stag beetle can move forward and backwards, and can push one other creatures along with it as it moves. * A frog jumps two spaces forward and one over, like a chess knight. * Blue creatures start on red spaces, and red creatures start on blue spaces. To complete a puzzle, move all the blue creatures to blue spaces and the red creatures to red spaces. * There are 16 levels in total. * Z to undo, R to reset, M to mute. There are also buttons at the top of the screen for these functions, as well as a button to enable little flags in the corner of tiles if for whatever reason you can't tell the colors apart. * To delete your save file, press X then W then refresh the page.
Tools used * Graphics: Aseprite * Game engine: zucchinibread.js, my browser game engine * Level design: Tiled + ulvl * Sound effects: mouth + fingers + guitar + Audacity * Music: Ableton Live + Keyzone Classic + alto saxophone * Font design: Fontstruct
Post-submission quick fixes (these were all within like an hour of posting the game, I caught a bunch of little bugs (heh), sorry!): fixed a bug where the frog was playing the wrong sound effect; fixed a bug where you could undo to the state of a previous level; fixed some engine issues to make the game work on smartphones properly; fixed a bug where we were using the same save file as Stars Align so it would not always start on level 1 if you played that game ;._.
| Link | https://github.com/cassowarii/ld56 |
| itch.io | https://cassowary.itch.io/mini-beasts |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/mini-beasts |
Ratings
| Overall | 17th | 4.216⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 14th | 4.196⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 77th | 3.784⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 58th | 4.049⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 61th | 4.059⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 11th | 4.204⭐ | 51🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 169th | 2.963⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 24th | 4.125⭐ | 50🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 30🗨️ |
The stag beetle was a great mechanic. Up until level 7, the puzzles kinda solved themselves if you just looked at the end spaces, but once you could push pieces off their starting paths, it really opened up another dimension to the game.
A small bit of feedback about the audio - I think the sound effects that the pieces made was really satisfying, but the music was almost too loud to hear it. Bumping up the volume just a tiny bit would have put them at a better balance IMO.
Great work!
Being able to click anywhere and not have to walk through the, say, knight moves, each step at a time is really a great help. Brilliant puzzle design as usual! I made it through to the end, only had to reset/undo once (on the first stag beetle level), it was nice being able to (usually) get myself out of trouble.
I sunk a bunch of time into it - alas, I didn't get to the end. I kinda just wanted to skip a level I was stuck on... I guess that's not in the spirit of the game though!
Interesting! I love it!!!
The art and the music are a real gem 😍😍
My only issue, is that the mobile controls are a bit clunky. Wished I didn't have to press on a character twice when I want toove it twice 😅
But still, one of my favourites so far 🤩🤩🤩
The detail of the different leaves around the map is fantastic it adds a lot of polish and juice to the game.
I have definitely constructed puzzles by working backwards from the solution in past games though. That's how I made most of the puzzles in my ludum dare 52 game, lol.
Proof that I made it till the end :smiley: Looking forward to extra levels. Nice music also.
In addition to that, everything is very very concise and polished.
If you expand this game post jam, I would love to have a counter of how many movements I made, to try to break my own "records".
Also, the sax was epic, I'm impressed (I played bari back in high school).
The game is great, the various beasts make for loads of variety, the level design is top notch with a smooth learning curves. I'm very impressed that you managed to make such a polished and content-rich game during the compo, congrats!
My only complaint would be about the music. It's good and set a fitting mood, but it's way to loud compared to sound effects, and can be distracting. It's made a bit to fast / upbeat rythm too, I think a slower tune would allow a for a "calmer" mood, but I'm nitpicking here, as it's an outstanding track on its own.
This feels like a commercial and complete games. Add more levels, and you're ready to release it for the world! (and honestly, with the 16 levels currently in the game, it's offering quite a long play time already).
First: I have to talk about the art. I've never seen a game made of modeling clay here at LD. It's truly a work of extreme good taste.
Second: What a brilliant and objective minimalist idea. You hit the nail on the head regarding what it means to create a simple and functional game. It aligns perfectly with the theme.
I can only thank you for the experience."
I really commented on the wrong game. I sincerely apologize.
Now for the real comment:
I love puzzles like this. I could spend hours playing it. Congratulations on the idea. The game is very polished and the puzzles, even though they are not difficult, are fun.
It reminded me of a board game called Hive. :)
I actually also thought of the Hive similarity partway through the jam -- the earlier graphics looked a bit more like that game, too... I've never actually played Hive, but I used to work in a store that sold board games, and I always thought its aesthetic was very cool, so maybe there was a subconscious influence there, haha.
Nitpicks:
I was playing on my phone in browser and it felt a bit tedious to click on the bug again after every move, when I wanted to move one several times.
Overall, really good jam game! ^^
I really like the premise of this one; take a bunch of simple creatures, give them unique movement mechanics, and try to position them into the right spots.
If I had one piece of criticism, it would be that the early levels felt a little too straightforward. You could usually figure out which pieces needed to end up in which goals because of the movement restrictions, and get pretty close to the answer by just moving the units closer without a specific plan. **However,** this changed with the stag beetle! That helped introduce some fun contradictions ("wait, it's impossible for the frog to move there!") and realizations ("but if it was one square higher...") that shine through in a good puzzle game. In my opinion, if the game had cut a few levels and introduced the stag beetle earlier, it would still have been a satisfying length but would have gotten to the meaty levels earlier.
Graphics are as cute and clean as ever, and I appreciate you bringing back the live sax for the soundtrack.
I drew some of the little critters (less polished than usual since I'm rushing to get some last-minute ratings in).
Thanks for making this, and good luck for the results!
And the soundtrack is perfect for this type of game - relaxing, thought-provoking, vibing like I should be solving a murder mystery in an armchair by a fireplace. Excellent work! :smile_cat: