Prince Charmony by 100th_Coin

[raw]
made by 100th_Coin for Ludum Dare 56 (COMPO)

Prince Charmony's golden parrot was stolen by The Dissonancer! Go on a musical fairy-tale adventure singing to woodland critters as a means to make them do your bidding.

birdGif_2.gif

Screenshot_1.png

About the game:

This is a Medium difficulty puzzle game. Estimated time to complete, 15 to 25 minutes.

In order to sing to the woodland creatures, you must be standing at a "singing-platform".

Each animal you control has 2 "modes". The Melody Mode and Harmony Mode. Each mode has their own uses, and it's up to you to figure out which animals need to be doing what in order for you to progress.

In order to make your way to The Dissonancer (who stole your parrot) you need the help of some woodland creatures who saw where he escaped to. By singing a magical song obtained by an orb, the animals will show you the way to the next stage.

Once the orb has been picked up, you may no longer give animals any commands, or else the orb will return to it's original position.

Screenshot_2.png

Controls:

• WASD - Move around

• Spacebar - Jump

• Left Mouse Button - Menus and commanding animals

• Right Mouse Button - Fast toggle between current selected animal's melody / harmony mode

• R - Reset room (You respawn at the most recently visited singing-platform.)

• Escape - Pause

Walkthrough:

Since this is a puzzle game, I have included a walkthrough. Please use this video if you get stuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huRS_T-AHew

Please leave a comment if able. All feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

birdGif_2.gif

One of the shaders I made is a bit GPU-demanding, so there's a post-Compo version that's exactly the same game, but with slightly modified shader code that should be less GPU-demanding. If you're on a laptop or a computer with an old graphics card, or if you are streaming the game, I recommend the less-GPU-demanding build.

Ratings

Overall 13th 4.297⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 24th 4.109⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 35th 4⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 106th 3.844⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 15th 4.406⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1th 4.484⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Humor 6th 4.313⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 24th 4.125⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 19🗳️ 42🗨️

Feedback

BOHNE
07. Oct 2024 · 13:19 UTC
normal game
EpiFai
07. Oct 2024 · 15:01 UTC
Nice One! Top tier from compo. Only thing is It`s laggy on my PC, so some spots fills like I should, but cant reach. Like this level, which i completed with some strange setup![setup.png](///raw/8d9/06/z/663b5.png)
DropMania
07. Oct 2024 · 15:26 UTC
![Screenshot 2024-10-07 172340.png](///raw/77c/16/z/663e8.png)

I beat it! (For one level I looked into the walkthrough because I was stupid and didnt think of the jumping pad)

I have to say.. this Game is awesome! The puzzles are really good and fun. The music is just... crazy :D really nice singing ;)
And the Game looks great. All of this in 48h is just crazy. Amazing job!
Sheepolution
07. Oct 2024 · 16:28 UTC
It's 100th Coin, so you know that you're gonna have a good time, and that even if you wouldn't enjoy the gameplay (you will) the comedy is there to entertain you anyway.

Really clever puzzle game with some unique mechanics. The concept of placing stuff in a level to solve isn't new, but the combination of mechanics you have defnitely is. Some puzzles really required some creative thinking, and had me... puzzled for quite some time. And yes, I have solved some the unintended way. That doesn't make me think worse of the game though, it just makes me think of myself as a genius. The story is funny, so is the music.

If I had to point out a critique, it's that the art is sometimes a mismatch. The beautiful background art vs the silly character. But it's a very minor issue.

Overall, great game as always!
LDJam user 259831
07. Oct 2024 · 19:03 UTC
![Screenshot 2024-10-07 130117.png](///raw/7f6/f3/z/667a6.png)

Managed to get stuck in the wall on this level but overall an amazing game! Great puzzle design, I had to consult the walkthrough more than I'd like to admit. The audio layering when the player stands on the singing platforms is amazing, and the voice acting is fantastic!
T C
08. Oct 2024 · 03:13 UTC
As always, great work! The rabbit platforms were particularly impressive. Lots of creativity allowed here. One thing I'd like (or if it was there, didn't know about it) is a level reset button. I believe I softlocked myself. I'm sure I'll come back to it later at some point to finish it. Great humor and music as always!
BuzzyDev
08. Oct 2024 · 09:15 UTC
A very ah-ah game.

Ah-ah song.
Ah-ah gameplay.
Ah-ah story.

Very very birds.

Love. Happy. One of a games I think.

P.S. Brilliant piece of humor, but kinda laggy.
Starlight Glimmer is best poney
08. Oct 2024 · 14:44 UTC
This game and Ramnesia are my favorite compo games of yours. It's mind-blowing how you can come up with a novel puzzle mechanic and make so many competent stages within a weekend. https://youtu.be/HiB8jYkYCIk
CaptainDreamcast
08. Oct 2024 · 14:50 UTC
Phenomenal game! I think the art especially is amazing in this one. And of course the humour is on point again too! Love the villain and his pants in this game. He's living the dream.
Made a video with the live reactions that also includes most of my thoughts, but just so it's also in text form, amazing job, incredibly polished game that's super fun!
https://youtu.be/Df9FtVjVq_c
Frogman
08. Oct 2024 · 17:44 UTC
Incredible game! It was super fun to speedrun as well! Managed to get 3:07.78 minutes - I messed up a few times, but it was good enough for me :)
https://youtu.be/T_ea9SNeGcY

I loved pretty much everything here. The cutscenes are hilarious ("my parrot doesn't speak English" was my favourite line), and I loved the simple animations (with the sudden glowup in the ending one). The graphics here are mindblowing for a jam game - so many little effects, and everything looks amazing! It got to the point where my PC actually struggled running it, especially alongside OBS, which is... very rare for jam games (Baldur's Gate runs better!). Still, it wasn't too bad. And of course, the music and sound effects (especially the dynamic changing while standing on the special platforms) were, as always, both really good and really funny.

The gameplay was my favourite aspect, though - especially the rabbit abilities, they were so cool! It was super fun "building" parts of the level to beat it, and all abilities felt very distinct. The levels were very clever too, and some took me a while to solve - my initial run took ~17 minutes.

The bird abilities had some minor issues, though. I never used the platform one after unlocking double-jump since it just felt worse. And it took me a while to understand how to use the double-jump properly - aka infinite jumps from there. Which felt a bit awkward to use tbh, since you always wanted to begin jumping at the very top of the square. It would've been nice if holding space inside it automatically "jumped" you until you left the zone. Still, these weren't huge issues, and pretty much the only nitpicks I have.

Overall, this is seriously amazing, even compared to your previous entries! Super funny, super pretty, and super fun. Incredible entry!
Mathstr0fficial
08. Oct 2024 · 18:51 UTC
Here we go! One of your better games, though I wish there would have been a bit more tutorialization at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP1QVUJQ3TU
little-crow-heart
09. Oct 2024 · 16:47 UTC
Amazing game! I love that you sing the modes yourself instead of just using sounds. It makes it more special in my opinion ^^ (especially loved the boss theme)
Alchemic
09. Oct 2024 · 21:12 UTC
I love the warm and comfy artwork. And of course the music is top tier. Some of the puzzles felt a bit weird, I feel like I cheesed some of them by abusing hitboxes and the double jump box.
Arscene
11. Oct 2024 · 13:24 UTC
Amazing audio and art ! Congrats.
TROGDOR 20X6
11. Oct 2024 · 15:30 UTC
Surprisingly good graphics. Funny intro and music. Controls weren't intuitive straight away for me. I was able to clear the first jump without birds (there were a few jumps like this), so that may have added to the confusion. Some of the puzzles were more difficult than I expected for a game jam. I think it can be hard to judge whether you're missing something or just not placing that bird platform just right or bad at jumping. Maybe some snapping to grid could help with this. Not sure. Overall enjoyable.
Sutt00
11. Oct 2024 · 20:11 UTC
That was a delightful cutscene followed by a game with unplayable performance issues (I don't have a graphics card).
The art and music are lovely. The ideas for the mechanics are great.
I tried the light gpu build, and it was fun, but I cannot rate the game based on it (I'll dock points for graphics).
LDJam user 352490
12. Oct 2024 · 22:05 UTC
I loved the intro cutscene. Kind of reminded me of making movies in Kidpix as a kid, where it'd record you dragging a bunch of sprites around the screen.

The gameplay was fun. I like puzzle games with physics, and this one had me thinking a lot about how to get the character from point A to point B.

Once you get to rabbit platforms, it does seem easy to run into soft-lock situations, since there's no way get rid of structures without the gold platform. Example below (pretend the double-jump area isn't there) --

![birds.png](///raw/ae0/65/z/68b92.png)

The singing is charming, I like how the vocals fade in and out when you step on and off the platforms.
Ategon
13. Oct 2024 · 01:47 UTC
Hey 100th coin, im the host for score chasers again and wanted to ask if youre fine if I use gameplay + music from the game for the intermission video (music is currently planned to be a mixed together version of the in game track along with the acapella version of it, not sure if thats actually mixed together in game since I havent played through it yet (will end up sending a vid here in the future when I do with feedback))
blobo
13. Oct 2024 · 05:13 UTC
@ategon Yeah, sure! It's an honor.
Vary
13. Oct 2024 · 18:03 UTC
This is super clean and impressive, even more so for a Compo entry, holy. The voice acting is top tier, the graphics are great, the singing along audio is incredible, the puzzles are so so clever. I ended up using the walkthrough for one of them (didn't think about what solid objects implied!) but for the rest of the levels it felt great once I had the solution figured out. Amazing amazing job!
henk
13. Oct 2024 · 18:12 UTC
Too good! I don't know if it's because I'm on an older computer or because I was running
under wine, but the input latency was super high for me, which made the "double-jump"
regions somewhat frustrating. This was with the LightGPU version. Still
managed to beat it, though!
SdCorpse
14. Oct 2024 · 00:46 UTC
I don't know what to post. Im just going to max rate it in everything like it deserves.
Belle
14. Oct 2024 · 13:42 UTC
I keep coming back to check on your games each time around!

You are such a one-man army I love it. You absolutely outdid yourself on the music, it slaps so hard.

Great puzzles, humour, art, theme, this has it all - and I hope you win!

Thank you for participating with another awesome game (Or maybe I should thank the Dissonancer for stealing the parrot and making all of this possible) :smiley:
Tomssuli
17. Oct 2024 · 17:03 UTC
Awesome game! I laughed at breaking the fourth wall "were doing that again" :laughing:

I liked the music and loved the dynamic voice over. Tiny creatures played a big role in this game and were used cleverly.

Level design was great and I'm astounded you had time to make all that in addition to all the graphics and sounds and coding!

Great and polished entry overall!
Jimbly
17. Oct 2024 · 22:43 UTC
Really nice game! At least one level was especially hard because I managed to make a tricky double-jump the first time, so assumed it was doable, then after grabbing the orb, I tried 100 times and could never replicate it -\_-. The walkthrough video was great since I saw you solved it with a completely different method, that required much less dexterity (or framerate drop?) to complete ^\_^. Music and sound awesome as always. I liked the twist ending =)
MateusBoga
18. Oct 2024 · 22:33 UTC
Dude, I think you outdid yourself once again! The music is incredible and the visuals compliment it so well. The mechanics are also so interesting and fun! I did struggle to make it through the I think last 3 levels, there was one where you could only make a jump because of some funky physics and sometimes you just can't force the game to do it. Idk if that was intentional or not. That reminds me, it would be nice to know what level you're on somewhere on screen.

You have to release the OST somewhere, please!

![Screenshot_137.png](///raw/296/e/z/68f61.png)
Tetracold
22. Oct 2024 · 02:28 UTC
really great game

The puzzles were fun and the rise in difficulty in difficulty is just right. they are incredibly well designed for just 2 days

I loved the presentation of the game, the style is great and the cutscenes were very funny! I also liked the singing over the music, the prince's theme it's quite the ear worm especially paired with the singing

very good entry, super polished
Jeremy Ryan
22. Oct 2024 · 02:51 UTC
Finally getting around to rating games, so naturally had to start with yours!

As always, you've delivered an impressively scoped, polished game bursting with personality. Puzzle games are super difficult on LD timelines but to me the pacing and difficulty felt just about right, which is no small feat!

Graphics and UI are high-quality and legible. Once again I'm super impressed with how good the trees in the background look! I do think the background and foreground elements clash a little bit, since the background has so much depth of color (especially with the light rays/shaders) while the character and creatures are comparatively simple and flat.

Audio is great as always, and glad to hear you're continuing your a capella streak.

Fan art is quick and dirty this time around because I'm doing all my play and rate in the last couple days. Here's the guy (I gave him arms so you don't have to):

![charmony.png](///raw/aba/3/z/69058.png)

Thanks for continuing to make awesome games!
aeveis
25. Oct 2024 · 05:33 UTC
took me around 24 min! The platforming puzzles were interesting, nice experiments with manipulating space. I liked that you had to use the mechanics for the final boss as well. I kind of want a puzzle that basically makes you have to infinite jump or fly around, which the frog bounce kind of did, but maybe different ways to do that. I think with out increasing the number of creatures, it would probably involve some kind of timing element with switching between melodies and harmonies live but then maybe it'll get too complicated.

I did like how some puzzles required you to get to the right spot which makes for some nice implied lock and key puzzles through space. i also liked the background tree, though maybe too close in saturation with the platforms. nice job!
Ategon
25. Oct 2024 · 21:59 UTC
Played through your game on stream, you can see me go through it in the vod below (last chapter is the chapter for the game). Visuals and audio were great and everything in game meshed really well together. The polish details everywhere were really good (with the dynamic music changing when going over a building spot and the parallax, god rays, etc. in the background). The main thing to work on if you work on it more in post jam (or as a takeaway for future jams) would be matching the UI to the level of polish that exists in game. There was some issues with the fonts with some blurry text and missmatching fonts and the starting and end screens are pretty much currently just basic UI elements slapped onto a solid color background. Adding a tiny bit of movement to things on the main menu (with something like the little creatures hopping around) as well as making the buttons feel juicier would go a long way to making that on the level of the main portion of the game. (That is mostly me being nitpicky though but the overall game itself is awesome)

https://youtu.be/7Yi2kg4OiTU