Gecko's Odyssey by RAFFE
Solve physics puzzles and platform your way to the top!
Web build works in Chromium based browsers.

Controls
- A D to move
- S W or to tilt camera
- Space to jump
- Mouse moves UFO
- Left Click to activate tractor beam
- R to restart
Interactable objects include yellow boxes, buttons and small pillars.

Done by our amazing Ludum Dare team
- @JustMars with the programming magic and UI implementation
- @jokku with the 3D art and shaders
- @late with the level design, postprocessing and 3D art
- @RAFFE with the characters, animations, 2D & UI graphics
- @HappyTomato with the incredibly banger music
Game assets (sprites, models, textures, music) were created by our team during the jam.
| Link | https://justmars.itch.io/geckos-odyssey |
| Link | https://justmars.itch.io/geckos-odyssey |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/geckos-odyssey |
Ratings
| Overall | 548th | 3.411⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 569th | 3.179⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 667th | 2.946⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 550th | 3.482⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 229th | 4.125⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 153th | 3.929⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 558th | 2.396⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 496th | 3.519⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 28🗨️ |

Physics in games is always awesome and this was no exception. Although in the beginning I succeeded to softlock myself multiple times by stashing all the movable stuff up and then failing a jump and unable to reach them anymore... But then I played more safely and got to experience the rest of the game.
Puzzles weren't very difficult, but I liked the part where I had to drop the ufo. Nice usage of the mechanics there.
Nothing was explained too much, but the game still transmitted the feelings with the overall mood and the end cutscene.
Good work!

P.s, I might go bug-hunting later to see if this can be speedrun hehe
Aside from that, everything felt fantastic. The music was excellent, the puzzles were engaging, and I especially loved the visual style.
Congratulations! :alien:
Physics-based games are unpredictable of course, so having a reset button is good if it really breaks, but I think for such a large level you should have ways of getting stuff back if you fall down and can't reach them again. Some way for them to respawn or reset. Or maybe just checkpoints, I wasn't able to finish the game (I'll try again, but I'm short on time right now) so I don't know if there are some already.
The really big thing for me is that the UFO can get stuck. I think it probably shouldn't be affected by physics at all. The way the lights change when it's stuck is a nice touch, but it's not fun when it gets jammed somewhere and you have to restart the whole thing :(
Hope I don't come off too negative, I really liked the game and I think it's almost perfect if these issues get worked out one way or another, so I just wanted to make sure I described them. I've still given you high scores in most categories! c:
The level is gorgeous and the character is very cute, and the whole UFO idea is a great mechanic. You got a lot done in a short time, and it's impressive.
The mechanics are really well done, and the music adds the right amount of atmosphere as well.
The player character's design reminds me of the Madness series from way back on Newgrounds, nice nostalgia hit there for me :slight_smile:
Great job and I could see this turning into a full on puzzle platformer with more levels added to it.

**BUT THIS SAUCE IN THE GRAPHICS REALLY MATTERS!!!**
*Love the old PS game vibes!*
Unfortunately, I was not able to finish the game. The mechanic itself is interesting, and I was enjoying myself initially, but the game was just too unforgiving for me to power through it. The main issue is that there's no way to recover from mistakes. Fall down to the bottom of the map? You have to restart the game, because you can't make it back up without the UFO. Accidentally drop a necessary box or the UFO? _Technically_ you could keep going, but you may as well restart the game anyway, since you've essentially lost all your progress. It doesn't help that the UFO is very easy to accidentally drop when maneuvering it through tricky terrain. I think I got a good portion of the way up the map on my last attempt, but after missing a jump and falling most of the way back down the start I just didn't have the motivation to do it all again.
On the bright side, though, the core of the gameplay is solid, and with some tweaks to make it more fair I think this could be a pretty enjoyable game. The changes that would make the most difference, I think, are:
- Add checkpoints. This is the biggest one. The game right now effectively plays like Getting Over It, which maybe some people might like (and could absolutely be kept as a bonus/hard mode), but the immense consequences for mistakes are quite demotivating.
- Being able to lose signal to the UFO is frustrating. It's not a poor mechanic on its own, but combined with the high penalty for failure it makes the game more precise than it probably needs to me. It would help, though, if there were some kind of indicator for how close you are to losing signal. If checkpoints were added, and they were close enough together, you could probably get away without changing this, though.
Still, I did enjoy my time with the game on my first couple attempts. There's definitely a solid game here, it just needs to be polished up enough to be more approachable.