Caws & Effect by A-Flat Miner Studios

[raw]
made by A-Flat Miner Studios for Ludum Dare 59 (JAM)

CawItchio_Thumb.gif

Picked up an alien shiny? Shoot beams to activate long-dead machinery! Get that blinky egg to the tube to restore the tower! Ca-caw!

Controls - Arrows or WASD - Fly - Left Mouse - Shoot beam (activate machinery)

Credits - Jodi Slade - Art - John Thrasher - Code - Micha Faw - Code - Michelle Eng - Composer

Notes! - There's are a pair of bugs that get the ball stuck on top of a platform or in the air next to one. You can either reset the level or push the ball to a different spot with the crow. - The cheat codes & message from space just barely didn't make it in time, so those spots on the map screen will unfortunately remain empty in the jam build.

Ratings

Overall 737th 3.025⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 751th 2.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 737th 2.75⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 742th 2.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 325th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 502th 2.925⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 452th 2.684⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 736th 2.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

Sheepolution
Apr 21st · 16:20 UTC
Nice game, but unfortunately a bit buggy. Sometimes the ball doesn't move when I push it, and at times it hangs still in the air with no way for me to interact with it anymore, requiring me to reset. I'm also a bit confused what the laser can do exactly, because sometimes it pushes the ball away, and other times it doesn't. But I like the art, and the crows look cute/funny.
3blackpixels
Apr 22nd · 18:19 UTC
I сcompleted the levels backwards so I learned about the movement at the very end.
Pavlo04
Apr 22nd · 18:34 UTC
"Cool game! The art is really well done. However, I got stuck on the third level and couldn't beat it. It’s very tough—maybe it’s just me, though!)
FLemming1k
Apr 24th · 00:57 UTC
Nice concept, would be much better if there were more beam interactions, also it is unclear for me what do some game objects do (if they have any purpose at all). Anyway worth playing, love the artstyle
Euler Moises
Apr 24th · 01:25 UTC
I managed to finish all the levels but I couldn't find the code to put at the end. What did I do wrong?

It took me a while to understand that the laser activates the fan that pushes the ball. After I figured it out, it was easy.

Beautiful art.

Congratulations!!

![Sem título.png](///raw/23f/f1/z/72882.png)
LDJam user 184264
Apr 25th · 08:22 UTC
I see what you were going for concept wise and the art looks great, but the movement and interactions feel a little rough.

I think the art looks great in this game. The title screen, the landscape with the tower, and the tower diagram are all standouts for me personally. Throughout the whole game you have good use of color, and as far as I can tell all of your pixel art maintains a consistent scale. The title screen does a great job at setting the tone for the game, with all three birds looking appropriately derpy.

The high speed of the player combined with no acceleration and no change in animation makes movement feel rather abrupt. I think making it take a couple frames to reach top speed and making the bird face the direction you are going would make a big difference without changing much. The tractor beam is a fun idea, but it needs feedback to show the player what it's doing. I played through the whole game thinking it was supposed to pull the ball, (and the special platforms) but was bugged to only work sometimes. It wasn't until I saw Euler's comment here that I realized it activates the fans. Playing through again knowing that made the game feel a lot better. I'd suggest maybe making the fans light up or start emitting wind particles when they are activated to tell the player that they've done something.

The music is a good neutral background that fits the theme of the game without getting in the way. Some sound effects for the beam, collision, and bird caws would be a good addition in future versions.

Overall, a fun little game!

@euler-moises I think the mention in the description about "cheat codes & message from space" not being finished in time is talking about those Signal and Code boxes being unused.
LDJam user 276121
Apr 26th · 10:15 UTC
Wonderful art and a neat concept but as others have said, the physics interactions are quite janky and unintuitive.
AFlatThrasher
Apr 26th · 15:02 UTC
@euler-moises We had great ideas for the codes, but we ran out of time. Shouldn't have tried to use Game Makers physics engine for this, it sucked up too much time.

@DarkWolf Fun fact, we have assets of a red light that will turn green when the fans/platforms activate sitting there made, we just didn't get them in in time. As mentioned above, time became a factor. But you're absolutely right that there should be something there. It would make the whole thing much more user friendly.
LDJam user 259103
Apr 28th · 07:00 UTC
This is a great start, I think, but could use a bit of polishing up on the design front. The base mechanic works pretty well, though the numbers for the egg's physics are maybe a little too high - you can fly across the map in a second, which trivialized many of the levels. The player being able to move also felt somewhat ancillary, since you can activate all machines from anywhere in the level. The only time I had to move was when my default spawn point was in the way of where the egg needed to go. Perhaps the beam could be blocked by the level's terrain, forcing you to navigate the map quickly to target different machines?

Overall, though, I had a good time with this! There's a lot of potential for interesting mechanics here. The pixel art was also quite charming.
MajoMirez
Apr 28th · 19:34 UTC
The artwork the color palette is really cute, and the mechanics are interesting but it need polishing. I thought the fans were book shelves and was confused why it moved the ball lol, also I didn't understand what the glass blocks do ..? Overall the idea is great, there are lots of fun things you could do with this
VenomousMouse
Apr 30th · 08:12 UTC
Very cool art and good overall idea. Nice job.
Nanamaki
May 03rd · 12:27 UTC
The pixel art is fantastic! I really like the color palette, the animation and the dithered pattern in the title. I can see there was some effort to make the beam mechanic versatile, which I appreciate. But I did find it confusing at times. I managed to finish the game but I ended up just pushing the ball with body the whole way lol. Overall, it’s a solid attempt, and I’d love to see a post-jam version that presents the beam mechanics more clearly.
xotraz
May 03rd · 21:08 UTC
Really good looking! I jus ended up moving the balls using the crow which was very fun.
niterich
May 03rd · 23:21 UTC
I agree with a lot of the others here: the visuals were amazing, but the gameplay was a bit underbaked. When I tried to use the platforms as expected, I found the ball clipped and fell through it each time. I ended up mostly pushing the ball with crow itself, except on the occasions where I couldn't for some unknown reason. It sounds like you had some difficulty with Game Maker's physics engine, which I understand, so I won't be too harsh on you, though I did wish you had time to add in the codes and secret message to better tie the game to the jam's theme