Caws & Effect by A-Flat Miner Studios

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.
| Link | https://aflatminerstudios.itch.io/caws-and-effect |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/59/caws-effect |
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🗨️ |
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!!

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.
@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.
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.