Don't Splat The Bat! by RubixNoob13

[raw]
made by RubixNoob13 for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Don't Splat the Bat! is a game about falling down a hole, using echolocation to avoid rocks, and going deeper and deeper.

Bugfix upload on 4/27/21 - AudioStreamPlayer2D is directional, and they were all placed at 0,0, which is why the sound was only playing out of the left ear.

  • See in game menu for controls and tips (all under the "controls" menu)

  • All graphics were done by myself using Paint.net

  • Made with Godot Engine https://godotengine.org/ (Godot License information can be found here: https://godotengine.org/license)

  • Sound effects generated by SFXR https://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html

  • Credits for things I didn't make myself:

  • Font: Megakris by Kris Keogh http://www.kriskeogh.com

  • Music: AI Generated by computoser http://www.computoser.com (Music by computoser is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ )

Ratings

Overall 1566th 3.081⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1354th 3.048⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1776th 2.435⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 732th 3.783⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1507th 3⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Audio 1073th 2.935⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 980th 2.574⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1673th 2.71⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 28🗳️ 40🗨️

Feedback

Sheinxy
28. Apr 2021 · 03:02 UTC
This could make for a small little mobile app!
Simple gameplay, quite suited for a playtime session on the bus or on the train!

There just seems to be an issue with some sounds that I could only hear from my left ear for some reasons, maybe some positional audio where they shouldn't be?
🎤 RubixNoob13
28. Apr 2021 · 03:12 UTC
@sheinxy I was thinking it might make a fun mobile game as well with a few tweaks. I'm not sure what happened with the audio. It seems like when I made the Windows build everything works fine, but when I built the HTML5 option from Godot, it may have converted the audio to mono, because it seems like most of the sounds were coming out of the left side. I'll have to see if I can figure that out at some point for the web build and fix it. Thanks for the feedback! :)
*Update: See in the description. I didn't realize that the AudioStreamPlayer2D in Godot is positional, and most of them were sitting on the root node at 0,0, so on the top left side of the screen. Makes sense that the audio all ended up on the left side. THANKS again for your help! :)
dob
30. Apr 2021 · 05:17 UTC
This is really fun, but I found it super hard. Way too many rocks to avoid given the speed I was traveling. A slower difficulty ramp-up would be a lot more fun. But visually it's neat, it all makes sense, and I absolutely love the sonar graphics - so cool.
qzqxq
30. Apr 2021 · 05:41 UTC
This was a nice arcade-style game! My record is 31136m.

I especially appreciated the polish put into the various parts of the game - the sound effects and visuals made it very clear what was going on, and the UI was clear and looks nice.

Echolocation is a cool mechanic, but I wasn't really sure what the purpose was here since you could still see the rocks anyways. Similarly, I wasn't sure of the purpose of acceleration/slowing down - it seems like there's no downside to just slowing down the whole time. Though there are definitely some small tweaks you could make to use both of these mechanics more meaningfully (e.g. echolocation reveals positions of health bonuses or powerups that are otherwise invisible, or you have some energy meter that depletes when you slow down and recharges when you're at normal speed).

I do kinda wish there was just a little more variety (e.g. different kinds of obstacles or powerups of some sort), but even what you have was still pretty fun. With some small changes I can definitely see this being a fun, addictive phone game. Nice work!
🎤 RubixNoob13
30. Apr 2021 · 07:03 UTC
@dob I spent more time than I care to admit trying to find a good balance for the rocks. It always seemed like either you were going too slow and the rocks were super easy to avoid, so it seemed to take forever to start moving, or you were going way too fast and/or there weren't enough rocks at high speed, so it was pretty easy to just dodge them. I am pretty proud of the sonar graphics myself TBH lol

@qzqxq I had initially intended to add in some powerups to regain health, I was thinking fruit as the face for my hand drawn bat is based on a google search for "cute fruit bat" or something along those lines where they have huge eyes and people are holding baby fruit bats and feeding them watermelons, etc. I just got down to a time crunch so the powerups were cut out for now. I also wanted it to get darker (it will eventually get pretty dark, there's a layer with RGB 0,0,0 that once you make it down to around 40k depth it will be at 90% opacity, which makes it pretty tough to see) I had actually also considered a stamina meter of some type for slowing down, which will most likely end up in the game if I continue development into a phone game (girlfriend has suggested it would possibly make a fun phone game as well, I'm just not 100% sure what the controls would look like for that, like swipe controls or on screen buttons) Thanks for the feedback and the kind words, though :)
pixelbug
30. Apr 2021 · 07:15 UTC
Very nice! Solid, charming app that's responsive and easy to play. I agree with most of the above sentiments, and if you continue to work on the game I can see the current mechanics helping it become really interesting.
As a note about the mobile version, I think the left and right movement at least would be better as on-screen buttons so that responding to the rocks would be a lot faster and easier.
hamblock
30. Apr 2021 · 07:21 UTC
yea alright it was a fun game, actually got easier once you limited it down to a narrower path of only 3 wide. fun game.
LDJam user 235694
30. Apr 2021 · 16:41 UTC
Simple funny game.
xiyou
30. Apr 2021 · 16:44 UTC
Very interesting game, but the bat wings will make players confused about the collision box
Rewzu
30. Apr 2021 · 16:56 UTC
Simple but quite fun game with neat visuals. Managed 32422m :D
Echo mechanic seems a bit useless though because obstacles are visible anyway.
metapoua
30. Apr 2021 · 17:03 UTC
On the web version, just see a pink srceen with a the stats on top.

![PinkScreen.png](///raw/f15/c3/z/41cbf.png)

I was wonderning if it was nomal for a few minutes because game was about echolocation :laughing:

But tried it with the exe and it's pretty nice, especially light effects with echolocation ! Pretty hard too, but this is part of the fun !

Maybe the rocks should be less visible to make echolocation more usefull (& make the cooldown shorter)
🎤 RubixNoob13
30. Apr 2021 · 22:52 UTC
@metapoua Just curious, what browser are you using? I've tested it in Firefox and Chrome, but only under Windows. What's odd is that there is nothing that color in the game itself, even the background in Godot behind all the graphics is just a light gray color, nothing magenta at all. Super weird, unless maybe it was some glitch on itch.io end of things? Hmmm
Timo Gass
02. May 2021 · 12:28 UTC
Nice game.
I think with some balance adjustments this could be a nice mobile game.

I'm not quite sure what to use the echolocation for :/
But the overall game was nice and challenging!

Keep on working :)
LDJam user 236545
02. May 2021 · 14:50 UTC
Cute, funny, and fun!

The echolocation effect was really nice, and I liked the discrete steps between columns, rather than having to aim between really tight spaces. The ability to speed up and slow down let me adjust the difficulty level to my comfort, which is huge in these "fall continuously" games. A lot of them are either too easy or too hard, but this lets the player set that balance for themselves.

I did have a bit of trouble telling whether some rocks were directly against the wall, or if there was a gap that I could squeeze through. I think maybe knocking one or two columns out and increasing the overall width (and scaling up the rocks to match) would make it easier on the eyes, and easier to read the positioning. Also, some very subtle vertical striping in the background that indicates the column positioning could also help with that.

Great work!
OldDog
03. May 2021 · 10:17 UTC
not good ,not bad :smile:
Fer9001
03. May 2021 · 22:32 UTC
quick, simple and fun, I would play it on my phone, great job!
Alexey Erzyukov
04. May 2021 · 09:39 UTC
27139m :)
A fun game.
It is not clear just why echolocation is needed. Obstacles are clearly visible.
etrealjunior
04. May 2021 · 09:41 UTC
Congratulations your game, I like the idea of the bat descending, but I still see this game with some aspects to improve, the sonar is not generating a great advantage, the bat is positioned a lot at the top of the screen, maybe take it down a bit stay better, try to add things in the future that encourage the player to continue playing, leave punctuation exposed all the time, and create variations in the mechanics, because making it go down faster would be something in a game to divert not a good option to those who are playing, a big hug! , and I await your feedback regarding my game.
DrSkort
04. May 2021 · 20:59 UTC
Really cool minigame ^^ I managed 26k which I think is pretty cool ^^ The increasing difficulty is very well made. I like the graphics of the game but I think the collision box of the bat is pretty unclear which makes it difficult to dodge obstacles sometimes. The soundeffects were pretty nice ^^ Good Entry :)
Ryan Dotsikas
05. May 2021 · 00:12 UTC
Nice job! It was simple but I enjoyed it! I really liked the visual effect on using the echo location, it was really well done. I just found that I didnt really need to use the echolocation though because you could see the rocks anyway. It also felt like holding or pressing W didnt really slow me down but maybe that was the slowest I could go. Overall great job!
LDJam user 234807
08. May 2021 · 14:36 UTC
I liked the sound linked to the echo-location and the animation to show that the rocks have been located. I think my bat's hitbox was by it's feet as well, not just the head and body, because even with going down feet first I still died.
Neowedge
09. May 2021 · 10:48 UTC
Original concept! But.. I feel echo is not needed (I can see the obstacles without use it), and the deeper you go, easier the game is, because if the size is smaller, you need to move less in order to find a gap. Also, I thing the slow down button does not works xD Anyway it was very funny to play it, so congrats!!!
RajatG
14. May 2021 · 14:20 UTC
@neowedge said it all.. I also felt like the echolocation was not needed as I was able to clearly see the rocks.
I really loved the hand drawn art style and the font choice. Great jam entry.
Have a good day :)
LDJam user 250426
16. May 2021 · 23:43 UTC
Good stuff in this entry! The echo location looks awesome (even though I didn't get deep enough for it to be useful xD) I like the different poses you have for the 3 speeds, but there didn't seem to be any reason to not slow down. Someone suggested a stamina bar, but another idea could be to keep the screen moving down at a constant speed and you need to stay within that area so speeding up and slowing down feels more tactical. I think varying the cave width so it opens back up in parts would be another cool idea!

Good work on this game!