Very nice. I like the graphics and the idea, but i would improve how you drag your tools.

Awkward to control, found immense difficulty trying to construct a campfire. I die went night sets in every time. Maybe a better tutorial would make it more accessible?

Yep, that's some adorable pixel art -- why doesn't mine look like that!?
The Pico startup screen was a beautiful little addition, it gave me nostalgia for a childhood I never experienced.

I wasn't sure what the ocelots do, it seems like they attack you at night if you're not in a fire and otherwise drag your tools around? That could be made clearer. I also wasn't sure what the broken rock pieces are for, if anything.

Nice game! As others have said, it's a bit unclear, but I did find out you could either burn logs to create a camp fire or use them to destroy water, which was an interesting mechanic. I also liked the mechanic of destroying stuff when turning and grabbing objects. I did, however, get stuck twice by accidently surrounding myself with objects on all side, which forced me to restart, but other than that, good entry!

Interesting system for using tools, a bit confusing, also wasn't sure what the bar down the bottom was (eventually figured out it was the day-night cycle, but some more explanation would be good)
I managed to build a fire and survive the first night, then got stuck on my second day.
The ocelot didn't seem to have a large impact on the game, but maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I've had a meal and a nice lie down, and I've made a couple small fixes:
* the campfires were WAY too punishing; I got some event handlers mixed up and you basically insta-died in v1.0 if you weren't near a campfire. I've fixed that now; campfires are still very important but quite a bit more lenient.
* the other 4 bugfixes are smaller; you can read the changelog here: https://pancelor.itch.io/ocelot-safari/devlog/246780/v11-minimal-bugfixes

It's absolutely true that a tutorial would help; that and music were the two big things I wished I could have added within the time limit! I'm going to add some more explanation somewhere; either tutorial text on this page, or a video tutorial, idk. (I hope that's within the spirit of the jam?)

Neat little game! Some mechanics were a little confusing (I died a couple of times before I figured out the exact requirements to light wood on fire), but the idea of different movement styles to do different things felt interesting. I gave up after accidentally locking myself in a corner with my own machete....

Really cool game. I like the mechanic and art. I think I would have preferred fewer tools, as it was repetitive to constantly be switching. I would really like to see more puzzley elements added to this. Great work.

@noam-zeise thank you for calling that out! there was a bad bug with nighttime that snuck in; I've fixed it now.
I've also added some tutorialization in the game's description; thanks to everyone who suggested it!

@osterzone thank you :D The weekend was a bit of a haze and honestly idk how it turned out so well; it's certainly much improved from my initial art! (https://twitter.com/i/status/1386190295574876164)

@impbox thanks for playing! I wish the game was a bit shorter; the ocelots become more relevant the further into the jungle you bring your tools, especially at night. (or maybe you're just a natural pro at scaring them off?)

Nice system! I played for a while, crossed 2 rivers, survived for some days. Unsure if I quitted before I should, it didn't seem to be a greater objective. I couldn't figure out what the rocks are for (creating walls to prevent the ocelots to steal your gear?), I wish nights were a bit faster or at least having something to do on them. Also, stealing SFX should sound even if the object robbed is not in screen, that made me confused a couple of times. Neat!

Really liked the idea of swinging your machete around. I got softlocked twice when I went to 1x1 hole with the item that i couldn't push back to escape.

Oh wow what cute pesky creatures! All my deaths were from locking myself in accidentally, and I deserved them all <3
'cutting corners' was a nice tool mechanic that I would like to see again in some other game!

Great!.

super cool controls! there's a steeper difficulty curve to it than other controls, but the more i got used to it, the more i found myself appreciating how i could move in ways that would take several more moves to do in a more conventional top down control scheme. though, even after a couple nights i found it difficult to make much way into the forest. i wish the nights were shorter! overall, really cute snappy game!!

I really found this to be a cool sokoban-esque exploration game and with so few moving parts you really managed to make the game world feel "alive." The ocelot mechanic and day/night cycle were really cool, I enjoyed exploring this game world!

Really fun mechanics, love the pixel art and the use of the ocelots, they serve a lot of purposes (making the player "fear" something, solve some corner case soft locks).

Liked the cute pixel art. Control scheme was awkward at first, but I got used to it after a while. The one thing I didn't like was getting stuck by my own tools. I realize the ocelots can come and move the tool, but it didn't feel great to get stuck without a way to recover on your own.

Otherwise, great work building this over the 48h!

Aw man, I was so close! SO CLOSE! Then I got careless and trapped myself...
The mechanics took a little while to get used to, particularly dragging and swinging the tools, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to bushwhack through the wilderness pretty handily. The ocelots running off with your tools was a nice, frustrating little touch, and I learned to keep a close watch on my belongings before too long. Being able to trek back and grab a spare worked well with everything, too, with a nice element of risk to the ever-growing trip. I ran back to grab a new axe once to return to find my matches missing.
Anyway, a lot of cool and creative mechanics here! I enjoyed it!

Haha, this was excellent! The ocelots were excellent little trickster and there were several exciting moments even though the game as a whole was quite laid-back and unstressful. Great work!

@le-slo ooh, I think you got close! I'd have liked to add a progress meter but couldn't find the time; oh well. I'm glad you figured out the alternate purpose for the rocks! My original plan was to have the game revolve around building temporary bases at night (which is still helpful, just not super necessary)
Thanks for playing :) (and ty for pointing out the sound bug; I hadn't noticed that)

@logan OH NO :joy_cat:

@ everyone leaving nice and helpful comments: thank you! This post-jam sense of community is really fun :smile:

Nice game, I should have watched the tutorial first. I was totally confused the first time I played!

I WAS ONE TILE AWAY I CAN BELIEVE IT! The little ocelots are super cute and I really like the sprites for the logs and rocks created by hitting trees and store. The water was a little confusing at first but that's on me (being color blind and all) otherwise everything was pretty clear. I was enthralled trying to get the emerald and accidentally softlocked myself but a sweet ocelot saved us last moment and I manged to light a fire. These sort of experiences are not so common so congrats on making a fantastic game! <3 <3

Holy shit, this game is REALLY fun! I've played it for a while, still haven't reached the goal, because the amount of time I got stuck by blocking myself with a tool is surprisingly high (I guess that's the only bad thing about the gameplay) but I will definitely come back to it and try to beat it! A little bit of calm music would've make it perfect, but in terms of gameplay I love it!

As I mentioned on stream, I think the addition of a progress meter would help the player to get a sense of their progress. Also; I'm wondering if you could have some way of manually speeding up time at night? There are plenty of times where I'm just waiting for night to end, especially before the Ocelots show up.

This is a complete and really fun game. Love the feel, love the mechanics. Very nicely done. I love how things get out of control.

Really neat and the ocelots are just super cute!
I might have gotten lucky, but getting the gem was pretty easy once I got the hang of the tools, though I felt bad about trashing the jungle like that.

I actually wish there was some time pressure except the day and cycle, 'cause I just left the matches at the start, prepped a bunch of wood there and every night just strolled back to chill by the fire, rinse and repeat. The wait thru the night got a bit tedious after a few days and I wished I could just sleep thru the night when I was by the fire. The only other thing was I just couln't get used to the machette slash pattern. The pickaxe corner pattern made sense, but the machette one felt kinda random.

Thanks for bringing your game by my stream for playtesting! If you’d like to revisit the play and commentary you can view the highlight at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1008724061

Very good game! It's hard to controll though. Making the player getting back to spawn a lot is getting boring after some time - that isn't fun.

(first impressions don't count sometimes, **play a few more times if you are struggling or watch the tutorial, ITS WORTH IT because this is FUN**)

Second impressions: the mechanics are really clever. It was frustrating at first that I got stuck a couple times and I wanted to suggest being able to switch your tool and player position, but after the moment when the ocelot actually saved me, I don't even mind. It was my own fault I got stuck, and the ocelots being both friend and foe is dope AF. After dying a few times, figuring things out, and being PATIENT, I was able to get the gem! Very satisfying game, and you need to put a lot more thought into your actions than it seems on the surface

Suggestions:
-I wish campfire area was a little larger so I can keep working on stuff at night
-There's a lot of unique stuff in the mechanics that it isn't entirely intuitive. My only other suggestion is a couple smaller levels (maybe one for each tool) before the main part where you can explore the tools and interactions freely without having to worry about the ocelots or night cycle.

First Impression: gam is hard, wat i doing? halp. ono i got stuck D:

Closing thoughts: I don't really know if you plan on building on this, but I would definitely play more! The game was awesome, unique, and charming (ocelots were especially charming, Im glad you had to shoo them away instead of killing them!)

Edit: Here is the clip of ocelot saving me (Thanks for clipping Pancelor, I didn't even realized)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEo8ZnI3d-I

Dang! This is genuinely brilliant. I'm mad for the core mechanic here. It only took a second for me to figure it out, so intuitive and I love the thrill of experimentation and exploration you've managed to provide. As some other people seemed to have some trouble, I too would suggest maybe a tutorial-lite.

I really hope you'll expand this, I could see myself getting lost in your little world for ages. Awesome work!

The more I played, the more I liked the innovative core movement and method of moving items. It remind me of when I wear pants with no pockets! The day/night cycle creates a sense of urgency that makes you want to move fast. But if you move too quickly, you run the risk of getting soft-locked. The sense of urgency and interesting movement mechanic, make it a constantly fun puzzle to avoid getting soft-locked. This is one of my favorite aspects of the game. My issue is that when I did get soft-locked, it pretty much felt like I should just restart. It is not very fun to have to wait for the ocelots to come save you, and they're not the most reliable bunch. Once or twice, I heard them off screen stealing my other items, but they did not feel like rescuing me! :cry: Did I not deserve it? I mean, I really thought we had bonded. We spent all those nights playing around the fire. What did it all mean?

Anyways, we have discussed on a couple streams the "issue" of getting soft-locked. Now I wonder if removing the possibility of getting soft-locked is the right solution. Maybe the focus should be on reducing the punishment for getting soft-locked. Maybe the game could embrace the sense of urgency and lean into being a speed run kind of game. Maybe you keep track of the time spent in game. When you get soft-locked, it adds a time penalty, like in rally racing game when you crash your car and have to get reset. It could be done in a way where the player feels some amount of shame for messing up, but they get to quickly get back into playing.

Along this same idea, my least favorite part of the game was waiting through the night. I wonder if you could speed up time if it is the night and you are within range of the fire. Or maybe there's some activity you can do at night that keeps it more interesting. Could there be a mechanic to allow you to push a fire around, allowing you to continue working? Now the player has the option to play through the night, but they have the added challenge of having to maneuver around the fire and ensure that the fire stays close enough to them.

Overall, I found it very impressive you did this in 48 hours. The game runs really smoothly and I did not catch any bugs. There were also many fun and tense moments that happened in the streams that I saw your game played in. It always felt like the whole group would be fully invested in the outcome of the game.

A very neat take on survival puzzle horror (but a cute horror in the form of Ocelots!)

Any game in Pico 8 gets a thumbs up from me and this is no exception. Great use of the Pico 8 resolution and art and what a unique and novel approach to a game. No inventory system, no way of holding objects. With these restrictions you made a really fun little game.

Was confused when I first began but the more I played the more it gelled into place and got a rhythm going. It's part survival, part puzzle! The movement being so puzzle based is really neat and you're constantly thinking about how to tackle the terrain.

My only crit on the game would be a bit of background music would be nice, and sometimes I found myself perma-stuck between a grass tile, two trees, and the axe directly behind me. Unsure how you could rectify this but if possible it would make the game a smoother experience.

Overall a great job and entry and I'd love to see this get fleshed out more, or at the very least this concept of an inventoryless/pickup-a-less game mechanic!

Great job!

This was oceLOT of fun (I didn't bother to look at the comments to see if I was the 100th person to make that joke) until I got stuck like this! Well done overall!

Cool Pico-8 game! It's fun figuring out the movement in this game, the way that tools sort of trail behind you as you move make it feel like a puzzle game. I love the tileset you created, nice use of Pico-8's extended palette to give the game its own unique look. Kudos. :)

I like your Night & Day Cycle. I was saved by an Ocelot once when he take the machete so i can get out freely but the next time I get stuck and need to wait for the night to be devoured by night creatures

Hey, finally got around to playing more LD games. Here's a video of my playthrough, since you said you'd like to see one: https://seafile.wheybags.com/f/3652f17b97ca4250ac72/

I really liked the unusual interaction mechanic. Sprites were nice too, and the whole experience was pretty polished for a jam game. My main issue was just figuring out that the matches existed. Their sprite looks a little like a plant to me, so I didn't realise they were a tool. It could have been nice to have some more intermediate goals, like maybe one of the tools is gated (eg: axe is hidden behind water or something) to space things out a bit, as is it felt like a lot of front-loaded learning, followed by a lot of execution. The ocelots were a nice touch also, would have been nice to interact with them a bit more.

I loved it! I was making pretty good progress the first couple of days but then the ocelots started coming and they started coming faster and faster. On the last day, I was demoralized when 2 ocelots stole a pair of my tools. I almost gave up, but decided on one last desperate foray into the grasslands and found the gem! Great job on the game!

Brilliant game! :v: :palm_tree: :cat:

It's so nice to see what you've achieved in a compo jam, especially in pico-8. Well done!

My constructive criticism is the following.

Awesome things:
- Charming sprites, animations and sound design. Absolutely cool stuff!
- Unique mechanics
- Interesting gameplay, I was able to figure out the game mechanics on my own, without the tutorial stuff!
- Cuuuuuute but sneaky ocelots :smiling_imp:

Things to improve on:
- I believe this was mentioned before but you can lock yourself with the tools which can be pretty frustrating :frowning2:

Overall an outstanding entry, thanks for the experience! :smile:

Finally got around to playing this! I really liked the item juggling, and the corner activation mechanics- it kind of reminds me of the juggling you have to do in Spelunky challenge runs, where you similarly don't have an inventory.

I ran into one of those aforementioned "softlocks" in my first go, and while I got rescued by an ocelot buddy, the time pressure from the day/night cycle made the wait rather unpleasant. That said, it was entirely my fault for trapping myself there, and so addressing it is more a first impression/accessibility thing, without affecting more strategic play. :P

I think my main concern is with the day/night cycle, and how it felt like it added some tedium to the experience without adding a whole lot. I really liked the idea and mechanic of being able to make a fire, but having nothing to do but sit next to it throughout the night felt out of place from how fast paced the player moved and swung things around. Perhaps the night could go by quicker when next to fire? Maybe instead of mysterious forces hurting you, one could either sit under the safety of the fire, or fend things off with the machete? What if nights were removed and the fire could instead be used to create some (temporary) safe area to leave your tools where ocelots won't take them? I think if ocelots didn't clip through everything, it also could've been kind of cool if you could arrange stones or something into barriers/enclosures. Anywho, just dumping all the random thoughts I got while waiting out these nights (because there was plenty time to think :P).

Despite all that, the ocelots were super cute, and I still very much enjoyed finishing it! :D Would like to see the core item juggling/swinging mechanics taken further- I think the unique activation patterns you had would make for a sick combat system in a dungeon crawler. :D

@blackopsben: LOL no you're the first! ahahaha

@wheybags: thank you!! always fun to watch other people play :) gg! That's a really excellent point about "a lot of front-loaded learning, followed by a lot of execution" -- I hadn't thought of gating something behind the first river but wow yeah I like that idea a lot!

@meep: thank you for all the feedback! ooh, I like the idea of arranging stones or wood into barriers/enclosures... in fact, I like it so much that that's exactly how the game already works! ;) that particular mechanic is probably the least clear out of all of them, and it's not as necessary as I was originally planning, so I'm not surprised it went unnoticed.

@ everyone: thank you so much for all the feedback! When I published it I had some vague ideas of things I wished were different (music, nighttime action, midgame balance, ending sequence, softlocks?, tutorial) and it's been so fun and helpful to hear all your stories and suggestions from playing my game :) I'll likely publish a post-jam expanded version sometime (find my twitter in my profile if you want to hear about that, etc etc). See you next ludum dare!

@pancelor: Oh sick, I should've tried it lmao- I think I mostly assumed because they were already walking through the natural rocks/trees, and the time pressure from the day/night cycle made it scary to spend time arranging them to test. :'( Gonna go mess with it now 😎