Surface by fizzbark

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

Description

As a tiny seed sent plunging into the strange depths of the earth you have a clear goal - get to the surface. Unfortunately each step forward confronts you with a new obstacle. The only way to go up is by going deeper and deeper...

Our first game jam - awesome experience and stoked to have finished :)

Controls

Esc - menu

R - reset at last checkpoint

Content Warning

Contains mild swear words, and frogs.screen1.PNGscrren2.PNGscrren3.PNG

Ratings

Overall 1019th 3.462⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 692th 3.481⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1194th 3.019⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1148th 3.462⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1099th 3.519⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 789th 3.346⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 310th 3.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1028th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 22🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

Retrisma
26. Apr 2021 · 10:21 UTC
a+ content warning
For real though, I'm a pretty big fan of how this game looks: the characters are charming, the level looks great, and it had enough wit to make me laugh out loud. In terms of gameplay, it's a pretty simple platformer. Maybe being a little more generous with the checkpoints would be nice. Regardless, well done.
LDJam user 237588
26. Apr 2021 · 10:32 UTC
I love the frogs haha. Nice drawing style.
The gameplay works well and is easy to understand
iorena
26. Apr 2021 · 10:37 UTC
Awesome! I like the brave graphics, bright colors and shapes really gave it a unique feel. The little "i'm rooting for you" frog cracked me up. This is probably the longest I've spent playing a LD game, but I just had to get to the top! Would never have had the patience without the checkpoints though. Only
jaybaus
26. Apr 2021 · 10:41 UTC
I was really impressed by the way you teach the player the controls by making them fail first, it felt like an elegant way to do a tutorial :) Nice job!
Substr
26. Apr 2021 · 10:46 UTC
This was really fun! Getting the unlocks by going deeper to be able to work your way back up was a great idea. The jumping was a little "floaty" which made some of the jumps a bit tricky. Overall an awesome job!
Tulkas
27. Apr 2021 · 14:27 UTC
Great work! Art style is pretty and music is going well with the atmosphere. Especially dashing mechanic is making game fun and fluent.
lb01
28. Apr 2021 · 03:57 UTC
This was a really fun game. I think I accidentally skipped parts just by missing jumps and falling to my death a few times, but it seems like accidental discovery is part of the game. I also like how not everything is revealed to the played at first.
breadstick
28. Apr 2021 · 04:30 UTC
A fun little platformer! I enjoyed the almost circular nature of the level design where you're brought back to the same platforms with newfound powers--something that unlocks a new way forwards. The only problem I had is that I accidentally skipped two sections of the game by failing jumps and falling down to lower portions of the level--lucky I didn't miss any powerups when that happened. A few extra of those kill orbs should protect other players against the same trouble.

Nice character design and ambiance!
feor
28. Apr 2021 · 13:22 UTC
I enjoyed this game. The dashing took a few tries to get the hang of and added some variety to the pretty standard platforming gameplay but what I was really taken with was the trippy world design and atmosphere. Nice work.
kingslee142
28. Apr 2021 · 18:38 UTC
Fun game! Intresting art designe ideas and the little animation. Controls feels good and the dash and the jump feel just right. Well done!
Gabriel Pittol
29. Apr 2021 · 00:32 UTC
Pretty fun game. Yellow text is a bit hard to see on yellow BG though, but that's a minor thing.
Alex the Bear
29. Apr 2021 · 01:42 UTC
The jumping/dashing platforming feels really good, you nailed it! :thumbsup:
Pedonho
30. Apr 2021 · 01:22 UTC
Unusual graphics but actually pretty insteresting!
bmacintosh
30. Apr 2021 · 01:44 UTC
Adorable seed kid! I really enjoyed how you unlocked new mechanics that made different ways to traverse the same play space. I didn't always feel like I knew where I was going, but I got there, so I guess that worked out. Really great first jam game. It was possible to die to sphere while close to them but not quite visually touching - slightly more generous collision could give the player more fun close calls and less times feeling like the game cheated them a bit.
godsboss
02. May 2021 · 19:28 UTC
Nice twist on the theme.
ZeppelinGames
06. May 2021 · 04:39 UTC
Pretty nice game. Good art and level design. The camera being a bit lower would be nice so that you're able to se what's underneath you. Got stuck at some points as I was unsure of where to go
stevenjmiller
06. May 2021 · 04:59 UTC
Very fun game, I made it back to the surface. I think certain sections would benefit from the camera being slightly lower, though I realize such a change might take away from some of the leap of faith moments. I also noticed a strange bug where if you hold right during the opening sequence before the title screen and then die/reset before activating the first checkpoint, your respawn point gets set to one of the lower platforms that you need dash to get off of. This happened to me on my first attempt, which led to some confusion, though I was able to progress after reloading the page.
János Parádi
17. May 2021 · 21:32 UTC
i really like the graphics of your game