Grapple Tongue by Mors

made by Mors for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Grapple Tongue is a platformer game made for Ludum Dare 48 by Mors with music and sound effects by CosmicGem. Climb deeper and deeper into the clouds using your tongue as a grappling hook, and find the only thing that can help you reach your goals.

The controls for the game are arrow keys to move and aim, SPACE to lick, and R to restart from the last checkpoint. You can use a controller as well.

I've updated the game after the deadline to mainly fix the bugs and add additional polish. You can still download the original version from the itch.io page.

Changelog:

v1.1.0 (Post-Jam Update) (29/04/2021): - Fixed a ton of bugs. - Replaced some of the sound effects. - Changed the ending. - Added a HUD. - Added the Z key and the shoulder buttons as alternate ways to lick. - Allowed the use of the right analog stick on controllers for aiming without moving. - Added additional visual polish all around.

v1.0.0 (27/04/2021): - Initial release!

HTML5 (Post-Jam)	https://mors-games.itch.io/grapple-tongue
Windows (Post-Jam)	https://mors-games.itch.io/grapple-tongue
Windows (Original)	https://mors-games.itch.io/grapple-tongue
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/grapple-tongue

Ratings

Overall	264^th	3.938⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Fun	88^th	4.1⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	236^th	3.888⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1793^th	2.615⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	264^th	4.263⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Audio	278^th	3.875⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Humor	442^th	3.314⭐	37🧑‍⚖️
Mood	775^th	3.59⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Given		12🗳️	0🗨️

Feedback

Cruise Elroy

27. Apr 2021 · 03:54 UTC

Nice work once again! The controls are pretty fluid and the difficulty curve is good for the most part, the only part that really gave me trouble was getting the baby bird in the thunder area. Ending's also pretty anti-climatic but I get that this was rushed a bit so it's not too big of a deal. Good job!

paulhocker

27. Apr 2021 · 04:07 UTC

really solid game. i thought that it would be hard to control with the keyboard but it was actually very intuitive. the graphics were charming. will be playing this again for sure. thanks for making this game.

Swoof

27. Apr 2021 · 04:16 UTC

Really fun game! Loved the visuals and the little slowdown effects throughout. My brain had a hard time moving and aiming the tongue with the same stick though. Might be nice to include an option to move with the dpad and aim with the sticks or something. Great job though

Niall_Chandler

27. Apr 2021 · 12:06 UTC

Pretty good game. A bit buggy in places, but looking at your Twitter it seems that this game even existing is a bit of a miracle, so I can't knock it too hard for that. The graphics, music, and levels are all great though.

ProTayToe

27. Apr 2021 · 15:18 UTC

Amazing little game with a lot of potential. controls could be tweaked to support individual movement from tongue aim but its snappy and responsive. Ran into a few bugs but they were all minor and if anything quite humorous. Despite all you went through im glad you got it done :3

LDJam user 236586

27. Apr 2021 · 22:54 UTC

Really enjoyed it! First game I've played to the end, I think. That said the ending is kind of a let-down, considering the text at the start of the game building it up. Experienced some minor bugs (up-left not working with arrow keys, switched to gamepad and it worked fine) and tongue randomly latching on to thin air, but didn't really affect my enjoyment. Overall really scratched that Celeste itch. I'd love to see this concept developed into a bigger game!

publicidadeba

28. Apr 2021 · 02:46 UTC

You should be getting way more love. Great core mechanic, awesome music and the visual are very solid. The level design can be improved a bit.

automatonvx

29. Apr 2021 · 00:09 UTC

Nicely done, the tongue mechanic was chaotic fun and kept me coming back till the end. Felt really polished for the visuals and a great soundtrack. Sometimes a little bit of bugginess for collisions but nothing that really spoiled the fun. Started on keyboard but definitely had a better time when I randomly tried gamepad and was pleasantly surprised that it worked. Kept on finding myself missing having a little jump as well as the grapple, maybe thats just the standard platformer conditioning that is hard not to miss. Anyway great job.

gamefive

29. Apr 2021 · 06:03 UTC

It's a fun game. It was good to make the gamer solve the level by himself. It was a cute penguin. I enjoyed playing the game. I want to do it again. It's a game of good ideas. It's great technically as well done.

neowhoru

29. Apr 2021 · 06:09 UTC

Played the Jam Version - a really great game with unique keymechanics. Really challening but enjoying - was really fun :)

Evil_As_Shit

29. Apr 2021 · 06:24 UTC

Great mechanics, easy to learn, hard to master. Awesome art and music/sounds. Was a pleasure to play!

Sthealthinator

29. Apr 2021 · 06:27 UTC

It's really fun game with unique mechanics. althougth i would have preffered left mouse botton for "lick"ing, other than that,it was a smooth experience

sdata

29. Apr 2021 · 06:42 UTC

Really great appeal in the character and the core mechanic was fun and inventive. I will say that the electricity was my least favorite spin on the mechanic as it was hard to get precise tongue shots, but still great fun! My entry for LD48 also features a penguin traveling vertically so it was cool to see someone else's take on the theme still be similar in some regards but such a unique and great vision. I suppose that comparison of ideas and exections is one thing jams/comps are all about!

Maytch

29. Apr 2021 · 07:23 UTC

Fun cute game! I also got stuck when the electricity game into it but upto that point, very fun :)

GoodGamesJames

29. Apr 2021 · 07:40 UTC

I loved the cave and the sonic-esque checkboard, but the really clashed when next to each other. I liked the look of the the bats and electric walls and what you were doing with the background. The tongue mechanic was really cool, but did feel like it was fighting with the keyboard controls, since I wanted to go diagonally most of the time.

JokubasG

29. Apr 2021 · 07:44 UTC

Very fun and cute looking game, good and unique mechanics.

ZeHa

29. Apr 2021 · 08:04 UTC

absolutely perfect graphics, especially the beginning with the purple cave and the blue penguin, it looks really professional :)
the (unchecked) checkpoint flag looks a bit like a spike though, that can be irritating a bit :)

i had a strong desire to "swing", but i guess that was not part of your concept on purpose.

nice!

baconn00

29. Apr 2021 · 08:09 UTC

Great mechanic, I really have fun with the game. I love the death animation, bounce effect,.. and it's sound effect too, very 8-bit like. Great job!

Videt

29. Apr 2021 · 09:38 UTC

Great core mechanic, but the fact that the character moves as it aims is really frustrating. Volume slider would a nice thing to have since the game is very loud. This game has a huge potential in my opinion, it just needs a bit of polishing

Thob

29. Apr 2021 · 11:44 UTC

_(I tested version 1.0.)_
Awesome ! Great game, great polish, the graphics are great, varied, the music is very catchy and the sounds are satisfying!
The game is quite hard at times but still doable, the level design is well done too !
My only regret is that when you are on the ground, you can't aim without moving forward at the same time, it makes some situations tricky.
But great game overall !

🎤 Mors

29. Apr 2021 · 13:13 UTC

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

@videt @thob I didn't see the need to add aiming without moving since you can just hold both directions then press the lick button instantly afterward to accomplish the same thing.

That being said, you also can aim without moving if you have a controller, you just need to tilt the left stick very slightly in the jam version, or tilt the right stick in the post-jam one. I'd add keyboard bindings to it too but it made things a bit overcomplicated.

KAPA6UH

29. Apr 2021 · 20:11 UTC

Very solid entry. Awesome mechanics and visuals.

PeachTreeOath

30. Apr 2021 · 05:29 UTC

A fun game that really keeps you on your toes and wakes you up. I liked that each section offered something new. I was flying through the stages pretty quickly until I hit the lightning section. That was was pretty tricky but was smooth sailing from there.

The addition of the penguins was definitely a good idea since the stronger players could shoot for the if they wanted and they were my favorite parts of the game, especially the one in the lightning section.

LDJam user 2331

11. May 2021 · 08:23 UTC

Hi fellow penguin-game developer! I absolutely loved this- the penguin sprites were super cute, the grapple mechanic felt good, and the level design stayed fresh throughout! After playing through the jam version, managed to get true ending first try in the post-compo version- was a nice test. :D

Franklins Ghost

15. May 2021 · 03:49 UTC

Would be nice if you could put the game to full screen as it was quite small on my screen. Also had my tongue stick on the air once. Trying to get higher up was frustrating in a good way as it kept me playing trying to get higher and higher. The art is also really cute which worked nicely and I liked.

🎤 Mors

15. May 2021 · 05:36 UTC

@franklins-ghost You can actually set the game to fullscreen by pressing Alt+Enter with the Windows version.

GuitarBro

15. May 2021 · 21:25 UTC

Ok let me start by saying that music slaps. Reminds me of the OG Monkey Ball games.

The mechanics are deceptively simple and the levels keep things fresh despite the simplicity. Definitely one of the more fun games I've tried this jam. Kinda reminds me of Celeste?

Totally didn't realize I could eat the (birds? bats?) for a while though lol.

Difficulty really jumped up around the lightning section. Might be good to ease the player into that a bit more.

This isn't specifically an issue with your game, but I noticed that my particular keyboard has an issue where I can't register up+left+space at the same time, so I decided to try my switch pro controller (which worked)! I know, I should get a more expensive keyboard with n-key rollover, but something to take into account. On the note of using a controller, it would have been nice to have d-pad support, but hey, glad it worked at all.

🎤 Mors

16. May 2021 · 02:52 UTC

@guitarbro Actually, for that reason I also added the WASD keys as alternatives, it seems to work with people who have issues with their arrow keys. There's D-Pad support in as well, it's probably an issue with your specific controller (or I accidentally broke it for the post jam version and didn't realize lol, I should check it later)

But yeah, there was supposed to be more in-between the block breaking and thunder sections, it had to be cut due to time constraints.

GuitarBro

16. May 2021 · 05:23 UTC

Oh awesome. Too bad I couldn't use the d-pad on my controller, would have been nice, but glad you thought about it.