This game is delightful! Here are a couple things I found confusing:

* The upgrades reference dodging and kicking, but I didn't see any keybinds for those functions.
* It's not clear how to get past the farmers once they start sprinting. Charging doesn't speed up the horse, so it seems like I always get caught at about the same time.

It's cute. =)

But I didn't get how the charge works. And road feels to wide for donkey's speed.

I love the donkey!

Very cute entry! I had the same problem with the other user how I couldn't find out how to kick, so I always got caught as soon as the farmer showed up without fail. So will probably give it another try once I know how to get past the first wave of farmers!

Hilarious take on the theme. I love the pun with the name. The idea of the game takes me back to school when I used to play "launcher" genre games on newgrounds. The art and animations were nice as well. Great job!

Edit: Okay, I've played a few more rounds of the game. My only real complaint is sometimes stars spawn inside rocks making it impossible to get them. Otherwise, really fun game! The upgrades make it addicting.

This game made me say donkey juice on stream.

The donkey is so happy when it runs, I love it.

All those little farmers are hilarious. :)

Loved the mule animations :heart: I agree with the above comment that it was confusing how the upgrades mention dodging and kicking, but I figured dodging=WASD movement and kicking=how much you are slowed when a farmer gets you.

It took me about 5 or 6 runs to beat the game (and 10-20 minutes overall, but I wasn't keeping track of either). The extra stars and star speed upgrades seemed the most powerful of the bunch.

Charging is a great mechanic, but isn't tutorialized very well in my opinion. The other nitpick I have is that sometimes pickups spawned inside rocks or other unreachable locations (without smashing into a rock). That being said, I wouldn't know how to fix that (tiny) issue myself.

Overall, a fun game with great replayability!

Poor donkey, he just wanted to run free :cry:
I had a blast playing it!!! Is super cool that it has a score system and the way the farmers move makes it challenging.

Hah, I *LOVED* this one! Everything about it is great. The animations are all smooth, the art is cute as hell, the use of theme is super creative, sounds and music are excellent, there's plenty of nice jokes and funny animations and screen transitions, and the gameplay is pretty fun!

Just top notch job all around. Definitely one of my favorites so far!

I couldn't figure out how to kick, though. How does it work?

Really solid game! I liked the take on the theme but i feel like it doesn't reward the players for their skill and it gets to a point where its just pressing up or down and charge when a farmer is close. I would have added something like a jump or a sidestep that can make you win some space with the farmers, but that can also lead to a crash if you mess up. I also think that the progression is way yo complex and slow for a jam game, people are going to spend just some minutes with your game, dont make it an hour long grinding experience.

@zyrjello Thanks for the feedback! Kicking is automatic, but due to a silly bug the animation didn't play, so I can see why that was really confusing. I've fixed the bug, so it should be more apparent now. Dodging is just the movement speed.

@areywarlord The charge just speeds you up and can break through barriers. Tripping costs you lots of speed, charging through the rocks and walls only costs a little. I should have explained that better somehow.

@ericbomb Once the big group of farmers catch up to you it is pretty much game over. You can stay ahead of them by collecting stars constantly and charging when they get close. Also, buying the star speed upgrade will make everything much easier.

@ericfreeman I will confess taking a lot of inspiration from Burrito Bison on Newgrounds (or maybe Kongregate, I forget).

@nyles ummm... congrats, I guess? Or maybe I'm sorry?

@tims At first he was more serious, but adding a single pixel to make him smile made it 100x better :smile:

@big-play-ben No, the farmers are evil. It's just hard to convey through pixel art :wink:

@jaker Thanks for the detailed feedback. I've made some balance changes to the game and changed some of the descriptions to make things more clear. You are completely correct with what the upgrades do. The problem is that 1) the kicking animation wasn't playing, so it was unclear when you hit a farmer that you kick them and 2) due to a bug the dodge upgrades actually didn't do anything. I've fixed both of those and uploaded them as a bug fix.

@antom Thanks!

@lucasvb Kicking is automatic when a farmer hits you. I fixed the animation so now that should be clear...

@litos Fair enough on all points :smile: I did have some code in there for jumping but I cut the pit obstacles early on for time. I like the risk/reward idea. Thanks for the feedback!

Its cool that you put an upgrade system for it provides replayability. Graphics and sound effects gave me good old times retro vibes. Donkey won my sympathy with its cutiness also :D. Good entry!

Cute art! It's so sad when the poor donkey hits something or gets caught lol, poor guy is trying so hard :P The game is very fun and the progression is nice - kinda reminds me of those old launcher flash games like learn to fly :D

Small suggestion: Maybe make the star amount text in the shop yellow or something so you notice it easier (took me a bit to find it). Also, I think a magnet upgrade (so nearby stars move toward you/making them slightly easier to get) would be cool.

Btw, the little details (like the spinning on the stars, the character shadows, and the footprints & rock breaking particles are good polish). Great job!

Really well done! This game fells like something I would play on the school library computer back in middle school. Love the vibe and the execution is top notch.

the art and animations are very cute! the farmers running at you are terrifying! i like your take on the theme :)

some feedbacks:
i saw an upgrade for kicking farmers, but i never saw any instructions for what button to press to kick. i tried various ones and they didn't do anything.

the first few runs, i didn't notice that the dash had limited uses, i thought there was some kind of bug where i could only dash once.

i think the movement up and down the track felt a bit floaty.

I love the wordsplay with theme - I've had a similar idea, but had no balls to go with it xd

The game was really good, the animations of people running behind to catch you were so funny I can't even

Aaah I love that cute donkey

Lovely painting style.Growable character abilities, my game also has this feature, welcome to try.

I really enjoyed this one! It's pretty much a full game already. I am curious how much distance you have to go before reaching the forest though. I like how sometimes one of the farmers will jump out ahead of the others as a little surprise. I could see myself playing this for a while. Great job!

Gameplay loop is the best I played so far. Gratz.

Graphics are adorable as well. Great job :)

Wooo! Made it to the forest!
I love games with some permanent upgrades to help you to get to the end. Very well executed.

And I really love the theme as well ;)

Cool game, nice sound/art although I wish the hay bales had a pickup sound. Lots of upgrades! Couldn't figure out how to kick though...

Nice game, the running donkey seemed so free with that music! Made to the end a couple of times just to see how broken the "star speed" option was :-) Well done!

Nice simple game. The graphics are awesome :)

Pretty good game. The gameplay is pretty smooth; as I played I definitely learned more about how to use the abilities I did have, and was able to unlock useful things as well. That kind of two-pronged difficulty curve is pretty neat, I think, as it allows the player to grow on their own and get better at the game, while it also allows them access to new mechanics in a sort of drip-feed. Good stuff.

The star speed upgrade is definitely extremely powerful--I didn't actually buy it before winning, but when messing around after winning I certainly noticed how it unbalances the game.

For some reason it seems like I am unable to buy the 150 star dodge upgrade...?

I do think it would be nice if there was a sandbox mode or something. I would like to be able to try out some of the fully-upgraded upgrades, now that I've won, but it takes a lot of time to collect all the stars necessary.

That said, the game overall is pretty good; playing through until reaching the end of the story is a great experience.

So fun and addicting! No joke I almost played long enough to unlock every single upgrade, but there was a bug with the dodge upgrade that wouldn't let me go past upgrade 3 :( Other than that though, bug free! Also, hilarious interpretation of the theme, love the creativity. Great Visuals (love the various animations of the farmers chasing you!), music, and sfx, all with a polish and done on your own. Well done :)

Мне понравилось быть ослом.