Unladen Penguin by ComicSans

made by ComicSans for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

Introduction

Your mother always said that penguins can't fly. What does she know?

You are a bird without a care in the world.

You are a bird without any possessions, either. Most notably, without a parachute.

==> Link to Play (web) <==

Controls

Space to start falling (also after restart)
W to spread your wings and soar
S to power dive
A / D to bank

Scoring

Stay alive as long as possible! We're timing you.

Hints

Your wingspan affects fall speed, visibility, and maneuverability.
Some obstacles are much easier to navigate at certain speeds.

Thanks for playing!

Credits: Software

Kevin Pitstick, Chris Pitstick, Brian McBarron, Robert Bergman, Tony Aquino

Credits: Modelling, Rigging, Texturing, Animating, Audio

Hannah Bergman

Design

Everyone

Attribution

3D Engine - Babylon.js

Pre-tuned Audio - Soundsnap, used under license

Parachute model - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Fire texture - https://www.pngwing.com/terms-of-use

Post-Jam Web version	http://50.ld.mcbarron.net/#unladen
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/unladen-penguin

Ratings

Overall	977^th	3.305⭐	43🧑‍⚖️
Fun	654^th	3.415⭐	43🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	1086^th	2.85⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1013^th	3.366⭐	43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	1064^th	3.098⭐	43🧑‍⚖️
Audio	904^th	2.5⭐	39🧑‍⚖️
Humor	267^th	3.744⭐	43🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1145^th	3⭐	42🧑‍⚖️
Given		43🗳️	68🗨️

Feedback

Arihan10

05. Apr 2022 · 02:27 UTC

Despite it's flaws (notably a lack of music, control and sense of urgency), I had fun playing the game. Good job!

Tryston

05. Apr 2022 · 02:27 UTC

Can't believe this was done in javascript, couldn't get past 80 but what I played was really cool!

spladug

05. Apr 2022 · 02:29 UTC

Cool idea. I love the sound effects and art style. It would be nice to see a bit further ahead so you could prepare to dodge. It got really hard when the bombs arrived. I really liked the checkpoint system; it kept me going. Nice work.

TherealMoebius

05. Apr 2022 · 02:29 UTC

Super interesting game, I really enjoyed it! I would have loved some sound effects though.

BigDylann

05. Apr 2022 · 02:31 UTC

I though it was super fun and a cool take on a simple mechanic. Very unique. I do think that the camrea could be zoomed out a bit further to give a bit more time to react for the player. Also I really want to know if you can eventually hit the ground?

Fromage

05. Apr 2022 · 02:35 UTC

This was really cool! The hot air balloons are my new best friends.

🎤 ComicSans

05. Apr 2022 · 03:23 UTC

Thanks, all!

@arihan10 @therealmoebius there is music and sound effects. Sometimes the browser auto-mutes and you need to click the little speaker icon in the top left. If that doesn't work, please let us know what OS/browser you're in so we can debug!

@bigdylann Yes, you can reach the ground! We made it challenging to do so, but it doesn't require *too* much luck!

@fromage :heart: :balloon:

Raphiell

05. Apr 2022 · 03:43 UTC

I only got to the bombs, but the altimeter showed I wasn't even half way... It didn't really fell like I was controlling the bird, and the air rushing sound reminded me of an airplane toilet. But I had lots of fun!

GoldRanger

05. Apr 2022 · 10:49 UTC

Hi another penguin game!
I agree with @bigdylann, I think the reaction time is a bit too less, turns out it require a lot of deaths to remember the patterns, er, or lucks.
I managed to hit the ground, thanks for those save points, glad you set them up. just want to know is there any good ending? :joy: just asking, I know always die ending fit the theme better
Overall it is a cool entry. a mini-game that feel completed!

Nash

05. Apr 2022 · 11:24 UTC

This was a fun and solid jam entry! I really liked the graphics and the basic gameplay loop is solid.

For some reason, I got some motion sickness from this game. It has something to do with how the camera moves in sudden motions and how the perspective slightly keeps changing.

Another small note, it took me a while to understand you need to press Space to start the game after a respawn. It could you some kind of hint.

Overall, a solid jam game!

🎤 ComicSans

05. Apr 2022 · 13:42 UTC

@eggshelldog Yeah, there's no "good" ending. I'm impressed you reached the ground, though!

@nash Sorry about the motion sickness! I also got that during initial development of the camera behavior. We tweaked things to reduce it, but I guess not enough.

LDJam user 279546

05. Apr 2022 · 14:13 UTC

Really cool idea! It was super silly which I loved. It was one of those games where when I saw the title, I thought "I must play this!" I was pleased with my experience with it. The folding up and down of the fins to change how you fall was clever as well. Good game!

Bottled up Dark Peace

05. Apr 2022 · 16:56 UTC

That game was BRUTAL. The physic is well done. I thought it was an endless game but I read it actually has an ending. Maybe I'll retry later.

Bhughes

05. Apr 2022 · 19:24 UTC

sat down to play this for 10 min, 30 minutes ago, it would be cool if the obstacles were more on a cohesive theme. but really impressive! well done.

🎤 ComicSans

05. Apr 2022 · 19:30 UTC

@bottled-up-dark-peace Thanks! FWIW, the physics uses real wind resistance drag calculations, and that's what determines your terminal (haha) velocity. Of course we fudged some constants for fun, like the surface area of a penguin's arms, but the formulas hold up. :penguin:

Swen

05. Apr 2022 · 19:49 UTC

Haha, I love how 'over the top' this game is. Sometimes I felt like I wasn't in control. Other than that I had great fun while playing it. Penguins can indeed fly!

Idontgetit1

05. Apr 2022 · 19:52 UTC

It seems to me that this game is mostly luck based and it was pretty hard to get through the lower checkpoints. Controls are nice and although it is luck based i had some fun. Overall nice game.

Proxy-Games

06. Apr 2022 · 03:02 UTC

This game is pretty rough...but I *love* it. It has a sort of chaotic factor to it that works really, really well. The graphics are nicely done, and while the sound is lacking, what's there is pretty good. The very loose controls, however, do result in a game that feels more like an experience where I suggest what to do next rather than something I'm actively controlling. Luckily, that experience is a very entertaining one, and the first time I got a game over got a laugh out of me from the sudden brutality of it.

Overall, really nice game!

🎤 ComicSans

06. Apr 2022 · 17:37 UTC

> got a laugh out of me from the sudden brutality

@proxy-games This comment made my day! That was the vibe we were going for. There was a lot of swearing during playtests. :grin:

jasontherand

07. Apr 2022 · 20:23 UTC

I really loved this! The balloons were such a blessing and a curse. I bought a lot of time with them, but then the bombs falling on them would really ruin my day lol. The planes felt like the right amount of difficulty, and it was nice to have the checkpoints. The sounds I found fittingly funny, and the movement of the penguin was really cool. I appreciated that you could stall out when you fell too fast, and have no control over your movement. It is really impressive that there seems to be actual physics, not just move left move right.

🎤 ComicSans

07. Apr 2022 · 22:54 UTC

Wow, thanks @jasontherand! :heart:

Kidabra

08. Apr 2022 · 02:23 UTC

This is surprisingly fun! I think the art and specifically the sound and lack of music could use work, but it is inherently a fun game. I hope to see you build it out further.

Stalemeat

10. Apr 2022 · 03:15 UTC

Nice survival level jam game. The game was complete and the control was very smooth. Bouncing on the planes was a nice touch. Nice entry.

aeveis

10. Apr 2022 · 04:18 UTC

I got to the ground! but I still exploded. I wonder if there's a way to survive somehow. There were sooo many bombs, I would've liked to have a bit more air control even when my wings were spread out, but there is a sort of hilarious futility that results where you hope you don't hit a plane to fast or get hit by a bomb. nice job!

🎤 ComicSans

10. Apr 2022 · 17:34 UTC

Thanks, @aeveis! There is no way to survive. The intention was to have a leaderboard of longest survival times per day, so you could "win" by lasting the longest. But we ran out of time before that got finished.

satacat

13. Apr 2022 · 23:28 UTC

not gonna lie this game was so addictive, i couldn't stop playing until i reached the end. level design is great indeed, gameplay was really smooth and i LOVED IT. thank you so much for this entry, i had a lot of fun

cb_225_6763

22. Apr 2022 · 20:20 UTC

A Great Game, love the premise and style, only a few issues
- had a slight glitch of the game over screen not going away, only happened once tho
- The adding sound could make this even more fun
- Screen could be bigger to anticipate or strategize; bombs are random so a quick reaction is harder to do, making a little frustrating

Embedder72

23. Apr 2022 · 01:17 UTC

@cb-225-6763 We're glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the feedback. When you mentioned adding sound to make if more fun did you not hear the sounds? If not, perhaps your audio was muted in the browser? We've seen that sometimes chrome will auto-mute. Yes, we struggled a bit to get the right amount of real estate and detail. We'd hoped to have the camera zoom change based on factors such as speed and level but ran out of time. Again thanks for the feedback.