Clickity Clackity, this is a Strawberry! by Frankey333

[raw]
made by Frankey333 for Ludum Dare 50 (COMPO)

Finally, you have found your dreamed strawberry. But beware, those pesky crabs want it too. Try to defend it for youself as long as you can!

Controls:

  • Mouse: Click on/Mouse over things & stuff.
  • Escape: Return to menu (ending the game)
  • M: Mutes/Unmutes all sounds & music

If you mouse over things, a help note will appear in left top corner telling you what it is and what it does (in most cases).

Programs Used:

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Ratings

Overall 170th 3.684⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 64th 3.947⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 456th 2.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 301th 3.658⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 417th 3.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 341th 3.079⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 108th 3.583⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 178th 3.526⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 7🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 258516
04. Apr 2022 · 12:56 UTC
The start is a little slow, but the game gets incredibly frantic once you manage to build more towers! I loved the music and the fact that I could speed up the game.

Congratulations, and then tell me where the idea for strawberries and crabs came from.
KewDev
04. Apr 2022 · 13:24 UTC
A very good and polished tower defense game with quite a bunch of content! Good job on finishing this!
Sam Horner
04. Apr 2022 · 13:31 UTC
Really well balanced TD, the random upgrades are a nice touch
Tellyhead
04. Apr 2022 · 13:36 UTC
Nice tower defence, start's a little slow but then fun once it gets going
Linus Lindberg
04. Apr 2022 · 21:08 UTC
I really became addicted to this one. One of my faves this time around. Got to 2300+ points after a few attempts but will keep trying, there is still a bunch of strategies I havent tried yet. The gameplay feels very deep, balanced and polished. The graphics could use some works but it is easily outweighed by how good the gameplay is. I'd love to play a pos-compo version of this!!!
rasblo
05. Apr 2022 · 17:54 UTC
Fun game once I found the "Slot" purchasing button :D Gameplay feels polished and the idea of random upgrades kept things fresh, well done :)
Linus Lindberg
05. Apr 2022 · 18:37 UTC
Since last commenting I been obsessed with this game, I just got to 7900 points and the HUGE crab on wave 39 but couldn't stop it. Is that the final boss or does it keep going?
WetBurritoSupreme
05. Apr 2022 · 23:24 UTC
This goes into my list of great crab based LD50 games, nicely done!
🎤 Frankey333
06. Apr 2022 · 09:53 UTC
Thanks for a lot of nice and positive feedback from all of you.

@very-bad-bunny-studio When i saw the theme for this jam, I immediately decided I want to make a some kind of tower defense. For some unknown reason a "This is a robbery" quote was stuck in my head and i tried to iterate in some funny ways to create the idea for a game. I added the clickity clackity, because it sounded funny and I ended up sticking with that, so that is the reasons for crabs. And strawberry because it kinda rhymes with robbery. And from that came the idea of crabs trying to steal a strawberry.

@linus-lindberg I really didn't think someone would reach that point (I had some problems myself hour before deadline while trying to balance the game). I can tell you that you beated the game, atleast what is achievable. The HUGE crab at the end has too much hp (iirc 10^9) and is intended to end the game (I stayed true to the "inevitable" part of the theme here). So reaching the boss is in some way the end and there is nothing after it. (now as I am looking at the way I coded it, the game would just be spawning a single boss every wave). I should have made some clear message, that this was the end. I am very glad you enjoyed it so much. Thank you!
magicdweedoo
08. Apr 2022 · 03:04 UTC
really liked this one, i'm a bit of a sucker for tower defense, my high score is 261
BarelyEvenGames
08. Apr 2022 · 19:23 UTC
Got a score of 118. Getting flashbacks to Elden Ring...stay away crabs!!! Nice job with the game, cute little crabs going for the strawberry, just enough nonsense for a great game. Getting that Tesla was a mistake though.
Games_by_Tom
11. Apr 2022 · 06:54 UTC
Great tower defence! It feels very balanced despite the randomness of the upgrades (which btw were a very cool and pretty unique addition).

The graphics are very much fitting, the sound effects and music were good too. Also of course the game hits the theme.

Loved to play it, and probably will keep doing so in the coming days until i also reach that "end round" with the huge boss crab.
luthwyhn
13. Apr 2022 · 21:31 UTC
Absolutely love a cute tower defense. Like the randomness of the upgrade options. #CrabGang
M2tias
15. Apr 2022 · 17:24 UTC
Well balanced tower defense game. It was addicting! I would like to play more, but I have to rate more games :D
Nice art as well. I wish there were like three lives or something.
Andre Sadie
15. Apr 2022 · 18:41 UTC
Fun game to play. I liked the added luck! one time I discarded an upgrade and it took away all my crab meat-sob! I like that you can also slow down and speed up the game, very nice.
LMB
17. Apr 2022 · 23:40 UTC
_Very fun_! Had a good time playing it! (And will play a bit more, I guess!)
kjscott
18. Apr 2022 · 10:45 UTC
The audio levels need to be a more little balanced between background audio and the game SFX, the initial beep you hear as the game loaded was a little jarring (audio volume sliders in the menu would fix that). I -loved- the speed slider, which more tower defense games had this. When I click upgrade I wish there was a way to back out of it, rather than discard upgrade as you've already spent your cash and I hadn't realised for a while it was doing that. Using a set random seed modified by the current luck value allows you to check upgrades before committing to it as you might not want to spend the cash right at that moment and just want to check out the potential upgrades first. I did get a 50% range increase followed by a 50% range increase and wasn't sure if the two applied together or if the second 50% range increase overwrote the first one, UI would helped a little here. I did really like the range of different upgrades, rarity and the luck factor though. Very cool implementation. I would have liked to be able to click off a tower once it was selected. I kept playing this over and over again to try out different strategies, so that in and of itself marks itself out to a good game. Great work there!
🎤 Frankey333
19. Apr 2022 · 10:12 UTC
Again, thank you all for your feedback, I will take them into account when creating next games.

@kjscott The audio is definitely not well made. It was too late for me when I realized that and added only a quick fix, which is the mute button (which is not really a solution, but can stop your ears from bleeding out if necessary).

If I made upgrades visible before buying or the seed for luck was the same for each game, it would change the gameplay. The game might be better (more skill-based than luck-based), but it would be different. The point of taking the money if you discard an upgrade, is that the next one is not more expensive. Every time you buy an upgrade (and not discard it) the next upgrade for that tower costs 2x more, but if you discard it, then the cost stays the same. This way you can dodge some unwanted upgrades, but you still need to pay for rolling them. At least that was my intended game design behind it. I should have atleast wrote a note to the discard button tho.

Better UI and more player-friendly controls are definitely on my 'TODO better' list for next games. Thank you for your detailed feedback. I appreciate it very much.