Giraffe o'Clock by Kepsert
Have you been looking for, no have you been CRAVING for a gameboy-inspired, full of chiptune bangers, story-rich, dialogue-heavy, game about a baby giraffe, afraid of the dark, who goes on a massive journey to transcend space and time in order to manipulate time so it'll never turn dark?
You're not going to believe it!
Then I have THE game for you! (More about the plot underneath the dancing giraffe)
Webbuild is a post-jam build BUT the game will tell you when the post-jam part starts. Otherwise you could download the 0.2.5 version. Controller/Keyboard controls are both supported. RECOMMENDED to play on easy difficulty if you want to experience the full game - the difficulties have not been balanced properly, but easy has been buffed up for LD reasons!
Good luck, and ENJOY!
Brother Billy is about to turn off the lights; it's bedtime after all. It just so happens to be that Kid Giraffe is scared of the dark and he's not quite ready for the lights to go off yet. Logically he goes on an adventure to delay, or perhaps completely evade, the inevitable. Meet a cast of characters through a jolly world of witty dialogue, adorable graphics, while transcending space and time in the one way that makes sense: through dance.
*Giraphics: * Sylbie Twitter
*Programming/Music/SFX: * Kepsert Twitch (Main menu track done by Beatscribe)
Game design/level design is a COMBINED effort.
More stuff coming up post-jam, read the itch IO page for more info!
CONTROLS
KEYBOARD CONTROLS (Gamepad controls further down)
Menu:
- Select button: Enter
Game
Up/Down/Left/Right: WASD or Arrow keys
Jump: Space
Dash: Left shift or Left alt
Pause: Escape
Minigame:
- Up/Down/Left/Right: WASD or Arrow keys or GHJK
Dialogue
- Continue: Space
GAMEPAD CONTROLS
Menu:
- Select button: A / South Button
Game
Up/Down/Left/Right: Left Stick / Dpad
Jump: A / South Button
Dash: B / East Button
Pause: Start
Minigame:
- Up/Down/Left/Right: Left Stick / Dpad / ABXY / Right Stick
Dialogue
- Continue: A / South Button
CHANGE LOG:
0.2.5:
- Mostly fixed the game breaking collision bug.
- Added a single tile in Stage1_1 to avoid a softlock.
0.4.0:
- Added visual feedback on whether you have dash/airjump available.
- Altered the hitboxes slightly to make ledge jumping less glitchy.
- Added 3 new music tracks.
- Added an additional 21 levels with different, new, gimmicks.
| Link | https://kepsert.itch.io/giraffe-oclock |
| Link | https://kepsert.itch.io/giraffe-oclock |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/giraffe-oclock |
Ratings
| Overall | 54th | 4.179⭐ | 214🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 107th | 4.016⭐ | 215🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 508th | 3.491⭐ | 213🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 512th | 3.815⭐ | 215🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 197th | 4.276⭐ | 216🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 75th | 4.138⭐ | 212🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 74th | 4.166⭐ | 210🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 189th | 4⭐ | 205🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 63🗳️ | 73🗨️ |
As a fellow musician I have to convey my compliments to the chef - the music was amazing :smile:
In fact, at some point I almost started feeling like an 8 year old with my NES again. Well done!
I got stuck in the wall btw. Was trying to jump and grab a ledge, got stuck and pushed left and then I could only go down.
Also got stuck once while dashing:
Nice game. Keep up the good work!
It happened to me some time after I met Carl, so I don't really feel like going through everything before that again, especially since a very big part of the game is trivial. I'll come back to the game some other day to see what's left. I really liked the art, music and humor, great dialogues there. It's a relaxing game. One tricky part was when I had to perform double jump from hanging onto the ledge when there was no space for a single jump straight up. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong and what I eventually did right. But yeah, overall it was a cool experience :)
Also, I've been told to rate the game highly in the humor category, so here I am...
The color palette is great, it reminds me of some alternative reality where gameboys would have purple screens instead of green haha
The controls are nicely done, first I thought the jump was a bit floaty, but after playing for a while it actually makes sense
Music is well done too, not too repetitive and not too destracting
Great game, life in pink!
Now my question is? How the hell did you come up with that idea?
Well done!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll be dropping additional content as post-jam stuff over the next weeks, levels, music, and mechanics mostly. Just thought I'd let you know in case you're hyped to have more content!
This is just too hard. I gave up after like 5 minutes.
For that segment, I believe you'll want to walk off, dash to the right, then jump up! Maybe that helps :D
The gameplay is good, but the controller could maybe be tighter as it feels a bit floaty but doesn't detract too much from the experience.
Great entry and good luck!
(I played the jam version so I'd be fair when rating)
I do feel like the dialogue was a bit wordy and it would of been nice for an option to have it repeat as I got stuck not knowing where to go after the rhythm section. Speaking of I feel like the difficulty was only applied to that section as the platforming enemies wasn't challenging to me
The music and art was great, well put together and I liked how yous had multiple things going on with the music section, good job! ^-^
Its funny witty and well done, the level design works out just right. An overall good game.
Funny dialog and nice platforming! I liked the ledge grab animation, but it felt a bit janky sometimes when trying to jump from holding ledge. Also i got an issue with the dash, i could not dash anymore unless i tabbed away and back in, then i got one dash by pressing a direction :P
Anyway, really well done! Keep it up!
The dash thing, that's weird, haven't encountered it before! Do you have any info on what platform/browser you played it on? Would like to check into it :D
Thank you for the game!
I got stuck after entering the time space continuum (which is a really odd thing to say about a giraffe game)
But the graphics and NES platformer style was great!
Good entry :)
Loved the color pallet, the audio, everything, thank you so much for this great game!
I think I am soft locked! I can't move past this sequence since the robot is too scared to unbox itself!
That's unfortunate. I really want to see how it ends.
I'm truly impressed with the amount of gameplay, graphics, story and dialogue you created in such a short time.
And humour, ofc it's gonna be 5/5.
Well done!
If you're interested in moving on (you totally should, the 3rd world has a banger of a soundtrack!) you could always just go back to the actual main menu, and then "Continue Game" :D Unfortunately, I forgot that the escape button in webplayer would minimize it so the options screen won't open on the webplayer - you should be able to refresh however, save files should still be working!
Then, if you get in this situation again; you can still get back to the lowest floating platform to the left, just a short jump into a dash and you'll be there :D Good luck!
Also, thank you for playing <3
- It kept opening up the pause screen between levels, not sure if that was intentional?
- After "I'll just stop talking so the timer starts moving, bye!" I couldn't move, but I heard the dialogue sounds still going, so I kept hitting space until it let me move, which is why I think I might have missed something. 
- This was where I gave up. I can't double jump after ledge biting so how???
Otherwise, fun little game, some of the dialogue felt a little forced but other jokes did land well and made me laugh. Terrible at the dancing minigame, glad I didn't have to do that again before I gave up on the platforming. Kinda sad I'm not skilled enough (or otherwise missed the dialogue that I needed) to get to the end, but glad I got to play the "Giraffe Game From That Guy Who Kept Posting About Giraffes", as I liked to think of it!
Also, I got a major Mario vibe from the music, it was great.
As for the pause problem, I haven't seen nor heard this one before! I see you were playing the web version, what browser did you use? :o
Admittedly, I DID keep clicking out of the game to check on some chat messages, but this kept happening after I already came back in to the game to do the platforming. I don't know, maybe my mouse was clicking without my permission outside of the game? Might just be a me thing, lol.
I swear I tried what you said, I guess I'm just so uncoordinated that I ran out of air jumps anyway?? Maybe later I'll give it another try and see if I can get to the end without any weird pause bugs /phantom dialogue problems, lol.
but um, bestie the message at the end tho :sob: go hug your loved ones
The music, aesthetic, mechanics, EVERYTHING was fantastic! I was hooked since level 1! Loved the self aware and 4th wall moments! The humor in this game is god tier
TRULY AMAZING!! WOW!! Can't believe what you guys managed to do for that you were only two people?!
This is like a fully fledged game!!
Where to begin... Artstyle, Story, Music, all fantastic. Really loved the pink monochrome theme!
Unicorn who? pfff... Giraffes obviously are the next big thing! :id:
(and I loved that you even said it in the game yourself ^^ I also really loved the meta humor!)
In general it was very funny and not a lot of things make me laugh :b
the levels were amazingly detailed and SO. MUCH. CONTENT. The animations!!! Wow.
I hope you guys to to Steam with this, seriously. so cute. And wholesome. A bit Undertale vibes :)
But duuuuuude. The Dance Dance Revolution bit. Duuuuude xD Too hard to start out with :b
I will definitely return to my save file!!
5* <3
I honestly don't know one bad thing to say. If I had to say something.. maybe incorporate the controls a bit in like a tutorial? But even that was easy to find out while playing (and Gamejams and tutorials, ain't nobody got time for that, lol)
Oh, also! The game mechanic! Sooooo unique and fun, omg! Honestly, this might be my favourite this Jam!
Congratulations for the game. So far, one of my favorites.
- Tim
I liked the artstyle very much and the music. I think the ledge grab mechanic is pretty cool and well implemented. I just had trouble understanding this double-jump-reset-on-ground-touched thing.
Cool Game!
Great work, this plays really well and has a good story. Great pacing, the jump felt a floaty but overall the controls were good. The graphics work really well with the minimal colours.
I hope you continue working on it, and if you do I would recommend you to use the pixel perfect camera plugin as I think this was made in unity? It makes the pixel art look even better without seams (I notice some things jitter a bit in sub-pixels) and the giraffe floats a pixel or two above ground.
All in all, this is a great entry, really well done!
Well, great graphics with a tasty color palette. I appreciate all the jokes and fun in the dialogues, I'd still prioritize balancing the minigame difficulty over the dialogues. The levels are cleanly designed. One or two sections felt like you needed closer checkpoints or something.( Only because it's a jam game btw, you expect to waste less time so you can move on to playing other games )
We love this game. Keep up the good work!
I dunno if this was on purpose but to me it felt like my goal was to run out of time on purpose.
Clean platforming controls, nice touch with grabbing edges with your mouth. The music was what kept me playing tbh.
Also, thanks for the gamepad support! That made it way more enjoyable to play for me.
Dialogue was fun. Graphics and audio were great as well.
We had a blast acting out parts with my wife, that was a great suggestion! Nice that you came to the stream and interacted with us the whole time we played
Here's a recording of our playthrough: https://youtu.be/1s0mnrLO_ak
The levels are shockingly well-constructed! Many times I thought I'd made a mistake, only to find out that's where the game wants me to go! There's plenty of levels too, which definitely earns my respect. There were some tricky parts, but they were always manageable with the right approach. Though the dancing minigames are rather demanding in reflexes.
Now, I know for *certain* that this will be an unpopular opinion, but I do **NOT** enjoy the writing in this game.
Don't get me wrong, I do like me some self-awareness, but there's a limit for how self aware a work should be, and this game *just take is too far.*. Yes, I'm aware of the theme of Ludum Dare 50, don't beat me over the head with it! No, even taking the self-awareness into account, you're not clever for referencing the theme! Nearly everyone's done that! I wasn't a fan of the 'boomer' jokes later on either; all that's gonna do is make me groan.
And listen, *if you actively __TELL ME__ to rate your game high in the humor category, __NO!__* Don't make people rate a game, even IF you think it deserves it. Ultimately, this just comes off as an *extremely* low attempt at garnering ratings, and I honestly do not want to give it a high humor score.
Ok, now ALL of that was just **MY** personal opinion! Remember that, I implore you! Because apart from the writing, this game is **_REALLY GOOD!_** The graphics are charming, the music is **WONDERFUL,** and the gameplay is amazing, maybe with the exception of the dancing sequences. You all should be VERY proud, apart from *begging for high humor ratings.*
Apologies if my writing opinions are rather harsh; I just simply _cannot **STAND**_ stuff like that. Just have a great day, all of you; I don't wish ill on you all.
While the "medium" difficulty makes it not stressful about time, I appreciate that you can tweak the difficulty and play on an almost "non-lose" mode. Congratulations on the game!
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my stream!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1450162412?t=08h57m05s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
I played with controller except for the dance sections. The dance controls are just sooo much easier with a keyboard than with a controller.
Again - amazing entry & Good Job!
What a lovely game! I love the use of 2-bit color graphics, and I'd be curious to see what it looks like on an LCD display/emulation of the LCD effects.
Some very nice level design guiding you to learn and then work with the new powers. And Ledge Bite is just fantastic.
There's WAY more content here than I expected haha. The dialogue is funny and overall, it's actually really fun and kinda challenging. Also the DDR/FFR portion made me so happy xD
Nice job for getting so much done in a weekend! Well done overall :3
Highlight: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1451440143?t=02h16m09s
I found the level music a little repetitive, but it's ok, nothing horrible there. The music tracks are pretty good!
I had trouble finding wich button to press to dash, maybe you could add something in the dialog to explain how to perform it?
Overall, it is one of the best LD50 game I've played! You made a wonderful work on this one! Good luck, if you want to create a full/commercial version of it, I'm pretty sure this can work.
One thing I didn't mention on stream that I think would improve it is having effects for jumping and dashing like dust cloud / lines for example. I think that would help with what I was saying about more things animated around the player. Thanks for submitting, I had a blast!
Thank for your submission guys! Great job!
I only have a few minor nitpicks: it was a bit disorienting when the text moved to a new line in the middle of a word, and the spiders disappear into the ground a few pixels above it. Also, there was a bug int this specific ledge, where I couldn't jump (playing on 0.2.5 Windows):
Other than that, amazing entry!
The ledge is a bit of a hitbox issue, I'm currently working on a massive content patch which should be dropping later this week in which the issue will be fixed! I'll look into the spiders/text as well, thanks for the feedback!
Music is really cool!
I though the dance dance portion took such a different skill set that it was a bit jarring to me, but the penalty was so small it didn't really matter.
Graphics were great, got rescue ranger vibes from this for sure.
I love it!
Loved the game. Great entry!
Also, glad you enjoyed the game!
Fantastic job again
Amazing game! I loved the music, the gameplay was super fun and very rewarding. The only critique I have is some graphics. The text box being the same color as the bg threw me off a bit, also the boxes that you cant jump on should maybe be pushed back a bit /look separated from the main level. Over all extremely enjoyable game :D
I like the game, the music is awsome! Very funny the Giraffe uses his mouth to climb too! I don't expected that!
If you have a little time, come see our game ^^ Humble but from the heart <3
The idea is very cool, and the platforming controls feel nice, with coyote jump, buffer, and this special giraffe neck mechanic, very smart and well done!
The level design is most often quite good. The pixel art is awesome with a great color palette, but I would personally love it even more if it were pixel perfect.
The dialogues were way too long for my personal taste and not really my kind of humor, but it was great that you could just skip through them without losing any important info.
Thanks for the game and great job 🦒
This feels like it could turn into a full thing! Well done with this!
The rest of the game is great though, the DDR minigame was such a cool surprise. The art and music are good as well. Good job!
Played it on stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1456566145
That was truly a beautiful game! It is extremely well polished, the dialog is highly amusing, I loved the graphics and audio, and I loved the characters. My only complaint is that Kid's head would sometimes get stuck in walls. Good job making such a complete ld game!!
Still impressive effort and large game for a jam. Good art and feel, well done.
But the jumping and grabbing corners were fun enough and well made. Your platforming mechanics reminded me of "the end is nigh" a little bit. I also enjoyed the rhythm sections, at least when they matched the music. Overall, great job!