LudumData

Marin and The Sinking Kingdom by boaheck-artgent

[raw]
made by boaheck-artgent for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

Marin loved the sea, that's why she lived in a tiny cottage by a long sandy beach. One day she noticed something was wrong. The Tide should have gone out hours ago, but instead it just kept rising. Once her kitchen flooded late that night she knew the kingdom was sinking.

She set off to the castle to warn the king and even managed to get an audience with him. However when she told him the kingdom was sinking he didn't believe her. Laughing he sent her to the dungeon

Marin sat in the cold and the dark. She felt so empty knowing the kingdom was sinking and there was nothing she could do. Soon she saw the water outside the dungeon window.

Not long after the king stumbled into the dungeon and begged her to carry him up to the top of the castle. "My gout is so painful and I don't know how any of the security contraptions work please Marin carry me to the top of the castle" he wept at her feet. He told her that if she could get him to the top he had a magic carpet they could escape on. Well he said "I can escape on" but Marin had no choice so she hoped there'd be room for her.

DON'T LET THE KING DROWN! THAT GUY'S IMPORTANT!

CONTROLS:

  • wasd or arrow keys to move
  • shift to pick up and throw objects
  • down or s to drop objects! LD50.png
Link https://boaheck.itch.io/marin
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/marin-and-the-sinking-kingdom

Ratings

Overall 429th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 518th 3.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 266th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 466th 3.848⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 437th 3.957⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 426th 3.565⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 444th 3.381⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 858th 3.341⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 6🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

Jupiter_Hadley
05. Apr 2022 · 16:10 UTC
Lovely graphics! I included it in my Ludum Dare compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/v0i3VE06y_Y
JCMonkey
06. Apr 2022 · 03:57 UTC
this game is pretty hard. the juggling of throwing the king down, and picking up blocks in interesting. so on another playthrough i just jumped with the water most the time instead of doing the block puzzles.
🎤 boaheck-artgent
06. Apr 2022 · 11:13 UTC
@jcmonkey Yeah the game is kind of intentionally possible to cheese for the same reason that I added the time slider. I want the game to be beatable for any skill level, and for nothing to be a complete progress blocker. I want to allow the player to define their challenge, treat the game as almost a toy, and ultimately find the fun they want within it.
iwilliams
06. Apr 2022 · 18:26 UTC
Fun game! I found it a little hard to understand when I could or couldn't stand on the boxes. Cool water physics though!
velvetlobster
07. Apr 2022 · 12:26 UTC
oh this so so cute, I love the graphics that look a bit like cardboard cut pixeart, kinda like paper mario.

it took me a while to figure out how to throw the boxes though.

this king is adorable
🎤 boaheck-artgent
07. Apr 2022 · 12:40 UTC
@iwilliams Yeah this game could do with a lot better visual communication tbh. Wish I had time to highlight the object you are able to pick up and maybe darken objects while collision is disabled.

@velvetlobster thanks! Yeah I'm really happy with how the art turned out that's an interesting comparrison to Paper Mario. Really I'd had the chance to add some guidance on controls, throwing and trajectory to the starting area.
Glayson
07. Apr 2022 · 12:49 UTC
Great idea and great game! The only thing is that we can avoid to much of the puzzles by swimming while holding the king...
The music is great too. Missed some sound effects though...

Well done!
velvetlobster
07. Apr 2022 · 12:52 UTC
perhaps if the momentum in the player movement is transfered to the boxes so it would be easier to throw them with the horizontal movement, currently I feel it uses a lot of the vertical momentum but not the horizontal one much idk
🎤 boaheck-artgent
07. Apr 2022 · 13:04 UTC
@velvetlobster It doesn't use any of the player's momentum. It's basically the same consistent arc every time. I did this on purpose for that consistency and also to prevent the feature taking longer to implement, this is also why there isn't any sort of arc or aiming indicator.

@glayson Yeah as I mentioned in one of my previous comments this is purposeful design for the sake of allowing players of differing skill levels to find what fun they want in the game. If I expand on the game I may add a mode that punishes this but honestly I like that basically anyone can beat my game one way or another. I agree about the SFX though. I think it's one of the things that most subtracts from the final presentation of the game.
Glayson
07. Apr 2022 · 13:18 UTC
Oh! i totally understand you! For brackeys game jam, i did the same thing! It was a boss fight but the player was "unkillable" for the sake of the history. I ended up given you the same feedback i received a lot because of this decision...
Olivier Millochau
07. Apr 2022 · 14:13 UTC
The physics works really well and the art combine with the happy music makes for a nice atmosphere !
Unfortunately, I did get stuck several times waiting for the water to rise, breaking the pace of the game ... The level design was frustrating at times and could see some improvements.

Nice submission overall, gratz !
saikai
07. Apr 2022 · 16:12 UTC
Really nice graphics and clever puzzles. But some of the boxes got repeatedly stuck.
firellon
07. Apr 2022 · 16:27 UTC
Lovely art style :)

The controls are a bit wacky, as it's really easy to get the guy picked and dropped immediately, but otherwise a very neat idea. Well done!
Ossi
07. Apr 2022 · 23:08 UTC
Lovely game! I really like the art a lot! The mechanic of using the same object for multiple things like holding switches down or to get more height is always fun for puzzle solving. Great work!
DGSpitzer
08. Apr 2022 · 01:32 UTC
![WeChat Image_20220407212959.png](///raw/b28/3/z/4d7b8.png)
Very cute game! I finished the 4 min difficulty~
exopunk
08. Apr 2022 · 10:58 UTC
Made it to the end :D I really liked the mechanics and how they are combined, especially how the water can help you at some points with the verticality. Great execution overall!
Cary Stanley
08. Apr 2022 · 20:21 UTC
Really cute graphics and fun / humorous game!!

Great job!!

I think I had a little frustration at the beginning with the jump height, and that I could not stand on floating boxes
bentglasstube
08. Apr 2022 · 20:51 UTC
I really enjoyed the concept of this game with the platforming and throwing things. The rising water letting you skip past puzzles you were struggling with was a really nice touch too, to keep players from becoming frustrated. The graphics were great and so was the music.

One thing that wasn't perfect was how floaty the jumping and throwing felt. It was frequently difficult to make a throw because of this but still the game was a lot of fun overall.
Borabee
10. Apr 2022 · 16:32 UTC
Really liked this game, from concept to execution (beautiful art, music, and I really like the story!). However, I found it pretty difficult. Early on, I wasn't able to solve the puzzles quickly enough, but then was able to ride up with the water until it wasn't possible anymore. I feel like I would have liked it better if the game either just killed me and threw me right back into it or maybe if the water started slower and got progressively faster, with a more gradual increase in difficulty! But anyway, I could always start over so it was a great experience!
Local Minimum
10. Apr 2022 · 18:22 UTC
The buoyancy feeling of jumping into the water was really nice and a cute platormer as a whole. A bit hard on what I expected was about as easy as it would run (slider far to the left). I forgot to check since description said nothing about it, but this type of game feels like it would have been very nice with controller support.
🎤 boaheck-artgent
10. Apr 2022 · 21:29 UTC
@local-minimum the slider sets the time it takes for the water to rise far left is 2:00 minutes and right is I think 20:00 minutes so I think you might have been playing on the hardest difficulty. Yeah shame I didn't get to put in some controller support.
Jonathan Lorenz
15. Apr 2022 · 13:41 UTC
Cool little puzzle platformer. The controls were pleasent, the mood created by the music and graphics feels great. Good submission!