LudumData

Natural Snek-lection! by Falk Hoeppner

[raw]
made by Falk Hoeppner for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

In a world where you are the only one blessed with glorious brows, you should, nay, MUST set forth and bestow this trait on your descendants. Unfortunately, your species life span is only 10 seconds longer than nonexistent. Find a mate with favorable characteristics and pray to science that when the next generation is born they win the Punnett lottery.

One day your descendants shall be born with the most wonderous of traits, the ultimate supreme beings!

Do not let your bloodline end...

Join in the Natural Snek-lection today! https://hammerfrenzy.github.io/ludum-dare-51/

Title Screen.JPG

Objective

  • Have a trait for each slot (head, arms, upper body, lower body, and legs) in one individual
  • Failure to find a mate and spawn the next generation (snek snek snek) means an end to your bloodline Snek Snek.png

Controls

  • WASD or Arrows to Move.
  • Space to "proliferate" when near a potential mate.
  • Hold Tab to view your achievements.

Neat Features!

There are 4 endings to find (5 if you include death!), 6 achievements to unlock, and 15 phenotypes to collect!

Snek evolution is powered by Punnett Square logic to decide what traits your offspring get, as well as to enable the evolution of the entire population over the generations. Just in time for your biology test!

Cheat Sheet.png

Future Stuff!

We wanted to add modifiers to the traits to make them boost different stats (speed, attraction, intimidation, health), but did not have time to implement. Looking forward to getting them in post-jam! Gameplay 1.JPG

The Team

  • NerdyHerbivore - Creative Direction, Programming, Writing, Art (except for John Gould's Finches Drawing :smiley:)
  • Hammerfrenzy - Programming, VO
  • Eric - Programming, SFX
  • Falk - SFX, VO, Music, Programming, Writing

Birth.JPG

Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek

Unity WebGL https://hammerfrenzy.github.io/ludum-dare-51/
Source Code https://github.com/hammerfrenzy/ludum-dare-51
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/natural-snek-lection

Ratings

Overall 403th 3.681⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Fun 556th 3.415⭐ 61🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 118th 3.939⭐ 59🧑‍⚖️
Theme 490th 3.759⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 283th 4.059⭐ 61🧑‍⚖️
Audio 298th 3.629⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Humor 51th 4.164⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Mood 344th 3.705⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Given 74🗳️ 121🗨️

Feedback

nerdyHerbivore
26. Sep 2022 · 13:54 UTC
Very excited to dip back into Ludum Dare! It has been a while! Working with a lot of first-time jammers and doing it 100% virtual, so fingers crossed we get something complete!
LDJam user 236651
03. Oct 2022 · 07:13 UTC
Really love the art, the doodly aesthetic was great.
Jibberwocky
03. Oct 2022 · 07:25 UTC
Brilliant! loved the doodles and the sounds and the dialog. I was going to say that it was kinda hard to tell what the point was but then I just tried to build the wildest coolest looking snek and got given and award for it so turns out I knew what the point was all along!
BobFish
03. Oct 2022 · 07:39 UTC
The art style and the sound effects / voice acting are excellent! The art style is done so well. Very cool idea of trying to get certain traits through breeding. Had a lot of fun :) Great work!
nerdyHerbivore
03. Oct 2022 · 12:15 UTC
Thanks! Would love to see some of your creations in the comments!!! And good luck finding the secret endings!
Eric Nguyen
03. Oct 2022 · 15:51 UTC
![snek.png](///raw/6f9/84/z/50aac.png)

Thanks for playing our game!
sdelay
03. Oct 2022 · 18:47 UTC
I have been prolifering for 15minutes without being able to finish the game. Is there a secret tip to know which snake choose ? 10 sec is too fast to choose the right snake !
Beside complaining, I really enjoyed the graphics and the atmosphere. We smell the fun you had while making the game!
GG !
Cookie_CHR
03. Oct 2022 · 21:45 UTC
Really fun game! Loved playing it
Gdanilo
03. Oct 2022 · 23:05 UTC
Oh god this is a darwinian game, i like the pencil graphics and the voices are veri hilarious
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
03. Oct 2022 · 23:17 UTC
@sdelay There's biology and luck at play here. Hitting tab while playing will open up the Phenotype/Genotype breakdown, which may give you a clue as to what traits it is you are looking for. The Punnetts menu at the beginning will help out as well (and will fill in as you play!)
NichiiExE
03. Oct 2022 · 23:22 UTC
THIS IS SO GOOD!! Such a good idea, fun to play, and I love the sound effects! Amazing work!!!
LDJam user 237261
03. Oct 2022 · 23:56 UTC
Super cool idea for the visual style, it's really unique!
Wrex
04. Oct 2022 · 01:12 UTC
![snek.JPG](///raw/c6e/a4/z/51bcd.jpg)

I did it!?

Gotta love me a wing-a-ling snek.
Paul Avallone
04. Oct 2022 · 02:33 UTC
Very funny game concept. Love the pencil sketch art aesthetic. Got a laugh out of me. Good job!
werdnalt
04. Oct 2022 · 03:02 UTC
This was an entertaining game with a nice cohesive visual style that tied it all together. Admittedly, I wasn't quite sure what my "goal" was, but I enjoyed "interacting" with the other sneks and seeing what result I would get , fun game!
Caerul
04. Oct 2022 · 04:14 UTC
Haha totally an educational game. Love the hand written text for everything.
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
04. Oct 2022 · 04:43 UTC
@caerul Sssshhhh! Don't tell anyone! :wink:
ZungryWare
04. Oct 2022 · 04:48 UTC
Very good visual style. The Trogdor notepad style really ties the game together. I love all the details like the ridiculous alternatives to the standard Trogor look (the propeller hat was my favorite) and the doodles on the title screen.

I feel like the complicated mechanics mixes poorly with the ten second timer. The timer doesn't add any difficulty to the game as far as surviving to the next wave (since there's always eligible mates nearby). But the timer makes it so I can't sit down and plan out. "Okay, if I have these traits and this one is recessive, I need to find a mate with this trait but not that trait". The punnet squares are too complex to figure out in ten seconds, especially since I haven't taken a biology class in several years.

Maybe that's not the point and you're just supposed to go around looking for mates with beefy arms (for good measure.) But with all of the charts this game provides, it feels like I *should* be trying to get the most out of the mechanics.

So mechanically, it was a neat concept but poorly executed if the point was that the player was supposed to actually pay any heed to the Tab menu.
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
04. Oct 2022 · 05:18 UTC
@zungryware Thank you so much for the feedback! I think you are spot on on all fronts. The 4x4 Punnett adds a lot of complexity as the game runs, especially in the first couple of run throughs. We added a Punnett reference on the main menu that fills out as you play so that players who had gone through the core game loop a couple of times would have unlocked those phenotypes and see them mapped to the genotypes in a static, not time bound place so that, should the player want to target a specific look for one of the secret endings, they could plan or get a feel for what the potential risk/reward balance is of any given mating pair. After that, the in-game tab was intended to both give you a list of traits you have or have not unlocked and to give you a cheat-sheet for in game reference.

During the jam we also considered pausing the game while the cheat-sheet is open. Do you think that would address the problem?
LDJam user 224670
04. Oct 2022 · 06:36 UTC
I felt pretty lost, and with no time to figure it out (a casualty of the theme this year, of course) I devolved into just hitting space on anything around me. It seemed to... work? Though? I wasn't sure. Love the trogdors and the silly sfx!
Btw, pretty low frame rate on a mac, not sure about other devices.
Pusheeneiro
04. Oct 2022 · 08:24 UTC
I don't even know what to write. This game is great, bitbox soundtrack, brilliant mechanics and simple yet nice graphics. It's brilliant how you show how gene inheritance works in a simple and accessible way.
thegamearchitect
04. Oct 2022 · 11:32 UTC
cool game you got here, plays nice. graphics are minimal and nice to look at. Well done!
m11
04. Oct 2022 · 12:18 UTC
The art style on this is brilliant - minimal, but super effective!
nerdyHerbivore
04. Oct 2022 · 13:54 UTC
Thanks everyone! If we do something post jam we may make your health the timer and give ways to lengthen or shorten it. Thanks for the feedback, we had a blast making it!
Birdy Games
04. Oct 2022 · 16:54 UTC
I loved it. Simple but effective, with a very funny humor. The art and the sounds fit very good. Great job!
krzymsky
04. Oct 2022 · 19:11 UTC
The visuals and sound design are super funny, love it! But I felt a bit lost and I was feeling the time pressure all the time. Maybe pausing the timer while the tab menu is open would help.
nyxkn
04. Oct 2022 · 20:40 UTC
Omg this was so fun. The art is adorable, and some of the combinations are hilarious! Very well done. I wasn't sure how the traits selection worked and it seemed random. I just tried to avoid the vanilla looking snakes and got many of the achievements, but I'm not sure if there was a better strategy. With the timer running down it was hard to wait for better mates anyway and a first-see first-mate approach seemed to be the favored one :D Anyway absolutely loved it. So charming! Brilliant humor too. Great work and good amount of polish. Well done!
PureImprov
05. Oct 2022 · 03:03 UTC
Love the pen and paper visuals! It taught me I know little or nothing about genetics (:
Trusty
05. Oct 2022 · 03:51 UTC
This was pretty cool, neat art style. These brows have great power.
SaxOps1
05. Oct 2022 · 08:37 UTC
![Capture.PNG](///raw/581/z/5244f.png)

I love the art and sound! Gameplay could be more interesting with some modifiers based off the genes!
It'd be nice to pause when you open the achievements so you can figure out what you should go find.
eerongal
05. Oct 2022 · 14:12 UTC
i said consumate V's! CONSUMATE! CONSUMATE! Guy wouldn't know majesty if it bit him in the face!

This was a great game, and looks like it was probably incredibly fun to make. Nice job, but when I submitted to this ludum dare, i didn't think i'd be facing off against mutated burninators!
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
05. Oct 2022 · 14:29 UTC
@eerongal I like to think of them as "burninators in the making". We had a absolute blast making this game, and we're glad you had fun playing it!
Ryan Dotsikas
05. Oct 2022 · 21:04 UTC
Man, what a hilarious game, I love this so much. First of all the art style is just great, love the sketched drawings on paper background. The title screen and tutorial screen are phenomenal! The audio is also top notch (snek snek snek snek!) and the gameplay itself is such a clever and unique idea, I never would've thought of something like this! Awesome job!
JMad
05. Oct 2022 · 22:16 UTC
I fell in love with the drawings! Not to mention that mouth-track, and the fact that it is about GENETICS. <3
I truly think I have bred the most fabulous snake there can be.

(I did try to disable Math)

![Screenshot 2022-10-05 231535.png](///raw/906/d2/z/526e2.png)
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
05. Oct 2022 · 23:51 UTC
@jmad Gon' GIT! :laughing: Thanks for playing and exploring our game! We're thrilled you had a good time!

@ryan-dotsikas Snek Snek Snek Snek! :snake: Thank you for the high praise!

@saxops1 Thanks for the feedback! We really really wanted to add stat modifiers in for things like speed and attractiveness, but time was not on our side for LD. We do intend to get that and the pause when opening the tab menu into the game soon.
Khadia
06. Oct 2022 · 04:51 UTC
Love the concept, and the aesthetic you chose to go with it. I agree with the commenter above that the mechanic is too complicated for a 10 second cycle, also agree with your reply that a pause option would go a long way towards solving that. Alternatively I wonder whether having the traits controlled by a single locus (ie a 2x2 punnet square) could be a better fit with the 10s rule (or be used as a tutorial/intro level). I would have liked to have a picture of the ideal snake (ie. phenotype that I am aiming for) so I could then work on building it, but I appreciate that the open exploration is a stylistic choice that you made and respect that. Game runs great, controls work great, really good jam submission - well done!
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
06. Oct 2022 · 13:02 UTC
@khadia I think you're right about the 2x2 probably being more fitting for the time window. We had considered the 2x2 initially, but wanted more variation of traits in the game than a 2x2 would offer. Using that for an intro level sounds like a phenomenal idea though, and the feedback that "the target is unclear" is a running theme for the next iteration. Thanks again for the feedback!
Savolae
06. Oct 2022 · 17:20 UTC
What a beauty

![Screenshot 2022-10-06 201745.png](///raw/d5a/82/z/528d6.png)


Fun idea, also this was quite a lot harder than I thought it would be :smile: Good job!
Kongo
06. Oct 2022 · 18:41 UTC
Great and unique style!
Rawb
06. Oct 2022 · 22:25 UTC
I really like the graphics and idea for this game. As someone has never studied biology, I had no clue what was going on or how genes work and what the punnett square is. So I ended up googling stuff for a while and trying to figure out how this all works. I think the idea was great but I would have liked a bit more explanation so I could play the game better and maybe learn how this all works as a I play because it is interesting. The 10 second timer just it a little too hard
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
06. Oct 2022 · 23:41 UTC
Thanks for the feedback @rawb ! Someone previously suggested doing an easier tutorial level to introduce the mechanics. Sounds like it might be a good idea to use that space to introduce the biology concepts we are utilizing as well?
SimonO
07. Oct 2022 · 15:03 UTC
Great humour and fun concept! I love that pressure of searching for a mate as time closes in - works great with the theme too. Art style fits it perfectly and great humour throughout :)
Guilloteam
08. Oct 2022 · 08:26 UTC
Came for the gameplay, stayed for the aestethics! I LOVE the graphics, please do more :D Really good entry overall, maybe a bit difficult, but hey it's a jam game, so no worries here. Congrats!
jk5000
08. Oct 2022 · 10:00 UTC
A fun little game, and love the art style. Well done.
Smooches
09. Oct 2022 · 10:47 UTC
The art is absolutely amazing

snek snek snek snek snek snek snek
Hora-Timer
09. Oct 2022 · 10:55 UTC
Wow! que da hora muito top o estilo gráfico
Charzy
09. Oct 2022 · 11:16 UTC
snek snek snek snek snek snek snek snek snek snek snek
LDJam user 250825
10. Oct 2022 · 17:17 UTC
As an average snek enjoyer this game speaks to me. The sketchy notebook style is very fitting, almost like doodling in a biology class to learn about genotypes and phenotypes. Sound effects and music were hilarious as well, didn't manage to beat the game since I'm a complete dummy but managed to collect all the traits at least :D Would have been fun to have something to do with the traits but you obviously have a post-jam plan for that already!

Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek Snek
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
11. Oct 2022 · 02:59 UTC
@bqq YES! You got the vibe we were going for exactly! We had even planned to add in a droning biology lecture as background noise, but just didn't get around to it. Well done!
Lsy
14. Oct 2022 · 13:25 UTC
This game will leave a very deep impression on me. The graphics and audio have their own styles, and the gameplay is also very fun. What's more interesting, I feel like the theme of "every 10 seconds" limits the play of the gameplay instead. Due to the low frequency of dominant genes in the population as a whole, 10-seconds would hardly be enough to choose a good, suitable mate before we die. (But maybe that's just life!) 30 seconds may increase the operability of the game. Overall, I like this game very much!![QQ图片20221014211328.png](///raw/1f1/94/z/53214.png)
🎤 Falk Hoeppner
14. Oct 2022 · 15:12 UTC
@lsy Thanks for your feedback! I hadn't considered the philosophical implications this game might portray. 10 seconds does make it more chaotic for sure. We had some grand ideas to implement stat changes with each trait like speed, attractiveness, etc, that might allow you to make more effective use of the short time each snek has in the world. Longevity might be another one we talk about if we do more work on this post jam.
eptwalabha
14. Oct 2022 · 16:06 UTC
Very nice game,
I like the graphics you went with, and I loved the voice on the "how to play" section.
I enjoyed playing your game, good job.
Yword
14. Oct 2022 · 16:50 UTC
Wow, amazing presentation, unexpected and interesting idea, with really cool design of Sneks too! Nice work!
nerdyHerbivore
17. Oct 2022 · 13:55 UTC
snek snek snek thanks everyone! And thanks for the suggestions. I had a blast drawing everything and so happy to hear people liked the style. It makes the hours spent stressing on readability and individually editing letters worth it :laughing: :snake:
asfdfdfd
18. Oct 2022 · 18:15 UTC
We need more SEGS