Squirrel Time by Finn Pickart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpCiGOHn1ho

| itch.io (web) | https://finn378.itch.io/squirrel-game |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/squirrel-time |
Ratings
| Overall | 370th | 3.708⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 461th | 3.521⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 465th | 3.458⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 355th | 3.896⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 329th | 3.979⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 149th | 3.917⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 573th | 2.854⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 174th | 3.938⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 26🗳️ | 26🗨️ |
Controls feel good and climbing is seamless. I think that one life is too punishing and potentially quite discouraging. Players, especially in the jam environment, would be more inclined to explore further into the game if every mistake would not mean you have to start from 0. Give the player 3 lives or something around that. Especially that you're on an aging timer anyway :)
Other than that, great work!
Love the game
The foxes don't kill you immediately when touching.
You have to be touching them 0.2 seconds, so it's possible to escape.
You can even jump on top of them, it's quite fun.
So I thought, given that you can escape and that the game is short anyway,
it wouldn't be really needed to give the player more lifes.
But thank you for letting me know :)
Pros:
- Adorable main character
- Cute animations
- I love the foxes design. They look so innocent, until they catch you
- Great way of getting through the 10 seconds theme
- Music actually makes me quite sad in a good way, thinking of the squirrel life
- Pleasure to look at color palette
Cons:
- As mentioned by some before, the music and feel of the game should make the game a touch slower, yet I feel like I'm jolting through the map
- Could not find all the acorns and ended up... in the clouds? :D
A pleasurable experience to get through. Great job!
Discovering how each stage worked was a treat.
Absolutely love how it ends with the spotlight.
Lived a long and fulfilling life of a squirrel, all within 100 seconds!
The piano music is especially awesome. Did you make it yourself? If not, where did you source it from?
Main gripes:
* Periods of waiting for the 10 seconds once you've figured out what to do for a stage and now just need time to pass
* Dodging the foxes seemed like spamming jump and run and just getting lucky, especially with that one acorn under the leaf platforms
* Often I did not want to climb up the trees and it felt like they were sticking to me when I wanted to keep running through them. Would maybe have only triggered climbing if the player was pressing Up while crossing the tree.
Some feedback I have for you:
- it was a bit confusing that the first acorn you encounter is one that is not obtainable
- the execution of the theme is very well done. Congratz!
I like the audio and sfx. The music makes it pretty chill, but I especially love the fox sounds - it makes it feel otherworldly/fairy tale esque.
The idea of ageing over time is awesome - it kind of reminds me of this wild game: one hour one life.
Changing the stats of the squirrel as it ages it also really cool. It could be interesting making it so that when you are young you are light enough to hop on the leaves to the west, but as you get bigger and heavier the leaves can't support your weight anymore. Might make it very hectic haha, but just a thought I had :)
Overall, I really enjoyed this!