LudumData

Dragon Breeder by TriangleTriangle

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

Play midwife to a giant dragon, tending each egg as it is laid, and earn the maximum bounty for your husbandry.

How To Play:

-Direct the next egg into an available incubator using the arrow buttons on the right-hand side.

-Pump the bellows beneath the incubator to heat the egg to the correct temperature.

-The more valuable the egg, the higher the temperature required. But don't burn them!

-When the egg hatches, move the baby to the nest beneath the mother's wing.

Any and all feedback welcome! There's gonna be bugs...

Known bugs:

-The eggs can get stuck places, then the game won't end properly.

All art, music and code by me. Made in unity in 72 hours.

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/dragon-breeder

Ratings

Overall 149th 3.968⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 446th 3.533⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 172th 3.833⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 204th 4.067⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 51th 4.5⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 298th 3.629⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 528th 2.926⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 290th 3.75⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 43🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 0
04. Oct 2022 · 13:53 UTC
Can't load, didn't vote.
Jean-Baptiste
04. Oct 2022 · 13:57 UTC
Really liked the graphic style and the music. The mecanic of "heating" the egg was not clear at the begining, but at the second play everything was ok.
Enad96
04. Oct 2022 · 13:59 UTC
Love the art it looks so polished. Managed to get eggs stuck in the second ramp a couple times.
TheSmellofOxygen
04. Oct 2022 · 14:01 UTC
Great art! I kept waiting for the dragonlings to do something and get out of the way until my third attempt where I paid proper attention and realized I needed to drag them somewhere. Maybe they could have hopped a bit to indicate readiness, but probably I'm just thick. Sound design fit the game well. I definitely would have felt compelled to keep playing if the gold was spent on something between levels. Engaging.
🎤 TriangleTriangle
04. Oct 2022 · 14:07 UTC
Thanks for playing and commenting, people!

@jean-baptiste Thanks! Yeah I planned to do some kind of tutorial but I ran out of time. Good feedback.

@enad Thank you. Yeah, the eggs can get stuck and it breaks the game. That's something to fix :)

@thesmellofoxygen Cool that's good feedback, it's not clear you need to move the babies. Yes, spending the gold on upgrades would definitely be the next step in making the game bigger!
avareii
04. Oct 2022 · 14:08 UTC
My first playthrough was the same, couldn't figure out why the hatchling count wasn't going up. Also, regrettably the 'final score' (i think?) display appeared and disappeared before I could read it - but I think I did ok on my second run.

![dragon.png](///raw/cf6/72/z/51fb5.png)

Consistent graphics, smooth and balanced gameplay, thematic music. Great offering :)
🎤 TriangleTriangle
04. Oct 2022 · 14:16 UTC
@avareii Wow perfect score! You'd make a great dragon breeder!

That damned final-score panel, I was fighting so many bugs in the final few hours with the different UI elements and game-flow. Thanks for playing and giving your feedback!
dp3rucha
04. Oct 2022 · 15:28 UTC
Spectacular graphics. At first I thought it would be easy because it gives you plenty of time. Once they are accumulating in the basket... What a stress! Maybe a wave mechanic would be ideal. Congratulations, very original.
Shrillwhip
04. Oct 2022 · 17:00 UTC
This is really good. The graphics are really cool, it looks like one of those old atmospheric point and click games. The gameplay is engaging and fun, and the music is quite good as well. I don't really have a complaint, this is a very solid entry.
🎤 TriangleTriangle
04. Oct 2022 · 17:45 UTC
@dp3rucha Thanks for playing and commenting! Yeah there are much better ways to do the timing than the every 10 seconds thing :D. Now the jam is over I'll probably do something better for the next version
🎤 TriangleTriangle
04. Oct 2022 · 17:47 UTC
@shrillwhip Thanks so much! YES I'm very influenced by Simon the Sorcerer and that era of pixel art. Thanks for playing
theheheo
04. Oct 2022 · 19:02 UTC
Cool! Loved the pixel art, looked really nice! Interesting game idea, felt really stressed :) The music was nice, I think UI click sfx would have been a really good addition to this game aswell.
JuanRod707
05. Oct 2022 · 02:23 UTC
What a great game, played twice to get the perfect score, really see this as a bigger thing
LandoSystems
05. Oct 2022 · 06:41 UTC
Very well made game. Pixel art is lovely, and the gameplay is engaging, really enjoyed it!
BenTheTwoOfUs
05. Oct 2022 · 09:50 UTC
The game mood is killing me. The music fits it perfectly, and the pixel art is fantastic.
Since the game is intuitive, I understood it without much difficulty.
The gameplay is similar to the games I played with a black and white screen in the feature phone days.

As an aside, throughout the game, I felt like I was making a baked egg.
Miche
05. Oct 2022 · 13:05 UTC
Fun loop!
It's nice to look at and nice to play, The egg got stuck in both of my playthroughs and the game didn't end, but overall I enjoyed figuring out the game.
(I wished there was a way to use the bellows with my keyboard but I guess juggling all of the things is kind of the point of it)
frozenfire92
05. Oct 2022 · 16:14 UTC
This was a great entry! Very polished and felt like a complete experience. I could see this being a fun mini game in a bigger game about dragons. Keep on making games :smile:
Asieke
05. Oct 2022 · 18:56 UTC
Good game, really liked the artwork
fabula_rasa
05. Oct 2022 · 20:38 UTC
The game doesn't load at all on Firefox. But apart from that, I didn't experience any bugs (amazing, I know!).

The graphics are nice, and the game plays well. It has a good difficulty curve. It would be nice to be able to use the bellows with a keyboard (let's say with different number keys) - the frantic clicking is not the best :wink:

Really impressive amount of polish for a solo project! Great work.
🎤 TriangleTriangle
05. Oct 2022 · 20:56 UTC
Thanks so much for playing and commenting, everyone! I'm trying to get through playing all of your games too.

@landosystems @juanrod707 @frozenfire92 @asieke I'm so glad you enjoyed it :D

@theheheo Yeah it definitely needs sound FX. I ran out of time

@benthetwoofus With a few small tweaks it could become a pretty neat cooking game!

@miche @fabula-rasa Interesting you both wanted to use the keyboard to operate the bellows, I might give it a try. Yes the frantic clicking was kinda the idea, that you have to keep jumping around to keep all the eggs at the right temperature, but it's worth trying another way for sure :D
ShauKaula
05. Oct 2022 · 23:33 UTC
Cool concept! The art is beautiful. Good job!
Ginxel
05. Oct 2022 · 23:39 UTC
love the graphics and the animation <3
Nahuelito
05. Oct 2022 · 23:41 UTC
Both the graphics and the music are very good. I'll admit this kind of games make me a little bit nervous, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Amazing entry
LDJam user 250905
06. Oct 2022 · 02:54 UTC
That was really really great... I love the way the game plays; it took me just a minute to fully understand, but afterwards it was super easy to get into and very fun to finish! The graphics are fantastic, specifically the dragon looks really amazing, but the enviornment, the eggs, the baby dragons, it all works so nicely :smile:! The music/sound effects do their jobs wonderfully and it adds even more to the already great game. I don't really have any other feedback than that, I didn't find any complaints while playing! Fantastic entry, I'm looking forward to seeing what you make next time! :D
Langotriel
06. Oct 2022 · 14:36 UTC
Great art, great music and a wonderful atmosphere. I only got a score of 1120 but hey, I wasn't planning on selling my young anyway. I love my dragon children <3
DGSpitzer
07. Oct 2022 · 16:47 UTC
Very cute way to breed little dragons!! Love the music, give me mystic vibes..
OddCreampuff
09. Oct 2022 · 08:47 UTC
This was a cute take on the theme and I enjoyed the animations to the baby dragons as well. Nice :)
fosf0
09. Oct 2022 · 18:37 UTC
I had an egg bug and no victory or defeat sign appeared.

I really liked the overall aesthetic of the game. It's a fun concept.

Good work! :D
LDJam user 273626
14. Oct 2022 · 03:40 UTC
DRAGONS!!!! DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON!!! I heckin' LOVED this game! I may be a little obsessed about dragons though lol (my pfp for example lol)

Loved the mechanics. It was SO hard keeping the eggs all hot enough while not letting one get smooshed. Art was wonderful. And most importantly... DRAGONS!
Kitkii
14. Oct 2022 · 14:42 UTC
Really nice game. At first I thought I could keep the same type of eggs together which didnt go too well but afterwards when I tried again it went much better. Really lovely artstyle with the dragons, super impressive you did that by yourself.
Sarah
20. Oct 2022 · 02:33 UTC
Sorry it took me so long to get back to your game! This is one of my favourite games so far! Even though I took way too long to figure out the temperature mechanics and lost too many lil eggs. But once I got the hang of it, it's reallllly cute to bring a baby up to the nest, and that makes it all worth it haha. Managing the fires and not breaking the eggs turns out to be a bit stressful but really fun. I loved played it :3 Overall, really well done!