LudumData

POND SWARM by pierogo

[raw]
made by pierogo for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Pond Swarm is a survivors-like game. You control a tiny frog, trying to endure endless incoming waves of weird-ass frogs. To help you survive, you need to collect fallen enemies as cards and improve your strength.

  • Attack and dash around, kicking your opponents' butts!
  • Equip up to 6 out of 35+ unique frogs with unique effects!
  • Prepare your own build and upgrade your cards, combining them into their foiler and foiler versions!
  • Upload your score to the online leaderboards and race with others to the top!

image<em>2025-10-07</em>01-24-14.png

image<em>2025-10-07</em>01-35-11.png

image<em>2025-10-07</em>01-20-58.png

Controls: * WASD to move around * Left mouse button to attack with your tongue

* Right mouse button to dash/jump

Changelog: Patch​ #1 (10.08.2025) * Fixed typos in card descriptions * Added missing credits

Patch #2 (10.09.2025)​​ * Removed HDR features and slightly adjusted colours to enable HTML build * Fixed game crashing after playing long enough * Fixed bug that made chilli frog buff permanent * Fixed bugs with positioning of vampire and farmer frogs * Fixed wrong texture for farmer frog's projectile * Fixed upgrades sometimes using more cards * Capped damage very late on in the game, so that you're not oneshotted out of nowhere

​Patch #3 (10.13.2025) * ​Fixed a bug causing a softolck in card pickup UI

Link https://clownworks.itch.io/pond-swarm
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/pond-swarm

Ratings

Overall 131th 3.9⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 36th 4.1⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 371th 3.28⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 392th 3.68⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 209th 4.08⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 197th 3.64⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 178th 3.542⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 412th 3.52⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 49🗳️ 27🗨️

Feedback

TeaRei
Oct 07th · 13:29 UTC
I can't believe you did this in 3 days, that's really cool.
Iriska
Oct 07th · 13:35 UTC
OMG! I definitely enjoyed this! I'd even love to play a full-release version of this game! 💜 ⭐ 💜
MadCat92
Oct 07th · 17:57 UTC
Chrome says there's a virus inside, and deletes it right away(
We had the same problem when we added a shortcut with an icon to the archive.
Lisek Gagatek
Oct 08th · 20:24 UTC
@madcat92 Thanks for pointing this out. I believe it might be caused by embedding game's pck inside the exe file (from what I've read). I've change it and hopefully chrome will allow this for others to download without hassle.
ZedGame
Oct 10th · 19:22 UTC
Beautiful audio + visuals and satisfying gameplay!
StaticRose
Oct 10th · 19:25 UTC
Actually prett nice mechanics. I wish it was a bit easier to interact with the cards. But love the variety of all the different frogs! Very cool.
Bumble
Oct 10th · 19:31 UTC
This game is real fun! The ability to upgrade cards by collecting a lot of them is a nice twist on the jam topic.

And I really like the animation when you pick up a new card!
thaDev
Oct 10th · 19:32 UTC
Wow! That is a crazy amount of work, and very well done too, it's a really good game loop and could definitely become something big. It makes me thing a lot of those mobile cow merging games where it could just go on and on forever. The art is extremely cool and funky and the music and the vibe fits well. Props to you for being able to make this!
LDJam user 281994
Oct 10th · 19:33 UTC
The frogs are cute, and the animation is great too
The graphics are top-notch! The frog jumps adorably, I love frogs 😍
Unfortunately, you can’t collect the items that drop from the frogs because enemies start surrounding you (
Matimoo
Oct 10th · 19:37 UTC
Wow the card menu is awesome! The animations really sell it. Good job!
BorealTeuthidia
Oct 10th · 19:41 UTC
Such an amazing game for being made in 3 days!! I really enjoyed playing it! I had a problem where my browser kept kicking me out of the game and then I'd die before I could get back in but what I could play was really cool and really impressive!!
TopTeddy
Oct 10th · 19:56 UTC
Great assortment of frogs, but hits lack impact.
Keith Wang
Oct 10th · 22:09 UTC
That's quite some work in three days, the cards are even in 3D. Gameplay wise there are a huge amount of enemies and equipment.
Probably one of the most completed roguelike Ive seen in LD.
Hélicule
Oct 12th · 20:27 UTC
Had a ton of fun playing this! Bonus points for allowing players to remap the controls, as an azerty gamer I really appreciate that kind of detail :)
Huge fan of the froggy's design and the catchy music, congrats!
LDJam user 243929
Oct 12th · 20:34 UTC
@helicule me and @lisek-gagatek are Colemak gamers so we understand the struggle! :sweat_smile: and thank you for the kind words!
Longfall
Oct 15th · 21:56 UTC
Great take on the "survivor" genre, mixing both automatic "weapons" and manual one ! Nice graphics and cards effects, a bit frustrating to be able to equip only 6 at a time haha
mr_mesmer
Oct 15th · 23:06 UTC
It is a stable game with nice progression system. I have some advices to improve:

1. Now all enemies move to current player position. You can make half of them move random, and it will be cooler, because player cannot move circle around mob stack.
2. I think, you can reduce enemies hp 2 or 3 times, because player want annigilate map. Now it is slow, I think
3. Jumping is cool! But I see lake with water lily and my litteraly first action in game - try to jump on it. It will be cool, if you add this mechanic
4. Maybe will be better, if frog can hook cards like it hook fly.

Overall, I like setting, I like movement and jumping in this game. Found it in danger feedback zone, seems undeservedly
sangheli
Oct 21st · 02:18 UTC
Nice visuals, though I thought I’d be catching insects.
WormKingBoo
Oct 23rd · 17:39 UTC
I feel like this might be my favorite game so far! The art is so good - very cute, unique, readable, and there's a ton of variety between the frogs. It gave me Cult of the Lamb vibes in the best way possible. I also loved the pacing and the difficulty scaling. Just enough time to get used to moving around and gather a couple upgrades before things really start to heat up. I replayed several times just to see what other frog types I could find. Really enjoyable game, great work!!
treenut
Oct 24th · 11:42 UTC
super cute style, the music was also super hype. really liked the upgrade system and being able to swap out cards for a better build, that's rare in this genre. though i wish the stash was a little larger to keep more of the duplicates for upgrades, it's very hard to make a specific build otherwise. lovely game