How to Po by Decentsauce

[raw]
made by Decentsauce for Ludum Dare 54 (JAM)

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How to Po? Easy! Driven by an unhealthy obsession with magic space apples you try your best to survive in a lava filled hellscape. Get ready to Po your way to victory!

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*Controls: *

Running: WASD

Grab: Left mouse button/Enter

Jump: Right mouse button/Spacebar

It's also possible to use a controller.

*Credits: *

Game made by: Glenn Verheij (https://twitter.com/GlennVerheij) & Simon Thiele

Original music made by our friend: HappyHappyCloudMusic (https://www.youtube.com/@happyhappycloudmusic)

Changelog:

-Fixed direction throw bug

-Fixed pillar shadow alpha

-Added controller support and keyboard only controls

Ratings

Overall 279th 3.859⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 195th 3.891⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 437th 3.5⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 367th 3.922⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 369th 3.938⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 179th 3.844⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Humor 134th 3.871⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Mood 603th 3.483⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 59🗳️ 46🗨️

Feedback

Yorsh
02. Oct 2023 · 15:06 UTC
Fun one! It's short but not too short. Everything works well, SFX and music are nice. The boss fight is intense but not too hard.

I just find the falling rocks to be hard to predict, the shadow comes late and is hard to see. I think a warning sign underneath the rock, or a much more visible shadow would have been nice.

Good job!
Taeghen
02. Oct 2023 · 21:32 UTC
The game didn't work for me, I could throw only in one direction, and the control wasn't great. But I like the idea and how you use the theme. Good job, hope you will fix the last issues.
LDJam user 373998
03. Oct 2023 · 01:24 UTC
This was a banger. I would gladly play more. I felt like I was playing an old gamecube era 3d platformer. I would have appreciated slightly more forgiving lava collisions and controls. Loved the boss fight. Your credits screen has so much charm.
Krzyhau
03. Oct 2023 · 07:40 UTC
Pretty short, but pretty cute and fun. As mentioned by a fellow jammer above, would be nice if lava collisions were more forgiving. Also, a pretty weird choice to use mouse for jumping, but that's just a nitpick.

Graphics are nice and clean. I very much appreciate the shadows above the... berries? whatever those collectibles are.
Also, shout-out to the final boss. Gets you some points in Humor category :)
LDJam user 375151
04. Oct 2023 · 11:06 UTC
I loved the idea and the execution. Only issue I had was that I was moving to the left and after about what seemed like 5 minutes of "building" a path, I was no where closer to anything else. So at that point I just quit. It was hard to tell if there was something out there or if just making a long platform was the point.

I missed the point to grab the apples...
lhainesaudio
04. Oct 2023 · 11:08 UTC
Such a fun little game to play. Took a while to get used to the jump on RMB. The boss fight was fun and surprisingly challenging, which I really enjoyed. I agree with the jammer above on the difficulty of predicting the falling rocks, but all in all great work! <3
George-sh
04. Oct 2023 · 11:10 UTC
Awesome work! Graphics and sound were great. Jump button was a bit odd. Final boss was fun and liked the attention to detail.
OccasionalEgg
04. Oct 2023 · 11:10 UTC
Really weird game but absolutely amazing. I really like Scarlet the cat as well.
minjutin
04. Oct 2023 · 19:22 UTC
I have so many questions like. What? Why? A cat? I would like to know what is the story behind this game. A solid 3D platformer experience
kasperhangard
04. Oct 2023 · 21:25 UTC
This was a super fun game. I wish there was a timer on the levels cause it feels super speedrunable! Very well done!
BedWithNoMan
05. Oct 2023 · 03:34 UTC
LOVE THE GRAPHICS, GOT STUCK ON THE CAT BOSS WHERE IT RUSHES YOU BUT THAT'S JUST MY SKILL, GREAT GAME, VERY FUUNNY AND COOL
Eli Heinrichs
05. Oct 2023 · 03:36 UTC
AMAZING GAME! I love the cartoony graphics to the perfectly fitting music. The gameplay was super easy to understand and required some skill. Loved the game good work!
Pierrez
05. Oct 2023 · 08:58 UTC
Funny game! The lava collision seems quite unfair sometimes. I loved the cartoony graphics and music.
Although it is specified that the right click is used to jump, I found myself unwillingly pressing the space button instead.
This may have only happened to me but I think it would have been nice to have it as an alternative button.
Overall, great game!
ntourand
06. Oct 2023 · 04:01 UTC
Love the art style! It was difficult to determine my jump arc at times, but the scream from dying was really funny so it's worth it! Love the music as well
kasmilus
06. Oct 2023 · 11:00 UTC
Really cool game! Enjoyed it a lot after getting used to controls. It would be better with jump on space and grab on shift (or best with both, that and mouse controls) - I just kept failing in the beginning after pressing space or mixing up left and right buttons. Final "boss battle" was really cool and that enemy cat sprite - very realistic! :laughing:
Jordan Neff
06. Oct 2023 · 12:19 UTC
Great use of theme an humor! I managed to beat the boss, although it took me nearly 10 tries. I struggled with the controls and while it took me a bit to get used to them I never really felt like I mastered them. Aiming the water pots felt particularly difficult as you could only ever throw them up/down/right/left while standing but to throw on a diagonal you had press both buttons at once or be moving diagonally already. I think this would feel much better on gamepad, so hopefully you add gamepad support. Music was fun, boss was silly (and kinda OP haha), good humor. Great job!
Ranzor
06. Oct 2023 · 14:30 UTC
Nice take on the theme and cool graphics. The controls were a bit hard to get the hang of. Good job.
SLEEPYMENACE
07. Oct 2023 · 13:25 UTC
Feels very polished and impressive. Aiming the water buckets is tricky and the magma hitbox is ridiculously unforgiving. I liked it, though. Unforgiving but fun. Nicely done!
ryusui
07. Oct 2023 · 22:14 UTC
I love the graphics, the music, and the overall gameplay concept. The one thing I don't like is the controls. Why on Earth do you have jumping and grabbing mapped to the mouse when the game does not actually use mouse-based controls? I keep instinctively hitting the space bar to jump - the sensible place to put it when you have WASD controls; it's right under my thumb, easy to reach - and dying because, again, the jump button is in about the least intuitive place you could put it for a game like this. Grab on LMB is more forgivable, it's almost intuitive, but jump has no business being on RMB at all, and it arguably breaks the controls entirely in what should be a fun, smooth gameplay experience.

To be clear: I absolutely love everything else about this game, and I'm looking forward to trying a version with a more sensible control scheme, but the wrongly placed jump button makes the game needlessly frustrating.
yifengqing
09. Oct 2023 · 07:10 UTC
That's a great idea. You guys did a great job. The only problem is I keep stepping on magma in the cracks in the floor and dying.
CyrilKordupel
09. Oct 2023 · 19:12 UTC
Really a good idea, the only downside is the player controller, but apart from that, the game is really fun, well done
JustMars
11. Oct 2023 · 21:40 UTC
Very well executed idea, gameplay felt snappy and audio visual side was very juicy (especially liked the cat xD). Having controls on the mouse was a bit odd, would have enjoyed jump being space and grab something like E.

Game was a bit too challenging (for me at least), perhaps giving the player a health or two so they would bounce once from lava before restarting the level or something would have made it more manageable, but other than that you have a REALLY solid game here, amazing work!
🎤 Decentsauce
13. Oct 2023 · 20:08 UTC
@taeghen Thank you for the feedback. It was an issue that was related to specific hardware that neither of us had run into before but thanks to your comment we were able to fix it pretty quick! :)
🎤 Decentsauce
13. Oct 2023 · 20:37 UTC
@justmars @ryusui @ranzor @jordan-neff @kasmilus @pierrez @mortusnegati Thank you everyone for the comments about the control scheme! We've taken your feedback to heart and now in addition to the old control scheme you can also use keyboard only (spacebar & enter) or use a controller. :)
Prakkus
13. Oct 2023 · 23:39 UTC
This was really fun and the graphics were excellent! It really fits the theme too with space getting more and more limited and things escalate. I wish the cat boss charge and the falling spikes had a bit more of a telegraph so that I could plan for them better. I struggled some with aiming my jumps from that perspective but probably I just need to git gud :D
Hoffschir
15. Oct 2023 · 12:21 UTC
Really cool game, but aiming is too hard
GameDevJeroen
15. Oct 2023 · 12:31 UTC
Love it! Controls feel great, game looks very polished for a 72 hour project. Laughed out loud when the cat came charging at me in the last level. Good job on the game!
sinclairstrange
19. Oct 2023 · 20:08 UTC
Controls great, sounds great, looks great a really amazing little game. Really fun concept and perfect for wasting time which is for me a perfect LDjam game! It ran smoothly too and I ended up sinking more time into it than I expected! I absolutely loved it when you'd full in lava and he'd start screaming that was a great sound effect. Overall really well made and polished! ^-^
sergio_nikol
20. Oct 2023 · 16:09 UTC
The floor is lava! :smile:
Nice game with good controls and camera view.
unless games
20. Oct 2023 · 17:38 UTC
Hot game with funny graphics and a catchy soundtrack.

As other said, falling off this easily from the level is a bit too unforgiving compared to the imprecise control with keyboard arrows.

I would like to have a bit more control over throwing the buckets, or maybe have an option to just kick them so they slide down the level and spill at the edge, I think this latter might fit better with the tone of the game.

Overall I feel that right now the environment is quite challenging and our control is a bit limited in comparison which makes the game feel slightly unfair.

That being said it's a cute game and a fun experience which got rather scary at the final level :P

Thank you for making this!