Tiny Creatures: A Nimkip Story by T C
Collect tiny creatures. Fight your enemies. Learn lessons from mistakes made by that dastardly Rabbit, and actually hang out with your new friends!... instead of abandoning them :( ..
Make your way through a series of 5 progressively more difficult fights, with time in between to care for your creatures.

Then finally build up the strength to confront THE Rabbit who used you for free labor to rebuild her space ship.

Maybe you'll even run into some old friends along the way!
| Link | https://theworldsquid.itch.io/ld-56-tiny-creatures-a-nimkip-story |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/tiny-creatures-a-nimkip-story |
Ratings
| Overall | 789th | 3.3⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 824th | 3.043⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 624th | 3.2⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 202th | 4.086⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 789th | 3.2⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 649th | 2.455⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 788th | 2.548⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 953th | 2.906⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 53🗳️ | 50🗨️ |
The between battles segment was extremely chaotic, and I had no idea how to actually take care of my little dudes. Luckley they didn't seem to mind the neglect, so I battled a little more.
The first time I played part way through the first encounter, my option to act didn't come back, and i was soft locked.
@nehe can you elaborate a little? What didn't load? Did the screen turn black, freeze, or what? That's a weird bug!
@dougt a shame! I've not been able to replicate the bug but if you have any feedback on how you got softlocked, I've love to know for future reference. Thanks for checking out the game!
@hangovergames Thanks for playing! Yet another game where the concept felt great but the realization didn't really feel like it came together until the final hours.
@sirblazealot thanks for the kind words! Yeah It's tough making a jrpg system feel like what you do matters, I'm glad this actually has some of that feel. Nice name and profile pic :smile:
@kilig Thanks! The combat system was interesting to try to put together and make it feel like it has some unique elements. Music,sound, and tutorials always get neglected in our games until the last minute, since it took up until the last 15 minutes before submission for the programming part to be done :laughing: ! Maybe next jam!
@sviborg Yeah, I liked how connected the two games ended up being. Though it's tough to see, entertainment/hunger/hygiene all change how good your creatures are in combat! And the limited gold in between makes you have to prioritize. Definitely agree with the lacking of audio, and some more variety. Only had so much time to add interesting enemy effects before the game just had to be made! Thanks for the comment and the kind words.
Overall, I think there could be something really cool here though!
I thought it was nice. Cool idea to incorporate the theme, and make the creatures visual a series of dots which also, I can imagine, helped finishing the game faster (art takes a lot of time, I should know!)
I suspect you probably didn't have time for that, but I am kinda missing the music :( it feels so quiet.
When I realized I am using specific-colour creatures to make a special attack, that made me a bit sad. It seems they completely disappear from that, poor things :( Even though they can be "restored"
I was pleasantly surprised there is time to hang out and check on them between the battles, though! That's cute ^^
Though the mechanics there are a bit confusing to me. I couldn't quite figure out HOW do I feed and clean them, even though I read the tutorial >_<
Maybe I didn't play enough to fully explore the mechanics but the combat mechanic exhausted me and I only got to the 2nd fight before giving up. I actually did the first fight multiple times because the game softlocked on my first attempt and I went back to try and recreate the glitch.
I managed to recreate the softlock 3 times and I think it has something to do with the airship attack. When I use the air balloon attack and then the skull attacks me the game would softlock. It didn't happen every time so maybe it depends on the follow up attack (don't remember which attack move caused it). Also I always picked the 3rd team (the one on the right) if that matters
@koolruz A hud is a great idea! I did want some information to be not-100%-clear to the player, but there certainly were many times where knowing more information helps a lot! Thanks for playing and for the kind words.
@kanity Definitely making them dots helped move the game along :laughing: - they were originally a placeholder, but we kept them in for time purposes. Same, unfortunately, with the no music. Definitely feel it would have been better with. When you use special attacks, they just turn a less-bright color :) They're still there and contributing and healthy! Yes, the tutorial on the in-between-battles was a little tough to figure out. You could buy items from the shop that would appear in the feed/play/clean tabs. Say you buy an apple from the store. Click on the Feed tab to see all of your food. Click and drag the apple to the ground and nearby creatures will eat! Thanks for all the feedback and taking the time to write so much. It's greatly appreciated!
@skleembof Luckily, you don't lose any creatures when exhausted. They still contribute to all damage, just not 100%. Maybe closer to 80%. So the damage is less, but not totally less. And your next basic attack brings some of them back from exhaustion, so it's a bit of a cycle of what you use and when. So I think not fearing to use what abilities you have available will help :) Also, you charge up your ultimate move by exhausting then restoring your creatures, so you get a great finishing move for doing so!
-----Thank you very much for trying to recreate the softlock! No one on the team has been able to, so it's really tough to figure out why it's happening. So all information is appreciated! The teams that you're offered are just different arrangements of elements. Each time all 3 are randomly generated, but you can kind of guess what color is the majority, and what color is barely there or missing, since that's how they're built. Thanks for the feedback and taking the time to write all that, it's appreciated!
I'm only missing some music in the fights. But other than that it's a great entry!
Great job!
@zoglu Thanks for playing and for the kind words!
@dropmania Thanks! Music is definitely the biggest thing we couldn't fit in for sure. The music never got made so we could focus on getting as much in as we did :) Thanks for checking the game out!
@saumon Right, we kind of just drop you in without a tutorial to ease you in. Definitely could have done that part better. But thanks for sticking with it and figuring it out. Thanks for playing!
I absolutely adore the aspect of taking care of cute battle-hardened monsters. Buying entire pizzas and toys for them before and after fighting some big bads is entertaining. The monster designs are cute, but they only show their true colors (or shapes I suppose) in the digital pet part! I'd love to see these cute little guys rip up my opponents. I'd love to hear a more full audio landscape too, as it feels a little lonely without sound.
You didn't have a lot of time, but you did have a lot of moving parts to put together and vitally, it works! I love how the separate parts of the game inform and interact with one another while keeping a comprehensive UI that doesn't get overly complicated or overwhelming. I have a lot of feelings about Tiny Creatures, and I enjoyed my time with it!
@eranot Thanks for playing!
@mavvy One of my most fond memories is staying up late one night making butter noodles watching my brother play Wind Waker. Being brought back to memories like that is always nice :). Definitely agree on the battle art part, but that would have taken significantly more time than what we had, sadly. Definitely the game feels barren without many sounds or any music. Sadly common for games we make for these jams. Thanks for taking the time to play and write up your thoughts. It is much appreciated!