Critter Crawler by Mullenratte

[raw]
made by Mullenratte for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

In Critter Crawler, you have to guide your critters through a series of dungeon levels!

Game mechanics: - place up to 3 waypoints per level. Once you hit SPACE, your critters will spawn in and follow a path along these waypoints. - free critters along the way to multiply your team on the next floor - reach the staircase with at least one critter to successfully clear a level!

This version is a very early and immature version of what I desired it to be. I quite frankly miscalculated the available time span (I thought there was 1 day more haha). So most features are not used to their fullest and / or buggy still.

I hope you'll enjoy the game regardless!

Ratings

Overall 617th 3.477⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 397th 3.568⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 216th 3.714⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 322th 3.929⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 598th 3.591⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 673th 2.789⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 790th 3.237⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

Rambar
08. Oct 2024 · 13:03 UTC
Cute game! I liked the art, and the onboarding is super simple. A bit hard (the turrets nearly exterminated me in almost all levels) but I managed to win! Congrats on your entry :)
zSharpFire
08. Oct 2024 · 13:34 UTC
nice game. the waypoint system is a bit wanky at times.
sketchbookbug
08. Oct 2024 · 14:13 UTC
The waypoint system is great and easy to get into. I liked the art, too. Nice little game 😊
Sasha20
08. Oct 2024 · 23:33 UTC
Easy and tasteful. Good job!
Reyansh
09. Oct 2024 · 08:22 UTC
I liked the game and art style, albeit i feel the game is a bit too easy and short but i like the game overall
Planetary
09. Oct 2024 · 13:00 UTC
Nice!!

I like the idea of the game (placing some checkpoints and going to the end without getting too much damage). I manage to win every single level.

The graphics are cool (in general I love pixel art). Good entry!
Rentem
09. Oct 2024 · 14:21 UTC
Neat game. Removing and readding waypoints could use some improvement. Otherwise great job
Winter2277
09. Oct 2024 · 20:42 UTC
Cool little game. It seemed a bit easy, I didn't really need to think much to win, just placing the way points at the end everytime makes you win, but it's a nice demonstration of a gameplay mechanic that could be expended futher. I love the little music. Well done!
CathelAleph
09. Oct 2024 · 20:47 UTC
The levels are very simple and it's easy for me to pass. I never expected to experience a tower defense game from the "enemy's" perspective hahaha. The art design of the environment and creatures are also very well done. I really love this design!
Phyrocast
09. Oct 2024 · 20:58 UTC
I like the "reverse tower defense" idea! I think there's good potential in this game, and a little more polish would greatly improve it!
mrspeaker
10. Oct 2024 · 02:20 UTC
Damn it! Sad you didn't realize the time constraint: everything you did was really polished and satisfying. You've got a great base to build on and make some more interesting levels and mechanics.
Ryuu
11. Oct 2024 · 03:20 UTC
The game is very fun! I was a bit confused by why my team multiplies so rapidly, but it's a pretty nice game, so much potential too! Congratz
t-pirozzini
11. Oct 2024 · 03:28 UTC
This game has potential! Took a bit of experimentation to determine how far to keep my critters away from turrets, but that's part of the fun. I got caught off guard by some turrets hiding off the side of the screen! I thought I had the perfect route :spy:
🎤 Mullenratte
11. Oct 2024 · 05:48 UTC
@Rambar Thanks for the feedback! I didn't have time to balance any of the levels, so I'm really glad you still liked it! :grin:
🎤 Mullenratte
11. Oct 2024 · 05:53 UTC
@zsharpfire @sketchbookbug @rentem Thanks! Really appreciate the feedback here. The waypoint system really is a bit messy, definitely a victim of quick and dirty jam coding haha. I will work on it in the next version! :smile:
🎤 Mullenratte
11. Oct 2024 · 05:56 UTC
@sasha20 @reyansh @planetary Thank you for the lovely comments! I'm a bit unhappy with the art style in this, I think I could've made a lot more and cooler assets with a bit more time. But that's part of the fun in a jam, glad you guys liked the game and its visuals! :grin:
🎤 Mullenratte
11. Oct 2024 · 06:00 UTC
@winter2277 @cathelaleph @phyrocast @mrspeaker @t-pirozzini Yea the difficulty is an issue in this. Originally I intended to add 3 different turrets and 3 different creatures, which would've allowed for way more diversity in levels etc. Super happy about y'alls feedback! :v:
🎤 Mullenratte
11. Oct 2024 · 06:02 UTC
@ryuu Glad you liked my game! :slight_smile: The multiplication was not intended like this, I only realized shortly before the deadline so I couldn't fix it, unfortunately. I even uncovered a bug that spawns infinite rats so you get a stream of them running from start to finish and the level would never end hahaha
Ryuu
11. Oct 2024 · 20:22 UTC
@mullenratte oh, that happened to me once! haha I was waiting until it finished for curiosity but it kept going hahaha
qwertyuiop
13. Oct 2024 · 03:50 UTC
good
Prismapunch
13. Oct 2024 · 03:56 UTC
Cute game and i like the pixel art, towers were annoying but i like the puzzle element
Synapse316
23. Oct 2024 · 07:34 UTC
The game is too simple, and there's no punishment for the death of creatures. Except this, everything is well done.
Transkuja
23. Oct 2024 · 11:08 UTC
Nice idea, would have been cool to have some ways to defend against the towers :smile: