Swamp Axe by Erik Tate

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

Downloads and browser version also available on itch: https://soggybutter.itch.io/swamp-axe

Navigate an insect-ridden quagmire as the wielder of the formidable relic: "The Hydrofight". With this lilypad weapon, you must face off with a swamp swarm of various nasty buggers to rest upon lilypads so comfortable that you feel like you enter a completely different world. Use your stretchy tongue, a well-timed swing, and a hop or two to progress through a treacherous world where only the brave succeed. Wipe no tears - only your Swamp Axe.

swamp<em>axe</em>splash<em>art</em>resized.png swampaxe.gif screenshot<em>1.JPG screenshot</em>2.JPG screenshot<em>3.JPG screenshot</em>4.JPG

ESC to quit and R for emergency restarts.

The rest of the controls are explained in-game!

SoggyButter (Erik) - Programming and level design

Lunaria - Art, animation, splash art, and level design

J0BUS - Art, animation, and level design

Shade - Music and art

Ratings

Overall 92th 4.1⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 19th 4.3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 271th 3.625⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 330th 3.925⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 93th 4.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 479th 3.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 315th 3.8⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 5🗳️ 14🗨️

Feedback

U119
08. Oct 2024 · 01:02 UTC
I can tell a lot of effort was put into this game, it looks stunning! I love the music too
Emaigualmc2_art
08. Oct 2024 · 01:05 UTC
Great game! The artwork is incredible, the animation and sprite sheets look beautiful. The frog's tongue combined jumping mechanic is very fun, the tutorial as you progress through the game is a great idea and I find it very fun. Great job! xd
rufenerd
08. Oct 2024 · 01:06 UTC
Wow, that was fun. I like how you can start playing immediately as it teaches you. It definitely got hard fast.
R1tz
08. Oct 2024 · 01:11 UTC
This is a very good game. I did feel like it was sometime unnecessarily hard. However, whether it was just my inner gamer coming out or production of a very good game it was hard for me to put it down. I will say I did try and pause the game by pressing ESC and it closed the game wiping my progress which was really unfortunate. However this is a really well put together game. Great Job
DoubleMintBen
08. Oct 2024 · 01:20 UTC
Fun idea for a platformer, you did a really good job setting the mood for the subject, at some points I was wishing I could lower speed of the frog without quickly tapping a directional key, but minor complaint. I was sort of imagining what atrocities I would see if I saw a replay of all attempts at the end of each level, similar to super meat boy ... some of those levels would have been depressing lol.
Vipaka
08. Oct 2024 · 02:15 UTC
This is a fantastic game! The pixel art was top notch, the music was fun and fitting, and the gameplay mechanics were both entertaining and appropriate. My one criticism is that the controls were very difficult on a trackpad, I ended up giving up on the level with the dragonflies because of it. To be fair though, I think this game was meant to be played with an attached mouse though.
osh.studio
08. Oct 2024 · 04:15 UTC
Amazing amazing submission. Superb art and very precise platforming with a fun physics system. The game also had a nice difficulty ramp up with some very challenging levels. I thought the skill ceiling was pretty high as well, with the last level being really hard, it took me like 15-20 minutes to get. My only critiques would be, maybe a nicer background song and maybe some more invincibility time when you land on spikes, it would feel like if you fall in them you'll lose all your lives anyway.

Seriously great entry though, well done, favourite game I've played so far...
ccollider
08. Oct 2024 · 15:41 UTC
Wow this is really well done! Great art, great tutorial, great levels - I did find the tongue swing a little fiddly in the tighter levels, but that might be a skill issue on my part!
David Soriano
08. Oct 2024 · 15:44 UTC
I love the graphics, the frog is super cute! Also the mechanics are very interesting, the hook is very well done and the axe feels very good, the sound is also very well integrated, congratulations!!!
LDJam user 9418
08. Oct 2024 · 15:44 UTC
well executed, however it's hard to play on the touchpad
Cat Lab
09. Oct 2024 · 03:22 UTC
What a fun concept! I love zooming around like that, reminds me of Ori and the Blind Forest. Though I will say sometimes it was way too easy to zoom way too far, but a bit of repetition and practice helped a lot with control. Love the art and sound!
v1ru6
09. Oct 2024 · 03:40 UTC
Nicely done, I'm terrible at it
DJTequila
09. Oct 2024 · 15:33 UTC
Really fun game and nice graphics. As hard as it was, I liked how slippery the platforms were. Being able to conserve momentum into your jump felt really satisfying. So many unique levels as well, with some neat tricks. It was kind of addictive, I just had to keep playing until I beat it. One improvement I would add to any platformer is buffering, since licking into a wall or not having your jump come out for pressing a bit early can be frustrating. Great job overall!
Levi
16. Oct 2024 · 22:31 UTC
Nice frog bum ;)
Frostbeak
17. Oct 2024 · 00:36 UTC
This is one of my favorite games of the jam. I love the mechanic, my only gripe is that I wish the game was more of a ori-type easy platformer than a celeste/jump king difficult precision one. I think the mechanic fits an easier game better but maybe thats just me.
MetRiko
17. Oct 2024 · 22:05 UTC
I ate bugs.. I used axe.. and after a while got this screen :D

There is just soooo many levels, I had a blast playing it!

![swamp_axe.png](///raw/1e3/d3/z/68eef.png)

Fantastic audio-visuals! Quality of animations, clarity of the shapes, good contrast between middle-ground and background, everything from that side was a jam-highest quality and just pleasing to look at.

The core mechanics.. so tongue and axe, felt great to use. They are well polished and just satisfying to use.

Gameplay was a little to fast for my taste. I think some limiters for speed would be nice or at last little aim support because sometimes I just wasn't able to click on time.

From the level design perspective..
1. Good introduction to main mechanics overall however I think the difficulty increased too high too fast.
2. Some last levels felt much easier than middle ones.. not sure if that was intention or not.
3. And the last thing.. I didn't like an introduction to a new (and hard to pull off) secret mechanic at the end of the very hard level. I think if it was introduced at the beginning of the level and also at the end, that would make it much easier to learn and still would be required to make the jump at the end.

Overall very polished and well done challenging platformer!

You made together a great game and you should be proud of it.
Empyreans
23. Oct 2024 · 19:28 UTC
Thank you for making this amazing platformer! Bring me more them challenging platformers :laughing:

I don't think you were present on stream when I played it, but you can see it all on Youtube now!

Beautiful game, well done :frog:

https://youtu.be/gQNnfYNIQJI

~XpMonster