Tinysaurs by v1ris

[raw]
made by v1ris for Ludum Dare 56 (JAM)

Playing the Windows build below is recommended

The only dinosaurs still around can fit in your pocket! Make fossilized creatures out of spare bones, use them to dig up more!

Camera Controls:

  • Rotate: Move mouse while holding down right click

  • Move Forward/Backwards: W/S

  • Pan Up/Down: Q/E

  • Pan Left/Right A/D

  • Zoom: Mouse Wheel

  • Reset to Default Position/Rotation: R

Gameplay Controls:

Left Click to dig, pull dinosaur bones around, get the attention of your dinos, and redirect them towards extra mounds

Credits:

  • Anna Iris Hill - Music, Sound Design
  • Gale Ellis - Programmer
  • Katie Haberberger - UI Designer
  • Miles Michell - Designer
  • Ryan Cooper - Programmer
  • Xander Goodwin - Artist, Programmer

Asset Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dB6aH3Mw1ePzaEBXtJN5fu2nvsZTc_pGjS7gZGi-NDw/edit

ezgif-6-409fe89a50.gif ezgif-6-94a06c02b0.gif ss6.png ss4.png ss2.png ss3.png

Ratings

Overall 460th 3.636⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Fun 618th 3.309⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 142th 3.836⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Theme 719th 3.445⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 437th 3.818⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Audio 211th 3.755⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Humor 379th 3.346⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Mood 492th 3.573⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Given 61🗳️ 95🗨️

Feedback

emmagsmith
07. Oct 2024 · 23:09 UTC
This game is so cute!! Now you just need to make marketable plushies
Frostbeak
07. Oct 2024 · 23:43 UTC
Loved it
barryrichter
08. Oct 2024 · 01:15 UTC
Fun to see all the different combinations
Nyla J
08. Oct 2024 · 01:16 UTC
love the environment!
Slava Besckaravainii
08. Oct 2024 · 01:38 UTC
I like the vibe, pleasant music, and the animals. There wasn’t much progress, but maybe I missed something. Somehow, I fell through the ground, but it didn’t stop me from digging))
leckert
08. Oct 2024 · 05:10 UTC
Super comforting and almost nostalgic vibe -- really awesome job with the graphics and music! +1 on the marketable plushies idea
bearcage
08. Oct 2024 · 05:22 UTC
Congrats on finishing the jam and thanks for sharing your game!

I'll admit I spent most of my playtime making my little almost-formed dinos dance around before linking up, just vibing out with the music and environment. Great work making something that came together cohesively!

I had a little bit of a hard time with the mouse sensitivity in the web build — it doesn't capture the cursor, so you've gotta work within the little embed box, so turning the camera around can be a kinda slow process. Super minor accessibility bit of feedback, but holding a button to dig (or fewer clicks) would be a little easier to use!
BrainSlugs83
08. Oct 2024 · 05:32 UTC
Looks like the download link is broken, played it in the browser. Fun concept. 🙂
deadroach
08. Oct 2024 · 06:11 UTC
Great idea, very well executed. The music sounds good but the volume of it seems a bit inconsistent. Love all the different variations of dinosaurs, and it's fun to see what all you can make. Overall really impressive stuff good work
Igor Korobeinikov
08. Oct 2024 · 07:35 UTC
Cute and nice looking game.
Haven't figured out the core mechanic from start, but after couple minutes fell into places.
Especially pleasing was the Fishsaurus - Onionhead I got by accident

![Fishzaurus.png](///raw/ccd/06/z/67c49.png)
AlpalcaLad
08. Oct 2024 · 12:12 UTC
Made some abominations, feeling good. If youd had more time the controls being inside the game somewhere would have been nice rather than scrolling to the description but not a huge deal.
MrMaico
08. Oct 2024 · 13:24 UTC
Fun idea. Cool sound and a chill game. Controls are a little odd. Great entry!
thatcher roehl
08. Oct 2024 · 13:28 UTC
quite a silly little game, i like all the goofy creatures you can make
Sutt00
08. Oct 2024 · 14:59 UTC
Cute game. Lots of silly creatures but I wish I could do something more with them (like mii channel).
XanderGoodwin
08. Oct 2024 · 15:33 UTC
@bearcage thank you for the heads up about the download link, I'll see if there's anything we can do
Jesse Martin
08. Oct 2024 · 15:45 UTC
Fun mix an match
ccollider
08. Oct 2024 · 15:55 UTC
Man this is an incredible concept - would def want something like this that I could have on in the background while I'm doing other stuff
XanderGoodwin
08. Oct 2024 · 17:21 UTC
Hey everyone we just re-uploaded the build so hopefully the PC download shouldn't be broken anymore!
Kirass
08. Oct 2024 · 17:35 UTC
Cool idea! Super!
Sylf
08. Oct 2024 · 18:50 UTC
I had huge Spore vibes from the game! :D
Sean Osman
08. Oct 2024 · 19:19 UTC
Cool game! I just wish you could do something with your little guys
rkhadder
08. Oct 2024 · 19:37 UTC
Big fan of the mood! Its an interesting mechanic, would be cool to see different recipes so you can know what to build.
Angrybeard
08. Oct 2024 · 19:40 UTC
cool game, and cool music to fool around in the desert too!
detectiveLosos
08. Oct 2024 · 20:49 UTC
This skeleton assembling mechanic was very interesting to play around with, my only wish is to be able to combine more of the same type of parts, like connect multiple spines to get a looongosaurus rex, or multiple sets of legs to build an octoped rex. Other than that a good little sandbox to dig around in and feel yourself a paleontologist, nicely done!
LangiT
08. Oct 2024 · 21:24 UTC
Really interesting stuff you got here. Loved trying to figure out which building blocks made what creature.
Nasturra
09. Oct 2024 · 04:51 UTC
Wooah I love this game!
Vipaka
09. Oct 2024 · 05:40 UTC
The xylophone, vibraphone, whatever it was in the music was a bit loud, but otherwise this was a great entry into LD56!
snesgaard
09. Oct 2024 · 06:50 UTC
Cool concept, loved the graphics and music. Did find the camera control a bit wonky, e.g. when looking down A and D swaps and moves right and left respectively.
ivandiskin
09. Oct 2024 · 09:37 UTC
![image.png](///raw/9da/16/z/683c7.png)
ahahahahahhah nice
PlusOneRabbit
10. Oct 2024 · 03:24 UTC
Cute little dinosaur-building sandbox! I spent a liiiitle too long digging up and organizing my bones in the center before realizing they were infinite...oops. Big legs were my favorite since it made the rest of them look so tiny in comparison.
Angelina Wu
10. Oct 2024 · 04:17 UTC
So funny and cute! I found the controls a bit difficult to use but making silly dinos was fun :)
Laywelin
10. Oct 2024 · 08:58 UTC
Very cool vibe! I believe locking the camera to a specific distance from the ground would help to force player to explore instead of fly up and click from a distance, but you want to see the cuty dinosaurs up close so it's fine!
I'm curious I didn't see it mentioned in the assets, did you make the music? To me it helped tremendously to setup a mood, and felt straight out of a jrpg. Thought I was playing Chrono Trigger / Ragnarok Online, and I loved it :D

Maybe a kind of ending with a gigantic dino would be fun if you keep working on it <3

Thanks for the fun time I had!
🎤 v1ris
10. Oct 2024 · 13:36 UTC
@laywelin thank you so much!! :) i wrote the music, and it makes me so happy to hear that as chrono trigger is one of my favorite games/game osts of all time ;u;
Skleembof
10. Oct 2024 · 14:06 UTC
Very creative and unique take on the theme! Overall a very chill experience with the relaxing music and lil mutant dinos hobbling around. (extra points for being a fellow dinosaur game developer)

A few things that could make it better would be some sort of journal that tracks your creations so you can track your progress as you "discover" new types of dinosaurs. The camera could also use some tweaking to make it easier to navigate. The smoothing feels nice but the look/turn speed feels too sluggish especially compared to how fast you can move the camera in any other direction. Also like @laywelin said consider locking or clamping the height of the camera so that its close to the ground. There's really no need to fly up anyways since the dinos are so small and the terrain is just flat ground.
anaastaska
11. Oct 2024 · 08:01 UTC
Great job! Very vibe and relaxing 😌 I love music and how it fits to game🤩 Game mechanics is really interesting and I see potential in it to develop.
Angel74
11. Oct 2024 · 16:03 UTC
Good game
tom_ahawk
12. Oct 2024 · 01:38 UTC
I was stuck for about 15 minutes, quite a relaxing experience, good job :)
BuianovaValeria
13. Oct 2024 · 09:22 UTC
Absolutely fantastic game!
BuianovaValeria
13. Oct 2024 · 09:22 UTC
Amazing work!
BuianovaValeria
13. Oct 2024 · 09:22 UTC
The atmosphere you've created is so engaging
BuianovaValeria
13. Oct 2024 · 09:22 UTC
I'm genuinely impressed by the creativity and detail!
BuianovaValeria
13. Oct 2024 · 09:22 UTC
The art style is beautiful and unique.
WouterK12
13. Oct 2024 · 10:18 UTC
Haha I liked it that the creatures looked at me when I was digging up more of their future friends. The sun was a little hot tho and a shovel could help. Cool little game, well done everyone!
HermesEs
14. Oct 2024 · 13:10 UTC
Whatusaurius what?! hahah Loved the creativity of the game! Amazing entry, very polished and fun to play! Had a lot of fun playing! Well done!!
Zathnic
15. Oct 2024 · 21:13 UTC
Pretty unique entry! The camera movement feels a bit awkward, and I'm not sure what the point of directing the dinos to the mounds is when you can just dig them up with the mouse, but it's an interesting playground and the music is nice
Ava Skoog
22. Oct 2024 · 19:43 UTC
Very cute and relaxing :) More of a toy than a game perhaps since there wasn't really any goal besides whatever I was able to come up with, so perhaps the other commenter was onto something with their idea of adding a journal to track discoveries.

I found it very funny that this one was just straight up called "Tyrannosaurus Rex" even tho it's missing a few parts compared to the real deal:

![Skjermbilde 2024-10-22 kl. 21.26.30-kopi.png](///raw/4c/z/69087.png)

The colours are nice and pleasant and so is the music. Overall I feel there could be some polish to the digging interactions (I also didn't really use the creatures to dig for me because I did it faster myself) and the camera could use some work as others have pointed out. Since it's all about the creatures walking around, some more interactions like petting them might've been nice.

Pretty cool, I liked it!
Papaver
25. Oct 2024 · 23:22 UTC
Very original! The game looks nice, I like the little sandy winds rolling over the floor. The music is great and the colors are pleasing. I missed some more gameplay/goal and the digging could use some particles.
I haven't figured out how the dinosaurs would help digging. Cool 3D models of the dinosaurs!