It is a very nice game! the creatures are very cute

Just super solid, gives Animal Well vibes, which is NUTS considering this is a compo entry! Doesn't quite excel on individual aspects, but as a whole it's very difficult to not like it.

- The "was hit" state was very confusing the first few times I encountered it. Pressing buttons didn't seem to do anything, so I stopped pressing buttons when I got into that state again, but then it DOES take button presses to recover? The sudden stop and then nothing was very unexpected. I guess at least a flash to indicate a hit? Or a clearer "fall down" look?
- Lack of distinct landmarks made it so sometimes I see a path that looks like a new place, go/fall through and realise I had already been there and have backtracked a bunch. The inability to look ahead downwards or another direction also contributes to that, but it's a minor gripe considering.
- The quips being bottom left didn't feel right. Having to look so far away from the action to read tiny text... Maybe centre upper screen? Also no biggie.
- I had to play cross-armed because I'm used to left hand on wasd and right hand on action keys... Z and space is incompatible with wasd, which actually does work. Also not a major thing for a jam.

@tuism - Ah, looks like you got in before I could update the description about WASD controls -- any suggestions for what button would be good to handle shooting? I'm thinking maybe right shift?

@jezzamon you could map it to multiple keys and just let people use whatever they feel like. I like WASD + IJKL as the mains but I might be alone in that.

This is amazing! Great concept with massive potential. I was sad when I realized that I had found the end and really craved for more content with more creature types.

Fun and short, it reminded me of Overlord :smile:

Really cool concept of gathering critters as bullets! They were cute.

I had a major problem with the keybindings as my keyboard doesn't have arrow buttons in a configuration and when using WASD there's no way really to use Z and X comfortably as action buttons. Some alternatives on the right hand side of the keyboard would be nice.

I for some reason missed the swap critter type action but I don't think that was the reason, but I felt quite softlocked after getting my first orange one very far down to the left. There seemed like there was no jump or a need for two orange to be able to get any further.

There were also some glitches on the tile rendering (playing in firefox)

@tuism @local-minimum Ah, I tried to think of things people would get caught up on but didn't think about WASD controls! Given two people have mentioned it, I've added some options as a post-compo tweak (a porting type fix?). Good idea about using (I)JKL!

@local-minimum I don't think you can get stuck in the game at the moment. Maybe I'll post a walk through! There are definitely some places where you intentionally have one less guy.

And thanks for uploading a gif of the rendering problems! That's so annoying. \*shakes fist at firefox\*

That's a solid game, fella! I love those tiny creatures. I am pretty sure it would have helped to have some more diversity in the tiles of the background to help distinguish the different paths that you can take. Sometimes I felt lost because I couldn't really tell if I had lready been there or not. Maybe those torchlights could change color to indicate where you have already been and where you have your check-point?

The music fits well with the game, same for the sound effects. I actually love the idea of shooting those tiny creatures. And the speed at which they travel, plus the stretch is quite satisfying :smile:

This is spectacular. I love the aesthetic and the gameplay. It was super fun from start to finish! Only gripe is that z is not very intuitive to me when using wasd. Maybe something I can hit with my pinky like left control would be a good alternate for the fire button.
Great work, super impressive!

@seth-l The game does have better controls, but sadly it only tells you about the arrow key + zx ones. If you scroll up you'll see the WASD controls in the description!

After I got 12 grey buddies and 5 orange bunnies and back to the start location I am stuck and I need help because I really wanna beat the game plz help plz this game is good I wanna comeplete it plz help lol

nvm I figured it out its such an awesome entry! I like the level design and how you utilize the key-door design elements in a companion way lol. Very satisfying with all these cute tiny creatures around and good job!!!

Love your entry! I think its very creative to use the critters as a mechanic for all sorts of things, like the door opening and the shooting / jumping. And I love how they all pop out of those checkpoints. Its just adorable!

Fun game! The introduction of the mechanic is really funny and well made. It's a great take on the theme. Graphics are cool, tho I would have loved to see the gun. Level design is pretty good for a compo. Platforming controls are pretty basic and could be improved, but it's still totally fine for a jam. Congrats!

@yorsh Ooh, could you elaborate more on "Platforming controls are pretty basic and could be improved"? I did spend a little bit tweaking the feel of the game so would be interested in knowing what I can improve for next time :)

@jezzamon Ah it's also possible it was simply not my preferred feel for platforming but intended behaviour nonetheless then, but here are some ideas:
* It felt a bit too floaty, usually the fall is faster than the rise which doesn't seem to be the case here (tho the floatiness makes sense here given the setting).
* Short hops are usually cool (short press on jump gives smaller jumps).
* I believe there isn't any coyotee time, tho it feels fine on this aspect as it is so probably not really needed (or just a little bit).
* I think I had some times while playing where I would have liked some input buffering on the jump.

Now obviously for a compo you can't do everything. I don't mean to say that without these controls are bad.

This plays beautifully! My only problem is I got completely stuck at the "10" door. I searched multiple times in the entire area and could only find 9 creatures total before that door. The mechanics could have been a little better communicated sometimes, like it wasn't obvious the death animation was in fact a death animation (I thought my guy was trying to pick up the blue pig the first time it happened), and for that one blue pig that initially gives you the blue creatures, it wasn't clear that there was anything special about him, so I just avoided him like another enemy.

@j3m: Aw, sounds like you missed half the game then! There's a whole new type of creature behind that door!

@yorsh Got it! Yeah I think my natural tendency is to prefer floaty platforming haha. My other thoughts:

- No short hops this time, that's true. I've done that in the past, but here I kept it simple -- one advantage of that is that you can get the full jump height without holding the button down, which is helpful for beginners in the platforming parts. I try to make games that are accessible for Ludum Dares but maybe there's a way to balance the two... I shall think about that.
- Interestingly, I actually did implement coyote time in this game! I kept it relatively light though, just so it helps you rather than totally lets you jump in midair.
- No input buffering -- I did actually some basic input buffering initially, but didn't have time to implement something that I would be happy with with the double jumping, as when you're near the ground often you want it to not double jump and instead buffer the jump for when you land. Which is a little more complicated than just delaying the input.

The one thing that's new to me is the idea of falling faster than you rise. I've seen some games that do that but it always bugged me because that's not how physics works lol. But perhaps I'll look into it more! I found an old GDC talk about it.

Anyways, thanks for that detailed response!!

I liked it, but when I collected the orange kitty I didn't understand what to do next, I apologise, maybe it's because of alcohol xD I hope it will help in designing levels in the future :)

Really fun game! I love the little creatures and how they follow you, and the way they interact with the platforming itself was an awesome touch! I feel like I explored every last room I could, very nice work and an awesome little platformer!

@monado Nice! You probably found everything, but in case you didn't I just added a walkthrough which shows the secret place you can make it to at the end :)

After getting the 10, i used double jump hold to hover to the right and then managed to get stuck in an area it was seemingly impossible to jump out of. Going to watch the rest on the video haha

Graphics are cute and I like the dialog in the bottom corner :D

What a great entry - cool graphics and music, and really crunchy sound effects. Managed to hit the win screen. Everything worked together well and it stayed interesting the entire play through. Really appreciated the back tracking - felt metroidvania-y in a relatively small package.

Oh also loved watching the tiny creatures spill out of lanterns then run around.

@alexrose oh. Good find! I guess I should make it so you can't get stuck there :P

Very nice little entry!

I jumped over the first creature. The next section counts for 10 tiny creatures to pass, which then is not possible.
The lines between the tiles are flickering, which is a little ...