Ponding Experience by Carraka

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

ponding_logo.png

Otherwise known as

Reverse Merperson Bug Shooter

You are a small archerfish in a small pond. Your cozy life consists of shooting flies and racing scavengers.

One day, you inexplicably grow a pair of legs. Now you can hike to the next pond over and talk to frogs! Team up with your tiny neighbors to take down the biggest baddest purplest fish!

Controls:

  • WASD to move
  • SPACE to speak to other creatures
  • LEFT-CLICK to shoot bubbles (above water)/kick (below water)
  • RIGHT-CLICK to drop beetle bombs

In the original build, there is a game-ending bug that forces you to the credits instead of allowing you to battle, so please check out the bugfix version for some sweet boss music and the full (still buggy) battle experience!

All art, music, SFX, writing, and voiceover (!!) completed in the most sleep-deprived 72 hours of my life for Ludum Dare 56.

We also recorded a bunch of voiceover that we didn't have time to implement, so definitely check out the post-jam version that includes a playable Day 3 and tells the secret story of why that big fish is just so damn aggressive.

MamaFish.png Talk like a fish

Frog.png Walk like a fish

BigFish2.png AVOID other fish like a fish

Ratings

Overall 381th 3.703⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 239th 3.758⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 485th 3.371⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 357th 3.9⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 421th 3.85⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 19th 4.317⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Humor 217th 3.633⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Mood 214th 3.933⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 38🗨️

Feedback

InOnesGraveDed
08. Oct 2024 · 13:41 UTC
To be honest it was unexpectably and really fun. And yeah, I despise mosquitoes too :D
Bumble
08. Oct 2024 · 19:10 UTC
I have to admit I did not understand what I had to do to recruit fish. I swam around and talked to every fish and frog and nobody wanted to join my school. Did I fail to do a specific thing or did I trigger a bug or something?

Anyways, it is really impressive to have full voice acting for a jam game! Overall a very nice package :grin:
🎤 Carraka
08. Oct 2024 · 19:52 UTC
@bumble You need to finish the Talk to Gilly quest by reporting back to his sister (the Mama Fish at the beginning in the first quest). That should open up the rest of the game for you!
Bumble
08. Oct 2024 · 19:57 UTC
@carraka oops - I was not aware that I had to hand that quest in before I could start the other one proper. Thank you - I'll try again!
🎤 Carraka
08. Oct 2024 · 20:11 UTC
@Bumble Yup, the quest should end after you talk to him. I'll see if I can fix that. Aaand it should be fixed in the bugfix version! Thanks for the catch.
Turquoise Moon
15. Oct 2024 · 20:11 UTC
This game is very cool! It definitely deserves more attention. The art looks great, the game is polished and of course the voice acting is awesome! Make sure to rate other people's games if you want more people to find this one. The only issue I found was with the shoot 10 mosquitoes quest. The number never went up. It would have been nice to know how close to 10 I was getting in 30 seconds.
Budaniel
18. Oct 2024 · 15:00 UTC
I had a good time playing, but I got stuck in Chompy's mouth and glitched inside of him and couldn't move. The voicework was really good, and I liked the artwork allot.
Colander
18. Oct 2024 · 15:03 UTC
The game looks very well made, but I had trouble with the big fish boss. I kept losing my recruits even though the big fish wasn't even on the screen
Fractal
18. Oct 2024 · 19:43 UTC
Got stuck above the water just before I would have killed the big fish :( But very nice, I love games with quests like this, and it was really well done!
Yue Zhao
19. Oct 2024 · 03:45 UTC
love it - the game is fun to play and really like how the music responds to different status of the fish - however, didnt really managed to figure out how the game progresses at first...
Aspeon
19. Oct 2024 · 04:48 UTC
I liked the art style and voice acting as well as the variety of different quests. I wasn't able to figure out the bomb beetle quest- when I dropped them near the scavenger fish it seemed like the bombs just passed through them.
Thoastbot
19. Oct 2024 · 04:50 UTC
Realy fun to play, loved the voices they sounded great :D
Sadly even after several tries i couldn't get the big fish beaten :<
Nonnen
20. Oct 2024 · 13:10 UTC
Really great game! It was impressive to see how much content was able to be put into it, not to mention how good the voice acting was. Keep it up!
Synapse316
20. Oct 2024 · 13:32 UTC
A super fun game. I'll speak highly of the motion of jumping above the surface. And the music and sfx are so unique! Like it!
Do3naut
21. Oct 2024 · 21:02 UTC
Awesome game! Was the music live recorded? The instruments sounded really natural. As a clarinet player I appreciated the features in the menu theme :D I also love the variations of the music as you got chased by the fish, left the water, etc. There's an impressive amount of content in this game, and it all comes together nicely, well done!
🎤 Carraka
21. Oct 2024 · 21:54 UTC
@do3naut Yup, live recorded music! I will pass along your compliments to the clarinet player. (She was just complaining about a particular measure to me yesterday, so I hope this means her work shone through for you.)
GameDevTraum
22. Oct 2024 · 01:59 UTC
excellent game! loved the art and sfx, was really fun to eat some bugs and then being able to move quickly and jump above the surface. Eating noices are hilarious :laughing:
Andriana Mantidfly
22. Oct 2024 · 12:55 UTC
A fun game, especially when the fish starts to fly fast and jump out of the water, it would be better if it remained a feature of the game, lol
Angioop
22. Oct 2024 · 16:01 UTC
This was so fun! Loved the various avatars and dialogue. The music really fit the vibe too.
Vablik
22. Oct 2024 · 19:30 UTC
It feels fun and is easy to pick up)
Dissonance Generator
22. Oct 2024 · 22:50 UTC
@gamedevtraum Yeah I loved recording all those nom sounds - that's my wife being silly. One of these jams, I'll come up with some blooper audio and make an easter egg out of it and you can hear the sounds that were too silly to make the cut!
Brainloaf Studio
23. Oct 2024 · 00:27 UTC
I absolutely love the dynamic music, inclusion of voice acting, and overall gameplay variety here, it all feels so polished! I love how you can suddenly walk on land come day two, that's such a funny inclusion that caught me off guard. The only "issue" I ran into was that I started the boss battle multiple times, leading to like four giant fish being stuck on each other, but honestly it was kinda funny too. Awesome work!
fooorsh
23. Oct 2024 · 06:06 UTC
Nicely done, good mood and beautiful music!
Luis Priego Cuenca
23. Oct 2024 · 17:57 UTC
A wonderful game, I loved it from the premise, the art, the music and the sound effects, all of which convey a fresh and fun atmosphere. Doing missions for the fish and frogs and being able to explore the pond has been the icing on the cake.
Empyreans
23. Oct 2024 · 19:40 UTC
Beautiful, immersive experience with gorgeous graphics and voice acting!

Thank you for submitting your game to the stream and here is my walkthrough :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmxeQZvGsdU

~XpMonster