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bloato's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #5 | 4.143 | 4.143 |
| Fun | #19 | 3.738 | 3.738 |
| Overall | #19 | 3.694 | 3.694 |
| Originality | #25 | 3.881 | 3.881 |
| Audio | #26 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Graphics | #32 | 3.905 | 3.905 |
| Accessibilty | #35 | 3.238 | 3.238 |
| Controls | #50 | 3.286 | 3.286 |
Ranked from 42 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.3 Beta 3
Wildcards Used
N/A
Game Description
A small platformer about moderation and balance.
How does your game tie into the theme?
The game presents and begins like a simple platformer– You play as Bloato the frog, collecting flies for points. You soon learn that taking too many flies has unintended consequences, altering gameplay and puzzles for better or for worse. A big inspiration for the character came from No-Face from Spirited Away, and it was a ton of fun to try to play with traditional collectibles-equals-points platformer tropes!
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
brittspace
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
1! This is my first!
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Comments
I like this a lot! I found it cool that you have to eat some flies to use stuff like trampolines, but you can't eat too many otherwise you can't get around tight areas. However, I did have some difficulty with the controls. Double-jumping felt inconsistent, and I think for this type of game good movement mechanics are really important.
Thank you for playing and for the feedback! It was really fun, and tricky, to try to balance getting heavier while still keeping the controls feeling good. Could you say more about where you were finding it difficult? When did double-jumping feel inconsistent? I have a few ideas what it might have been, but I'm curious to hear your take!
I like the concept, I personally feel like the movement is too simple for this kind of difficulty. I think the last level had a clever idea, but figuring out what I needed to do the rest boiled down to cutting the corners as precisely as I can to not bump into the, in my opinion, oversized hitboxes of the spikes. It felt like a rage game at parts, which would probably have worked without the checkpoints.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
I had toyed with the idea of a dash that gave you a bit snappier movement and allowed you to cancel fly eating. It's great feedback and I'm looking forward to playing with it a bit more.
I actually didn't want to include spikes in the game, and even with them in, I agree that they are a bit large! The idea was to introduce more side effects to eating flies, for example growing big enough to not be bothered by walking on spikes, or too big to be attacked by birds.
I'm curious, which parts felt the most like a rage game, if you don't mind saying?
Mostly in the last three levels where you kept having to do the really precise parts only to get to new territory and die because you didn't know what to do exactly. Compare it to Getting over it where you have to risk falling if you want to gain information on how you climb, but after falling it then takes a lot of precision to get back to where you were.
For example, in the third to last level you finally make it through the frustrating first bit where you keep jumping into the spikes, only to grab one wrong firefly, meaning you have to do the first bit again.
Another way it sometimes feels like a rage game is the way you have to hold full right in a lot of jumps. If you play a Mario game for example there are barely any jumps that you have to fully commit to to only barely make it. In fact, in Mario games almost all jumps are possible to make without running. In your game these jumps feel rather similar to rage games where after having commited to a move you have to watch in pain how you're just short. In some jumps the double jump helps though.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the thoughtful feedback! I would have loved to introduce new mechanics more slowly and intentionally, and to spread the levels out into smaller chunks.
And agreed! Mario’s so floaty and much more forgiving.
Thanks again!
Incredible atmosphere between the silhouettes and the sounds. Liked seeing the tongue stretch to get a bug, except of course when it killed me. Room 8 took so many tries. Had to be so careful at every step. It was much harder for me than room 9. Aside from that, the game progressed really well. Satisfying ending level. A bit of calm to close it down. Really enjoyed this solid entry.
Thank you for playing and great job on finishing it!
I'll admit that I spent far too long on getting the tongue to behave properly, when in the end it wasn't the most impactful mechanic of the game. 😌 It had to stay in the correct position based on the animation of the sprite, which of course changed based on the player state. I'm glad you enjoyed!
What was the hardest part about 8 for you? Anything you would have preferred that would have made it more smooth?
I was thinking to myself that the tongue must have eaten up a lot of time. Totally worth it.
For level 8, it was the beginning. Those two bats were hard to get by. I'm a pro at it now, but I must have died 20-30 times before crossing them once. After crossing them, any death forced me to cross them again. And I died in each segment at least a few times. I hit that second heart a bunch of times.. so close to finishing the level.
I think the bats are a solid addition, but that segment was much harder for me than anything else in the game. Starting with one bat might have made it smoother, but still challenging.
I totally agree– Having one, especially to introduce the concept, would have felt way more forgiving! If I could do it again, I would have liked to space out/separate the two ideas in that room.
Thank you for the thoughtful feedback!
I got score 16 until room 8. I couldn't pass the birds ;-;
I loved the SFXs hahahaha
Really fun and nice work with the lightning, congrats!
Thanks for playing and the feedback!
Room 8 is a tough one! If it were a more full game, I would have introduced the bird mechanic more slowly, and maybe I should have! I actually tuned the difficulty down at the last minute, thankfully. 😅 It's been fun to think and learn about difficulty ramp for a game-jam, especially when everyone here is giving up their time to review! Something I naively hadn't considered before.
The sounds are always my favorite part! I have a collection of truly uncomfortable recordings of the "jump" and "hungry" sounds.
I liked it, all of the platforming mechanics work well (jump,bouncing platforms, water...) and the eating flies mechanic works well ! The music and lighting add a lot of beauty in the game and makes it pretty relaxing. Really cool entry, great job !
Thank you for playing and for your thoughts!
Keeping the platforming feeling flowy and fun while also increasing your weight and reducing the jump height was fun to balance. I kept tweaking the weight-penalty to make a particular puzzle work, only to find that when I would go back and replay another room, the movement felt sluggish. I'm glad it worked! The music was done by my partner, Sheena, and I'll pass on the compliments. I'm glad it felt relaxing!
Pretty cool idea, felt like an unique game. It has a good difficulty curve, and it also feels pretty polished. Music is cool as well. And it provides a valuable life lesson: only eat so much that you still fit through the next door.
Unless it's island fruit! Then eat as much as possible. 🥝
Thanks for playing and the thoughts! The difficulty was something I went back and forth on, and eventually toned it down for the game jam, which I'm glad I did. 😅 It's tough when you have so little of people's time. The music was done by my partner, who's incredibly talented, and whipped that up when playing with one of her new instruments. I'll pass on the compliment.
Level design is very nice and the lighting really helps to add depth to the levels. The growth mechanic is used quite creatively. Great work especially for your first!
Thank you for playing and for the kind note!
The jump sound did weird me out a bit at the start haha.
But I love the look of the frog and the lighting. Really clever design too.
Good job!
You should hear the recording of me making a BUNCH of variations of those sounds in a row! 😂
The frog fit the image of an overconsuming No-Face, from Spirited Away, I thought. Thanks for playing and leaving thoughts!
The visuals are extremely refined, while the level design is simply professional.
Even though each level offers a high caliber challenge, we want to try and try again.
For my part, I am very proud to have made it to the end, because it brought me enormous satisfaction!
Well done and thank you!
Aww, thanks so much for the kind words and for playing! I loved your entry.
I'm so glad you made it to the end! How did you feel about the number of levels? I wasn't sure exactly how long to make it for the game-jam. I had many more planned, but didn't want to exhaust people. 😅
As I tried your game during the gamejam and I want to discover as many projects as possible, I found that the number of levels was perfect.
But in a context where I would have settled down to play this game specifically, I would have happily taken more levels!
I'm glad it felt that way. 😌
Fantastic music and sound effects (actually made me lol), and a really smart way to utilize the theme. Big fan of the tutorial levels and the quick-restart option. If I had one critique it'd be that the double jump can feel inconsistent at times (or maybe that's just my gluttony). Excellent job!!
Thank you! It was a really fun theme to play with! I'm glad the tutorials worked for you– I wanted folks to become just accustomed enough to it being a normal ol' platformer before introducing some of the gotchas and puzzle mechanics. I was actually most worried that folks wouldn't find the quick restart and get frustrated when being stuck because of not being able to fit through something, or there feeling like there was no way to progress.
The music was done by my partner in such a short amount of time– it blew my mind. I'm smiling at knowing the sound effects landed. It's always one of my favorite parts ... What's better than making weird noises into a mic? 😂
Someone else commented on the double jump feeling inconsistent! Could you say more about how/when it felt that way?
Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
Nice entry, so much better then just laying on your back after eating flies :P. In all seriousness, a great little game, with a unique twist. Loved the sound effects!
You know, no judgement. It's a hard life for us amphibians.
Thank you for the kind words! It was a ton of fun to explore the twist/mechanic, and always one of my favorite parts, recording sound effects. Just me making a bunch of weird sounds into the mic!
it feels really clean and polished, thanks for this entry =D i had some Celeste vibes
Thank you for playing! I love your user name!
Celeste is one of my favorites, so that's wonderful to hear!
I really liked this game! The artstyle is calm, and the music matches it perfectly. The use of the theme is very clever here, and I would like to see more done with this game in the future! But my one complaint with the game is the double jump. It feels very inconsistent, and did lead to some frustration on my end at the last level. But putting that aside, this game is extremely well done for a game jam. Nice job!
Thank you! I'm glad it felt calm to you! Semi-related: I've been thinking about Miyazaki lately– how he touches on heaver themes like overconsumption in such a calm way. A friend of mine does incredible ceramics art on labor that is loosely inspired by him. The music was done by my partner in about 5 minutes on one of her new instruments she was playing with at the time. :) She's incredible.
I am planning on doing a bit more with it! There were so many other concepts I wanted to play with, like the benefits of eating more flies leading to animals not being able to eat you, or being able to walk on spikes. I hadn't wanted to use spikes at all, in favor of natural creatures, for example a pit with an animal that moves so quickly it is effectively spikes. I also wanted to build out the levels and pacing and introduction of concepts a lot more slowly.
I'd love to understand what felt inconsistent about the double jump! I actually had double jump, wall jump/slide, and dash coded up and toggle-able but decided to keep it clean and simple with just a double jump (I almost left that out, but it did feel like it added more control.)
One thing a friend mentioned was– sometimes he would walk of a ledge and miss the coyote-time window but hit jump, so he was really falling and hit his double jump, but it felt like it was glitching. I had wanted to fix it but it was at the 11th hour :)
Thanks for playing and the thoughtful feedback!
Wow, it’s awesome you put so much thought into the theme and atmosphere of the whole game. That pottery is very cool by the way.
I’m looking forward to where you take the game in the future with all these ideas, I especially like what you were saying about taking a more natural approach instead of using spikes and such.
Now, it’s kind of hard for me to put into words, but I think my problem with the double jump could’ve been from how it scaled with the player. As the player gets bigger and they can jump higher, the double jump stays at the same height, and when you can jump very high, it feels a little frustrating to only have a tiny “bump” in the air.
And no problem, I love giving detailed feedback for games I enjoyed as I really do want to see them improved. Best of luck with your future projects!
Aw, thanks! Yeah, my friend's ceramics work is out of this world.
And yeah, spikes are interesting! They give such immediate feedback and we all know what it feels like to step on something pokey. I wonder what it will feel like if it's an animal roaming– it might be a bit frustrating with the delay between "hit ground you're not supposed to" and room restart. But it was game jam time so spikes it was 😂
For the double jump: oh, yeah. Do you mean after you've increased size so you can use the lilly pads to bounce, and then you just get the tiny air jump? I could see how that would feel a bit anticlimactic. It makes sense that it's more proportional to your "jump height" even if you're using an object to get up there. If you were really, really heavy the button effectively wouldn't do anything, which would feel bad.
Great feedback! Thanks!
Really clever take on the theme - I'd predicted that we might get too big for being too greedy but not how cleverly the flies would be used to make us actively have to avoid them! Sounds are cute, the frog is adorable, and I like the various ways in which the weight/size of the frog affects how it interacts with the environment.
Thank you! It was really fun to tweak the physics to be fun to move around with but have some negative consequences when puzzle solving. And lots more ways of playing with getting bigger that helps, like growing enough that walking on spikes doesn't hurt or that interacting with different animals doesn't kill you. Plenty to explore, still!
Really clever take on the theme - I'd predicted that we might get too big for being too greedy but not how cleverly the flies would be used to make us actively have to avoid them! Sounds are cute, the frog is adorable, and I like the various ways in which the weight/size of the frog affects how it interacts with the environment.
This was really clever, I like how the unintended consequences turn the original goal on its head. The lighting did a whole lot for the minimalist level design, it looked super nice. Great game!
Thank you, Grumbumblior, for playing it and leaving a comment!
I was really excited by the concept and, yes, turning the traditional platformer trope a bit on its head! I'm glad you liked the lighting and design. I didn't have a ton of time to spend on level art, and I wanted something that gave off a bit of a mischievous and lonely feeling, since the concept is a bit playful and troll-y and eventually, you realize that the objective isn't only to "collect all the coins."
really cool implementation of the theme! The art style and lighting effects are great, and make for a cool atmospheric experience. I also think the difficulty curve is a bit steep, since its hard to master a platformer with a jump height that varies unless you are prepared to restart a lot. Good work overall!
Thank you and thanks for playing and your thoughts! It was a ton of fun to design and play with the mechanics.
Yes, I wanted to play with varying the jump-mechanics based on how much you've eaten, so you had to figure out what was the maximum you could eat for a particular level, in order to make or miss different jumps, for example.
I spent quite a bit of time tweaking the physics so that the movement and puzzles wouldn't feel too punishing and things would still be fluid at different scales. I wonder if it's possible to tweak in such a way that it feels masterable? Hard to do that and have the feeling of "unintended consequences." 😂
Hi, I liked the used Artstyle, Sound and Music, i liked your use of light and shadows!
Also cool that you can eat flys to get bigger and that changes the jumpheight and so on.
I was not able to get as far because i am bad at platformers i guess xD
Well done!
Thank you! It's definitely harder to play platformers without a controller!
Hi, I liked the used Artstyle, Sound and Music, i liked your use of light and shadows!
Also cool that you can eat flys to get bigger and that changes the jumpheight and so on.
I was not able to get as far because i am bad at platformers i guess xD
Well done!
Took me 53 tries to get further, I recommend making the game a bit easier for a jam, Overall fun to play until I got angry at falling so many times XD
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback!
Great thoughts re: difficulty for a game-jam. I actually made it quite a bit easier before I submitted! I had a couple really punishing rooms. It was definitely difficulty to balance ease of play and some of the more difficult puzzles and mechanics I had in mind with the scaling mechanic in so few levels!