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Light'em Ducks's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #3 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Graphics | #4 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Fun | #6 | 4.184 | 4.184 |
| Audio | #7 | 3.947 | 3.947 |
| Accessibilty | #8 | 3.579 | 3.579 |
| Controls | #9 | 3.921 | 3.921 |
| Theme | #10 | 4.474 | 4.474 |
| Originality | #29 | 3.974 | 3.974 |
Ranked from 38 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.2.2
Wildcards Used
What the Duck
Game Description
You play as a light wielding duck trying to save their friends
How does your game tie into the theme?
Enemies require to be in the light or dark to be damaged
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
Jorel
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
2
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Comments
This feels and looks fantastic! Great interpretation of the theme, and the gameplay is very fun! Really my only complaint is that you made the interact key F, instead of E. I'm also not much of a keyboard and mouse kind of person, so I would have loved a gamepad option, especially because I went ahead and downloaded it instead of played on the web.
Thank you for the feedback! I'm also not a keyboard and mouse guy to be honest, and I bet the game would feel much better to play on a controller.
I never implemented controller support before, so I decided to skip for this one to focus on other aspects. I'll be sure to add it as soon as possible after the jam ends, as well as key rebinding. If you liked the game and are interested in seeing more added to it, be sure to follow me :)
Excellent game, really fun to play. Great graphics and nice UI. Well done on this game jam!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it :)
This didn't run in chrome on mac, but the downloadable executable worked perfectly. Awesome submission, great presentation and a fun game (pretty tough too!). Comprehensive menu with consistent style, and I really liked the stat display at the end of a run.
Don't really have any constructive feedback except it might be better if it was easy to skip instruction animations during the tutorial. Your game is definitely a contender!
Thanks for the feedback!
The tutorial was implemented in a rush and I forgot to make the dialogue skippable. I'm aware the text takes a little too much to render. For the browser version not running well, the game uses a lot of GPU particles and is poorly optimized when it comes to PackedScene instancing (like enemies, money, effects, etc). Also, it uses glow, which is not very web friendly as far as I know. onc ethe jam is over and I get some time, I'll try to fix all the browser issues.
I gotta say, I rue my computer’s weakness because I so badly want to play this game and it looks great from the reviews and what little I managed to load, but it freezes the moment the first wave starts. Both in web and once downloaded. I’ll try once I get back home and have access to a better PC.
From what I could see, tho, incredible game, I loved every bit of what I saw and that was an amazing job, truly.
Thank you for the comment! I'm so sorry you had problems running the game. I have to admit it is not very well optimized :(
I'm currently waiting the jam's staff on a bug fix ticket I opened, which intends on fixing a critical bug some players encountered and add a preloader to the web version to reduce lag spikes.
I hope the game runs well on your other computer. Keep me updated and tell me if you had fun :)
Oh wow, the intro screen animation is amazing! The sounds are nice as well hehe. Yasss skippable text scroll nice touch. OOO and character customization fabulous!
I love this little guy how did you do that aaaaaa:
AAAA the animation is so satisfying and OHOHO grass that I can destroy for cash yes yes yes checking all the boxes alright hehe. Was a tad laggy on my com for some reason. Gosh the animations are so pretty and the sound effects are so satisfying.
DUCK FRIENDS YAYYYY
I accidentally bought something from the shop at first I didn’t realize it was the shop. I love how the shop is integrated though! I would like if the shards had a pick up radius rather than collision pick up cause some of them fell out of bounds:
The integration of the theme was really clever! All in all a truly amazing game I’d love to play more of! Fantastic work!
Wow, that is a large comment! I'm really happy you liked the game so much and I appreciate the feedback a ton :)
I will be making a non-jam version at some point in the future. I've already planned some of the things I want to include and improve upon, but feedback and new ideas are very welcome. I'll also release some quick bug fixes to this one. If you have any suggestions you would like to see in the game, feel free to share them.
The little duck in the color picker is a custom marker I added to its theme (a godot resource used in control nodes). The money clipping out of bounds was a result of me thinking collision calculations were lagging the game when they spawned (so I disabled collisions for pick-ups, but the lag was acctualy something else). I'll add item magnetism for sure, it is a satisfying feature for sure :)
This one is probably the most well-rounded game I’ve played, in terms of visuals, audio, animation, gameplay, originality and fun!
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it :)
Solid game! Great work! Definitely gonna be playing this one more. After watching Wonder last night, and your comment about DL version working better, I played the DL version
Pros
Critiques:
Question: On the store section, I had a couple times where I received 2 of the same upgrades in the same shop. Is this intentional? (Purely curiosity for me)
Thank you for the feedback!
This prompt vanishing glitch has to do with my interaction manager. I'll make it a priority to patch this once I review the code. I'll also add the sound effect preview, I totally forgot about it while rushing to finish the game's audio.
For the shop, I made 3 slots with different pools and one that is always a heal. The third one can spawn any upgrade, which is why there can be duplicates. I didn't make it very clear in game, but upgrades are stackble (except for slash damage, which stops spawning once you buy it)
Wow, this one really blew me away, esp those slash animations! The only thing I'd change about it is add controller support. I initially assumed the orb was a "mark" but was pleasantly surprised to find that it, sensibly, is a zone.
Thank you for the comment, I'm glad you liked it and appreciate the suggestion!
I never added controller support before (and still haven't take the time to learn it), so I was worried that would take too much time. But if you are interested in a full release, this will be the first thing I add as soon as I start working on a non-jam version of the game :)
Yes please! In this case gamepad should be really easy, it just needs input mapping
var horizontal = Input.get_axis('look_left', 'look_right') var vertical = Input.get_axis('look_up', 'look_down') var rotation_from_x_axis = atan2(vertical, horizontal)This is one of my favorite games in the jam. I wish that it had a couple changes, but it doesn’t stop it from being a great game.
Thank you for the feedback. A friend of mine that playtested pointed exactly the same things about the money, and sent me a screenshot of little shards out of bounds with the caption "You are evil." He also asked for a "increase pick-up magnetism" upgrade, saying his "little monkey brain" would appreciate the dopamine.
I've decided to take notes on all the feedback from this jam to work on a non-jam version of the game. I pretend to include bosses between levels, more enemy types, 2 new movesets and light orb variants, rework the upgrades and shops, make new art to make each area unique and add all the standard accessibility features that are missing (like controller suport and key rebinding)
Currently my second highest rated game in this jam. It was not ease to beat your game. Really good job!
Thank you for the feedback :)
I had a hard time with balancing on this one. I admit it is harder than I wanted.
Great job with this one, the audio, graphics and gameplay are all really great. I did encounter some freezing issues and later noticed you mentioned them in the description. It might be worth mentioning something in game too e.g. while loading or a warning because it's easy to overlook the description and just assume the game broke.
Overall though, the mechanics were well polished, and this would be a great demo for an actual game.
Thank you for the feedback :)
The freezing on the browser version really made me sad, but I think it was expected. I layered a lot of shaders to get the light particles to look good, and web builds don't handle glow very well as far as I know. I'm glad you liked the way it came out though, I plan on adding more stuff once I get more time. I definitely want to make this a full game.
Really like this game. The graphics, sound, and music make a very enjoyable game, but the gameplay and the upgrade system really make it. Played a couple times and make it further each time, is there a limit or is it endless?
Thanks for submitting again, great game!
I'm really glad you liked it :)
The waves from level 1 through 5 are premade and always the same on every run, but after that, the game goes on forever. I did this to make more controlled dificulty and to balance the game. My first iterations were so hard I couldn't beat them.
To explain a little further, after level 5 all waves are randomly generated and the minimum and maximum number of enemies scales linearly. Each level completed after level 5 gives an exponentially higher score multiplier, so if you get really far into the game, you can get absurd scores.
I'm also glad you liked the upgrades. They are a little simple, but can be stacked to make your duck really powerfull. My favorite combo has to be Orb Damage + Extra Orbs. It feels great to watch the orbs instakill shadow ducks from afar while everything slows down around you :>
Really polished fun game! Loved feeling from hitting ducks and the light mechanic, difficulty also ramped up nicely. Great job overall!
Thank you for the feedback, I'm glad you liked it :)
Very fun game! I enjoyed it very much
I'm happy to hear it :)
As a big Hyper Light Drifter fan, this is definitely my favorite game I've seen from this jam. So well executed! The combat feels challenging but fluid, the presentation and art are fantastic, and its super cute! Amazing job here!
I'm also a big fan of Hyperlight, so I'm really happy you could see the influence here. I spent a lot of time trying to make the combat feel just right, and I think it paid out in the end. Thank you so much for the kind words :)
If you like HLD's music too, I take a lot of inspiration from Disasterpeace. So if you're ever looking for someone to help with music & sfx on a jam, lmk!
I will keep that in mind. My current main project is inspired by Hyperlight. Here is a sneak peek:
Hey I'd love to hear more about this, my discord is videonoise if you want to add me
Sure
awesome, funny and original game! great job
Thank you for the feedback, I'm really glad you liked it :)
I enjoyed the art quite a bit, chill song too. the light being a curse sometimes is a great twist! had fun saving some ducks!
I'm happy you liked it. I almost didn't add the inverted enemies. Good thing I did :)
(did you know there is an exponential score multiplier once you get past level 5 wink* wink*)
well then…
>:)
ok I played a bunch more. lol. I think picking up the light needs to be the same button as throwing the light. the F key is just one too many things to think about in a game this short and this fast! but dang it it is fun!
I noticed this key binding issue near the end of the jam while playtesting, as my hands struggled to dash through enemies and pick up light orbs at the same time. I'll keep in mind changing it to the same button later
you know… honestly… That would be such a small change I would ask the organizers if you can submit an update. It’s kinda an accessibility thing.
Fun game with nice animations. Really good work!
Thank you, I'm really glad you had fun :)
Lot of work there. Art is very cute and polished and so the sound design. I had some freeze issues like you mentioned in the description but only at the beginning. I can't understand how you managed your time to build : options, intro"duck"tion, tutorial and all the stuff in your game but that's impressive.
Sleep deprivation is the key to success (kinda)!
Jokes aside, on the first two days, I try to really plan out (with pen and paper and all of that) what I'm going to do and how much stuff I can get away with without wasting too much time. This is also when I draw my assets and narrow down the game's scope.
I think it is also important to plan ahead what kind of systems your game needs and which ones need better code. Some things can be done with lazy code and work fine, but others might benefit from better coding patterns and modular approaches.
The rest is intense work and good schedualling. I was lucky to have some extra time for this jam, but had to do a crunch at the end to get sound effects done and remove remaining bugs
Haha I see. And now you cannot recovery your lack of sleep because you have to play games, and review them ... but hopfully this part is less time-consuming and gives no headache. As a 4 months Godot user (GDevelop before) I was completly trapped in my own maze during the development of my game (I know that 3D was a bit pretentious for my skills) , but it's a logic and a essential way to approche engine game when we are not familliar with coding but that was tough. Thank you for sharing your labor with me. ;)
I get it. The first months of learning the engine are frustrating. I have a background with coding that really helped to get into game dev, but sometimes it is really easy to feel stuck or feel like you are wasting time while trying to implement ideas or personal projects
This is really polished and satisfying to play. The art is great with the wing attack animations being my favourite. The intro that sets the scene was a welcome surprise and so was personalising your duck.
Lots of juice and things to take away for my own development. Great work.
I'm glad you liked it. The attack animations are also one of my favourite parts of this project :)