It's pretty chill flying a hot air balloon. Just watch out for birds.

CONTROLS
  • UP ARROW to fire the burner

  • DOWN ARROW to vent air

  • SPACE selects things on the menu

  • R to restart

  • ESC to quit

  • The options menu does work, but configuration is not saved when the game is closed/restarted.

GAMEPLAY

Bursts of wind give you extra speed. wind.gif
Clouds and birds will slow you down. birds.gif
Your fuel is limited, use it carefully to go far! burner.gif

POST-MORTEM

I'd consider this a "NES-ish" game - it is 256 x 240 although it scales to play smoother on larger monitors. None of the other limitations of the platform were considered.

This was my first time completing a project in GMS2. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around some of the changes, but I can start to appreciate some of the improvements and new features it can offer.

There's not a whole of game here to be honest, but it's still the most polished jam game I've been able to put together since I started doing these. Maybe you'll "discover" something about yourself by playing this relaxing, peaceful, retro-inspired jam game.

BONUS Playing the Game on a PVM for that retro goodness

CREDITS

All the programming, art, and sound created during the 48 hours of the jam by Kris24, with the exception of Menu System from Mimpy and a music track from Jaspo, as well as the Joystix Font and Forque Font.

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  • Happysquared
    Lv. 15

    I really liked the feeling this game gave me. It reminded me of orisinal ferry halim games but with some of the more "game-like" gameplay stuff removed. I got feelings of chill nostalgia and it felt perfect to enjoy in the autumn. The soothing music really lends itself to the experience. Even though the wind sound is probably the sound that is the most objectively out of place, I actually really enjoyed it. Just the clicking and fumbling of it gave a weirdly tactile feel even though I think not everybody might enjoy that one. I felt bad for hitting the birds though.

    I also liked the transition from the balloon lifting up from the ground to the air and the landing on the grass. Just a really soothing game.

    Also enjoyed the square resolution. Felt retro and nostalgic for me.

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! The wind sound you mention is (in my mind) the rigging of the balloon creaking/rattling as the wind catches it...since I couldn't figure out how to record a wind noise that didn't sound like garbage, haha. I wish I'd been able to record a couple more variations of it though, as it gets repetitive very quickly.

      And the bird hit sound is just me squawking like a maniac which turned out funnier than it had any right to be, haha.

  • Riuku
    Lv. 19

    I love the relaxed atmosphere that the game creates. The music is very pleasing and low-energy, the graphics aren't in your face too much and the gameplay is slow-paced (the good type). I was pleasantly surprised by the ending too! The soft landing on safe ground matched the overall vibe and somehow made me feel good because I guess subconciously I expected that the balloon blows or just disappears below the screen or something.

    I don't really have any major issues with the game for what it is, but a couple of things came to mind while playing. The clouds slowing you down wasn't intuitive at first. On my first play I didn't realize that I had to dodge them and couldn't figure out what was slowing me down. Then of course I read the instructions and found out. Another thing that I noticed was that it was possible that the random generation (?) of the clouds made it possible to make a tight enough wall of clouds so that it was impossible to dodge them.

    All in all very nice!

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing and your observations! It was interesting watching people play the game because (as often happens) things that I felt were fairly intuitive were most definitely not, haha. Goes to show how hard it is to make an intuitive game that works without a real in-depth tutorial...lots of respect for those old arcade/early console games that didn't have a lot in the way of instructions or set up.

      I'm glad people found the game relaxing, that was one of my major goals.

  • Thomas Sjerps
    Lv. 29

    Very relaxing game, nicely done! I also enjoyed the retro video :)

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    I really like this game, and I definitely didn't expect to see something like that.
    Everything about it was really nice. And I also discovered a way to dig on the end screen 🤓

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Haha! Somebody who streamed themself playing the game also dug through the ground on the end...something I did not know was possible! Thanks for trying it out.

  • Yosi
    Lv. 46

    A nice and relaxing game to play :) I would have liked to see more types of obstacles (different bird formations, different clouds, etc.) and also have the bottom landscape change as you went on, so it would fit with Discovery better.

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! I agree those would be nice things to have...my skills just aren't at that point yet to be able to make them in a timely manner haha.

  • Mark Benis
    Lv. 3

    The vibe of this game! Really liked how peaceful it felt, the art and music combined definitely set that tone for me. I would have loved to see more landscapes more so because my brain just started filling in mountains, valleys and forest in your style. Just imagine exploring this whole world as a lil balloon person having a grand ole time....

    Great work, cheers to setting such a clear vision in a short time!

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! I would have liked to get a few more landscapes in too just to give a better sense of progression for the trip...but that was a little beyond me for this one haha.

  • Mark L 🌲
    Lv. 5

    As relaxing as listening to a studio ghibly 20 hour loop to study and relax to. I really enjoyed it.

    I'm a person who can feel nothing when watching an action movie and can feel a lot when I watch a movie that is just a 2 hour conversation on a train with some beautiful music.

    It felt like I could cheat by going all the way up with my balloon and just being stuck there. but I was okay with that, because that way I could just have it on in the background. haha.

    of course it could've used a bit more gameplay, but on the other hand... why? maybe this exactly what it should be :)

    nice work!

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Ha thank you! I was going for that peaceful feeling so I'm happy that it did that for you. I had initially hoped to try to get a little more of a game out of it, but decided what I really wanted was to get every area of the game to a better level of polish than I've been able to do before, instead of spending all my time figuring out gameplay mechanics with my meager programming skills. :D

  • Luke Peña
    Lv. 4

    I thought that was great. Really perfect tiny little experience.

  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    it was exactly what it said on the tin, a nice little balloon flight - very peaceful and different to other entries I've seen so far - good job :)

  • Katsaii
    Lv. 7

    I realy love how relaxing this game is! I did encounter a strange bug where holding the flame button would cause you to get stuck in the "roof" of the sky, but it's not a huge issue if you're playing the game the way it was intended.

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Ah, yes, it's easy to get stuck up there because the way I handled the momentum of the balloon wasn't so good. You would eventually come back down even without venting because the balloon slowly loses lift at all times, but it could take a while if you really built up a lot of lift.

      Thanks for playing!

  • Mimpy
    Lv. 26

    Glad that my menu resource was helpful for you! This game is very peaceful, and I don't know what it is, but there is something extremely satisfying about the sound the wind hitting the balloon makes. It makes me think of like the rigging of a sailboat getting pulled taut by the wind.

    It seemed like if you got hit by birds at the same time as being hit by wind, you could kinda "ram" through the birds and keep your speed. Was that intentional, haha?

    Anyways, despite there not being a lot of content, I think this is still a quite enjoyable experience.

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      The menu was a lifesaver! I've not used structs before so it was a good jumping off point/introduction. Thanks for putting that up there and making it easy to use/customize.

      Making sounds is probably one of my favorite parts of doing a jam - running around the house looking for things to mimic what I think it should sound like, haha.

      I can't say it was intentional, exactly, but I did intend for the wind to be always helpful, since otherwise it's very easy for the balloon to become painfully slow.

      Thanks for trying it out!

  • singleshot
    Lv. 43

    A relaxing little game, I played it on stream here the vod if you like to watch me play the game. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1181819117?t=01h48m02s

    Hell Diver
    Submitted

    Hell Diver

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Ha ha, it's always a bit painful watching other people play your jam game and learn how differently they see it. The "optimal" way to play the game is to avoid the clouds and birds, while trying to get extra speed from the wind...if you don't the gameplay becomes even more painfully slow and boring lol.

      The digging bug was hilarious; I definitely never expected anybody to try that.

  • SwiggityCricket
    Lv. 6

    Very cute! I loved the sprites, music and sound effects. Not totally sure what this had to do with the theme of Discovery but I enjoyed it anyways. I think with some more work you could make this into a pretty chill game about finding cool things to see and locations to visit.

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks! I did have plans to incorporate more of a story or additional gameplay which might have helped to evoke the sense of Discovery, but didn't get that far. So ultimately it's a game about self-discovery of how much patience one has :D

  • Hessery
    Lv. 10

    Nice simple game that has nice calm music.

    A bit slow for my taste :)

    Good Job

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks for checking it out! Some of the slowness is deliberate (it is a hot air balloon after all) but with a little more time I would have done a few things to give the player more opportunity to interact with the world and improve their flight times.

  • 2102
    Patron

    This was really good. For being as simple as it was, it was done so well. I'm impressed for sure. It was such a fun, serene ride through the clouds, and I loved it. I always love a good menu UI as well, and this one was great.

    • kris24
      Patron
      kris24 Developer of Balloon Flight

      2yrs ago

      Thanks! My goal was simple, so I'm glad it was still enjoyable despite that. It's definitely a game of peaceful relaxation and patience haha. And I was pretty happy with how the menu turned out as well - I used a Sequence for the first time and the possibilities of that feature are exciting to me!