To be an Island

I really like the art and music! Too bad there's not much to do though.

Love the music, I wouldn't have thought of a hard-hitting guitar track like that for a cute game like this but somehow it works. Petting is serious business! I like how cute and unexpected this game is.

Really cute art, and also really nice music + sound design!! Too bad there wasn't something more but it felt like it could be some sort of weird unique take on a pokemon game.

Haven't had this much fun yeeting a shark in years!

As can always be expected from you, this is drawn very cutely and has great music.

Not a lot to say about the gameplay but it feels like you knew that - I had a few smiles for a few minutes and that was the long and the short of it 😅

I liked the unique concept though - it's a shame you didn't have time to go further with it.

I feel very confused. Good music though.

Very cute game! Felt I was placed into a fun cartoon world. I love the hand drawn look, the responsive animations when you're zooming around as an island, the extremely adorable sharks! I felt bad whenever I had to yeet them or hit them. I guess I didn't have to... The world de-sea-sed coming up was funn though :D

I liked imagining the sharks I captured circling the island. The little fins are cute!

I did feel when I hit the shark, I would have liked something visual that came up quicker. Not necessary jumping straight into the fight scene, but maybe some effects. I thought the music changing to the battle theme was very good, but I did for a second think I got stuck on the shark and couldn't move the first time I did it as I didn't know the battle screen existed. Maybe some kind of zoom in or other thing that accompanies the music would have clued me in more.

There were other small bits like the shark having negative pets and the difficulty of yeeting. It almost didn't feel like the arrow keys were working until I figured it out. Maybe adding some feedback there too could help with the feel more.

I enjoyed the variety of options on the battle screen. Definitely wanted to try all of them out. The font and number typeface you used also spruced up the game a lot and it fit really well in there.

I did notice in the fight scene, patting with the hand also moves the fight menu selection but yeah honestly I'm kinda nitpicking a lot. Those things aren't a big deal and there is always a lack of time in jams.

I really appreciated the shaking leaves button. It's a lot of fun but I think I'd have liked it on a key that is easier to spam because of how satisfying it was haha.

I'm excited about the post jam plans you wrote about in the description. I feel you have a really nice foundation to expand so most of my feedback is for really tiny no big deal details. There wasn't really a strict objective but I found myself exploring what I could do and playing around with the island. Think that's a good sign!

Okay-- there's not a ton here, but what is here is really good. The visuals and music are really nice, and very polished. I like the idea of capturing animals and then using them later in battle, and the mechanics for both of those are pretty sound. That being said, the 'goal' of the game hasn't really been implemented, and so I'm stuck sitting here in a really fun sandbox with not much to do. I would love to see a post-jam expanded version of this!

Fun little game! The cute graphics suited the gameplay really well!

Absolutely hilarious! I love the silliness of it all. The island controls really smoothly, and the battle system works well. I like that you can pet sharks instead of attacking. XD Great music as well! I'd love to see this expanded post-jam, as I'm really curious what the objective would have been if you hadn't run out of time. Unless you were serious about there being no objective, in which case, kudos! It's fun regardless. :)

Fun little game. Loved the music. I totally see where youre going with this!

I was really hoping for more yeeting

Hahaha really appreciated the dedicated 'make the trees wibble' button. I like a button that's just for fun, I remember playing Rayman 1 and getting the run power and not being able to use the 'Rayman just pulls a face' button any more. That was sad. Games are for fun and the more buttons that you're allowed to press are fun to press, the better, right???

The art and music were so great! I might be a little bit envious of your island art! I enjoyed capturing sharks, I enjoyed ramming and yeeting them too. The gameplay loop was pretty straightforward altough Im still not sure exactly how the yeet mechanic helped, but I'm glad it was there

This game is kinda boring. Although the art and music is ultragood, the gameplay is just boring. But that's a funny concept tho!

I liked the artstyle! I don't get what yeeting the shark does? It would be much better if you could pet and capture the sharks, but fight other creatures with the sharks.

Nice game!

Gorgeous artwork, would love to see this fleshed out after if you can surmount the coding problems.

For what's there, it's well done. More can definitely be done with this project. The music and mechanics were nice, it would be great if there was more though. But, that can be said for pretty much all jam games.

Played your game on stream, now I need them feed backs, heres a link if you want to watch it again https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1091776398?t=14m40s

I go to say its was a fun kinda show case game. it would have beeen nice to have a goal, but its also how a fun sandbox game loop to it.

and turn base rpg where you are an island is pretty funny. and I did enjoy tossing that shark in to orbit btw lol

I didn't quite get what you had in mind when you were describing this in discord, but I see the vision now XD

Shame you had coding problems, bet this would've been really cool had it been more finished. That's not to say what's here isn't cool! It looks and sounds great. Love that battle music. The artstyle is super charming, and I love that the text fits the cute art (in terms of word choices and such, like yeeting sharks instead of throwing them). So I think it's a very good proof of concept.

Thematically I like that you can befriend the enemy animals, and would've been able to use them against boats. Nature teaming up against humanity :D

Also this game is proof that more games in general need jiggle physics ;D

No it's not a complete game but the sense of style and just overall quality is amazing, particularly for a jam game. The wordplay made me chuckle. EDIT: And the music was probably my favorite part, particularly the transition to the shark encounters.

You have a very distinct style in everything you do and I remember you saying in discord during the jam how you weren't so pleased with this project, but you totally should be, your style is cute and works with everything you've made and this is the sandbox/foundation of a fun game, great entry! :)

It was a joyful experience and I adore the art, it has so much personality. The music was a bop as well. I usually went for petting the sharks, I did fight a few of them, but in the end I got the petting down to a way where I always managed to pet them enough to capture them in one round, not taking any damage. Will definitely come back if you do a post jam version with the boat and stuff.

Island and shark-kind have fought for millenia. As the last island, it is your job to decide the fate of the world... do you perpetuate the eternal conflict, or do you unite island and shark-kind once for all? --At least that's the story I managed to come up with.

I know there were a lot of issues during development making it so that you can't finish the game, but what is there is both wacky and adorable. I have personally opted to be a shark-pacifist, petting my enemies into submission. I've enjoyed the time I spent in the game even if it wasn't that much.

Any criticism I could and would give would most likely be addressed if the game hadn't ran into development issues, so the only real thing I can comment on is that gamemaker's audio compression wouldn't cut down on audio quality too much and could reduce the file size by 20-ish megabytes.. but file size is nothing more than a mild inconvenience.

Final Verdict: The game is pretty pog. If there ever will be a post-jam version, I'm looking forward to it!

EDIT: forgot to mention the most important thing, the sharks are very cute

The artstyle is very cute and appealing. Love all the little animations (The trees swaying when you move). I would've loved to see the completed version too! it would definitely make things more interesting.

One feedback I had to give is that sometimes during the fights its not clear if the enemy has attacked you since the shark never does ram into the island physically. Some form of visual indication would've helped me understand if i've been attacked

Cute little game that fits the theme well, good art and sound, hard to lose though, and the ending is a bit buggy.