Mr. Mole needs to get back home!
After a long hard day of being a mole, Mr. Mole wants to get back to his family...

But it's a dangerous descent! His path is riddled with snakes, fire ants, and brambles that he must evade to safely return to his wife and children.

Controls
  • A/D - Move
  • Space - Jump
  • R - Restart Level
  • Down Arrow - Next Level

Credits

Condylura is a joint effort by the members of the Leadsoft team:

  • Dylan Smith
  • Emeline Hand
  • Liv Leach
  • Arthur A. Wickett

This is our first game together, and we hope you have a wonderful time playing!

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  • Kwis
    Lv. 67

    Okay so, I am not going to say that it is a very good game but despite the gameplay (as stated accurately by proble), I really like the atmosphere. Although simple, the music brought a lot. Like, I was a bit turned off by the animation and sounds. As I got my first death, I chuckled. However, the music gave such a charming feel that I just felt like going as far as possible. I like how each level has its new set of enemies and mechanics (simple avoid spike in first level, nice jumping mushrooms in the second, and that thing spitting at you in the third one). Although short, you feel some kind of satisfaction while ending the game.

    Not the best, but clearly lovely! It was enjoyable

  • Problematicar
    Lv. 37

    Nice little game, but really unpolished, while the sound is really nice and the art is ok, the game itself lacks juice, from the deaths leaving you floating, to the manual restarting instead of it being automatic, even the hitboxes are a bit janky.

    The controls are also really counter intuitive, either go full wasd or full arrows, since you werent using the S key for anything anyway (you could use space in both the menu and at the end of the levels, way more intuitive imo)

    There were also some bugs here and there, both visual (with the fading), and not (Some enemies not working properly and some collisions shenanigans).

    In the end it was still a pretty good game, and I liked the ending. This may be the first time I say it unironically but the credits were my favourite part of the game, that was a super cool way to show them.

    Path Y
    Submitted

    Path Y

    • Dylan Smith
      Lv. 7
      Dylan Smith Developer of Condylura

      6yrs ago

      Thanks a ton for the thoughtful feedback! You pointed out a couple of things that we totally missed during production, but we have a lot to learn for the next time around :) I'm glad you had some enjoyment despite all the little bugs here and there, and we definitely plan on getting some more programming practice in before submitting again. Hopefully that'll help us make something more complete and juicy next time!

  • SpaceMyFriend
    Lv. 15

    Short but sweet. Very cool and very pure! I enjoyed the fact that he wasnt a mole with a shotgun or rocket launcher. Just a nice defenseless mole. The graphics were very nice. If the game had been much longer the music wouldve gotten a little repetitive, but i really enjoyed it! The gameplay was nice and responsive too! Good job!

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    Neat little game. The music is really nice. The graphics all look good, aside from the dirt background. The gameplay is pretty fun too. I really like the bouncy mushrooms.

    I did have a couple of issues though:

    • The shooting enemies stopped shooting randomly
    • The black fading thing doesn't cover the whole screen most of the time
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    6yrs ago

    It's a bit too short and easy, but I enjoyed what it was. I would've played a lot more if it was there. It seems you didn't orient the fade out boxes to the view.
    Nice entry.

    • Dylan Smith
      Lv. 7
      Dylan Smith Developer of Condylura

      6yrs ago

      Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback :) We would have loved to make our game a bit longer and more challenging, but it was most of our first time in development XP Glad to hear you enjoyed what we were able to make though :)

  • Virtu
    Lv. 8

    Mr. Mole sure has an intense routine, that poor thing! Now on all seriousness, this was indeed a soothing experience, and the ending scene was adorable! I also liked the bouncy mushrooms the most. However, sometimes the fade out wouldn't cover the entirety of the screen, especially if I was moving around a lot, and I have to agree that the death sound is slightly too loud. Hope you guys make more games together!

    • Dylan Smith
      Lv. 7
      Dylan Smith Developer of Condylura

      6yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad we were able to make a fun experience for you :) And we definitely look forward to making more games in the future, for this jam and hopefully on a larger scale too :)

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Great atmosphere. The bouncing was indeed very enjoyable :)

    I liked the music a lot, but some sounds (esp. the death) are a little too loud. And at one point the snakes stopped shooting (they were still animating, but no projectiles).

    Tescend
    Submitted

    Tescend

    • Dylan Smith
      Lv. 7
      Dylan Smith Developer of Condylura

      6yrs ago

      Glad to hear you had fun, and thanks for the feedback! None of us were able to figure out why the snakes stopped shooting after we published, but hopefully we can dig down and use it as a learning experience for next time :)

  • GameSubrub
    Lv. 2

    Very calming, had a good bit of relaxation while playing!

Condylura Post-Mortem

<Written by Dylan Smith, Design and Programming lead>

What went well
  • Production and break scheduling was done rather well. By assigning tasks and a general time frame before the onset of the jam, our team was able to maximize our time and talents to bring together a functional game (where most of our team had never made a game before).

  • By designing the levels and mechanics on paper before a single line of code was written, we were able to ensure that the different elements in the game made sense and would interplay well in a digital format.

  • By assigning tasks within our team based on prior skill/experience, we were able to maximize our personal productivity. However, this also meant that some team members had a heavier workload than others (expanded upon below).

What could have gone better
  • Our game was lacking in mechanical fidelity and polish because we attempted to implement too many mechanics that none of us had experience creating before.

  • Because so many members of our team had little to no experience developing a game, establishing a good iterative workflow was difficult at first.

  • Because we focused so much on pre-production design, we were fairly locked-in to our game and development became an uncomfortably structured process. I would have preferred a more open-ended design with room for iteration and improvement.

  • Having a larger, inexperienced team presented issues with scheduling and work ethic. We attempted a regimented sleep and break schedule to ensure at least one person was working at a time, while in hindsight it would have been indescribably better to rest as a team and work as a team. It proved difficult to keep working when most of the team was asleep, and difficult to force oneself asleep while everybody else was working.

Personal Thoughts

All in all, I'm not especially thrilled with either the development process nor the final project this time around. Having as large and as inexperienced a team as we did made development a bit of a hassle, and having such a structured design plan made the game less fun to develop overall.

The biggest lessons I will pull into the next jam are as such:

  1. Work with a smaller team.

Having less people may seem like a setback, but when you only have 48 hours it pays to only have to communicate your ideas, thoughts, and concerns with one person than with half a dozen.

  1. Leave your design open-ended.

Don't worry so much about pre-production that you wall yourself into a game with no room to iterate or make changes. Make sure your team does this as well, with every portion of the design process.

  1. If you are the most experienced on your team, don't be afraid to give them advice/correct them.

The biggest mistake I personally made during this last jam was being too quiet within my team. I was worried about making the jam a fun and friendly experience for my team, but in doing so I feel I may have ended up accomplishing the opposite. I realize in hindsight that, especially during a game jam, it is better to have one's work criticized and/or corrected during development than to realize only too late the mistakes you made.

  1. In a team? Work as a team.

It was my speculation going into this jam that if my team worked non-stop, taking offset individual rests, it would feel as though more is being accomplished. This is absolutely not the case. If you're in a team, make sure you are all working at the same time. This will make the whole ordeal feel better for everybody, for a number of reasons.

  1. Have fun with it.

After all, isn't that why we make games? Use these jams to try something new, something goofy, and see where it takes you. My favourite time in a jam was making a game that I couldn't see the end of. Go with the flow and see where your imagination takes you. You might end up loving it.

Result 17th
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