islander herder
herd islands! protect them from pirates!
Controls
- WASD or Arrows to move the ship
- Space (hold) to push islands away in a small radius
- Mouse to aim
- LMB to shoot to the left, RMB to shoot to the right
- F to toggle fullscreen, M to toggle music, N to toggle sound effects, P to exit back to level select
Tips
- Danger zones only pose a threat to the islands, not the player or the pirates
- You can be hit six times, but you cannot lose a single island: use your health!
Comments (8)
10/10 for polish. Lovely graphics and audio. The theme is very well integrated, and in an extremely original way, too.
I'll have to second what ratrogue said, though, about the difficulty. I'm having a really hard time finishing the levels, and haven't made it very far in yet. It feels like the only way to escape some of the danger zones is to know in advance where they're going to be.
The aiming is also really tricky, though that might be intentional, and it's possible I might just need to get good.
Super impressive that you managed to go the extra mile and make a tutorial. Seeing the level of polish and "finished-ness" a skilled dev like you can pull off in 48h is one of the best things about these jams.
Whew, that was impressive! And hard!
I think the overall tempo of the game was a bit too hectic for me. Dodging enemy bullets and manipulating the enemies so that I can safely move the islands, all the while trying to figure out where I need to position my mouse so that I actually shoot in the correct direction. 😅 It was all very chaotic but I managed to beat all the levels eventually.
A lot of the herding part comes down to memorizing the danger zone patterns due to the zones activating so quickly. There's no reasonable way you can herd the islands away from the zone covering half of the area unless you know it's coming and have prepared for it.
That being said, the last level was super cool. I feel that you could have explored that direction more with the game. Like, make it more about fitting the different island shapes together and moving the islands with precision.
Still, for a 48h jam entry this was an absolute treat.
The game is pretty and sounds good. The concept is novel. But is way too hard! Pushing the islands is a little finicky and it certainly feels like there's not enough time to move them outside the danger zones. Controlling the shooting is also odd. The bullets are not going where I'm aiming. I really liked the way the menu / game transition is animated.
Like others said, the game is great and all, just the Danger Zones Mechanic requires alot of trial and error to memorise where they're gonna be before you really have any chance of beating the level, since they're just too quick and your pushing too weak to realistically react to them as they appear.
Other than that, great game and cool concept, don't think I've seen a game that has you only shoot sideways before.
Not sure if you noticed my messages on Discord so I'll add the feedback here too.
Yeah have to agree with your vague impression, the balancing is off. The danger zones are just too fast. You gotta learn where they are coming from, there isn't enough time to react to them really.
So basically the main issues are the big islands, their huge inertia and those too fast big zones on levels 1 and 3. Level 4 was just fine. And level 5 should be simple, it's clear what to do and there is plenty of time but awkward floaty pushing mechanics just aren't cut out for the job. Sometimes the islands kick others around like they had way more mass and sometimes they just decide to become immovable objects and defy against being pushed by anything.
The shooting feels awkward to me. And it gets extra annoying near the edges of the area as clamps to that and can't really aim accurately. Shooting just to the cursor (and maybe backwards from that) would have felt so much better. Oh yeah and it doesn't really need two separate shoot buttons at all. Or even if it needs one at all as you can just play holding down both buttons without any downside.
Extremely well done entry, the graphics are amazing and the concept is novel. Only I find it very hard right now, as the danger zones are very quick and my push ability is pretty weak compared to that. It feels like I have to know in advance where the danger zone appears.
I will try again for sure!