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The Battle of the Pond (v2)

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Fullscreen mode is NOT recommended, as it messes up the aspect ratio a bit.


PS: You might need to zoom in or out in your browser window to make the game window perfectly fit.


iu_127884_7952593.jpgGame Trailer

The Battle of the Pond is fun little retro top-down shooter about fighting nasty enemies to reclaim your pond. Explore 3 unique level-based worlds, multiple original enemies, and face off a challenging boss at the end. Shoot bullets and lick with your tongue to victory!

Features unique soundtracks, customisable controls, and a fun pixel-art style.


Controls (can be changed):

WASD- move

SPACE- swipe

MOUSE- shoot

ESCAPE- pause

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Love the idea, as it has major potential, but damn if the game isn't anything but an uphill battle.

You're outgunned with your slower fire rate and slower movement after shooting, and using your tongue is a risk that's very exceptionally weighed against you given the lack of invincibility frames coupled with their "shoot the millisecond they can" attitude and bullet count to back it up.

While you are granted the ability to delete projectiles in two ways and while yours can ricochet, the deletion is mirrored in a way that's honestly far more effective than your methods just by sheer volume of chances for the enemy to do so where the bouncing bullets risk attracting enemy attention and putting you in far more danger than before.

AI could also be a bit tweaked, as the turtles at least have a very annoying method of "charge until low health, but then constantly run while shooting to prolong the fight" with their choices given the above advantages letting them do exactly the latter without any response. Red counterparts are the same, albeit with more sporadic firing to make things more unpredictable when you can only really abuse the AI to gain ground.

Mobility could help to balance this, while keeping theme. Perhaps a basic jump to let you just bypass walls and go over bullets could be a start - it'd help with dodging the bullet-based foes, but melee focused enemies could easily still be a threat by disregarding this in different ways.

Perhaps changing the tongue from a sword-esque slap to a grapple type of deal could be fun, letting it reach further both for enemies and traversal over different terrain in the future at the expense of not letting you shoot during it? If you want to keep the current tongue, maybe give it an alternate fire where you can shoot out enemy bullets you've licked up that have different properties? This is just spitballing ideas, so make of it what you will.

Despite my complaining, I still like what this game presents on terms of the main idea and enemy's theming. I'd love to see your future work - just keep balance in mind; it's good to try and beat the player, but they still need to feel like they can actually take on the challenges given.

LazerRock responds:

Wow that's a very helpful amount of feedback. Thanks!

meh

Ugh. This game could really use cheat codes that let you have infinite lives on easy mode, there are levels where I genuinely have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

LazerRock responds:

Yea, it is a bit too hard...

PROs:
Game works
Key mapping allows you to set any controls you like.
The ability to adjust sound volume.
Reasonably fast movement to avoid enemies.

CONs:
Sound starts at full volume.
Game uses bullets instead of the frog's natural ranged attack: it's tongue.
Frog is unable to eat what bugs him. (Something real frogs can do.)
Tongue swipe felt odd and unnatural to implement.
Terrain was "man made" instead of natural.
I'd suggest things like logs instead of bricks for example.
Frog lacks ability to leap over obstacles.

Conclusion:
nice game premise, could work on the execution a bit.
Good first game entry.

LazerRock responds:

Thanks for the feedback

V2 Adds: the ability to go up!

LazerRock responds:

You could actually go up before, but only after you changed the Up key to something else then back to W again.
Here it's completely fixed :)

Credits & Info

Views
2,434
Faves:
4
Votes
134
Score
3.39 / 5.00

Uploaded
Jun 2, 2020
4:27 AM EDT
  • Daily 5th Place June 3, 2020