Birdened
BREAKING NEWS - A cargo ship containing 1000 rubber ducks has capsized in the Atlantic Ocean, spilling all of its contents.
Help Dewey, a retired fisherman, who has taken it upon himself to retrieve them - and learn about the people he has left behind.
*For a smoother performance, it is advised you download the game*
"If anyone gets all 1000 I owe them a cookie" -Leo
Controls
Mouse - move camera
WASD - move boat
Use the boat arm/fishing line to collect ducks.
Game Credits
Vivian Gwaspari, Writer & Narrative Designer, @viviangwaspari
Beck Hemsley, Artist (Environment, Texturing, UI, 3D), @beckh_art
George Oakey, Artist (3D Modelling), Artstation: georgeoakey5, Sketchfab: GeorgeOak
Matthew Watson, Technical Sound Designer, @GamewaveAudio, Gamewave Audio portfolio
Leo Burns, Unity Programmer and Game Designer, https://clover-bluebird-fl3b.squarespace.com @O37
Ferkeshu, Music Composer
Olimist, initial game discussions and minor design changes @Olimist on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Olimist
Voice Acting
Ross Bayliss - Dan
Louise James - Pamela
Vivian Gwaspari - Jess
Audio Engine
FMOD Studio by Firelight Technologies Ptd Ltd.
Download
Install instructions
Unzip the zipped folder and it should be ready to go!
Comments
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Love the concept! Starts cute and has nice narrative depth.
Subtitles would be really nice to include, especially since the VOs have regional accents. Ocean sounds are mixed a bit too loudly and made the narrative hard to hear. Loved the little rubber ducky sounds for button clicks! Music was nice and would have liked to hear it in main game.
Camera control feels too sensitive and it made navigation a lot harder for me. Personally, I'm not a fan of WASD controls, but I think I would like this as a fun peaceful game on mobile, especially if the audio was turned into text to read.
Some issues with html embedding. Audio glitches out if you scroll away while game is running and exiting game leads to page becomming unresponsive.
Thank you for the feedback on the game, certainly audio wise for myself going forward! This was my first ever game jam so any and all feedback is a great help!
Did you do the voice acting? I thought the acting was good! The first one is a bit hard to hear, but the daughter was easier to understand and her intonation and pacing conveyed emotion very well!
I didn't, no, the voice acting was done partly by our narrative designer, Vivian Gwaspari, and people they know! I just mixed it in and added the telephone effects voice acting wise, the daughter was intentionally made easier to hear than the rest, but yeah, the first one certainly could've been mixed better xD
Thank you so much for your feedback and for the comments on the voice acting! :D
Yeah subtitles went from 'must have' to 'should have' to 'nice to have' to 'won't have' XD
We just ran out of time for them, which is a shame. Thank you for your feedback though! :)
Absolutely understandable given time constraints! I have some issues with audio so subtitles help me process text, but I know I'm an outlier.
Great design ^_^
Liked using the lighthouse to guide player home.
Liked nice physics when crashing into rocks.
Liked a bit of a challenging area farther into the pond.
Nitpicking (Jam version):
* The fact that the crane is immovable and one does not need to search/recheck for extra control for it could be conveyed elegantly.
For example if it were a horizonal woden rod DUCKtaped to the roof in an obviously inadjustable manner.
* Camera control locking and unlocking (after delay!) with movement makes it a bit annoying to adjust the view.
* Ducks submerge and reemerge from water in too desynchronised manner, making them harder to collect. They are light and cannot desync that much irl -> it feels like a bug. Consider making the phase of the wave deterministically calculatable or probe-able for ducks. If the hardship is intended, consider making an in-narrative reason for this and align the behavior with this reason.
* Seeing the mountains so soon makes it feel like a lake, not an ocean. Consider limiting view distance more or making it an in-narrative lake. The later might be preferred since we do not have a compass, and good view distance helps navigation.
* Combinable with the previous, some simple landmarks on the shores could be nice, to both improve navigation and to make shores participate in narrative delivery.
* The message in the end is blunt and feels on a x10 less narrative mastery level than the game itself.
Oh wow, thanks for the thorough feedback! A lot of these were things we were aware of but it was really unattainable to polish them up in a 2 week jam - especially as a lot of the team were totally new! We had issues with the wave equations matching up, and ran out of time to add things like the moving fishing arm or more characterful terrain. We're so proud of what we did achieve!
Great atmosphere from the visuals, sounds, and voiceovers.
Thank you! The atmosphere was really what we were pushing for with this game, glad you appreciated it <3
Thank you for the compliments on the sound! It really is nice to hear!!!
I like this kind of game, although the controls were kinda hard. Mouse move is too fast, and boat steer is too slow xD I do love the art and funny story tho!
Thank you for your feedback! All good things for us to work on.
Nice style! Great take on the theme and well tied-in to a real world narrative. The boat felt a little imprecise to control, and the ducks were very difficult to see, but I love the fact that they stack up on the deck. I'd love to see where the gameplay could evolve to over a longer game, but I hope you're all very pleased with yourselves for the two weeks you had to build it. :)
Thank you! Completely fair comments - I think we prioritised story and style over gameplay, given the time we had
Seems cool, but I had really a hard time with the controls, pretty hard to do anything, sorry guys
No problem at all! Any and all feedback is helpful!