Ballad of the Space Whale
An entry for #bitsyjam June 2018, on the theme of "space whales", and an ideal opportunity for a love-letter-slash-demake of a game that is very important to me. For those who haven't played the original, yes, there is actually a space whale in it.
Arrow keys to move! No other controls, whatever the on-screen indicators might make you think.
The game is made with Bitsy by Adam Le Doux, plus a lot of custom code this time. Special thanks go as ever to Sean S. LeBlanc, for his invaluable JavaScript assistance, and to Lenny Magner for the code that runs the timer. Em was the one-slime playtesting squad.
Aseprite was defintely worth the money.
For anyone curious, the speedrun timer starts as you get out of the bed, and stops as soon as the Space Whale's dialogue box appears. And yes, it's entirely in there because this jam overlapped with Summer Games Done Quick 2018.
For those about to ask "how did you do the (X)?" a comprehensive dev log for this one is defintely coming.
Comments
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What a fantastic love letter to Link's Awakening and a great showcase of what you can do in a Bitsy game – well done.
PERFECT. It really seems to play the game, and the game boy vibes are wonderful!
Ducky this is truly lovely and it made me feel a little better today. I have fond memories of that game too.
DUCKY!!!!! Yes,,,, so cute. : >
Ppl talking about it in bitscord and I had to play. I never played the game, but I always appreciated how it felt and what it meant to people. My first big zelda game was majora's mask, I kinda slept on.... all the other ones haha.
This is such a lovely tribute and very fun, I love that you put puzzles into the game that were certainly more advanced than any I'd considered, which just reminds me that there's so much room in bitsy. Fantastic!
This is amazing, I had such a good time with this. What a lovely touching little game, it's everything I love about Bitsy
i only ask for the way you give Link the armor in a dialog.
he doesn´t move.
the shield appears and the dialog continues.
How can you change the room (to appears shield item) without move the link avatar ?
thanks in advance !
Hello! Making him hold the shield up is a custom JavaScript routine, I'm afraid. You can pull it out of the code; IIRC there are two called pickItUp and putItDown. Changing what he looks like, however, is done using the Edit Image From Dialogue hack in the Bitsy Hacks Repo!
Playing this really brought me back to the world of Links awakenig. A great little gem you´ve made there.
Links Awakening was also one of my first games. You perfectly captured the adventure and magic that exists on that little island far out at sea. Thank you for the beautiful game.
Amazing game. Link's Awakening also holds a very special place in my heart. It even taught me English. Thank you for this! Looking forward to the devlog. (I found all the gems and spent 8:47.8.)
I love it when game developers comment on their own development process (especially their sources of inspiration) in games themselves and at the same time pay respect to their personal favorites. "Link's Awakening" has always been a terrific game and it's one of my own favorites as well, which is why I really enjoyed your little notes in this Bitsy game. A beautiful tribute, a great demake with a very personal attitude and sweet little secrets, all in all, just fantastic! I can only say, keep it up! It was a pleasure for me to write an article about your game and to upload a little playthrough video of it (but it's not totally complete, I didn't found all gems at the first/second try). <3
Best wishes,
Sebastian
That was bloody excellent, thanks!
what a thorough and touching tribute.
OK OK I KNO IM LATE TO THE PARTY BUT HECK THIS IS SO GOOD!!!!!! ITS SOOO GOOD YOU ARE A DANG WIZARD WTF DUDE!!!!!!
edit: of course i found the onion~
hands down one of the best bitsy games I've played!
Thank you! Exciting things will hopefully follow.
This is simply incredible. You captured the essence to perfection.
What an amazing game! The idea to create a gameboy-like window within the Bitsy frame is so clever! How could you have thought of such an amazing idea like that? Also....that robot crab hanging out on top of the cliff, what an amazing addition! He really bring the game altogether!!
I kid, I kid. You did a Good, Ducky.
just. incredible. and nostalgic!
can't wait to read your dev log to learn about the magic behind this.
That was really good! Looking forward to the dev log to learn your secrets...
(...speaking of secrets, I missed a gem somewhere that I couldn't find...)
Wow these are some neat bitsy tricks! I love the "narrator" and the irritable crow especially.
I hadn't really thought about the different narrative structure of LA. I learned things! This was charming and nostalgic and employed some neat tricks, can't wait to read the devlog!
dang this raises some bars here
Says Mr "Check out my giant adventure game WIP"
A great tribute to a great game! Enjoyed the little dev notes that popped up collecting the gems!
I loved it! So very well done!!!
hey ducky
this is really good