Sakura

A game where you have to bring the little ninja to the top of the big sakura tree without falling down. Will you ever reach the top?

A game where you have to bring the little ninja to the top of the big sakura tree without falling down. Will you ever reach the top?

A game made for the 4th Alakajam game jam. Made by 3 danish sounddesign students in 48 hours.

Controls:
For the best experience, use a Xbox360 Controller or Playstation controller.
Charge/Fire/Menu Select: A Button/Space.
Aim: Left Analog stick/Arrow keys/WASD.

Jump on the falling petals to go higher.
Avoid cherry.
Have fun.

Soundtrack out here: https://soundcloud.com/jeppelind/sakura-soundtrack

edit. PC version is now available
edit. v1.3 Fixing the player not grapping palets, screensize adjusted and player stuck in air.
edit. v.1.4 Fixed a bug where the player was unable to select an option in the menus, when the mouse button was pressed.
edit. PostJam Added better keyboard controls.

Voting results

Overall
9th
33%
6.731
Graphics
13th
50%
6.692
Audio
1st
7.923
Gameplay
7th
25%
6.231
Originality
9th
33%
6.654
Theme
11th
42%
7.269

This game entered in the Team competition (24 entries).

Comments (32)

smbe19
 • 5 years ago • 

If you want your game to be played you should probably add more than just the mac version. Web version is usually the preferred format, but at least having a windows and linux export would enlarge your audience a lot.

Ridderfar
  • 5 years ago • 

Hello smbe19 :) We are working on it.

KuBic_
 • 5 years ago • 

Arg ! Mac only… I'm choking in my hate of apples…

Ridderfar
  • 5 years ago • 

Hi KuBic and smbe19. @smbe19 A PC version is now available.

Sammy6
 • 5 years ago • 

@Ridderfar @KuBic_ There's now a PC verison

Ztuu
 • 5 years ago • 

Took me a couple of attempts to work out what the heck I was supposed to do. Once I had though the game was pretty intuitive.
Music is fun, graphics are cool (especially the background). I like the falling petals animation looks really nice.
Game is a good idea and works pretty well. Occasionally feels like you don't grab a petal when you should but works right 90% of the time. A couple of times I managed to end up off the bottom of the screen but didn't fail and could jump my way back on.
Overall a fun game and a good idea, good job!

Ztuu
 • 5 years ago • 

Also: AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Mensley
 • 5 years ago • 

It looks like a nice game but the controls are not really intuitive, I didn't know what to do but after some time it seemed like it is a good game. And the graphics are really good.

The music was jump amazing for somthing created in just 48 hours.

Nanukk Luik
(@NanukkLuik) • 5 years ago • 

AHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh! Also I love the cherry touch - reminds me of the good ol snes days. Too bad I didn't get the cherry this time around. Good game :)

Ridderfar
  • 5 years ago • 

@Ztuu @Mensley did you play the game with a xbox360 controller?

@Ztuu we are working on the bug with the player not grapping the petals, and a new version should be availabble today. The thing with getting up from the bottom is because you hit a petal before the trigger that kills you. The trigger shuld probably be higher up.

Ztuu
 • 5 years ago • 

@Ridderfar yeah xbox one controller for me :)

amras0000
 • 5 years ago • 

The game is a bit buggy. On a few occasions I was hanging off a random point in the air next to a petal (and not moving with the petal) On one occasion I flew straight through 2 or 3 petals and to my death.

When I first saw a cherry I assumed it was a collectable so I aimed right for it. Then I died.

The score at one point displayed over 2 lines at the game over screen (see my high scores)

The sound effects and graphics are gorgeous, I love the aesthetics here. The gameplay is clean and satisfying. I don't think you should move the kill trigger any higher than it is - I had one really satisfying moment of just barely grabbing a petal on the bottom of the screen.

Oh, and the slowdown during jumps is really satisfying.

If you do change anything, it should be the speed the camera follows the player. At the moment, it's almost impossible to do arcing shots, where you miss a petal but fall on one a little lower down. The player should be nearer the top of the screen while jumping, then have the camera follow them up only one they've hit a petal.

Overall, this is a great little game. Simple mechanics, not a lot of depth or strategy, but excellent gamefeel and a really satisfying responsiveness.

DrSkort
 • 5 years ago • 

The game was really well made. The mechanic with the petals was working ( even though I needed a few attempts to know what I had to do). The soundscape and music were really well made and the graphics looked nice even though the ninja looked a bit out of place. I also think, that it maybe would have been better if the ninja would jump from the petals position and not from the position, where he landed because this way he was just floating in the air. Also sometimes I managed to land on a petal offscreen and was wondering, why I didn't die :D Good game which could have some minor improvements. Also I have to admit that I'm not the best player. I only saw one cherry, which killed me.

Orionintheforest
 • 5 years ago • 

I did'nt get far with a keyboard and in general, but I like :)

Lokior
 • 5 years ago • 

Nice!
My favorite part was the audio.
Sometimes the landing happened randomly but still great game overall!

Cheers!

Baconinvader
 • 5 years ago • 

Pretty cool premise, I wouldn't have minded more directions to move in but that probably would have made the game too easy. I liked the graphics but my favourite part was definitely the audio, very fun :)

Takko
 • 5 years ago • 

You really made a good job for the audio part, I loved the music and the scream of the ninja when he fell.
Also the falling petal animation is amazing, and the game in general has beautiful graphics.
I didn't understood at first what I was supposed to do and how to do it (I played with a Xbox controller), but then I feel like like the game is pretty intuitive, even if I'm not sure I understood all the controls.
The slowdown before jumping is so satisfying!
It happended some times that I didn't grab a petal I sould have grabbed, and some times I was at the bottom off the sreen but not dead.
You game was in general fun and nice to play.
In only 48 hours you made a really nice game, good job !

Ridderfar
  • 5 years ago • 

Thanks for the feedback, it's really helpful.

@Ztuu @amras0000 @Takko
The bug where the player doesn't grab the palet is fixed in the newest version available.

@Baconinvader did you play the game with an XBOX360 controller?

MatchaMaze
 • 5 years ago • 

I really liked the desing and the music was calming…
However, the controls were hard to figure out and I got stuck at the "game over" screen not being able to do anyhting (only Alt+F4).
It has it's promises! Please work on it after the jam!

TheKillerFly
  • 5 years ago • 

@MatchaMaze
Thank you for the feedback. :)
We should probobly had displayed the controls inside the game.

The menu screen bug is a new "feature", only visible for the selected few.
Lucky you ;)

MatchaMaze
 • 5 years ago • 

@TheKillerFly With that attitude you'll probably get hired by Bethesda ;)
Keep it up! I want to see this work, has so much potential!

overf10w
 • 5 years ago • 

Hi, on Windows 10 I cannot press Restart button when the game is over (cursor and arrow keys don't work).

jlindskov
  • 5 years ago • 

Hey, @overf10w. Try pressing space at the screen. :-)

overf10w
 • 5 years ago • 

@jlindskov, well, I tried, but it worked only one time, then the problem persists.

TheKillerFly
  • 5 years ago • 

Hey, @overf10w
Sorry to hear.

We are having trouble recreating the bug, but @MatchaMaze seems to have the same problem.

The thing is, we are all on mac, so that might be why.

Breezo
 • 5 years ago • 

@TheKillerFly

I've noticed the issue on mac as well, though it only happened once. It happened when i clicked the mouse in the menu, the controls got deactivated.

TheKillerFly
  • 5 years ago • 

@Breezo thank you for the specifiks on the bug!
We've found the little bastard and are working on a fix.
It'll be uploaded soon(tm)

Congrats on the highscore btw. :)

Ridderfar
  • 5 years ago • 

Hey @Breezo @overf10w @MatchaMaze

The bug should be fixed in the newest upload :) Enjoy.

Kleinzach
 • 5 years ago • 

This is a great entry! The music and sound effects are excellent! The death sound is just perfect. Also, I loved the paralax effect of the bamboo on the very first screen, but that sort of gave way to the simpler arches and mountains which made me a little sad. The graphics were really well made with a good, coherent style.
The gameplay was simple, but fun and expressive. I felt that it wasn't alway giving me the exact direction that I inputted on the gamepad, but that could also just be my controller getting old.
Great job to all of you!

Thrainsa
 • 5 years ago • 

I really like this entry and especialy the music/sound effects. I like the slow motion effect, is it done using unity Time.timeScale?
The gameplay is simple but fun. I would suggest to add the cherries a little earlier and maybe a little smalller ^^
Oh, and the first time I saw the cursor to show where was appearing the cherry, I jump right into it thinking it was some kind of bonus :). That make me think that having some bonuses (like score bonuses or a bonus jump in the air could have been fun)
Anyway, great entry and for my teamate @Wan, only 13191? :)

jlindskov
  • 5 years ago • 

@Kleinzach Thanks, glad you like it!

Thanks for the feedback @Thrainsa. The bounses were on our todo list, but we did not have the time, we might do a postjam update with it in! And yea, its just the Time.timeScale we are modifying.

sebastianscaini
 • 5 years ago • 

A fun game! It took me a little while to figure out how to play, but after I did I had a lot of fun with it! The sounds were really good and really helped set the mood for the game.

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Links

Sakura

Authors

Ridderfar
TheKillerFly
jlindskov

Details

High scores Submit score

#UserScore
1@Breezo31240 
2@Thrainsa16984 
3@Lokior16232 
4@amras000013845 
5@Nanukk Luik13262 
6@Wan13191 
7@Ztuu7041 
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