Starbaby
A downloadable game for Windows
Sci-fi survival...baby style!
After a sudden alien attack aboard the Starship Festivus, it's up to starbaby Violet to defeat the invaders and rescue her parents.
Controls:
- ENTER or left-click to attack, interact with objects.
- ESC, Right-click, or Numpad-0 to access the Menu
- Movement with arrow keys or mouseclicks.
Combat:
- To attack, move adjacent to and face an enemy, then press ENTER or click them.
- Both the enemy and Violet will take damage from each attack...she is squishy.
Tips:
- Keep a close eye on your HP gauge:
- Save anytime in case you need to try something again.
Jam Results (out of 48 entries) :
Download
Install instructions
To play Starbaby:
1) Extract the zip file
2) Click the 'Game' icon
Development log
- Starbaby 1.4 ChangesMay 12, 2021
- CreditsMar 25, 2021
- Starbaby v1.3 ChangelogMar 25, 2021
- Starbaby v1.2 ChangelogMar 23, 2021
- Starbaby v1.1 ChangelogMar 22, 2021
- Starbaby v1 ChangelogMar 21, 2021
- Starbaby v0.3 ChangelogMar 20, 2021
- Starbaby v0.2 ChangelogMar 18, 2021
Comments
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Very nice game. The premise was rather unique. It was slightly uncomfortable to see Violet struggle against the enemies early on, but it made it very impactful when I found the sword and armor upgrades. I was also pleasantly surprised by the healing robot. The final boss was a bit surprising and I thought he'd be more difficult to take down, but overall, it was a fun experience.
I'd like to mention a minor bug I found. When you exit and re-enter the final room after beating the final boss, the roaring sound and boss music play even when the boss is dead.
Mark1929! Good to hear from you again, thanks for giving Starbaby a whirl. Glad you liked it :)
Just after uploading 1.4 today I read your comment lol- I've just uploaded a new 1.4 that fixes the Bridge door sounds and effects after the boss is beaten. I also fixed this same issue at the ladder to the Bridge, nice catch.
This was a very interesting game. It was basically a puzzle disguised as an action game. It was a bit weird that the solution to the first puzzle is to somehow push a bear up a vertical wall to activate a button, but it worked out fine. You don't really get lost and everything falls into place pretty quickly. Loved the item names and overall concept of the game.
The sound effects were really great, especially that laughter. So were the drawings, especially that armor one :D
Combat felt more like a simple puzzle, where you need to manage your HP, since all the enemies die in one hit and you always take damage. Now, it wouldn't carry a whole game on its own, but I think it's fine if it's treated as more like a puzzle element and part of the challenge is to determine which enemies you want to avoid and which you need to eliminate in order to manage your HP.
The lasers felt like they should do a bit more damage then they do and that boss at the end didn't really fit the artstyle of the rest of the game, but that's fine for a game jam game.
Great job :)
Btw. I appreciate the shoutout, glad you found my post useful for those lasers :)
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked the sounds and art :)
Originally the bear was intended to become a ladder once it got to the wall below the button, but I ran into a bunch of weird problems making that work so opted for a simple push puzzle instead and moved on.
Interesting take on the battle system - you're right it's almost more like a puzzle than anything else.
Hah, I was sure I'd catch flack right away about the PV Games boss sprite I used, but to my surprise you're the first person to mention it. It's definitely not a perfect match, but yeah for a jam it was the giant scary monster sprite I needed, and PV Games gives you so many poses for each sprite it helped speed up crafting the attack animations.
Right now the laser does the same damage as the elite orange aliens, but maybe it could do a little more. Pre-armor, the one that can fire through the lasergate peels 50% of your HP away if it lands, but post-armor they do 20%.
For sure, thanks again for the helpful shooting mechanic notes, and for playing and your feedback!
This was super cute and fun! I loved the puzzles, the battle system was interesting, and it was great to hear all the cute noises when I interacted with things. I personally tend to dislike most battle systems, but this one was pretty fun. It took me a bit to figure out I was pressing the right button to attack, it would've been reassuring if an attack animation played every time rather than just when I was successful. You did a great job on this!
Thanks for playing and for all the kind words! I'm really glad you had fun during your adventure with Violet :)
Regarding battle, once you get the sword, as long as you're adjacent to and facing an enemy, you'll automatically hit when you press ENTER or Leftclick them. You'll see her little swing (or poke, if you're facing up), then see the slash animation on the enemy and they'll fall (and you'll take damage, and she'll make a random excited baby noise :D ).
Before you get the sword though, all that happens is you take damage and she screams. Her little baby fists are alas poor weapons.
I wonder if maybe it was before you go the sword that nothing was happening? If not, let me know what circumstances the hits weren't clear in if you get a chance so I can dig into it...everything seems to be working but I could easily have missed something.
I'm sure it was working the way it was meant to, I was just experimenting outside of battle to confirm I was using the right button but nothing happened until I actually tried to kill something. I also would face the enemy and hit, but then immediately move away in hopes of avoiding damage, but it would end up with nothing happening. Took me a few enemies to realize I would take damage every time I hit something and there was nothing I could do about it.
Ah! Thanks for the detailed explanation, now I understand.
Being able to swing the sword outside of combat would be a hoot, and reassure the player. That's something I'll keep in mind for the future, it'll be a good excuse to learn more about binding keys to common events. For now, I'll add a note early on about how to interact/attack in a post-Jam update so that's clear.
Being able to dodge to avoid damage would be cool too. It's a simple system, all automatic once you action a baddie, so nothing fancy like that yet :)
Thanks again, good luck in the Jam!
I finished the game and I thought it was really cute and the battle mechanics was really unique as well! <3 ^_^ I love the survival aspects of it too, making making sure you are always healed up, and slowly progressing to finding your equipments! :D The sprite edits of the baby and the aliens were really cool! I also love that you made some fun little arts everytime the baby gets her equipment and also during the ending! It's really cute! Overall, this was a neat and enjoyable little experience for me! Great job 3b48!! :D
Whoa thanks a bunch for playing and for all of the kind words! I'm really happy people are digging the action battle mechanic; games like Eternal Senia and some action titles Beregon made showed me some of the on-map action battle potential RPG Maker has and inspired me to try it out, and it seemed a good fit for a survival title.
It was a ton of fun customizing the Violet sprite, I never imagined I'd be pixel arting a diaper and sword attacks onto a baby sprite for a game hah! :) The kewl brain alien sprites are thanks to hiddenone, I just customized them a little for the downed pose. Really glad you enjoyed the arts too, just like the sprites I never imagined drawing a sword-wielding baby, great the Driftwood made 'babies' a theme.
Thanks so much for taking the time to play through, good luck in the Jam!
That's awesome! <3 ^_^ Yah! I thought the way you edited all those baby art/pixel stuff was adorable! :D Especially with those baby sound effects haha! And you're welcome! Thanks so much also and good luck for the jam!! :D
Just beat the game and it was great! It was nice to have something besides turn-based combat haha.
One small hangup was that when I defeated the final creature, his dead sprite was in a totally different location. Also, his movement animations were a smidge abrupt but didn’t negatively impact the game.
Besides that, the game was smooth and the puzzles were just challenging enough to get me thinking, but not enough to try to look back here at the page for answers or give up. Totally up to you, but I think you could replace the survival theme with a silent protagonist/antagonist. Either way, thanks for checking out my game, and I just wanted to return the favor. Good luck!
Hey thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed the action combat- I figured in a Driftwood Jam there could be a lot of turn-based options so was hopeful it would set Starbaby apart. Plus it's a better fit for a Survival title.
Thanks for the feedback as well! Regarding the silent protagonist approach, I'd worry that all of the baby noises would stray from the theme. It's as close to talking as Violet can pull off :) Plus my vision was Survival from the start- alone, limited resources, hoards of enemies, slowly unlocking sections...as a baby lol.
Oh man the dead boss sprite dilemma nearly drove me mad. I ran into problems with my first approach of location tracking and dropping the sprite wherever the player deals the finishing blow, something (I think) related to the size of the sprite led to it sometimes not appear depending on the location (even with 'Through' on), and when it did it would often be in a spot that made the final cutscene arrangement look odd. So I finally opted for the imperfect solution of dropping it in the best spot for the final scene. It's definitely a weird second if you're on the other side of the map when you persevere!
And agreed, the animations aren't amazing. This was my first foray into sprite animation. I learned a ton but they're noobish. I think the boss just needs more frames, right now its attack is a three frame sequence so each step is a little too far from the last for a smooth look. Now that I know how it all works, I'll be better equipped to smooth things out in the future, maybe in a post-Jam update here and in future games.
Thanks again!
It was fun game by concept alone and its action stealth combat was a fun way to incorporate combat. The baby losing health seems realistic considering babies are used to fighting. As for the bombing the furnace in the upper left of the map it should trigger the event by interacting with it once you have the bomb. Also the ending, if you unite with the parents without killing monster they should have their reunion in that cell because it feels jarring having the reunion out in the open if you don't kill the monster. Overall, it was a fun game jam game with a few bumps but overall it is a pretty polished game.
Thanks for giving it a go!
Ohhhh there's actually supposed to be a lasergate blocking the button that opens the cell to free your parents that doesn't deactivate until the monster defeated. I re-configured the map earlier and forgot to bring that back in. Great catch, thank you, fixing that now!
Regarding the grenade, I originally had it set to automatically execute once the player had it and interacted with the furnace, but another playtester thought it would be more satisfying if it was executed proactively by the player so I switched I switched it today. lol now I wonder if I should switch it back, I greatly value your perspective.
OK, the lasergate blocking the button is back. I'm grateful that you took the time to play and caught that before the Jam submission time expired, the ending is indeed really weird with the boss standing there lol. I'm too used to how things *should* work at this point, I'm sometimes blind to such issues. Fresh eyes are a big help.
I also updated the grenade activation, I compromised so that now it will execute automatically if you interact with the furnace, or you can use the item while standing at those coordinates.
I'm glad you enjoyed the combat mechanic too, thanks again!!