A development journey that began during the Halloween 2017 Game Jam
The beginnings: a two-week challenge
In 2017, I took on the challenge of creating a game in just two weeks for the Halloween Game Jam. What was meant to be a simple project turned into a development adventure spanning several years.
Story
In “The Ladle Fly,” you play as Buzzy, a brave fly who must collect objects scattered across levels filled with obstacles and enemies. With the ability to walk, jump, and fly, Buzzy must use all her skills to overcome challenges.
🎯 Main features (Version 1.6)
- Advanced movement system: Walk, jump, and fly with fluid physics
- Unique combat: Eliminate enemies with your special “fart” attack while jumping
- Intelligent enemy AI
- Puzzle system: Collect and place objects at their correct positions to advance
- Collectibles: Coins for score, hearts to recover health
- Optimized performance: 40-60% performance improvements through optimization
🎮 Controls
- WASD / Arrow keys: Movement (horizontal and vertical)
- Space bar: Jump (generates a fart attack that hurts enemies)
- Up arrow: Activate flight mode while in the air
- X: Pick up objects
- C: Throw/magnetize held objects to correct positions
Challenges encountered and evolution
In the beginning (2017), the major challenge was creating fluid movement for Buzzy, with a clear distinction between jumping and flying. I wanted my fly to jump like a classic platformer character while flying like in “Flappy Bird.” Creating the “HoldItem” script for picking up objects also required careful organization, solved with the invaluable help of Florian Bœuf.
Over the years, the project continued to evolve with significant improvements:
- Complete overhaul of the parallax system with GameObject duplication
- Improved visual quality with automatic screen adaptation
- Critical bug fixes: magnetization, level completion, score interface
- Professional fade-to-black transitions between scenes
- Performance optimization with 40-60% improvement
🎨 Graphics
The game features a variety of drawings and artworks:
- Buzzy the Ladle Fly (main character)
- Collectibles: coins, hearts, special objects
- Enemies: male/female zombies, ghosts, spiders
- Environments: parallax backgrounds, platforms, obstacles
- Visual effects: particles, animations, smooth transitions
🔊 Sounds
- Background music (created with Audacity)
- Dynamic footstep sounds
- Wing flapping effects
- Combat sound effects (fart attack… yes, really!)
- Object collection sounds
🛠️ Built with
Unity 6000.2.8f1 | C# .NET | TextMesh Pro | Optimized for performance
Availability
“The Ladle Fly” is available for download on Itch.io for Windows and WebGL. This project, which started during the Halloween 2017 Game Jam, continues to evolve and improve.
Game Jam participations: Gamecodeur Gamejam #10, Halloween Jam, Darktober 2017, and more!
🙌 Support me on Patreon
☕ Buy me a coffee
📖 Full documentation : GitHub Repository
Thank you for your support and interest in “The Ladle Fly”! 🎃
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