by N. Escobar / nickesc
a small, physics-based game with a simple premise:
throw the Starfish as far as you can before the timer runs out!
Game jam submission and ratings: itch.io/jam/gamedevjs-2023/rate/2036989
Starfish is a small, physics-based game with a simple premise: throw the starfish as far as you can before the timer runs out.
Click-and-drag anywhere on the game to select the power and angle, then release to throw! On-screen controls or WASD/arrow keys allow you to apply a small force in either direction to the starfish while it's in the air.
You start by being able to throw the starfish up to 3 times in 15 seconds, and if the time limit is reached the starfish will fall out of the sky and into the ocean. If the starfish hits an obstacle, it will also bounce around, so watch out for birds, boats, planes and maybe even visitors from another world! There are also special boost spots that will take the starfish up higher!
Try and collect as many shells as you can! They can be used to purchase upgrades after your throw, to do things like increase your time limit, increase your maximum throw power, and increase your number of throws.
The game is loosely based on the classic 'Starfish Story':
One day, an old man was walking along the beach when he saw a child bend down, pick up a starfish and throw it into the sea.
The old man asks the child, "what are you doing?" The child responds, gesturing down to the starfish covered beach, "throwing them back in the water. The tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die."
The old man shakes his head, and says "it's pointless, there are hundreds of starfish on the beach, you won't make a difference."
The child bends down and picks up another starfish. "Maybe," they say, throwing in the starfish.
In the game, the idea is you play as the child, throwing starfish back into the ocean.
Starfish was created as an entry in the Gamedev.js Jam 2023 game jam. Entries were required to be playable in the browser, so it was designed from the ground up to be playable both on desktop and on mobile. The game was also submitted to be judged in the Open-Source category.
Starfish was built with Godot.
Starfish can either be downloaded as a native MacOS app or it can be downloaded as an HTML page and run on a localhost with the included Python script.
Directions for download and install are available on the Releases page, as well as previous versions.
The game is also playable in, and primarily developed for, the browser, at https://nickesc.itch.io/starfish and https://nickesc.github.io/projectStarfish, which hosts the active development build.
Music by Dream-Protocol from Pixabay
- Title Music - Tuneful Chips - Classic Arcade Game by Dream-Protocol
- Game Music - Garbage File - Classic Arcade Game
Font by JapanYoshi made with BitFontMaker2
- Born2bSportyV2 by JapanYoshi
All other art, sound and assets in the project were made by N. Escobar.
Starfish is released by N. Escobar Media under the MIT License. For more information, see LICENSE.
