Taking inspiration from games like Toss the Turtle and Burrito Bison, I present to you Sugar Crash. Take on the role of an inventive little mouse who has managed to create a portal into candyland. Launch yourself out of a cannon and into the fray as you see just how far and how big you can go as a mouse with a truly insatiable appetite attempts to devour everything in her path.
The game started out as a Weight Gaming Forum Jam entry but has evolved much past the original scope. It is currently in development and is planned to have some significant upgrades as it progresses. Some planned examples being a fleshed out multi pronged upgrade system, more varied enemy type unlocks, different zones/biomes like a chocolate city, and most ambitiously of all, supporter backed fully integrated alternate characters to launch.
This is a passion project me and my friend CrystalCore have been designing since the game jam. We werenāt able to meet the deadline because life happened to basically the entire team but we liked the idea so much we kept at it even after the jam. It has since expanded in scope (and waistline) since itās inception and we are trying to head it into a production state.
All of the artwork has been done by me and I am very proud of what Iāve been able to accomplish. There are still many placeholder parts as some of the designs arenāt entirely finalized but the core feel of the game has been established and its good to finally be able to show all the work that has gone into it so far.
If you want to help development of the game, we are offering Your Character Here Cameo artwork spots on the title page that you can commission me through Ko-Fi or visit my Twitter account @HeftyTotem where I am also hoping to open up to character reference commissions as well once some other things get sorted out. Examples of what youāll get here.
Iām glad to hear that I grew up with these kind of games too and the cute aesthetic just fell into place and when everything just fit I knew it was gonna work.
liked but the fisics are realy buged, the mouse just dont stop flying if it hits anything in the ground it can continue going indefinitely, also i cant click in anything besides the credits and the mouse itself
A lot of that is placeholder for the time being so that the overall premise could be showcased. We could have kept going and working on things and only releasing a final build but at some point it made more sense to release a coherent āin developmentā version and showcase the progress as we go along. Hereās an example of a still wip design of an upgrade menu for instance. This one is an old mock up and has since changed a fair bit to accommodate some ideas that arose after its design. Notably, this one didnāt have a back button so in its current state itād be a softlock. i.e. we didnāt include it for release.
I tried a little bit, and I like it, A curious question though, is just the launch part done, I can play that and that works fine, then I get booted to the title screen. besides that, I really like all the weight stages, the art is amazing, and good luck with the project!
yes it is just the Launch part and then you are returned to the title screen when the mouse stops, there is more on the way but we where short on time for some things and chose to share this as a concept/tech demo and to have the page out there, also to let people come up with ideas/feedback to help influence the game making it better than it would have been without
Well I really love the current premise. Have you thought much on what the level end screen would be, like when a launch is done? Is there going to be like minor lore stuff like why the mouse has a magical portal or something? And I will be the one to ask the classic question of how big/ how many stages are there planned at the moment??
there is already lore stuff, we have a end screen idea it just isnāt needed for the base foundation, and currently just the 5 sizes are planned, I know that āBiggerā is always the joke and request, but 5 is a good size amount and we want multiple outfits/alt characters so sizes being limited to 5 is probably the call, Cannon Upgrades, Power Ups, and control over what Entities are out in the field are also planned as well.
Thereās been a silly amount of thought put into the lore of the game and itāll likely show through once more things like the different menus get brought in. Currently there are 5 (technically 6) stages in the game but the characterās size has to be balanced around actually being able to play the game among other things like the intended alternate character plans. If we go whole hog on sizes, that gets exponentially more complicated to handle for alternate costumes and characters.
That is one hundred percent understandable. The reason I was asking about the end screen and stuff was cause I figured the mouse was using science or something to lose the weight in between launches. That made me then think of āwhat if they had a friend or something that stored the weight for them.ā But you all probably have it so the weight gets converted into a currency somehow for the upgrades.
Youāre close to the answer. The weight gained is planned to be converted into currency (British Pounds Ā£) or kept in order for use in some other means during the launch itself. There is art made of the character being literally stuffed in the cannon at the different stages. There is a planned gameplay effect as well. In the cannon room the yellow bar on top reacts to the different weights creating a risk/reward mechanic where The power breaker trips, the portal is shut off, but the mouse still launches out of the cannon and faceplanting into the wall if you mess up.
Just an idea, but it might make things more difficult for you later on, but what about different outfits that alter certain traits?
Like a bunny suit for increased bounce with lowered distance, Exercise gear for increased distance with decreased bounce, that sorta thing.
Also, I love that we have more tiny critters being fattened, always a favorite of mine.
Thatās a tough one. There are currently plans for alternate playable characters, and having alternate costumes for those alternate characters would get exponentially more difficult considering there are about 20 unique poses for the player currently. That would get complicated real quick like. So unless every character is an exact ācopyā shape wise and a āpaper dollā style overlay/swap is implemented, the only other option that comes to mind is hand drawing everything for everyone which, aināt gonna happen, sorry. Alternate costumes for the MC are possible but would then by necessity be unable to affect stats as the supporter character options would be left out of it.
That said however, ideas of āpermanentā stat changes is worth looking into even if in a different implementation than costumes. Thanks for the idea!
And here I was, thinking that the alt characters would be paper doll overlays anyways. That makes me more excited to know that they are going to be fairly personal in their respective ways.
The jam sparked enough enthusiasm that it just kept going even though life tried to bring it down. Life is still trying to even now, but the fire is burning hotter than ever.
The plan was always to showcase the personality of the characters since, thatās the whole reason to have them right? I also know that people have wildly different and creative ideas for characters which is why they arenāt ready to be implemented yet. I gotta figure out how to handle some of the oddities that might arise from things such as a character being overly top or bottom heavy, or a unique design like fewer/more limbs than normal, or even personality quirks like how they might eat something.
The current outlook from what I see is offering a āsimpleā and a ādynamicā option with simple being essentially a paper doll, and dynamic being for the really complicated options.
I grew up with these kind of games too and the cute aesthetic just fell into place and when everything just fit I knew it was gonna work.