TAD
TAD
This is a small game made in pico8.
Swim around a pond full of wonders and danger, where surviving can be a TAD difficult! This is a game about exploring the pond, eating and being eaten. If being eaten is not your thing and you just want to enjoy the atmosphere, chill mode might be for you.
The environment is highly reactive to you and your fellow pondmates, allowing for chaos to unfold, often leading to hilarious and unexpected situations.
Other than food, there are six achievements to hunt down.
Some hints in case you're lost:
The other Tad's sometimes give good advice, listen to them when you can.
For any pico8 folks coming across this: This game will be made available on the BBS and splore this monday.
(Trailer made by Sawwtooth)
This game is completely free!
Developers and artists live on coffee, so any coffee money would be appreciated, but is not expected or required at all.
Controls
For anyone not familiar with pico8: Move with the arrow keys.
The X button is mapped to the X and V on querty
The O button is mapped to Z and C on querty.
For Azerty keyboards this is slightly different with the X button being mapped to Z and X, and the O-button being mapped to C and V.
Use left and right arrows to turn, up or X to speed up, down to slow down. C lets you lay an egg, if you are big enough.
Mobile controls are provided by the pico8 to html exporter, but I still recommend playing it on pc or a handheld instead.
Contributions
The custom font was made by Trog.
Special thanks to shiftalow for the sectfill function, which allowed me to draw the lillypads in pico8. Without that function, the game wouldn't have happened at all.
Trailers/video's were made by Sawwtooth.
Thanks Swordy for help with code optimization.
Playtesting done by:
Crudaluna, EnzoFR, Fluffysbeans, Kai, KnaveErrant, MaxOsirus, NarcolepticFrog, Sawwtooth, Swordy, Saesa, Taxicomics, Thattomhall (thanks for the title pun),
Everyone's feedback helped a ton balancing out the game.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- minor change18 hours ago
- Tad is out!2 days ago
Comments
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This is an insane thing to have achieved inside of pico8, incredible work!
The presentation is obviously wonderful, the procedural animation looks so natural. The ecosystem is really compelling to be inside, too. Being the second littlest guy is very exciting, especially once you start zipping around the map. I love how the different predators encourage different styles of play, it creates a really natural cycle in the pacing that matches the atmosphere of the game.
I know tadpoles aren't quite frogs, but as a frog lover you still get extra credit.
Thanks for making and sharing this, so cool!
Hey! Any plans for a Spanish localization? I'm a native translator from Spain building my professional portfolio and I’d love to help you out for free. High-quality, native work in exchange for the credit and experience. If you want to expand your community, hit me up here or on Discord: @ruubn
This game only has individual words, and I'm not sure it would be the most helpfull to add to your portfolio.
If you think this is an interesting game to translate anyways, feel free to do so, but mind pico-8 doesn't nativly support switching languages and with the very strict code size restrictions pico-8 has, adding language support myself might not be feasable. I could turn it into a seperate edition easily, but then it will only be accessable as a seperate download.
The only other places I'm planning to publish this is lexaloffle: the official pico-8 website, and maybe newgrounds.
Do with this information as you wish. If you need anyting from me I'll hear it.
I found laying eggs so cool - probably the only way for us Gen Z to experience parenthood in this economy
Overall great game with great atmosphere <3
You have a beautiful mind dawg.
Super cute game!! Def takes a hot minute to get the hang of, but really fun :D I appreciate the chill mode, gave me a chance to actually figure out what was food without being eaten in 0.3 picoseconds >w<
Also took me a moment to realise that C (and Z) are for egg-laying- not the actual O key on the keyboard djkfhgkdjfg- whoops! Turns out I could lay eggs all along, I just thought I had to eat an exorbitant amount! (I still ate an exorbitant amount)
Having a cuddle (he got over it and we made up <3). He's all grown up now, I'm so proud. My little fish son.
Super neat game, graphics are excellent especially given the pixel limitation, good colour palette, and very engaging atmosphere! The rain drops and the audio, along with the greyish water makes it feel like a very drizzly day, perfect for the pondfish :D Also like the little details like the pebbles, the shells, and at one point I even spotted a skeleton!! :0
I'm curious if the other tads' words mean anything? I know in the description they're described as tips but they seem to say things like "Hide!" and "Look out!" randomly, even saying it in the calm pond :0 And one mentioned for me to hide my eggs, does laying them under a lilypad do anything? I had just been laying them in the open and hovering menacingly over them (to great success), so I switched to laying them under lilypads but I have no idea if that was better or not. Also curious how the predators work, I thought the urchins(?) worked by jumping at anything in front of them, but realised that was wrong. So then I thought maybe it's movement? But that doesn't seem to be it either (unless it is and I just did it wrong, entirely possible).
I honestly like that you need to figure out the tricks to the game! It makes for a difficult start but it's rewarding to survive longer and longer purely on your own merit rather than upgrades or boosts :D
Very good, excellent work!
This comment is a literary masterpiece! It was a joy reading it.
I'm gonna try to answer some of your questions without spoiling it too much. Anyone reading along, I recommend playing the game first:
On the tad one-liners:
The other tads pick random lines from six different lists:
There's a default list, most lines you'll see will come from there. It contains all the normal chitchat that isn't tied to any particular situation, but it does contain some of the general hints.
Some events cause a different list to become active and make the other tads pick a message from that list immediatly. That's why, if you pay attention, you'll see shocked reactions from other tads when someone is killed in front of their eyes, or you see them screaming when a predator is chasing them.
When you lay an egg, a list is triggered that either calls you out on your bad parenting, or compliments finding a good hiding spot. New tads briefly have their own dialogue list, but they grow out of that in like a single frame.
At last there is one line that overwrites all others, when you are big enough, the bottom prompt for egg laying will show, the first time you run the game in a single session. Reading your comment, I realize I should probably also make that mention C/Z for people not already familiar with pico8.
On the predators:
The "urchins" jump at you (or everyone else) when they hear you.
Most predetors also have a hunger system, so if you ever find one chilling, it's probably still full from eating one of your pondmates. (they get tired too)
Lillypads don't help with eggs, because they only conceal from above, You need to find something that conceals from all sides.
Hope this information was interesting without spoiling the hidden mechanics too much.
Is Jeremy still doing well?
Best game 2026??
Funny little game. Reminds me of Spore 1st stage