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A jam submission

CANNONBALL BUDDIES!View game page

Time a mid-air high five with your delayed buddy and boost into a synchronized splash.
Submitted by Dorim — 1 day, 14 hours before the deadline
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CANNONBALL BUDDIES!'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme Fidelity & Creativity#143.4623.462
Production Velocity#162.9232.923
Overall Enjoyment#202.7692.769
AI Direction & Adaptability#222.7692.769

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

The Biggest Challenge
The biggest breakthrough was pivoting a single-diver physics prototype into a delayed buddy mechanic after the hidden BUDDY theme was revealed. Through AI-assisted iteration and human playtesting, I replaced the dominant “do nothing” strategy with a timed mid-air high five, shared boost, and clear early/late feedback.

AI Tools Used
OpenAI Codex and OpenAI ImageGen

Areas Where AI Was Used
Code architecture and implementation, gameplay iteration, automated testing, and original character, prop, and splash artwork. The generated images were selected, cropped, cleaned, and integrated manually. Audio is synthesized procedurally with the Web Audio API and is not AI-generated.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

In skill terms, I'm absolutely terrible at the mechanics of this game -- BUT i think this is a classy and tasteful concept.  It made me think of Rodney Dangerfield in "Back To School" where the climax is that he dose an implausible jump where he bounces 3 times (the Triple Lindy) so I was very sympathetic to the general atmosphere of the game.

The need to plot the trajectory beforehand made me think of Caromble on Steam which is an Arkanoid where you pause between bounce interactions and pick the Newtonian trajectory of how the paddle is going to bounce the balls.  The thoughtfulness of it appealed to me greatly!

Gave your game high ratings and yourself an itch follow, if you like the thing(s) on my page(s), consider doing the same.

Cheers!

--D

main website:

https://exedexes1.com/

Host(+1)

I really like this game♪

It made me wonder: if this competition actually existed in real life, just how much trust would you need to have in your BUDDY to be able to compete together???

I was also impressed by the background music via Web Audio—even though it's a simple loop, it plays without ever becoming annoying.

At first, I didn't know what it took to get a “PERFECT PAIR” rating, so it was a lot of trial and error, but I've finally gotten to the point where I can consistently achieve it.

I had a lot of fun. 🙂

Submitted(+1)

It feels great watching those two chubby boys dive in.

It’s so refreshing to see the rubber ducks and swim rings go flying along with the water.

They’re both so cute...

Submitted(+1)

The animations were really fun :)

Developer

Thank you! I had a lot of fun making the poses, high-five, and splash animations, so I’m really glad they landed with you! :)

Submitted(+1)

I do like the idea of two jumping buddies, but the controlling is... it is showing the column with arrows, the aiming is not followed by the jumping buddies... something feels off :/ but idea is very cool :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the honest feedback! I agree that the connection between the aiming arc and the buddies’ actual movement isn’t communicated clearly enough, which can make the launch feel disconnected from the controls. The intended flow is to aim and launch with the pull handle, then use Space to switch pose in mid-air, but the visual feedback needs to make that much clearer. This is definitely something I’d like to improve in a post-jam update.

Submitted(+1)

I really liked the idea of launching two BUDDIES into the pool together.

The mid-air high five and shared boost made the DIVE mechanic especially fun!

Developer

Thank you! The delayed buddy started as the surprise-theme addition, and the mid-air high five became the mechanic that tied everything together. I’m really happy that the shared boost felt fun!

Submitted(+1)

This one clicked for me instantly — drag the arc, launch, and then that little "brake when the buddy echoes" timing window makes the pose-matching feel great. The CLOSE CALL scoreboard breaking the dive into Safe Entry / Pose+Splash / Buddy Proximity / Synchronization is a really smart way to reward the buddy mechanic instead of just splash size, and it gives you clear things to chase on a retry. Genuinely juicy, readable, and fun in the first ten seconds; the "companion copies your pose after a delay" idea is one of the cleanest BUDDY reads in the jam. My only wish is more boards — I wanted to keep diving. Excellent work.

Developer

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! You understood exactly what I was aiming for: a quick launch, a readable delayed echo, and a moment where the two arcs have to reunite instead of simply landing in the pool. I’m especially glad the scoring breakdown helped communicate that. More boards and variations are at the top of my post-jam list—I wanted to keep diving too!