[Android] Salamander and the Cat - Use your tongue to survive

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#1

Hello everybody!

Please take a look at my new Android game: Salamander and the Cat. It is free! Feedback is welcome.

The giant cat is chasing you, a weak and lazy salamander. His Giant Paw Smash broke the ground into pieces, creating a deadly chasm beneath your feet. Luckily your tongue may be your savior, being Mother Nature’s best grappling hook ever!
Use the blue tongue button to grapple the closest blue bug, and the green one to grapple the closest green one, thus swinging, pulling or pushing yourself (depending on your character). Activate your special abilities to help you. And try to go as far as possible, while collecting items.

  • 3 characters with different gameplays and tongue grappling mechanisms

  • 16 abilities

  • A Greed system where you collect coins to increase your score, and a Cruelty system where coins must be avoided

  • Multiple game modes, with different game times and the possibility to have 2 or 4 bug colors!

  • 3 game speeds

  • 100+ achievements providing rewards

  • Online leaderboards

Google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teeppeeess.games.salamcat

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#2

Hi

Is there a way of getting it without using Google Play?

#3

Hi,

Actually for now I have only uploaded it to Google Play (ie Google Play Store). Although note that it does not require Google Play for leaderboards or things like that (I mean login to Google Play gaming services).

But I am not sure I understood your question properly. Are you wondering if the game is available on other platforms (like IOS, PC or Windows Mobile for example) or if it is available through other Android distribution platforms (like Amazon or the Chinese markets/stores for example)? In both cases the answer would be no, but I would be interested in your concern. For example I have no idea if a lot of people download apps on Amazon that they would not download on Google Play, and I might consider looking into it.

#4

I think gouessej is looking for a direct download .apk file without using Google Play. Nice game btw, very interesting to play.

#5

SHC is right, I’m looking for a direct download or at least an alternative way of getting your game. I assume that it isn’t available on F-Droid. I still use a Samsung Galaxy 3 4G under Android 4 but I prevent Google from getting my personal data by blocking most of its applications until I can switch to a real GNU Linux distro. I’m not a big fan of “app stores”. I try to stay far from Amazon too. Sorry for the off topic. Your game seems to be really cool ;D

#6

Thanks to both of your for your feedback!

Sorry but for now there is no direct download, nor F Droid for now. And I don’t mind the off topic (but you were probably talking to the moederators ;D )

#7

Ok, I’ll use an APK downloader in the meantime which is legal as your game is free of charge (but with in-app payments), it only violates Google Play terms of use. Keep up the good work. I’ll give it a try today or tomorrow.

Edit.: Done.

#8

I like this game very much. It requires only a few authorizations (it uses coarse geolocalization, probably to select the default language), it doesn’t look at my contacts, it doesn’t force me to “like” it on Facebook. I find it quite easy to play, I only needed 2 minutes to understand how to use it. The ads are a little bit annoying but it is at a bearable level. apk-dl.com allows to get it without using Google Play and it is probably possible to run it on computers with ARChon Runtime or AndroVM but it wouldn’t be very comfortable without a touch screen except if it is designed to support keyboards too. I find the gameplay simple, efficient and addictive.

@Teeppeeess This is the kind of game that I like to keep on my smartphone, thank you very much, you really deserve my medal. I admit that I laughed when I read “made in Toulouse”, there are very talented developers everywhere in the world.

#9

Thanks a lot for those compliments!

If I remember correctly coarse geolocalization is required by Swarm (the leaderboard app), I think for their ads.

When you improve yourself you usually see less ads, because ads appear after a few deaths or after some time, so if you die almost immediatly (which is always the case during the first games :slight_smile: ) you see more ads. I did not really want to integrate banners instead of interstitials before I feared this would reduce the visibility a lot. There is also an In App Purchase allowing to remove ads :wink:

It indeed seems to work on PC emulators, but like you said without a touch screen it is really hard to play (perhaps there are softwares where you can bind keyboard touches to “click at this position on the screen” which could help, I dont know).

#10

You’re welcome.

I’ve just disabled coarse geolocalization even for applications requiring it in “Parameters” -> “More” -> “Localization services” and sorry for Swarm but I will probably find a way to get rid of its ads. Anyway, the In App Purchase is a good compromise. I often disable mobile data while playing and I ensure that the game doesn’t stay alive in background when I quit.

I confirm that this game would become unplayable with a banner, especially on small screens.

Actually, it would help if you supported a few keys for Android smartphones with a physical keyboard, you can choose a few ones whose location is almost the same on several keyboard layouts (QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, …). As far as I know, the mouse events replace the touch events (with AndroVM?) which is enough when you don’t need multi touch.

I haven’t found an official website for your game, only a Twitter account and I’m not sure that you have already registered “Salamander and the Cat” as a trademark. If you need some help to do it, just let me know. It is affordable when you focus on a few English speaking and French speaking countries.

#11

I may consider adding keyboard support for the future, I will think about it.

Indeed the game has no official page (outside of Google Play), only the Twitter you see and a Facebook page here : https://www.facebook.com/SalamanderAndTheCat

#12

Hi

Why do you use the word “Effacer” (French word which means “delete”) for the button that unselects an item in the customization menu? In my humble opinion, it is confusing and the button to select uses the word “Sélectionner” (“Select” in English).

#13

Hi and sorry for the late answer,

French is my native language, but I initially created the game in English, and I am more used to English apps and games. In addition, French is more “verbose” than English. So when creating the French version of this button I was rather uninspired and I did not really find a better translation for this one.
For non French speaking readers “pardon my French” for what follows :). The best thing would be something like “déselectionner tout”, or something verbose like that, but on small and medium screens the button would be far too long. I agree that this may be somehow confusing. If you have a suggestion for a better name than this one I am interested and I could put it in a future version, but I did not find anything better. Perhaps “vider”? Or something like “déselectionner tout” but with a line break in between (like I do at the high scores screen).

#14

“Vider” (“Empty” in English) is fine :slight_smile:

#15

Ok thanks! I think I will add that to the next version. IMO it is clearer, you’re right.