Longbeard is a short, stylistic puzzle-platformer built for Ludum Dare 34 where you play a bearded pirate who must collect coins to maintain his impressive facial foliage.
Immediately upon starting up the game, you are greeted by a flashy title scroll and a very epic, sea chanty-inspired soundtrack. It’s hard not to be taken aback by how gorgeous the art of Longbeard is. The painterly pixel art is vaguely reminiscent of Braid, lending the game a children’s storybook quality and reinforcing the music’s call to adventure.
Longbeard follows the same basic rules of all platformers, asking you to jump from platform to platform and pick up collectables, but you’ll pretty quickly notice something odd happening with your luxurious blue beard. As you bounce across the screen, your beard maintains directional momentum, flailing wildly behind you or unfurling out in front of you as you move. When you collect coins, your beard grows longer, allowing you to swing it around to activate various switches and solve puzzles. Longbeard is incredibly technically impressive considering the short time frame in which it was developed. The only notable issue with the game, aside from its short length, is the pick-up timing of recently spawned coins. You’ll need to wait for the coin-bounce animation to complete before coins will register as collectable, which can be a tad bit annoying.
Never the less, even the grumpiest land-lubber is sure to be captivated by this pirate puzzler. So heave ho, give your beard a trim, and set sail for adventure with Longbeard!