Duck Life

[1]

Duck Life
Developer(s)	Wix Games
Release	February 28th, 2010
Genre	Racing, Adventure, Sports, Action
Platform	PC (Browser) PC (Steam, as part of the Retro Pack and Duck Life 9 Arcade Room) Mobile (As part of the Retro Pack and Duck Life 9 Arcade Room)

Duck Life (also known as Duck Life: Origin in the Retro Pack or Duck Life 1) is the first installment in the Duck Life series. It was released on February 28th, 2010.

In this game, the player trains a duck (later revealed to be Dory) to win races in order to raise enough money to save their farm that got destroyed by a tornado. Duck Life features three training minigames that each train one skill (running, flying, and swimming), which will level up the player's duck in that area of skill. The higher the level, the faster they perform in that skill in races. Cosmetics can be purchased using coins, collected during training and earned after winning races.

Duck Life original title screen.

The game is considered an early entry into the popular "animal sim" games genre, and is commonly associated with the online educational gaming site Coolmath Games.

There are 8 other entries in the Duck Life series.

Play on:

• Newgrounds (Original Flash version).
• Coolmath Games (Unity version).

Cosmetics

Hat chart

Image	Name	Unlock Requirements
	Flat Cap	Unlocked by default.
	Bowler Hat	Unlocked by winning Natural World.
	Propeller Hat	Unlocked by winning Rooftop Jumping.
	Liberty Spikes	Unlocked by winning Volcano Challenge.
	Crown	Unlocked by winning World Championship.

Colors

Similar to hats, paint won't affect the duck's performance, but it can make the player's duck look good. Each paint costs 50 coins. The player's duck starts with Classic Yellow paint and can return to this state by resetting the duck's color. The table below shows every paint color and the requirements to unlock them.

Paint chart

Image	Name	Unlock Requirements
	Hazel Brown	Unlocked by default.
	Juicy Orange	Unlocked by winning Green Valley.
	Crazy Red	Unlocked by winning Rocky Cliff.
	Deep Purple	Unlocked by winning Shallow Lake.
	Boring Grey	Unlocked by winning Banister Climb.
	Midnight Black	Unlocked by winning Leap of Faith or by touching the lava in Over the Volcano.
	Pretty Pink	Unlocked by winning Swimming Pool.
	Snow White	Unlocked by winning Up the Volcano.
	Lime Green	Unlocked by winning Over the Volcano.
	Sky Blue	Unlocked by winning Across the River.

Seeds

Regular seeds, which cost one coin, will only increase the duck's energy, which is needed to make it through longer races. Skill seeds, on the other hand, which cost ten coins, will increase all three of the duck's skills alongside its energy. Seeds are essential because lacking energy will result in the duck passing out during a race, leading to an automatic loss. However, at the start of the game, the game provides the player 5 free seeds, which will level their duck up to level 2.6 if the entire mound is consumed.

HTML version

• Instead of starting with 5 seeds, the player is provided 4 seeds and 4 skill seeds, which will level their duck's energy up to 14.4 if both mounds are fully consumed.
• Seeds gives the duck +0.6 energy, while skill seeds boosts their energy up by 3 levels and doesn't level up any skills.

Racers

Controlled By Player

• Doris Dewdrop

Opponents

• Lime Duck
• Pink Duck
• Orange Duck
• Glowing Duck

Races

Completing a race will reward the player with a cash bonus, and a step closer to the world championship race, which must be completed to beat the game.

The more difficult the race is, the higher the level of the skill tested in the race is needed.

Race chart

Category	Name	Skill Tested	Rewards
Beginner (levels 10-40)	Green Valley	Running	50 coins and Juicy Orange unlocked.
	Rocky Cliff	Flying	50 coins and Crazy Red unlocked.
	Shallow Lake	Swimming	50 coins and Deep Purple unlocked.
	Natural World	All	50 coins and Bowler Hat unlocked.
Amateur (levels 40-100)	Banister Climb	Running	100 coins and Boring Grey unlocked.
	Leap of Faith	Flying	100 coins and Midnight Black unlocked.
	Swimming Pool	Swimming	100 coins and Pretty Pink unlocked.
	Rooftop Jumping	All	100 coins and Propeller Hat unlocked.
Expert (levels 100+)	Up the Volcano	Running	200 coins and Snow White unlocked.
	Over the Volcano	Flying	200 coins and Lime Green unlocked.
	Across the River	Swimming	200 coins and Sky Blue unlocked.
	Volcano Challenge	All	200 coins and Liberty Spikes unlocked.
World Championship	World Championship	All	200,000 coins, a new farm*, and crown unlocked.

*The farm is not actually shown to the player.

Soundtrack

Grassland.

Theme used for menu and shop.

Training.

All races.

Gallery

"So you own this huge farm and are making tonnes of money."

"When one day this tornado comes along and destroys it all."

"The only thing that survives is a single duck egg."

"So you have to train this duckling into a racing duck."

"To make enough money to rebuild the farm."

The start area of the game.

A GIF of the running training.

A GIF of the flying training.

A GIF of the swimming training.

The beginner races.

The amateur races.

The expert races.

Goose in game files.

Trivia

• Duck Life is one of the 3 games included in Duck Life: Retro Pack (1-3), along with Duck Life 2: World Champion and DuckLife 3: Evolution.
• The Unity version of Duck Life game increased the max energy to 150, the same as the running, flying, and swimming levels.
• If the player buys large amounts of normal seed (50-100) and uses them all without moving their mouse, they will get an infinite amount of seeds, and if they go past the amount they bought, the amount of seeds will go into the negatives. Seeds can still be bought, even after going into the negatives by clicking where the seed pile would be.

  

  The negative seed glitch.

• The game's soundtrack was composed by Becky Wixon.

  

  The goose seen in-game.

• If the player looks off the screen on the Flash version of Duck Life, a goose can be seen watching them. This was confirmed by the developers as an asset they forgot to remove and were supposed to a asset for Duck Life: Grown Up but was later made to become DuckLife 3: Evolution, and is even referenced in Duck Life: Adventure.
  • Off screen, there are debug displays for level variables, and two seeds, that were used for testing the level mechanic. In flying training and in swimming training, there is a number that determines the X Speed. The X Speed was converted into some kind of performance meter and the energy variables do not function in the second game.

    

    Duck Life 1's first appearance in Arcadetown.

• The details for its original release date are quite fuzzy, but it seems the release date for the game was on February 28th, 2010, according to a screenshot of a Wayback Machine snapshot of Arcadetown, which was the site where the game was originally published. This is supported by the fact that most sponsored games are exclusive to the page of the sponsor for a few days, and Duck Life was released on Newgrounds and other sites on March 5th. However, the site's main page does not contain a screenshot from February 28. The way that the release date can be proven correct is by looking for a game that got released on February 27th, and if the game does contain a screenshot from the next day, Duck Life can be expected to appear in the "New games" section.
• The game is playable in the Arcade Room in Duck Life 9 as a final reward for the player who completed the game.