A tricky puzzle-platformer featuring a kid isolated in a plastic ball - his own world. His special ability is drawing psychokinetic borders, which work as platforms and block lasers.
5 levels crafted with love. Mouse to draw borders, WASD/Arrow keys to move, Esc to quit.
Made with Python+Pygame, used bfxr for sound effects. Start the game from /dist/isolate.exe.
Thanks for suggesting the game! I liked it, although it was frustratingly hard. The sounds really worked well together, and you even added kittens!
Two things that I might add to your game: - A bigger screen - your screen was tiny! For a game that needs fast and precise mouse coordination, tiny screens like that are murder
- Don't make the current platform disappear until you finish drawing the next one.
Thanks for the game
J
Jiggawatt22 Dec 2011, 22:13
-I messed around with the screen size a lot, and this is more likely too small rather than too big. I originally had non-scrolling 800x600 levels that were always completely visible. I changed this because some new mechanics needed you to be near an obstacle before using them. For example, your drawings used to destroy crates at one point (but it wasn't all that fun). Then I nerfed those mechanics, but the screen size stuck, so...
-The part about platforms not disappearing might be a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. Right now I'm instead relying on your ability to jump mid-air. Especially in the last level.
Damn, I almost want to do a post-compo sequel to this now.
I think the concept shows promise but will need a different iteration for me to really get into it. I don't mind the physics responsiveness and bounce, but the overall speed of play is quite fast and leaves no room to react - repetition until everything is muscle memory seems to be the only way to proceed.
The behavior of block drawing(rules of down-right vs. up-left) is perplexing from a player standpoint, and I don't know if a scrolling camera is appropriate - having the whole level visible might be better.
If there were a concrete reason why the player can draw blocks other than "just because," the theme of the game might gel a little bit better.
J
Jiggawatt23 Dec 2011, 01:14
>The behavior of block drawing(rules of down-right vs. up-left) is perplexing from a player standpoint Mm. Rectangles are only "valid" when drawn from the top-left corner to the bottom-right one, otherwise you're only moving the starting point around. This is something I'd do differently in a post-compo edition.
>If there were a concrete reason why the player can draw blocks other than "just because," the theme of the game might gel a little bit better. Well, my first association with "alone" was "exclusion". I came up with a shield mechanic that was your only way of interacting with the world. After some iterations, it became what you see now. It's a broad theme and the most literal interpretation has to do with mood, so I tried to reflect that with the presentation.
Gah, this game is tricky! Its a really cool game and concept. Great job. I wasn't the biggest fan of the samples used for the music, but the tune was pretty nice.
J
Jiggawatt23 Dec 2011, 11:32
For the record, I drew the waveforms myself in MilkyTracker.
The physics were kind of difficult for me to handle, so I didn't get very far in the game. However, you stuck with the theme and the graphics were good, so you get points for that.
I really like the premise of this game, but the mechanics behind block drawing make it difficult to get into in the long term.
I think the big issue I had was with the scrolling camera mucking up my attempts to draw blocks as I bounce or fall. It also felt like there was a bug in the drawing algorithm in that the preview would show the block I thought I was drawing but then when I release the mouse button the resulting rectangle was a completely different dimension (I drew wide, but ended up with long).
I'd like to see a future version of this, perhaps with a slightly easier learning curve and a refined block drawing scheme.
Comments16
Two things that I might add to your game:
- A bigger screen - your screen was tiny! For a game that needs fast and precise mouse coordination, tiny screens like that are murder
- Don't make the current platform disappear until you finish drawing the next one.
Thanks for the game
-The part about platforms not disappearing might be a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. Right now I'm instead relying on your ability to jump mid-air. Especially in the last level.
Damn, I almost want to do a post-compo sequel to this now.
The behavior of block drawing(rules of down-right vs. up-left) is perplexing from a player standpoint, and I don't know if a scrolling camera is appropriate - having the whole level visible might be better.
If there were a concrete reason why the player can draw blocks other than "just because," the theme of the game might gel a little bit better.
Mm. Rectangles are only "valid" when drawn from the top-left corner to the bottom-right one, otherwise you're only moving the starting point around. This is something I'd do differently in a post-compo edition.
>If there were a concrete reason why the player can draw blocks other than "just because," the theme of the game might gel a little bit better.
Well, my first association with "alone" was "exclusion". I came up with a shield mechanic that was your only way of interacting with the world. After some iterations, it became what you see now. It's a broad theme and the most literal interpretation has to do with mood, so I tried to reflect that with the presentation.
I think the big issue I had was with the scrolling camera mucking up my attempts to draw blocks as I bounce or fall. It also felt like there was a bug in the drawing algorithm in that the preview would show the block I thought I was drawing but then when I release the mouse button the resulting rectangle was a completely different dimension (I drew wide, but ended up with long).
I'd like to see a future version of this, perhaps with a slightly easier learning curve and a refined block drawing scheme.