You are a tiny microbe. You survive in tiny rain drops. Click and hold on a rain drop. Press Space (or A or P) to jump. Jump microbe, jump, if you hit the ground you die. There is no other goal than to get higher.
No sound in the game. Requires Java 6 and Graphics card supporting OpenGL 2.
Comments22
S
Sheep23 Apr 2012, 07:56
It doesn't work? I downloaded the windows zip, unpackaged it, clicked on MicrobeJump.exe, and it did nothing?
Worked for me - maybe you need java? Anyways, I found the controls to be a bit tricky to get to at first, but once I got the hang of it it was pretty fun. Some more feedback for the player (animations, sounds, etc) would be great. ^_^ Also, I found the feeling of the rain drops 'falling down' wasn't quite sold to me - could maybe fixed by having non-jumpable raindrops falling down faster...?? Also, I loved the camera work! Cheers!
Had problems understanding how to control it, too. It seems you have to hold-left-click onto a rain drop and while that pressing a or p. I also like the looks and the camera. As the author mentioned himself in the jMonkeyEngine forum the fun lacks "a bit" due to time issues^^
S
Sheep23 Apr 2012, 09:10
Oh never mind, it works. For some reason the screen opened behind other screens. So I couldn't see it :P
Exactly, you have to point at a drop then hold down the mouse button, while still holding down the mouse button you can press a or p (or space) to jump.
And I agree completely, it isn't that much fun and certainly lacks feedback of all sorts (like sound) :-) Thank you for taking the time to both try it out and comment!
Found it really difficult to calculate the jumps, felt like there needed to be a variation in the power behind a jump plus maybe a different/more of a guide to the jump trajectory. Loved the concept though and the visuals
Pros: Gameplay is solid Cons: Nothing really Suggestions: Perhaps more complex gameplay with arcs as you jump, and some generic rainforest tracks are in order.
Interesting game, although quite hard. Maybe bring all the drops closer, or make them larger, so it's easier to get up. The graphics were kinda cool, although very lacklustre. Adding a bit of colour and stuff would be good. Also powerups would be fun. :D
Anyways as far as a 48 hour game, it's pretty good, but you needed to focus more on the gameplay and making it more fun.
Pretty fun for a while, but frustrating as it's so hard. Even having sat beside you while you coded this, I found the controls confusing. Getting close to the ground you can always try a "panic jump" and just hope you catch a drop. Which you never do. I'm not sure how to solve the problem that you can never catch a drop other than aiming very precisely. More drops would help perhaps?
I agree, it is very hard to aim since you have almost no feedback on direction, strength and so on. The jumps needs to be more predictable and "feel" more natural. Currently refactoring the code, hope to produce a second version (out of competition) since I want to get it right :-) I'll announce it on http://jmonkeyengine.org/groups/free-announcements/forum when it is done.
Very nice concept! As it is right now, it's not that playable - as you yourself said, it's really lacking feedback for the player to be able to know what to do and how to do it (maybe just aim from a sort of first person perspective?). But I found the idea very intriguing. I hope you manage to smooth the experience in a post-compo version.
I downloaded the windows zip, unpackaged it, clicked on MicrobeJump.exe, and it did nothing?