> WHEN YOU'RE DONE, PLAY THE JAM ENTRY IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT'S IN THE CAVE :-)
The game is called Dissolution. It doesn't have a genre and combines various elements of platformer, adventure, RPG and puzzle. The protagonist (his name is the Dude) is an amorphous creature with mentality of Max Payne who once wakes up in a cheerful and colorful world and can't stand it the least bit. Dude tries to find his way out and fights various obnoxious unicorns and fairies while trying not to be consumed by this inhospitable environment.
The world is constantly in motion, as black-and-white (part of which is the protagonist) does its best to consolidate its efforts and gather up enough resources to defeat the vicious creatures of light.
As Dude moves across the terrain, he slowly submerges in the flowers and grasses, so the player's task is to find sources of black and gray and munch them to develop some kind of resistance and eventually evolve into something bigger and stronger.
Very nice ambiance, great art and interesting concept, too bad you didn't have time to do more (and you know you really have to eat a LOT when ludum-dare-ing =P)
Good graphics! Took a while to figure out what to do, you get killed really fast. It was annoying that I had to read that text box every time I played from the start. But seems like a good start to build it from there. :)
Pretty short (played the compo version) but I like the direction you're going, it definitely shows promise. I really like the visual style you've got going on here too.
C
Cake&Code28 Aug 2012, 18:39
Lots of jumping to avoid filling up with color! I think the only time I wasn't jumping was during the quiver cutscene, which you might want to address since the player has no control then. Overall, I too want more levels :)
@Cake&Code Thank you too :-) The Compo version has a bug where you get filled up with color during cutscenes, which wasn't meant to be and got fixed the next day ;-)
I'll play more games and then continue working on this one :-)
@Yakka Sorry, I did the best I could >_< This mechanic doesn't exactly take an hour to implement, so I had to make some choices as to what should be in priority: a short chunk of gameplay that plays nicely or a bigger one that feels "prototypey." I am working on it, though, so, hopefully, you will hear more from me ;-)
@eyehawk Thanks! Yeah, the compo version ends at the cave, the jam version end in the cave.
Neat start; I really like the artwork, and the theme is mysterious and engaging. You might want to make the green color more obviously hostile (red, purple, brown, icky); I didn't know it was hurting me until I died, and then the message was that I'd lost color, even though it seemed like I was accumulating it. I found myself having difficulty clicking when it said click, and in distinguishing the different items; the white stuff gave me XP, and some of it reduced my color level, but I didn't really know what the flowers did. So, cool stuff, but not so much of a game yet.
I think you need to change the wording to "Press" instead of "Click" because I, too, tried clicking where it was telling me to. Great game though! Excited to see what you do post compo with it.
The artwork is really nice. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do though. Is the cave the end of the game? Did I win? At first I found it REALLY confusing when the arrow said "CLICK". I kept clicking it with my mouse and couldn't figure out how to click it.
Okay, I get it, "click" is not a synonym of "press." I meant press, I'm sorry, okay? :-)
The reason I wrote "click" is that it was 5 o'clock in the morning and I'd been working on this game for about 35 hours non-stop. I'll fix that, obviously. And you are supposed to press down like on an icon above the thing, so it's not really that unobvious :-) And yeah, cave's it for now.
Okay guys, has anyone here seen Indie Game the Movie? Well, if you did, you'll get the referece: I'm kind of beginning to feel like Phil Fish here, except I didn't win IGF and get a grant from Canadian government, and haven't been working on this game for 4 years :-)
I quite liked this, the Dude is quite an endearing fellow. :) I think the idea of a black and white character in a colourful world is really quite interesting, and it seems like this could be a really good game if you had more time to work on it! :)
@Mach60KAS You've got it all wrong! It's not "if," "could" and "had," it's "when," "can" and "will have" ;-) Thank you for playing, anyhow, glad you like the Dude :-)
The jam version really improves a lot on the compo version, I like the idea you've got behind it and I can see it being really compelling if you get chance to develop it even more.
Nice, would probably pay for the full version of this. The few problems pointed out by other people (Jumping, 'click' instead of 'press') don't distract from the lovely mood.
Great game idea, and really cool art. Perhaps some kind of animation of the pixels flying from the landscape onto you would help make the mechanic more understandable.
I only played the 48-hour version, so that's what I am judging.
I was a little bit lost in the game, not knowing what the things were that I was picking up, and dying the first time through. It also ends abruptly, before I even had time to figure out what was going on. I understand you wanted to fit a certain mood, but I'm sorry that I didn't find it. I wish you the best in the future for this game and others.
Thank you for playing, everyone! I'm seeing some really great suggestions for the game, and I will make sure to make the appropriate changes to Dissolution in future. I think I'm going to extend my jamming to one month and see if I can come up with a fully playable demo for IGF in time for submission.
'The colour went out of me' while I am filled with green? Strange. I really like the basic idea, but there are too few grey stuff to collect to make it work. The enlarged pixelated look is really nice.
So I went ahead and tried the compo version. Took me awhile to figure out how to survive longer. I had to read some comments to figure it out. The concept is interesting which I believe can be improved upon. Maybe a helpful tip is to make sure that the feedback is easier to notice, on my first try, I was walking and assumed that the changing of colors is part of the gimmick. I didn't know that it was already hurting me. :D
I really want to know what happens in the cave! Nice music and art!
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ReveLorenfield1 Sep 2012, 23:50
Your game is sure short, but quite promising. I like your basic idea of black and white. The pixel art and music are nice. I thought I had to click and not press the down key too... Good job anyway.
(Also, don't forget to remove https for the dropbox link for the jam version ;))
I don't really know what to say. This game looks really great but is unfortunately unfinished. You have done something great so far, that's a very good point. Try to continue this game later and post an update on the home page :)
This game is so FREAKING GREAT! I love everything about it, and just its general vibe. I cannot wait to see the game more complete and will be playing it for sure!
It's very pretty with a great sound track but it doesn't quite make sense, is far too short and being forced to jump in order to not die isn't explained at all. Not to mention all the items that aren't explained at all.
I was really excited when the game first started and was a bit dissapointed. Overall I feel your ambition for this game was above and beyond what you were able to put out in time for the compo but I hope you will keep working on it and I can't wait to see where you take it.
Smooth game, liked it but yes like everyone else it was too short to get a really feel for it. I think it has a lot of potential. I really liked the art.
Oh man. I wish I had found out during the compo that click meant press. I just now saw your post. I would have rated it :( It was a pretty cool game though.
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I actually worked for full 44 hours of those 48, so I did everything I could :-) But don't you worry, there will be moar!
And I'll go make pasta now :P
@Cake&Code Thank you too :-) The Compo version has a bug where you get filled up with color during cutscenes, which wasn't meant to be and got fixed the next day ;-)
I'll play more games and then continue working on this one :-)
@eyehawk Thanks! Yeah, the compo version ends at the cave, the jam version end in the cave.
At first I found it REALLY confusing when the arrow said "CLICK". I kept clicking it with my mouse and couldn't figure out how to click it.
The reason I wrote "click" is that it was 5 o'clock in the morning and I'd been working on this game for about 35 hours non-stop. I'll fix that, obviously. And you are supposed to press down like on an icon above the thing, so it's not really that unobvious :-) And yeah, cave's it for now.
@cadin yeah, you won :-)
You should expect this game to eventually grow big, epic and full. Just stay tuned and thank you all for playing!
Anyway, thanks a lot for playing!
The few problems pointed out by other people (Jumping, 'click' instead of 'press') don't distract from the lovely mood.
I was a little bit lost in the game, not knowing what the things were that I was picking up, and dying the first time through. It also ends abruptly, before I even had time to figure out what was going on. I understand you wanted to fit a certain mood, but I'm sorry that I didn't find it.
I wish you the best in the future for this game and others.
I really like the basic idea, but there are too few grey stuff to collect to make it work. The enlarged pixelated look is really nice.
I hope you continue to work on it :)
I thought I had to click and not press the down key too...
Good job anyway.
(Also, don't forget to remove https for the dropbox link for the jam version ;))
Good job!
I cannot wait to see the game more complete and will be playing it for sure!
I was really excited when the game first started and was a bit dissapointed. Overall I feel your ambition for this game was above and beyond what you were able to put out in time for the compo but I hope you will keep working on it and I can't wait to see where you take it.
At the jame version I found out what the evolution bit was.
In all of Cool city, you are the coolest cat around.