"Entire Game on One Screen", right? So naturally I made two games for the price of one. And both are called Frostbite. The "inner" game is a simple platformer with limited mechanics. However, it requires a new CD for each level, so you have to traverse the "outer" game's world to find the CDs in order to play through the inner Frostbite.
Makes sense? Well, try it out, it's not as complicated as it might sound. I think.
WASD + Space to move, E to interact. I recommend playing it without knowing anything more than that about the game, as it will most certainly surprise you on a few occasions. At least that's the plan.
Edit: Uploaded a fixed version of the game. Throwing snowballs is set to both CTRL and Shift now, so those struggling with Windows reacting to multiple Shift hits can use the other key instead. Futhermore fixed a typo and a confusing occasion where a door that's supposed to be closed was still open - not really a game breaking bug, but.. well.. kind of? Also added the DLLs to the package. If there's still one missing let me know!
Edit²: Fixed another bug that made a the game's instructions unreadable on low screen resolutions. Sorry if that affected anybody, should have checked that earlier. :|
Edit³: If you'd like to enjoy the game without those bad, bad textures, you can replace the tiles.png file inside the media folder with this image: http://shellfishgames.com/dl/tiles.png Similar aesthetics but less extreme contrast. Consider this a "post compo" thing though, as that is quite a change to the experience. Hence it's not part of the fixed version you can download above.
Edit⁴: Uploaded a playthrough video to youtube for those that can't run the game. Unfortunately the video runs at about 2 frames per second there, unlike the file I uploaded which is perfectly fine. Don't know the reason though, never had that kind of problem with any video I uploaded, so I can't do much about it and it's a bit of a pain to watch. :/
wow really cool. pressing shift a couple times triggers the sticky keys popuup. consider using a different key. really nice work. I think a persistent game (inside the game) world would be neat in that it would make you hold two mental maps at once. the level structure of the 2d game sort of means you don't need to do that.
Great fun although a couple of bits of feedback IF you make pressing Shift the "fire" key, it will trigger the windows shortcut for sticky keys... when that happens you have a multi window control conflict which is tricky! it is possible to block your progression with the snowballs.. but also exploit them by putting them on spikes.
Despite this... I really enjoyed your game! I am glad the theme wasn't snowman tho ;)
Thanks for your comments, I'll make sure to try your games eventually. :)
@Wakka sorry about that - are you sure it's msvcr>T<71 though? I only know msvcr71, which is often an issue (didn't think it would be for this game, but apparently it is). You could try putting the DLLs from this archive: http://shellfishgames.com/dl/msvc_dlls.zip Into the game's directory. Usually that does the job already.
Also, I'll fix the Shift problem later today as soon as I've got a bit more time. I actually tapped into the same trap before with other games but forgot about it. .__.
Nice! Liked le roller-coaster at the end. I think I found a short-cut in the gravity puzzle(?) And constructing a bridge was sometime iffy. the music also seemed a little to repetitive after a while. Otherwise the game was solid.
This was a nice idea, but I feel you tried to cram loads of mechanics into the game, and some of them didn't gel correctly with the rest. The 3D bits with the flipping gravity was a nice idea, but it felt confusing when I moved onto another wall for me - it's a similar reason why there was originally a mobility gel planned for Portal 2 that would allow players to walk on whatever sequence they wanted, but it gave players motion sickness, so it was scrapped. The idea of having two asynchronous games was quite welcome though, it just needs some refinement. The textures for the walls in the 3D game were very sickly (ugh, staring at that blue :p), but like you said, it's your first 3D game, and most of the mechanics were very well executed considering that fact. In the 2D game, you could break the whole snowball shooting mechanic by shooting over the spikes. However, overall, I felt you did a lot in the given time, and I certainly can't downvote you for the sheer amount of work clearly put into this, just needs a lot of refinement if you ever take this idea further. It was also an inventive way to bypass the theme's limitations. Really great work :)
@Gaspard, what shortcut do you mean? There certainly is one due to somewhat buggy behaviour of the catapult things when approaching them from an unintended gravitational situation so to speak, but you still have to get to the ceiling right? And indeed, I'm not too satisfied with the bridge building thing. But then again, I kind of like the idea of the 3D snowman (the one you play from 1st person perspective) living in that perfect 3D "game world" but still enjoying such a lame 2D platformer. :)
@danielilett, thanks man! Quite a bit of feedback there. You're certainly right about a lot - maybe too much - stuff being in the game. The gravity puzzle is indeed confusing, but that's also sort of the point - except sometimes the camera rotates in weird ways when changing gravity, but to be honest I was highly relieved to even get it as smooth as it is now in the first place. I guess the snowball mechanics are generally not the best. Guess I should have spend a bit more time on the platformer's concept beforehand.
WOW. I've really enjoyed this game! Awesome scope, very solid, I loved switching back and forth, the music in the room, the paintings, all the gags you worked in... Very well done! Only thing that was annoying was the blue tiles everywhere :D! Great work!!
This was one of the best ones I've reviewed as of yet! You actually made me laugh sometimes. I just kept thinking about what an extremely inappropriate appartment setup. "Keep your discs in the same place man, what is wrong with me?". The 2d would've needed some more attention to detail, but the mechanics were impressive. AT LEAST considering this is a 48 hour project. The 3d part was almost flawless. Just those headache inducing textures as you mentioned. You deserve a great ranking!
Cool game, I like the switching back and forth between two totally seperate games, that was an interesting premise. Some nicer textures would have been nice, but overall the graphics were ok considering it was your first foray into 3D. The first person snowman laughing was kinda funny as well.
I enjoyed this game, but I eventually had to quit because the gravity change room was making me nauseous. I liked most of the mechanics indvidually (bridge building, bouncy platforms, etc.), but using them all at once felt sorta jumbled. I think that there could be more focus on the theme, besides the subversion with the TV.
Is... that a darkbasic icon? I don't think I've seen a DB entry before =o This is really impressive, I was fully expecting a "oh, two games? yeah, and neither one is going to be much, right?" but mind blown! This is really good. That first bit with "also: snowman" made me laugh out loud, good jobs :P
This is actually really awesome. I got some serious Portal/Antichamber vibes from the 3D sections of the game. The 2D parts don't really work, but the jumping and gravity switching works perfectly, and feels incredible. I think if you were to develop this further (which you really should) you should take out the 2D part and replace it with some sort of story elements as reward for the puzzles. Also, you own a rollercoaster because rollercoasters are AWESOME!
That was really good! Very unique, how the levels intertwined. Mouse sensitivity would have been a nice option, but other than that, it was a great game! Nice job!
Very original game, with lots of ideas! The snowman game is simple but fun. The "outer" game is even better... I enjoyed wandering inside the labyrinth looking for the exit or jumping around! Well done!
This game is amazing! The physics and camera control gives me the UT99 feel, perfect! The level design reminds me of Portal. The concept and execution is near perfect.
I'm astonished that you managed to make this within 48 hours.
You've successfully recreated the experience of playing Monkey Island on an Amiga, congrats ;)
Love this game. Great idea, amazing execution, lots of humor and yes, there are some surprises. I actually even like the grid-like textures, but that might just be me...
Had great fun while playing, well done!!!