So I put a computer in your computer, so you can hack while you hack. While you hack.
Arrow keys to move, letters to.. well, type.
Quick postmortem: I love the way my game looks. It may be a bit vain to say that of my own game, but I really do.
Unfortunately, I probably ended up tinkering with the looks a bit too much, and there's admittedly less of a game here than I wanted. It's finishable, so it's not purely a techdemo, but don't expect a challenge ;)
Post-compo I'd really love to do some harder levels, more features etcetera, while keeping the lovely unique look I made.
So, I hope you enjoy it! There's even a level editor, so you can make your own levels with a bit harder content as well, but without features like enemies or really linking terminals, it's less of a challenge and more of a pain. Oh well ;)
Unfortunately, cause I really wanted to work with pixels, this game is windows only. I know this can be a pain for some of you, so sorry in advance! I'll add a little video later this week for you guys!
@Joris Thank you for the feedback, maybe I can make sure, for a post-compo version, that there's a way to hide and show the text so it's not so.. in the way :) @davesoft Sorry for that. Do you have any more information, because unfortunately I cannot fix something I cannot reproduce!
@Gouda while the game should feel 'laggy', and it is indeed partially by design, it could also be that, on slower computers, it starts to be more a drag than a feature, so be aware of that!
I've added a video, please have a check, if the game runs (much) slower on your PC, it might not be playable, unfortunately, unless I do some serious optimization... and that wouldn't really be in check with the rule not to really change your game other than bugfixes!
Like someone else in the comments, Nothing happened when I tried to move. I ran the game, got into the tutorial, and when it said "use the arrow keys to move" ...I did and nothing happened. No idea why...
Its a neat concept. It is very visually interesting. I feel like the "screen" (can I call it that?) doesn't update fast enough. So it is hard to tell what is going on. Although maybe that's just me not listening to TUTORIAL and going too fast.
The game also crashed on me during my playthrough, by the way. I was in the blue-looking part, and presumably I typed the exit command where I wasn't supposed to.
Excellent job with the theme and innovating. It needs a little work on the execution. I think it's too hard to tell where you can go or it simply takes too long to wait for the scanline. There is a lot going on, possibly to the detriment of the game, but it sort of works. I like the hacky/blocky/computer terminal artwork and transitions which fits the theme of the jam well.
If you're having trouble with the arrows, please download the DEBUGHELP version and send me the Log it generates after playing, so I can see what's going on and hopefully fix it!
I can't imagine the amount of work that went into making this feel intentionally laggy/glitchy, but it definitely paid off! This is hands down the coolest game I've seen thus far in this LD. Such a simple concept, but executed so well!
Didn't get it at first, but slowly figured it out. Didn't find a use for "COMMAND". Also, didn't seem to be any sound. But I did beat the game and I enjoyed that it took me a bit to figure out what was going on.
I think the game would've been more enjoyable if you didn't have that annoying bad connection effect, I think a better way of doing a "bad camera" effect is to create a low pixel canvas (for fast pixel setting) and create a TV static effect, but have each pixel's R and G and B transfer in a float/decimal value that get's distorted, I've done this before as an experiment and it looks sick.
@felix part of the reason for the effect is that it actually is drawing the pixels, so without some refactoring I can't really do anything different. Still, for a post-compo version I have some ideas on how to increase the speed massively, which will allow me to control the speed of the scanline and make the game more enjoyable for everyone. I hope :P
I see, so you've already written code for drawing pixels. About speed, so this renders with the standard windows forms thing (GDI)? Have you tried using OpenGL to render pixels fast? (Create a texture, update pixels, render) This is faster than using windows forms. If you're going to deal with pixels, I'd recommend using something more low-level. GDI isn't very good for doing stuff like this, I used to use GDI then I moved to Java (LWJGL) and then C++.
@felix yeah, I just wanted an easy way to manipulate pixels, realising that it wouldn't be quite as fast as maybe possible. I still had a lot of fun doing it :P
So the graphics are really nice, but it's waaay to laggy. I feel that the controlls are completely responsive, but thats just too much forced screen update lag. Besides from that a great game and very nice interpretation of the theme!
at first i thought arrow keys weren't working then I realized that im controlling the orange square in the upper left corner, behind the text rendering system is pretty cool, i like the scan line effects entering the first terminal felt really cool rendering and game feels laggy, like you might be doing something wrong on the low level rendering. let users press ~ to toggle the terminal on and off. and have it slide down like the half life debug console needs to be more commands available, like as you progress you discover new commands by finding them in the sub-terminals I won! when you type exit from the highest level it should quit the game i didn't hear any sound or music cool concept, you should keep working on it!
I would like to suggest a “clear” command to clear out the text on the screen. The game also felt a little too laggy for my taste but other than that I really liked the concept!
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@davesoft Sorry for that. Do you have any more information, because unfortunately I cannot fix something I cannot reproduce!
The game also crashed on me during my playthrough, by the way. I was in the blue-looking part, and presumably I typed the exit command where I wasn't supposed to.
Still, great job!
I've also had a report from a friend saying the same bug happened to him, I'll go ahead and see whether I can reproduce it tonight.
Similar to both scan lines http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=2075 and flying blind http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=23945. I recommend you try at least scan lines.
Really dug it, good work. :)
Besides from that a great game and very nice interpretation of the theme!
rendering system is pretty cool, i like the scan line effects
entering the first terminal felt really cool
rendering and game feels laggy, like you might be doing something wrong on the low level rendering.
let users press ~ to toggle the terminal on and off. and have it slide down like the half life debug console
needs to be more commands available, like as you progress you discover new commands by finding them in the sub-terminals
I won!
when you type exit from the highest level it should quit the game
i didn't hear any sound or music
cool concept, you should keep working on it!