[IMPORTANT - Some people seem to have a bug that prevents them from moving. The tighter controls version MAY fix this. - IMPORTANT]
Nihility is a narrative platformer about an entity trapped inside of a computer screen, searching for its identity. The story is told through a succession of haiku.
Controls - Move: A & D Jump: W/Up/Space Crouch: S/Down/Shift Interact: E/Z
I added a "tighter controls" version after the deadline ended. If you're struggling to get through the story because of the controls, try that version.
The controls seem very broken, walking is tediously slow, and after the first interaction the only way to move horizontally was to jump (which also became stuck on). It's a shame, it looks like there's some depth.
The slowness is intentional. The game is built around text that I want people to mull over for a bit rather than just jumping ahead and ignoring the plot.
It's weird that you say you can't move after the first interaction, though. It works fine on my end.
I appreciate the slow story-telling, but also have reservations about the controls like those before me pointed out. I found jumping to be pretty difficult and not natural. Unfortunately, that pulls you out of the deep, meaningful experience I presume you want to achieve.
I can't walk at all - the only way I can move is by holding down a direction and Space, and even then the jumps only sometimes move me sideways. I got to the first "I", read the haiku, and eventually got over to the second "I", but hitting E there does nothing and it's not prompting me to do anything else. I'm pretty much stuck. :(
I love everything about this game. This is a unique way to accomplish the entire game on one screen. Amazing. I am in awe. I love the story, abosolutley amazing. The music was amazing. The only complaint i have is that after the wheel thing killed the character, i came to a black screen, but trust me, im showing this to my friends. You hit this right on. I understand that their are problems below with moving and stuff. aside from those, i think the game was perfect. tenouttaten
I really wanted to enjoy this, but I found the controls too painful, and there were many bugs. The themes explored were interesting, although the setting (i.e. the windows desktop) was questionable. However, the writing was very good.
Can't run this on my linux desktop as I'm getting NullPointerException.. Interesting lines from stack trace (seems like you're setting window title incorrectly): java.lang.NullPointerException ... at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.setTitle(Display.java:541) ... at game.src.main.Main.<init>(Main.java:48) at game.src.main.Main.main(Main.java:171)
I like the concept but I did find the controls a bit odd - particularly how you move faster horizontal while jumping. Maybe that was intentional but it felt weird and unresponsive (even in the tighter-controls version, which I tried after playing through the compo version). Also, without spoiling the ending, I'm curious if that was intentional - if so I think you still need to provide some cue that the game is well and truly over and give some method of restarting. Graphics and sound are nice. Mood is suitable and the quotes are an interesting way to mask gameplay hints. I wasn't sure if those were quotes from other people or just things you came up with, but either way they were a nice touch.
Nice concept. Like the graphics. And nice audio. Unfortunately, I found the platforming to be pretty frustrating due to the controls. The response is pretty tight but the character skates around a lot which means that even if you hit that platform perfectly, chances are high you will simply slide right back off it and tumble down into the enemy.
Awesome use of the theme! Art is decent, fits the mood well. Sound doesn't really match the mood of the art and music but it works well enough. Very interesting. Good work!
Comments22
In what way do you mean?
It's weird that you say you can't move after the first interaction, though. It works fine on my end.
java.lang.NullPointerException
...
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.setTitle(Display.java:541)
...
at game.src.main.Main.<init>(Main.java:48)
at game.src.main.Main.main(Main.java:171)