Hope
This game is from the old Ludum Dare platform. You can try viewing the original page on Web Archive
(may not load correctly).
(may not load correctly).
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DESCRIPTION
You play as a lone soul battling a vile force known as Despair. The grief and regrets of the dead power it, and every soul that falls into the darkness will make Despair grow. To win, you must keep white souls from falling into Despair (the darkness at the bottom of the screen) by lifting them with your hopeful glow. Raising a soul up into the light will make Hope grow, bringing you and everyone else closer to a peaceful rest.
You will have to balance keeping white souls from falling while also keeping Despair's spawn at bay. Manifestations of Despair can be repelled with your glow (by holding the right mouse button). You can also try to force out their captive souls by hitting them with a spark of light (left-click). Don't let yourself or other souls be dragged into Despair. There is always Hope!
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CONTROLS
- Left-click to shoot at enemies and free trapped souls
- Right-click to repel nearby enemies and lift nearby souls
- F to toggle Fullscreen
- M to toggle the music on/off
- Escape to exit the game
I don't consider F, M and Escape to be part of the two button controls restriction of the theme as they are not part of the gameplay.
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TROUBLESHOOTING
There seems to be an issue with certain resolutions that prevents the mouse controls from working as intended. It will get dragged off to the sides of the screen. If you experience this, try changing your resolution to one of the following settings: 1280x1024, 1280x960, 1920x1080.
Big thanks to Themadgamer123 for helping me figure this out. If you run the game fine at a different resolution, please let me know.
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CHANGELOG
Hope_v2-04+
- See the included changelog.txt for details. This and future versions are post-jam and so (probably?) not valid for voting on. Let me know if you think otherwise.
Hope_v1-08
- Reduced the volume of the music and removed the fading effect as it was causing problems.
- Adjusted the timing of the tendril of despair accordingly.
Hope_v1-07
- Increased the rate at which the tendril of despair generates despair for balance reasons.
- Fixed a bug that was letting the flames of despair get through the light of hope. The tendril can still push through, as intended.
- Fixed the tendril of despair's behavior so it only goes after the player, not other souls. This is important as the key mechanic for controlling the tendril's movement in-game through kiting tactics.
Hope_v1-06
- Took the suggestion of nopogo and renamed the file to not include LD34 so it can be found more easily when downloaded.
- Fixed a minor issue where the music wasn't properly fading in or out, and wasn't stopping when you restarted the game.
- Included a Mute function for the player's convenience. It doesn't affect the gameplay so I hope it's an acceptable change.
- Fixed the sudden and jerky movement of the light when the tendril of despair shows up, and made it show up a bit later for balance reasons. A happy accident of this is it fits the timing of the music!
- Fixed a bug that was causing the tendril of despair to stay off-screen far longer than normal.
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CREDITS
Programming, art and design by Luca Fumagalli
The game was developed in GameMaker: Studio
The art was made in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and GameMaker: Studio's built-in editor
The design was done with a pad of paper, a pencil and an eraser
Music by Incompetech (Danse Macabre - No Violin)
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=005
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AFTERTHOUGHTS
This was an incredible experience for me, having been my first Ludum Dare Game Jam. I had a lot of fun and learned a great deal throughout it all.
I got a late start, having been sick for the first day, so I only had 48 hours (less than, really) to make this game. My scope was too large starting out, and I had to scrap most of my original ideas (which you can see if you're curious by checking my older posts). I honestly thought I was done for by the last day.
Despite that though, with a game literally about never giving up, I couldn't stop there. I tried desperately to salvage a fun and playable game out of the single mechanic I'd manage to get working. Repelling the darkness with light. It was just a neat little trick I'd learned as a result of researching other things, but it ended up saving my game.
Near the end I was panicking due to an onslaught of new bugs popping up, balance issues, technical difficulties... I barely made it, and I was pretty sure my game wouldn't do well due to my original high expectations. Yet since it's upload I've seen nothing but encouraging comments. I'm overjoyed, and I fully intend to continue work on this game in the future. Thanks everyone!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE FOR VOTERS
Be sure to download the [LD34] version of the game, as that is the one meant to be voted on. I will be continuing to develop and improve the game on itch.io, so a [Latest] version of the game will be available on the same page. The [Latest] version will include new features and therefore isn't valid for the Jam, nor do I intend for it to be voted on.
DESCRIPTION
You play as a lone soul battling a vile force known as Despair. The grief and regrets of the dead power it, and every soul that falls into the darkness will make Despair grow. To win, you must keep white souls from falling into Despair (the darkness at the bottom of the screen) by lifting them with your hopeful glow. Raising a soul up into the light will make Hope grow, bringing you and everyone else closer to a peaceful rest.
You will have to balance keeping white souls from falling while also keeping Despair's spawn at bay. Manifestations of Despair can be repelled with your glow (by holding the right mouse button). You can also try to force out their captive souls by hitting them with a spark of light (left-click). Don't let yourself or other souls be dragged into Despair. There is always Hope!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTROLS
- Left-click to shoot at enemies and free trapped souls
- Right-click to repel nearby enemies and lift nearby souls
- F to toggle Fullscreen
- M to toggle the music on/off
- Escape to exit the game
I don't consider F, M and Escape to be part of the two button controls restriction of the theme as they are not part of the gameplay.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TROUBLESHOOTING
There seems to be an issue with certain resolutions that prevents the mouse controls from working as intended. It will get dragged off to the sides of the screen. If you experience this, try changing your resolution to one of the following settings: 1280x1024, 1280x960, 1920x1080.
Big thanks to Themadgamer123 for helping me figure this out. If you run the game fine at a different resolution, please let me know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHANGELOG
Hope_v2-04+
- See the included changelog.txt for details. This and future versions are post-jam and so (probably?) not valid for voting on. Let me know if you think otherwise.
Hope_v1-08
- Reduced the volume of the music and removed the fading effect as it was causing problems.
- Adjusted the timing of the tendril of despair accordingly.
Hope_v1-07
- Increased the rate at which the tendril of despair generates despair for balance reasons.
- Fixed a bug that was letting the flames of despair get through the light of hope. The tendril can still push through, as intended.
- Fixed the tendril of despair's behavior so it only goes after the player, not other souls. This is important as the key mechanic for controlling the tendril's movement in-game through kiting tactics.
Hope_v1-06
- Took the suggestion of nopogo and renamed the file to not include LD34 so it can be found more easily when downloaded.
- Fixed a minor issue where the music wasn't properly fading in or out, and wasn't stopping when you restarted the game.
- Included a Mute function for the player's convenience. It doesn't affect the gameplay so I hope it's an acceptable change.
- Fixed the sudden and jerky movement of the light when the tendril of despair shows up, and made it show up a bit later for balance reasons. A happy accident of this is it fits the timing of the music!
- Fixed a bug that was causing the tendril of despair to stay off-screen far longer than normal.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CREDITS
Programming, art and design by Luca Fumagalli
The game was developed in GameMaker: Studio
The art was made in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and GameMaker: Studio's built-in editor
The design was done with a pad of paper, a pencil and an eraser
Music by Incompetech (Danse Macabre - No Violin)
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=005
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTERTHOUGHTS
This was an incredible experience for me, having been my first Ludum Dare Game Jam. I had a lot of fun and learned a great deal throughout it all.
I got a late start, having been sick for the first day, so I only had 48 hours (less than, really) to make this game. My scope was too large starting out, and I had to scrap most of my original ideas (which you can see if you're curious by checking my older posts). I honestly thought I was done for by the last day.
Despite that though, with a game literally about never giving up, I couldn't stop there. I tried desperately to salvage a fun and playable game out of the single mechanic I'd manage to get working. Repelling the darkness with light. It was just a neat little trick I'd learned as a result of researching other things, but it ended up saving my game.
Near the end I was panicking due to an onslaught of new bugs popping up, balance issues, technical difficulties... I barely made it, and I was pretty sure my game wouldn't do well due to my original high expectations. Yet since it's upload I've seen nothing but encouraging comments. I'm overjoyed, and I fully intend to continue work on this game in the future. Thanks everyone!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE FOR VOTERS
Be sure to download the [LD34] version of the game, as that is the one meant to be voted on. I will be continuing to develop and improve the game on itch.io, so a [Latest] version of the game will be available on the same page. The [Latest] version will include new features and therefore isn't valid for the Jam, nor do I intend for it to be voted on.