Ludum Dare #40compo

The lost strawberry

by egordorichev

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.73

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.45

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.01

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.97

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.89

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.70

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Update: X-mas edition is out! Try it out here!

_He loves strawberries_

##### Big thanks to everyone, who came on my streams! Especially to @Nuflee, @retrokin, @brastin3, @grubber_music, @BeerGoat, @R_Panda, @Lord_Am, @ngBattery and @adventuretimeworldwide!

This is a Celeste-inspired 2d exploration platformer, where you play as a guy, who found his self in a strange, mysterious world. He attempts to find his way back, to his world and recover the past. Collect strawberries, fight monsters, avoid spikes, solve puzzles.

The game is written using tiny fantasy console, called PICO-8. It limits you to use 16 color palette, 128x128px screen, 128x64px sprite space, 128x64 tiles map. I really enjoy using it, tho it is really limiting.

The game has 25 levels, including a BOSS LEVEL. I've spent a lot of time and effort on making everything look great and smooth (just watch some animations ;)). The game will automatically save your progress. Also, you can swap the palette on go (read menu part for that)!

I hope, that you will enjoy it!

Controls

* Arrows - move
* Z/C - jump
* X - double jump from evil essences
* Enter/P - open the pause menu

Two main things, you need to know:

_Look for objects with tint, they will help you or kill you_
_People miss those ropes a lot_

_You can double jump from evil essences, once you touch them_

Speedrun mode

Yeah, I want to go though this quickly, there is a speedrun mode, build into the game! Once you kill the boss, you from the main menu can select any level, you want, and train on it.

The game also shows you your time and death count on every death. If you will speedrun it, let me know in the comments!

Mechanics (pss, spoilers!)

##### Jumping
* You can jump only from the ground
* Trampolines launch you up into the sky
* You can control your jump height, by holding the jump key longer/shorter
##### Ropes
* You can't jump from ropes, only climb on them using arrows
##### Keys / berries
* You need to deliver them to the door/exit to make use of them
##### Evil
* Once you use an essence, your screen becomes a bit more corrupted. This effect is being decreased if you wait, till the essence respawns.
* You can dash from essences using X
* Skulls die, when you use an essence
* Essences respawn with time
* Essences control the Dragon Fruit
##### Ice
* Ice disappears when you touch it
* It respawns after a while
##### Invisible blocks
* You can notice them, only if you are close enough to them
* They will block your way, and will not let you fall/pass
##### Platforms
* Normal platforms bounce from blocks and destroy ice
* Cloud platforms go through blocks
##### Dart Traps
* They shoot out bullets with the same speed, but always async
##### Background Tiles
* If you see, that some parts of the background are lighter than the other, that could mean, that you can stand on them

_Huh, that was easy!_

The pause menu

_Yup, this one_

* Continue Get back to the game
* Next palette <3 change the game palette
* Restart the lvl Restarts current level
* To the last lvl Moves you one level back (not always aviable)
* Reset progress BE CAREFUL! This option erases your save (except palette and boss flag). That means, that you will loose all your progress in the game.

General tips

* Don't try to go fast, you can always make it slower (unless you are in the speedrun mode)
* Try to play with the palettes, strangely, but that helps to focus more on the content. I prefer the red and yellow one.
* There is an options menu (activate it using enter), it contains a lot of useful stuff, as well as the palette settings

_Is evil really so harmless?_

Change log

* v0.1d, v0.1.f Fix music not playing
* v0.1c Noise is not so annoying now
* v0.1b Fix kill() bug, change default palette
* v0.1 Initial release for the compo