>"... trapped in this bizarre house of nightmares ...very walls feel dangerous, and I ... they move around when I turn my back ... afraid to stay still, even for ... least some rooms stay put ... these creepy glowing orbs ... maybe I should look closer ..."
Runner X Exploration/Metroidvania
Runnervania combines the reflex-focused gameplay of linear runner games (think Bit.Trip Runner, Subway Surfers, or Temple Run) with the branching discovery style of action-exploration games like Metroid and Castlevania. Learn new abilities, collect power-ups, and explore an ever-changing yet always familiar mansion as you try to find a way out.
You will need to explore all floors of the house before you can get out. - Moving to a new floor will always bring you to the first room of that floor, marked with a gold plaque - The rooms on each floor will appear in a set order, but the halls between rooms are filled with randomized traps
Pickups and collectibles
Runnervania includes 3 types of pickups - Green orbs unlock new abilities - Red orbs increase the number of hits you can take - Blue orbs are for bragging rights. Can you find and collect all 5?
Difficulty
Runnervania caters to both casual and hardcore gamers with two modes of play in the same mansion. - Choose Casual if you want to play the whole game in one go. Many experienced gamers may feel that the action is too slow - Choose Hardcore if you want faster action. Dying will cause you to lose all pickups and abilities except for jumping
Death
When you take too many hits, you will become a ghost for a while, and be taken to the entrance regardless of the chosen difficulty
Controls
Controls will be explained as you get new abilities. You will not be able to take any actions until you pick up the first ability a few seconds in. - ⬆️ or Space bar : Jump - ⬇️ or S : Slide while running or Slam while jumping - ➡️ or D : Smash
> If you enjoy this game, also check out Cyclevania
I played through the whole game under casual! Fun concept, and the theme fits, as those genres are pretty tough to combine. I did however feel that the game was moving too slow, however that might be because I chose casual, which if that's the case I recommend a third option that allows the speed, but not the hardcore aspect of losing items.
This is cool little game, a little music and sound would have been nice, though :-)
I like the mechanic, gaining abilities by picking up items.
The graphics are simple but enough to let me know what to do. It seems to me that you put your time into the nice character animation and items and had no time for the level, am I right? :-)
Nevermind, it is a game jam and in the end you always have to put your focus on one thing or another. In LD 39 I focussed on graphics and animation and had only minimal gameplay. In LD 36 I focussed on gameplay and good puzzles and got a cool game but the levels looked very square :-)
This time I am actually very happy with my mixture of graphics and gameplay, I had considerd making a real jump'n'run shooter but settled on a simpler game. That gave me the head room to create both a solid, bug-free gameplay and cool animations. The more you practive the better you get :-)
Not bad! Casual moves quite slow... The system of hearts wasn't intuitive. I collected them, but then when I got hurt, they were still there, but just the number went down... When I saw the obstacles change after gaining a new ability, it made me want to explore more.
@heyycap I see what you mean. I wanted the display at the top to display your collection progress, but I guess displaying hearts like that has a different meaning in gaming. General question: Is it too late now to increase the speed on casual? It's not exactly a bug fix, but it's going to be one line of code that really improves the experience
a very good concept, i miss one of the blue orbs, maybe the controls are not as thigh as a metroidvania or a runner should be, to really feel the pressure, but the concept in general its very good, with a little bit of polish on the controls, and the scenario will be a great game... good job dude
@beren5000 thank you so much! I know that the animations, physics are pretty wonky, and sound is definitely missing. Despite all that, it's great to hear that the concept seems to have legs.
This was actually quite fun after I gave it a second chance and ended up spending a lot of time playing it. wanted to unlock and find everything. Good job!
Not even going to try the hard mode. It was already difficult to a point of being a bit frustrating for me at times
It's a cool concept but other players will probably enjoy more than I did, since I tend to be bad at runners and other reflex games. Kudos for including different difficulty levels though! I appreciated that I could play on a setting that wasn't too much for me.
Nice entry and cool level design ! A little bit of sound would have been nice, to reinforce the mood you want to install. The mechanics are simple but effective ! Well done :)
Very cool idea. The character comes off as a bit floaty, but the mechanics are cool and I weirdly like that you turn into a ghost and keep going while waiting for your life to come back. Turned out really well, nice submission.
Comments17
Thanks for the game!
I like the mechanic, gaining abilities by picking up items.
The graphics are simple but enough to let me know what to do. It seems to me that you put your time into the nice character animation and items and had no time for the level, am I right? :-)
Overall a nice game, great job!
Actually most of my time went into the level layouts and implementing the different abilities, but I wish that I had added more decoration
This time I am actually very happy with my mixture of graphics and gameplay, I had considerd making a real jump'n'run shooter but settled on a simpler game. That gave me the head room to create both a solid, bug-free gameplay and cool animations. The more you practive the better you get :-)
General question: Is it too late now to increase the speed on casual? It's not exactly a bug fix, but it's going to be one line of code that really improves the experience
Despite all that, it's great to hear that the concept seems to have legs.
Not even going to try the hard mode. It was already difficult to a point of being a bit frustrating for me at times
It's a cool concept but other players will probably enjoy more than I did, since I tend to be bad at runners and other reflex games. Kudos for including different difficulty levels though! I appreciated that I could play on a setting that wasn't too much for me.