Nether Flood

by ever

co-authored: @eclahn

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.42

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.03

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.30

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.20

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.41

Hi there!

We're a team of two and proud to present to you our entry for the Ludum Dare 42. Thank you very much for checking it!

This was only our second and first jam ever and we had no graphist or sound designer at all this time around so we went for an abstract game that would require very little graphics and only basic sound design. This was all done without any external asset.
The game was developed using Lua (and Löve2D), a language none of us had more than theoretic knowledge of prior to the start of the game jam.

We hope you will enjoy playing it! Feel free to give us any feedback

@ever (Twitter, Github) & @eclahn (Twitter, Github).

The Game

The Nether has broken into reality and is devouring it ! You must outrun it... by accessing tinier and tinier scales !

Each level will present you a number of Reality Fragments (yellow) you must collect to be able to access a lower scale of reality that the Nether hasn't corrupted... yet. Be quick and leave it before it is devoured, or buy yourself some time by grabbing Reality Crafters (blue) ! You can delve into the Nether but only for a short time, and you might not come back unscathed.

Controls

* Up or W : speed up
* Left/Right or A/D : turn
* Space or Down : dash!

Tags: #2d, #abstract, #bitsy, #endless, #lãve, #minimalist, #procedural generation, #runner, #singleplayer

Tools: LÖVE

Comments47

Dominic Graziano14 Aug 2018, 01:40

looks cool but the link to the windows one is broken.

Everauthor14 Aug 2018, 01:46

My bad, I forgot to publish on Itch.io! Thanks for telling us so quickly @dominic-graziano!

Ashment14 Aug 2018, 02:21

Really loved the transition effects, it reminded me of duet.

Dylan Shumway14 Aug 2018, 02:25

This was oddly meditative! I love the minimalist audio, as the engine rumble is an awesome accompaniment to the void-like atmosphere. The tank controls felt a little slippery at times, but the burst dash creates really interesting moments where you dive away from the nether at the last minute to snag a reality fragment. Very cool!

Zachary Granger14 Aug 2018, 02:29

Solid entry, I love the pixelated look of everything and the quick pace!
Only criticism is that it felt like I was struggling with controlling the ship more than planning how to take the fragments.
The crafters were a really good idea though - if the fragments were generated differently, I think it would be very interesting to decide when is a good time to take the crafter.

Fun game, glad I got the pleasure of playing it!

egawag14 Aug 2018, 02:29

That was really good. I absolutely loved the visual style and once I got and hang of the movement it was very satisfying to speed around the area and then dash into the exit!

schsam14 Aug 2018, 02:35

Fun game! I like the overall idea. I think it could be a bit harder (or maybe the blue cubes could be less strong)?

Everauthor14 Aug 2018, 02:42

Wow thanks everyone! I'm super happy that we managed to convey the mood we wanted! We will probably do some balancing updates later, thanks to your insights!

Eclahn14 Aug 2018, 02:43

Thanks everyone!
The balance of difficulty vs power of the reality crafters (blue cubes) is definitely something we want to test around later, right now the game gets difficult enough the longer you play but it could use tweaks. I'm glad the atmosphere of the game hit where we wanted!

Fwuffy1314 Aug 2018, 03:19

It felt very difficult to control the ship, nonethless, I felt the game was kind of easy and got kind of boring quickly due to that. Still quite fun! Good job!

stellaryyan214 Aug 2018, 03:48

Difficult to control, but that's what make this game fun.

mahalis14 Aug 2018, 03:49

Nice! The ship controls are pretty challenging, as others have said; it felt pretty hard to steer. The graphics are a nice twist on pixel art; the particle effect for the center portal thing looks particularly good (and I didn't think you could do that kind of spiraling with particles in LOVE - shows what I know). Really impressive for your first/second LD - I look forward to playing more of y'all's games!

Everauthor14 Aug 2018, 04:02

Indeed the controls are hard by design, I can tell you that with a little training you can do some pretty neat moves.

The first thing we will add in future updates will probably be a scoring system, to give players an incentive to push themselves, but yeah the difficulty curve is not steep enough.

GreenBoxGames14 Aug 2018, 04:19

I like the challenging controls and how the fog stuff doesn't kill you instantly. Overall its a pretty fun game.

Lauren Kaehler14 Aug 2018, 04:21

I really enjoyed this! After reading your intro, I am thoroughly impressed, also found it almost therapeutic. Definitely a game I could sit and play on a lazy saturday afternoon. It did seem like the blue dot made it a little too easy in the earlier levels, but to be honest I still loved the concept! Also, felt a little lost not knowing what level I was on, it did not prevent me from being sucked in though

Kyle Kaehler14 Aug 2018, 04:30

Had a great time playing your game! I like drifting games and was able to use the controls as a drifting game in a way which was really fun for me!I felt the controls were actually easy if you stopped trying to fly in straight lines and flew in circles. I feel like if anything is missing its a level counter, if I knew how far I made it I would feel like I would be more likely to try and beat myself.

Everauthor14 Aug 2018, 04:54

Glad you guys liked it! We wanted to add a level counter but we finally preferred to polish more the game so we will add this feature amongst other in the post-jam release. :sweat_smile:

Gaming Night14 Aug 2018, 08:36

I liked your control choices, it makes a pretty cool game !
And the graphics are great ;)

SamuelDeboni14 Aug 2018, 13:41

Nice game. The controls are good, gives it a intresting chalange. The blue thing is a good feature. And verry weel polished

Bro40414 Aug 2018, 15:33

Even if it is pretty basic, i like it !

outstar14 Aug 2018, 16:42

Hey!

What I liked:
- the pacing and increasing challenge - the game seemed very at first, but it got hectic pretty fast!
- you don't have to have many graphics or mechanics to make the game fun, and I think you guys proved it :)
- theme is executed pretty much perfectly!

what I didn't like:
- the controls could be a bit better - maybe aiming for direction with a mouse and moving with W? just test it out!

I would opt out of audio and graphics though, because you guys didn't have art person on board and there's barely any audio. I didn't rate you in these two categories because of that :)

Good luck in the jam!

namnam14 Aug 2018, 17:20

Simple and fun, easy to control and to understand. I like the pixelated effect that grows, it add a scary touch.

Blurred Lines14 Aug 2018, 17:43

Very cool and challenging. Also describe the theme perfectly. Increment of difficulty was very high and I couldn't go very far. Controls are tough, it would be great if the rotation was a little bit slower.

Kiri14 Aug 2018, 20:57

Simple and fun at the same time, I really like your choices about the controls. :)

AwiX15 Aug 2018, 07:42

A good game idea, the music should be improved. The graphics are good.
Try our game too, maybe you'll like it)

thegunmaster15 Aug 2018, 18:25

Very sweet game! It fits the theme well, and the visuals are very nice despite being simple! The controls felt really good already in my opinion, but maybe could be improved a bit more, like variable turning speed depending on movement speed, or something along those lines, not sure. Very nice entry overall :)

drtizzle15 Aug 2018, 18:38

Very fun game! The visuals are simple but really striking. The visual and auditive kick when dashing was amazing! The gameplay was simple but needed some strategy in later levels, which was surprisingly entertaining. The only critique I have is that the controlling of the spaceship is a bit too sensitive. I was constantly missing the reality fragments. It would be nice if the hit-box was bigger or the spaceship moved slower. Very good entry overall!!!

Steing15 Aug 2018, 18:43

What a great mood this game has !
It was very peaceful and relaxing to play ^^
Maybe the controls were a tiny bit fuzzy and it doesn't really coordinate with this peaceful sensation.
But anyway great idea, and very well executed ! Love the graphics style, so minimalist ! :D

HolyBlackCat15 Aug 2018, 18:45

That's some interesting aesthetics.

mert57715 Aug 2018, 18:53

Indeed very fun.Game has a nice feeling to it that makes you feel you are the orb there.The idea of controls are very nice and it would be perfect with some more tweaking.Thank you guys for this game.

Devio15 Aug 2018, 20:46

The player character could use work visually, the game can get really repetitive, other than that, the rest of the art style had a charm, it felt nice with movement, clear simple goals and fun (until it got repetitive) Good work and I hope you continue this. It won't win any awards but it is a game, you know you can come back to.

Eoku16 Aug 2018, 00:13

I really like the minimal pixel art style of the game. A little sad it didn't carry over to the player's sprite, but what can you do, eh?

NotLivingPool16 Aug 2018, 04:03

The graphics and the style of this game and how things move are really great. I love the pixel art!

simba16 Aug 2018, 04:17

Nice little game. I would have preferred some variety in the later levels, or at least some counter for how many levels you were able to clear. I played for maybe 10 minutes and managed to survive for quite a while.

oskarOlausson16 Aug 2018, 09:48

Cool game, which you could only move with the dash, it felt really cool

Timbelion16 Aug 2018, 09:53

Love the idea of shrinking space

GilgusMaximus16 Aug 2018, 12:18

The overall idea of the game is very cool, and it fits good to the art style. The controls are a little bit unusual, but after the first 5, 6 levels they are very nice, especially with the boost. It is also very cool that yo ucan survive for a short period of time in the nether, so that you can collect the last items =)

RyanJavanshir16 Aug 2018, 14:51

Loved this game. The dissolve effect was cool, the sfx on the ship was perfect and the mechanics were simple and fun. I really liked the control of the ship. Great job!

JossComposer16 Aug 2018, 14:54

Not entirely sure what the eff I was doing in here but the experience was worth a try x)
You did a great job there ! Good coding and the graphics are efficient, so does the sound-design, you found the pitch modulation ! It's perfect ;-)

Raivk16 Aug 2018, 16:02

Hey cool game, congrats :)

Alysson Moraes16 Aug 2018, 18:22

Simple, fun, challenging and fulfilling the theme. I loved the simplistic graphics =)

cppchriscpp17 Aug 2018, 00:04

Fun little game! I can't really think of much to say that hasn't been said, but I quite enjoyed this. Thanks for a fun game!

Sengi17 Aug 2018, 12:08

Ah, too bad I can`t vote for sounds, though theres only sound of moving its done great, maybe it just resonates with my headphones set, but I could listen to this for a long time) Nice touch with regeneration HP points, reminds me Hunt: Showdown a little bit. The level design of a particular mechanics also was good. Gj overall!

chronicbite18 Aug 2018, 02:39

Nice game! I had fun! good job

mrjoshuamclean19 Aug 2018, 16:46

Wasn't sure about this one from the pixel-splotch screenshots, but it was actually super clear how to play and what to do. Solid controls, and the movement noise is great. Enjoyed it! Here's a video of my play: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298012341

Erkberg20 Aug 2018, 20:49

Really nice minimalistic game! Although the visuals are very simple, the game looks kinda great. Together with the few sounds, this creates a nice mood. I usually don't like the control scheme you used and am really bad at it, but I'd say you implemented those quite well and it felt good. Some ingame story, music and a proper ending would've been really nice, but I enjoyed this quite a bit nonetheless, good job!