__Skillfully dodge dangerous stars, as the nothingness of space is forcing you to keep moving__ _(side-scrolling)_.
Evaded stars will not leave you alone though, they will silently stick themselves to the left side of the screen, patiently waiting for the player to make a mistake; ever so slightly, they will fill up your playing area, __reducing your space__.
This was our third LudumDare game jam experience.
---
Controls
_(__Bold__ keys are recommended)_
Valid Keys
Action
__In-game:__
__A__, Left-Arrow, H
Move __left__
__D__, Right-Arrow, L
Move __right__
__K__, Space, W, Up-Arrow
__Jump__
P, Escape
Pause game
M
Toggle music
__In-menu(s):__
Enter, Space
Select the first menu option _(any menu)_
Escape, Q
Back to main menu or quit game _(any menu)_
P, Enter, Space
Continue _(pause menu)_
Of course, you can also just use your mouse to select menu options.
Post-Jam Version
We are planning on releasing a post-jam version of the game in the upcoming weeks.
The jam version, which you can download below, has ... - unfinished and missing artwork _(all menus use the same title texture, including the main menu)_, - a short and simple audio track, - and generally the settings have not been tweaked enough _(movement, velocities, gravity, ...)_.
The one level you have in the game, was still being designed and made __about half an hour past the deadline.__ So we are definitely planning on adding more, better designed levels in the post-jam version.
I had a lot of performance issues during development _(Ruby might not be the best pick for game dev :) )_, so I'm hoping to improve that and decrease the cost of certain operations _(I'm looking at you, quadtrees!)_, for the post-jam version.
The [Gosu][gosu] graphics library that I'm using with [my framework][framework], has built-in gamepad support, our jam game does not. I already have a build of the game with working gamepad controls, and it's kinda nice to have for a platformer. So you will definitely be able to use a controller with the post-jam version. _(I use an xbox 360 controller, not sure how it will work with others)_
The [level-editor][level-editor], that we used for the game, is also a very hackily modified version of a level-editor from a previous project. I would like to improve it for the post-jam version. In the future, I would love to start working on a proper, generic, 2D level-editor, with enough customizability for the user, so they can export the level data JSON in whatever structure they want.
If you want to see any other planned post-jam version features and changes in more detail, be sure to check out our [trello board][trello].
If you have any other ideas / suggestions, leave them in the comments and I'll make sure to consider them!
Tools Used
Type
Tool
Language
Ruby 2.5.1
Framework
[My framework][framework], made using [Gosu][gosu]
Level Editor
[Modified version of a JS Level Editor from a previous project][level-editor]
In case you're interested, here's my Twitter. @[NoahRosenzweig][twitter] I'm trying to be more socially active, events such as this one help a lot with that!
While I'm talking about social stuff, I want to thank all of you awesome game developers, that make up this amazing LudumDare community. Everybody is so genuine and honest, and almost always nice and polite. Giving and receiving feedback is such a pleasant experience! Thanks to all of you for being awesome! I hope you had a blast making and releasing your games! Have fun playing games!
Pretty interesting concept, its very simple but fits the theme in a unique way. My only recommendations are maybe improve the frame rates of some of the animations, it made it a bit confusing at times. Also, the jumping, its pretty inconsistent. Other than that, very cool game.
The game is definitely rough around the edges but I really like the way it uses the theme. It's something I haven't seen in the other submissions yet and that's nice!
the way the character controls could be improved - maybe he should be running along with the speed of the moving screen by default, and you can speed up / slow down. I just find it hard to aim my landings as it is.
While I had fun playing it, I found the jump unintuitive. Instead of moving backwards like when standing on a platform, the character jumps straight up. This makes it difficult to land jumps.
I'm not a fan of the uber-hardcore platformers genre, but I did have fun with it and I see that level design is more than decent, done with respect to all the good sadistic traditions of this kind of games. Nice job.
Thank you all for your constructive feedbacks and for playing our game!
@bilzc10 As we didn't have enough time to properly tweak everything, stuff like animations might not look quite right. It will all be thoroughly tweaked for the post-jam version. Interesting, that you mention the jump inconsistencies, because I find that jumping works pretty well. Could it be because of lag, that you are experiencing inconsistencies? The game has some performance issues, so if you don't have good hardware, you might get pretty bad lag spikes. Thank you for mentioning this, we will definitely keep jump inconsistencies in mind, when working on the post-jam version.
@zachary-granger I am also very happy with the theme's implementation. Thanks @hoichael for coming up with the idea, all my ideas were generic and boring. PS: Thanks for letting us play _your_ game, it has really resonated with me!
@zachary-granger@borka223@dialglex To be honest, I am very happy with the controls and physics, but this is most probably because I already played the game enough to have gotten good with it. I tried implementing the main suggestion you guys had, with making the player move with the screen, so they also move backwards when jumping, but to be honest, I found it worse and less intuitive; it didn't feel right. I will definitely play around with that mechanic more though, I probably just didn't spend enough time tweaking and adjusting the game with that system in place. So the post-jam version might have this.
@green-rail Because we were working on the level until the very last minute _(actually, the very last -25 minutes, we were late :P )_, we didn't get to test it properly; we would have probably made it a bit easier if we had more time. In contrast, I _love_ hardcore, precision platformers :) _(Some favorites: Edmund Mcmillen's games __Super Meat Boy__ and __The End is Nigh__)_ We'll try to fit a good mixture of easy / casual, and difficult / hardcore levels into the post-jam version. With a planned level selection system, it will also be nice to have an overview of all levels, and be able to skip levels.
Thank you all for playing! If you have any other suggestions for the post-jam version, be sure to let me know! You can also message me on Twitter @NoahRosenzweig
Nice runner platformer! I'm not great at it, but I haven't played that many runner platformer combos so it's probably just me haha. One suggestion is, sometimes there's two platforms side by side that appear to have a gap, but in reality you can kind of "glitch run" across it and you never fall through. I assume the sprites appeared to look that way and it was really two platforms side by side, and I understand you had a limited amount of time. Great game though, maybe a distance score or something might be nice to add as well. Keep it up!
Good use of the theme! Thanks for sharing your game with my stream awhile back. Your game was played around 5:15 into this vod: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/297885983
Comments11
the way the character controls could be improved - maybe he should be running along with the speed of the moving screen by default, and you can speed up / slow down. I just find it hard to aim my landings as it is.
Thanks for letting us play your game!
@bilzc10
As we didn't have enough time to properly tweak everything, stuff like animations might not look quite right. It will all be thoroughly tweaked for the post-jam version.
Interesting, that you mention the jump inconsistencies, because I find that jumping works pretty well. Could it be because of lag, that you are experiencing inconsistencies? The game has some performance issues, so if you don't have good hardware, you might get pretty bad lag spikes. Thank you for mentioning this, we will definitely keep jump inconsistencies in mind, when working on the post-jam version.
@zachary-granger
I am also very happy with the theme's implementation. Thanks @hoichael for coming up with the idea, all my ideas were generic and boring.
PS: Thanks for letting us play _your_ game, it has really resonated with me!
@zachary-granger @borka223 @dialglex
To be honest, I am very happy with the controls and physics, but this is most probably because I already played the game enough to have gotten good with it.
I tried implementing the main suggestion you guys had, with making the player move with the screen, so they also move backwards when jumping, but to be honest, I found it worse and less intuitive; it didn't feel right. I will definitely play around with that mechanic more though, I probably just didn't spend enough time tweaking and adjusting the game with that system in place. So the post-jam version might have this.
@green-rail
Because we were working on the level until the very last minute _(actually, the very last -25 minutes, we were late :P )_, we didn't get to test it properly; we would have probably made it a bit easier if we had more time.
In contrast, I _love_ hardcore, precision platformers :)
_(Some favorites: Edmund Mcmillen's games __Super Meat Boy__ and __The End is Nigh__)_
We'll try to fit a good mixture of easy / casual, and difficult / hardcore levels into the post-jam version. With a planned level selection system, it will also be nice to have an overview of all levels, and be able to skip levels.
Thank you all for playing!
If you have any other suggestions for the post-jam version, be sure to let me know!
You can also message me on Twitter @NoahRosenzweig