Perhaps you should be a bit more specific about what the goal is in the description. I managed to go to the end, but it then just restarted the level. Later I saw on you screenshots that I maybe was supposed to save the particles - that information would be helpful.
That beside, I liked how movement an the soft boundaries of the darkness worked. If you expand the game with more levels, think about adding an easier one as the first level to learn the controls.
I love the visual theme and sound design, controls are good. Great visual design for the parallax effect but I'm not so sure about it being used on the boundaries to the level, combined with the blur the total effect made me felt like i was looking "through" the level at my player character (the shadows seemed out of focus).
Also liked the use of gravity as a concept. Impressive you wrote your own engine to run it, props for the effort needed for that alone.
The graphics and audio worked together to create a nice mood for the game. Theme wise, I didn't really like it, as It didn't really feel like you ever needed to sacrifice the particles, and in fact you were specifically trying not to. I felt that the movement could have been tuned a little better, as it felt very fast and loose even before I discovered that you could go faster with a button press. It feels like a game that should be very deliberate, but I was having trouble expressing that with the controls given. Going back to the visuals, which are great for the most part, it doesn't always cohere. The background elements and the shadows all feel good, but particles being just simple circles and the static star being what you control was not the best. The resulting visual felt inverted, as the most interesting and detailed elements were the ones you were supposed to be paying the least attention to.
I like the core gameplay. The ship movement feels fluid and controllable. Picking up the particles feels good. Not competing on graphics or sound seemed like a good choice.
It's cool that you can sacrifice some health to dive through the walls. Apart from that I don't see why I would sacrifice anything. It's not clear what the timer that counts up does. Space and Right Control are not two keys I want to have to press with the same hand.
I like the game in general, the controls are fluid, but the sacrifice theme is not clear in a first glance. Aside of that is a good game, good job on that! :)
Simple but interesting concept, one thing I didn't really get, do the particles that get stolen from you actually slow down the black holes? Also it would be better to clearly see the area of effect of the black holes, because you just get drain even without touching them. Interesting entry !
The control feels good and reactive (except at some times when there seems to be inertia) but I didn't understand what was the purpose of ejecting the particles. The background particle system is really nice and the game over screen is quite funny ! Good job !
@kerdelos, i have to admit, i miss time to make the particles ejection a usefull element. Maybe if i had time to make more levels (I just worked for 2 days instead of 3) i could have created some situation fot that button. I have some idea to replace by some other gameplay element. I will do that soon i hope (in post ludum version)
@icehottet, i admit that if the purpose of the game was no so clear for other than for me. You have to bring the particles to the end of the level (2 different levels). You will have difficulties to bring them all so, at some time, you need to let some die to pass throught the enemies.
I really liked the light vs dark theme you got going on. Moving around the levels was both hectic and calming, somehow. I'd be interested in playing a fuller version of this! Nice job
I liked the gameplay and how is it played, and both black holes and shadow zone work nicely. Although it is easy to "cheat" simply flying to the end through obstacles and gathering a bit of particles in the end. Removing hp recovery or adding timer/particle requirement could fix that probably :)
Impressive mood and beautiful aesthetic. The main gameplay is fun - maybe too rigid, but good enough. Physics work great as expected. However I guess that you could uncheck Humor category - just an advice. Thank you ++
Yikes, this runs into one of the most difficult parts of compo: explaining just what the gosh darn hickety heck is going on here. I was bamboozled from the start, especially toward the goal!
I think you might be able to salvage a decent score here by offering some manner of explanation on what the player should do here. I see that I'm meant to bring particles to the exit, but nothing really makes it clear what the exit is.
It was fun to play. Contolling the particles felt just right. I was a bit frustruated with the connection to the theme of the LD. But still it is a nice entry. Thank you!
The game played fluid which is always a + :) The core concept is interesting, yet I didn't really think about the sacrificial part while playing it. The graphics felt a bit static, uhh how would I say this. It felt so different from the UI graphics and the general feel of the game was bit all over the place.
Yet the gameplay (though unclear at the start) was pretty fun and easy to learn!
Good game! Amazing graphics using shaders like blur, chromatic and glow! It is sometimes difficult to detect what is interactive and what not inside the gameplay (take references like the game Element4). Maybe the theme "sacrifice" is complex to understand here... but the gameplay is nice and enjoyable. Congrats!
@peterfonts , thank you very much. I have to say, the final ludum version wasn't using the shaders you re talking about. They came after some refactors in my engine (ludum's are always a good opportunity to find out what functionnalities your engine is missing). I am happy you talk about Element4, it is one of my favorite game. Thank you
This was visually very impressive! Much much better than your first iterations that I saw. I like the multiple shader effects you added, it works very well. One minor nitpick would be that the particles aren’t very visible, and in general things that happen (particles dying, health diminishing) could be made more obvious. Also when the black holes started to move I think I had trouble understanding where I was because of all the parallax scrolling happening… but maybe that’s part of the expected difficulty curve. Anyway, it’s a great entry with a great atmosphere.
@samh , Thank very much. Once i had used render targets that was not so difficult to add extra effects. I followed some advices in this page concerning danger zone around black holes. It gave me opportunity to add some features in my frameworks.
That beside, I liked how movement an the soft boundaries of the darkness worked. If you expand the game with more levels, think about adding an easier one as the first level to learn the controls.