What drives you? What brought you down here? Again and Again...
Our Dear Friend is a platforming game where you must venture down deep below the earth. Something calls to you, a voice in the darkness. A Friend?
Armed with a grappling hook, a bow, and a handful of arrows, you must venture down into the tombs and discover what you're willing to give up along the way.
---CONTROLS---
A - Left
D - Right
W - Jump
Left Click - Fire Grappling Hook
Hold Right Click - Aim Bow
Left Click (While holding Right Click) - Fire Arrow
Credits:
Rusty Hayes - Programming, Animation
Ham - Art, Writing, Sfx
DJ Wildebeest - Project Management, Music
Grappling Hook courtesy of Sheexy's Grappling Engine
Fonts by SomePX
TIPS:
There are three platforms on the way down with powerups. Each one is optional but if you pick up the powerup (by touching the mummy in the center of the platform) it will take away some of your maximum health. The first mummy provides more arrows, the next provides a much longer grappling rope, and the third grants a double jump ability.
Be careful with your arrows! While there are a few to pick up on your way there aren't many! Firing one directly after another is a good way to destroy one.
Watch where you step! Use the grappling rope to slowly lower yourself into unseen territory. Always check before firing it and always be ready to use it to defend against incoming bats or spiders!
NOTES:
As often happens we had a few bugs crop up late in the jam, including alignment of the music tracks. The Post-Jam version fixes these bugs as well as adds a final scare encounter that was intended to be in the game but not quite finished in the last hours of the jam.
UPDATE: We heard you! An easier postjam version has been added for those who want to see the whole game without putting time into a stupidly hard jam game :P Thank you all for your feedback! The easier version features less damaging enemies, more helpful health pickups, and a grappling hook that kills enemies!
UPDATE 2: After even more helpful feedback we've released a further update pair of builds. We pretty much kept the old "easy" build as the current build, which has seen a few improvements and bugfixes. Most notably your guiding aura is now brighter and also has a light that follows the mouse, making it much easier to scope out possible threats before moving forward.
The new easy build features less damaging enemies and even more potent health pickups.
I did enjoy playing "Our Dear Friend", the final product is really well polished comparing to a jam entry!
The art is amazing, the sound fx and music is well done, the mechanic though isn't really perfect, I love grappling hooks, but this one was different, for example: why it shoot in short distance, while at the same time i can't see beyond few centimeters from the player, it would have made more sense if i can shoot it for longer or even infinite distance (again this is from only the fact of not seeing where i'm shooting it).
Also it would have made more fun if i can use the grappling hook to kill the spiders, then i would have needed for the right click button mechanic then. I can't imagine shooting the grappling hook to start swinging, i don't see where the hook ends, and when i move there, i find a dead spider :D that would be fun!
Again, for a jam entry, i'm amazed, and it is really nice. Well done!
Very atmospheric, with good gamefeel and I like the little touches like the glowy worms and moths that give health. Difficult though, even kind of unfair, but that could be fixed with a few tweaks. Overall really well done.
Felt a bit like a reverse version of Getting Over It. Rather going down than up. Didn't get far, but that was due to lack of skill rather than any mechanics issues. Well made.
I enjoyed this the setting and ambiance, I tried to speed run through it at first but I couldn't remember where all the spikes were. Not sure if there's an ending.
Pleasantly surprised with this one. The text delivered as you travel through the cave is delivered vague enough to be open ended, while still being intriguing. Wish the grappling hook had a longer range and that more arrows were given out. Felt very atmospheric with the music and mysterious story.
I did feel that it was a little too punishing tho. I think a bigger field of view would have gone a long way. Maybe just pulling out the gradient of it.
Really sweet gameplay and graphics! You really nailed the physics of the grappling hook.
I started off playing the original, then went to "easy" when I couldn't beat it. Giving the player more arrows was not how I envisioned "easy" mode lol. I think the trouble was not seeing what was below you and landing on spikes, or getting sniped by a snake, or some random spider jumps on you from above.
Things I didn't like: - The game is very dark. It is not a problem by itself, but I understood that the hook+rope mechanic existed to deal with it, like putting it on the rock you are standing on and then going down into the unknown. But it doesn't work, because monsters keep jumping on you and past the middle you have an invulnerable ghost following you! So you don't have time to use the hook slowly and safely, it works more like a fast traversal mechanic than an exploration one. - Many times I died I felt that it was unfair. Spiders popping out on me, falling into pointy things that I didn't know was there, arrows coming out of nowhere. The only thing that could prevent me from taking those damages is memorizing. After I've died a bunch of times, I had memorized that some place had spikes, some place had a spider and such. I don't know, maybe it's subjective, but I don't like memorizing where every threat are on the map. - The game has mechanics like the arrows, the hookshot and the person that gives you things. I thought that I would have to learn to use those things right, to be able to progress. But in the end, to reach the end of the game, I simply had to ignore all of this and ran as fast as I could, together with the memorizing technique. It rewards reckless, lucky and good memory people instead the ones that really try to use the game mechanics.
Things I liked: - The ambient was amazing, the little creatures that gave you life shining just a bit was a nice touch. It really sets the mood. - The music helps with the mood too, it's good. - It has a compelling story, you want to go further to learn more. - The hookshot works very well (I'm trying to make a game with the same mechanic, it's remarkable that you managed to make it work in such a small time!!) - I haven't noticed any bugs, everything works perfectly! - The arrow works perfectly too, being able to recollect it is awesome!
Overall, it's a difficult game that has an interesting ambient, story and core mechanics, very difficult to do in a jam, good job!
I really like the atmosphere of the game and the fact you couldn't see too much. I'm not sure about the grappling hook, I felt it would be better to be able to shot longer distance with it. The music is really cool and the graphics are amazing!
Comments17
The art is amazing, the sound fx and music is well done, the mechanic though isn't really perfect, I love grappling hooks, but this one was different, for example: why it shoot in short distance, while at the same time i can't see beyond few centimeters from the player, it would have made more sense if i can shoot it for longer or even infinite distance (again this is from only the fact of not seeing where i'm shooting it).
Also it would have made more fun if i can use the grappling hook to kill the spiders, then i would have needed for the right click button mechanic then. I can't imagine shooting the grappling hook to start swinging, i don't see where the hook ends, and when i move there, i find a dead spider :D that would be fun!
Again, for a jam entry, i'm amazed, and it is really nice. Well done!
-m
I did feel that it was a little too punishing tho.
I think a bigger field of view would have gone a long way.
Maybe just pulling out the gradient of it.
I started off playing the original, then went to "easy" when I couldn't beat it. Giving the player more arrows was not how I envisioned "easy" mode lol. I think the trouble was not seeing what was below you and landing on spikes, or getting sniped by a snake, or some random spider jumps on you from above.
Overall, nice work!
- The game is very dark. It is not a problem by itself, but I understood that the hook+rope mechanic existed to deal with it, like putting it on the rock you are standing on and then going down into the unknown. But it doesn't work, because monsters keep jumping on you and past the middle you have an invulnerable ghost following you! So you don't have time to use the hook slowly and safely, it works more like a fast traversal mechanic than an exploration one.
- Many times I died I felt that it was unfair. Spiders popping out on me, falling into pointy things that I didn't know was there, arrows coming out of nowhere. The only thing that could prevent me from taking those damages is memorizing. After I've died a bunch of times, I had memorized that some place had spikes, some place had a spider and such. I don't know, maybe it's subjective, but I don't like memorizing where every threat are on the map.
- The game has mechanics like the arrows, the hookshot and the person that gives you things. I thought that I would have to learn to use those things right, to be able to progress. But in the end, to reach the end of the game, I simply had to ignore all of this and ran as fast as I could, together with the memorizing technique. It rewards reckless, lucky and good memory people instead the ones that really try to use the game mechanics.
Things I liked:
- The ambient was amazing, the little creatures that gave you life shining just a bit was a nice touch. It really sets the mood.
- The music helps with the mood too, it's good.
- It has a compelling story, you want to go further to learn more.
- The hookshot works very well (I'm trying to make a game with the same mechanic, it's remarkable that you managed to make it work in such a small time!!)
- I haven't noticed any bugs, everything works perfectly!
- The arrow works perfectly too, being able to recollect it is awesome!
Overall, it's a difficult game that has an interesting ambient, story and core mechanics, very difficult to do in a jam, good job!