Ludum Dare #46compo
ADRENA-LINE
HOW TO PLAY
in each level you want to get to the button before you run out of time. the amount of time you have for each level slowly decreases over time. let me know your best score!
CONTROLS
you can play using a keyboard or a controller, but personally I recommend sticking with a keyboard.
press the arrow keys to move. you can also use wasd. if you have a controller, you can also use the left stick, the dpad or the face buttons (A/B/X/Y or X/O/Square/Triangle).
press alt+enter to toggle full screen.
ABOUT
the levels are procedurally generated and are built to guarantee that the button is always reachable from the starting position and is always at least eight button presses away. I'll write a short description about how the proc gen works soon!
regarding the theme, initially the idea was that you were a rocket flying around collecting fuel but I couldn't get it looking/feeling good so I tried to go for something more abstract where you're keeping the combo alive.
made in about 15 hours with gamemaker studio 1.4, aseprite and jfxr.
CHANGELOG
ADRENA-LINE v1.1:
- improved the proc gen algorithm so that it's now impossible to trap yourself in a loop
- fixed some bugs in the proc gen algorithm, which has made the levels harder on average
- made the time limit slightly more generous to account for the harder average levels
- renamed "diff" to "spd" to better show what the number represented
- fixed a bug where the wrong sound effect would play if you ran out of time as you were about to reach the button
ADRENA-LINE v1.0:
- the original compo version of the game
Comments145
@stevenjmiller thanks, and congrats on getting 30! I didn't mention it anywhere in the instructions but you can press escape to finish a run and return to the title screen
The art is simple, but very pleasing and easy to look at. Love the screen shake and the general level of polish. But my favourite part is easily the gameplay. It's been a while since I saw a realtime puzzle game, and it works pretty well! In the beginning I actually planned a bit how to get to the goal, and very quickly that was replaced by trying to get to the goal more by frantic intuition than by planning. It makes for an interesting experience.
And on top of all that, procedural generation. Wow. Great job!
(Ah, and I really like that the start screen is also the first level and the tutorial. Gives it a very rounded feel.)
I'd echo a comment above suggesting a reset button as you're first move sometimes prevents you from being able to complete a level, seems a shame to end an entire run that way. Perhaps it could reset just your position but not the timer, a fair compromise?
If you develop this further it might be worth a slight tweak to the procgen to maybe reduce the amount of narrow weaving passages in some levels, as they can be quite simple to complete.
This is really great though. I'll be giving it another go later.
I could see this in the appstore.
My favorite ld game so far!
Edit: Playing a bit more, it's cool to think that the "winning" path has presumably been established during the level creation, and you're more or less tracing it as you play. I have discovered a few tile formations during play that are inescapable (generally in the form of a loop with no accessible exits once inside), which isn't to say the level is unbeatable, but that one wrong initial movement is dooming. This isn't necessarily a fault of the level generation, but a "level reset" key may be something to consider in a full mobile release or something.
Wish the exit and the player were a little bit more distinct as I sometimes confused the two :pray_tone1:
Very impressive procedural generation. Great game overall.
Love the minimalist art as well. :)
It took me a moment to make the connection between you and Roguelight - but it's no surprise, you have a knack for satisfying games that offer so much more than you'd think for their size.
I don't think I've ever requested this before, but please port this to mobile. This would be an amazing mobile game.
However, this simplicity made the game very intuitive and made it flow well. I really felt the rush as I raced against the clock, which was also a nice addition to an otherwise simple game.
Overall, everything that was present, was very polished.
The mechanic is not so innovative though, and doesn't seem to match the theme well.
But overall, nice job.
The generated level too. :)
One thing though, since it's procedurally generated softlocks can happend. I got stuck at level 16, where I was stuck in a small loop. But honestly, it was really good otherwise ^^
Nice polish. Great game!
In its current state it's a little easy and doesn't really have much of a difficulty ramp. But procedurally designed puzzle levels are tough.
Great game though, the attention to detail really shows.
I really love games that surprise me! At first glance you don't give much, but when you play you say "WOW!".
Simple, fun and challenging. A very dangerous combination.
Congratulations!
My one gripe with the algorithm is the way you can lock yourself in a loop with no exit. It's a real momentum killer to have to just watch the timer count down on your inevitable demise. Still, exceptionally impressive work as always. Thanks for sharing :)
I made a similar game for LD44, but I had a tough time with the level design!
The graphics are also very well-suited to this kind of game, and the visual effects are very nice (especially the path you carve behind).
The only problem is the inescapable loops you can sometimes get caught in.
I love everything about this.
A description of how the proc gen works would be amazing.
The frantic pacing is really fun, and the feedback and juice makes fast moving feel very satisfying and tense. The adrenaline feeling from the title is perfect.
It might be interesting to have an additional mode where the scarce resource is moves not time, so that it can provide a more cerebral puzzle experience too.
Edit: woke up, got to 55, this is still great.
The game is fun, beautilful and feebacks are great. I directly understood what I had to do without reading any instruction! :thumbsup:
when I made the game I was annoyed that it was so easy to accidentally trap yourself and lose the run, but I didn't have time to fix it and hoped people weren't too badly affected by it. based on all the comments I've made an updated version with some bug fixes and, most importantly, with some extra code so that levels containing ways to trap the player are no longer generated
@ssstormy that's very fair! I might experiment with some extra elements if I have time, though I'm worried I won't be able to incorporate them very well in proc gen levels
@tobiasw thank you for the kind words! I remember playing and really enjoying snakeformer all those years ago :)
@fazz thanks! it turns out there was a mistake in the proc gen which was making a lot more weaving passages than I intended. fixing it has made the average level a lot better (and a lot harder!)
@drachmor sort of... the level gets generated and then, if there's a good spot for the button to go, it spawns it there. if there isn't, it just keeps generating a new level and trying again. and yeah I hated that you could start a level, press a single key, and be doomed immediately
@tayl1r that's a good point, and something I'll definitely play around with in the future
@chaseplays thank you! yeah I wanted to encourage a seasoned player to want to go as fast as possible even on the first levels where there's plenty of time, so I'm glad you mentioned that!
@verrazano, @bean I'm hoping to write up a detailed explanation eventually but for now I've made a visualizer to show how the algorithm works. the numbers at the end are the number of steps required to get to each square in the level
@grentacular hahah, you're very welcome!
@bitdecay a little bit, but not for a while. I wrote similar (but still very different) algorithms to make the levels in mr moneybag and in death of a lich
@samlecreator that's very kind of you to say! thank you
@mika-la-grand it's short for "difficulty" but I should have called it "speed" or something else instead. as the difficulty increases, the amount of time you have for each level decreases, so you have to react faster and faster the longer you stay alive. I'm going to rename it "spd"
@torn that's very fair, I wish I could have done more with the theme and music
@ryannielson yeah that's always the downside of proc gen, most of the levels will never be as good as hand crafted ones, but I like the idea that you could play this for a long time without ever seeing the same level twice (though you'll see the same tricks and patterns a lot). I didn't make this clear at all in the game but the difficulty ramp is just in the time you get for each level getting shorter and shorter. I wasn't brave enough to make the proc gen itself incorporate difficulty!
@adamcyounis I'm glad you mentioned the animation skipping! I knew it would have really bothered me (and everyone else) if you had to wait for animations to end or risk your inputs getting ignored. you're absolutely right about trapping yourself, too. I've fixed it in the updated version. I'd underestimated just how frustrating that would be
@alchemic I'll check your LD44 game out, it's cool to see what other people do with the mechanic. here's a visualizer I made of the level generation, I'll write more about it soon, hopefully
@lazzydev72 your game looks great! I'll try it out soon
@youniversal leaderboards would be cool, but probably too much work for what might stay a fairly small game. 55 is an amazing score, by the way!
@blinry making the player more distinct is something I'm definitely going to look into. and wondering whether the levels were hand made or not is such a compliment to me! :)
Btw, I've played lots of other games now, and ADRENA-LINE is still among my favourites. I'll include it in my roundup post(s) in a week or two :D
I think some music that sped up with the game could be cool - as well as some more variet in the art.
I could really see this becoming something.
Like a "puzzle mode" that removes the timer and forces you to solve it in as few moves as possible. The level generator might already know the most efficient solution?
Then something to up the difficulty over time, rather than just the speed of the timer. like switches to open passages, etc.
Great job! I hope you develop it out a bit more!
As polished as ever, I appreciated the simplicity on this entry. The game mechanic was simple and immediate to grasp, and the visuals were pleasing to the eye.
Nice job!
I could honestly see myself just zoning out and playing this on my phone.
Phenomenal work!! (As always :smiley: )
I think the timer starts flashing a little bit too early, it distracted me a bit when there was really still quite a bit of time left.
Few questions:
1. Do you have plans to release this cool game on mobile phones (Android would be preferable, he-he)? I'd played such a game on my smarphone screen.
2. How do you generate random levels? Is there some interesting difficulty progression subsystem? And Am I correct in understanding that each level is 100% guaranteed to be solvable? How do you implement such limitations in your code? (Yeah, I see, there's link to source code but some comments and notes on code from the author would be appreciated).
3. Do you plan do post a dev-blog / post-mortem article about procedure generation of levels in your game? That would be a must read, sir!
P.S. Followed you. Thanks for the game, sources and happy coding!!!
(Yeah, but it's not really connected with the theme)
@thecrancher that's a really good idea!
@glaciereclipse thank you for the very kind words :)
@aurel300 I think you're right about the flashing, if I make any future versions I might dial it back a bit
@blubberquark yeah, sorry about the lack of theme. it started off with you collecting fuel but it just didn't look any good so I abandoned that theme but really liked the gameplay I had. anyway, your "Solve, then Generate" approach is really cool, but I generated mine using the "Generate and Solve" approach. I started by carving out the level, then checking if there was a good place for the button to go (plus a few other checks). if there wasn't a good spot for the button, I'd generate a new level and check again. thanks for linking your article, by the way, it was a good read!
@room606 1. I'll think about it, but I think the game's a lot more fun with arrow keys than it would be with swipe input or on-screen buttons. 2. I'll write more about this later, but to get a rough idea it works like this, where it makes a level and then finds a good spot for the button to go (any spot with a "7" or higher). if there's no such spot it generates a new level. this way it's always solvable. 3. yes, definitely! hopefully sooner rather than later, too
(Also, fun game!)
The trail is crucial - it lets you instantly identify whether you're retreading your steps, which eliminates the most frustrating thing about these puzzles. The time limit raises the pressure nicely, but there is a high cost to making the wrong move, so you don't end up frantically mashing and it keeps the tactical feel.
The biggest issue is that it felt like I could go on forever at my average pace, except every 10 or so there was an especially hard level which got me close to losing. So most of the time I felt like I was doing really well, but eventually I got a level that was a lot harder and lost, seemingly randomly. It didn't feel like doing well on previous levels helped at all.
Gameplay is nothing new and the theme could have been integrated even better.
One can always learn a lot from you in terms of minimalism.
I'm really interested in the procgen algorithm you build to generate the puzzles!
Congrats!
LD is weird..
anyway, nice game and cool graphics :)
Best score 34. Really solid, as always!
A web version would sit really nicely on the itch page. Just saying ;-)
I also love the simplistic art style. The screen shake and sound effects are perfect and the controls simply work. You did a great job with the procgen, too. Well done! It's a great time waster :)