Ludum Dare #46compo

Heart String

by mza

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.54

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.35

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.15

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.30

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.77

CLICK TO PLAY

Heart String is a twitchy 2D parkour-style wall grappling game, where you play as a ninja.

Heart String was made for the Ludum Dare 46 Game jam with the theme of "Keep It Alive".

Controls are basic directional controls (WASD, arrow keys + Xbox controller Dpad)

The game was created using the Duality2D Game engine.

Graphics : Krita

SFX: BfXR and Audacity

Music: Ableton live 9

Animations: Spriter2D

Levels: Tiled Map Editor

The source code is available at Github.

Bug Fixes (To play the updated version click link on the itch.io page ending with VX, where "X" is a number :smile: ):

The key was moving too much on different machines - so now its not moving. I also rearranged the level to flatten the curve... of difficulty.

Post Compo Features:

I added local multiplayer ninja football to the post compo build because its such a cool idea.

Check out the Duality2D engine.

My Twitter

Tags: #cute, #local multiplayer, #parkour, #puzzle-platformer

Genres: action, platformer

Tools: Audacity, Bfxr, Krita, Tiled

Comments24

Cryptomnesic20 Apr 2020, 18:42

Twist on a puzzle platformer, with meatboy difficulty. Great visuals for 48h. Levels are very tight, I had a lot of trouble. I'm also really bad at meatboy type games. Solid entry.

WZQXRYS20 Apr 2020, 18:52

Very intense gameplay, lots of juice!

cheesepencil20 Apr 2020, 18:52

Nice! Ninja games are great. I struggled with the fifth level but the graphics were cute and the controls were tight.

thedashdude20 Apr 2020, 18:54

There are a couple decisions here that hold it back, I think. The keys didn't need to move, and the hearts didn't need to be quite so small. Other than that, it has the twitchy gameplay you went for and some neat levels. Good work. I like how the title reflects multiple gameplay elements.

HackTrout20 Apr 2020, 18:55

Really innovative mechanic. Felt that the difficulty curve was a bit too steep, it jumped up in difficulty right after the first two levels. Good visuals and audio.

ManTou21 Apr 2020, 13:29

It's really interesting! I wish there were more levels :smile:

Dina21 Apr 2020, 13:37

It is fun! Liked this game!

MZAauthor21 Apr 2020, 15:24

One day, your wish will be granted @mantou :smile:

MZAauthor21 Apr 2020, 15:34

@thedashdude the key thing is a very valid point from other playtesters too. It's not moving now in the new separate version. Let me know if you tried it and whether or not it's any easier :smile:

rigdonware21 Apr 2020, 16:41

Great visual effects and fun game play. It got really difficult very fast. Great job!

M8rix21 Apr 2020, 16:45

Even without instructions or tutorial, it was easy to learn the concept quickly. Cool mechanics and very challenging, I guess thats the charm. Great job

Jupiter_Hadley22 Apr 2020, 15:50

Challenging game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/BkQLNdwwwdM

SophieMae022 Apr 2020, 17:58

Loved this game! The speed reminds me of Super Meat Boy - a lot of fun and fast pace. Good job!

marcusnystrand22 Apr 2020, 18:02

super fun!

Game_Coder2822 Apr 2020, 18:14

Great game! i love the idea of the game and the great execution generally makes for a great game!

hugandhug22 Apr 2020, 18:17

I really like the mechanic of the game. That's challenging, and you managed to add bricks of game play over the game. Graphics and sounds are good, just those particles were too much for me. But nice game :3c

43sam22 Apr 2020, 18:29

There's a lot I like about this game! The fast, responsive controls make it easy to get used to and satisfying to finally complete a level. One issue I had was the respawn being so fast that I'd enter a direction accidentally just after dying. This is minor of course as it only happened a few times. Overall though, I really enjoyed this and feel there's a lot to master as well :)

Galactic Chimp22 Apr 2020, 18:42

Overall pretty fun and intense. I liked the hard-reflexes you need to win the game. I didn't like the special effects which distracted from what was happening on the screen. But overall I liked it a lot, very fun and intense :)

Sigton22 Apr 2020, 18:52

Extremely unforgiving! Mistime your key press by a millisecond and you miss all the hearts and the key...
Challenging game play, quite infuriating at times!

Axefall23 Apr 2020, 01:59

I liked it overall, I feel like the challenge was more in the getting the key and not dying, and that the hearts were an extra obstacle. I like the pixel explosions, that was a nice touch.

Linky43924 Apr 2020, 19:34

Nice one!

Nice idea to make compelling puzzles. The graphics are nice, and so is the audio. I find there are too many particles though, they are flying everywhere, and the screen gets rather crowded when you die several times ^^

Overall a solid game. Congrats!

Jake Marks25 Apr 2020, 00:19

Addicting. Wish there were more levels. Solid entry and really stands out for me in the gameplay.

Played on stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/601008117

ursagames28 Apr 2020, 01:54

Hello! Your game was played during my stream!
Sorry our schedules didn't align for you to be around while I was streaming it as was requested on your form submission, but since tonight is my final night streaming LDJAM46 games I decided to just go through the remainder of my queue.

If you want to know the timestamp of when your game was played you can see it in this spreadsheet:
https://tinyurl.com/yau8hjzn

And then look in my latest videos and find your game being play (after the current stream ends)
https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos

MZAauthor1 May 2020, 00:08

Thanks @jake-marks and @ursagames for streaming Heart String. @ursagames No need to be sorry - Im glad you played my game regardless.