1000 Meters to Shade

by pbg
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.69
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.52
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.30
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.98
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.22
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.68
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.77
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.73

1000 meters to shade


Hide from solar flares in the shade of cacti. Make it to the shelter one thousand meters away. Arrows to move.

Tips and Tricks:
- the sun flashes a bit every second - this can help you keep count of when the next flare is coming
- that's it! not much to this game. Enjoy!

Comments40

lonewookie3 Oct 2022, 02:52
Well done! I had a blast with this game, the concept was simple, but the mood and sound really made it shine. I could practically feel the heat and the audio did a great job capturing the 10 second countdown without many visual cues! I finished in 133 seconds. Great game!
Ben Parisi
Ben Parisi3 Oct 2022, 02:55
My Granddaddy always told me that when the sun starts rumblin, I best get to hidin behind a cactus.

Beat the game. Full points for graphical style. :)
jefvel
jefvel3 Oct 2022, 10:28
Fun game about trying your luck! Got home after a few tries!
The graphics are very unique, really feels like a blazing desert :)

Nice job!
LDJam user 2364163 Oct 2022, 12:56
So simple game and controls. And 100% match to the '10 seconds' theme.
greenphox3 Oct 2022, 13:02
Wow, amazing graphics, really enjoyable. Well done!
Real_Human_1000
Real_Human_10003 Oct 2022, 15:35
The blatant disregard for how computer sprites usually work is incredible. The smearing, shifting, and degrading of the graphics is super cool, and it really adds to the visceral feel of a dying world. Theme is on-the-nose and it doesn't take too long to complete.
Roboolet
Roboolet3 Oct 2022, 21:36
Awesome entry. This is the first time i looked at a game's source code on here, i just had to know how you pulled off that smearing effect, it's so awesome. Music is also really well done. Absolutely stellar job!
Swen
Swen3 Oct 2022, 21:39
Really love how you did the graphics and the solar flare effect & transition. The perspective in this was also really cool. In the end I made it to shelter :pray: . Great entry!
PBG
PBGauthor3 Oct 2022, 21:54
@roboolet thanks! this is some of the ugliest code I have ever written, I'm so sorry! The solar flare code is particularly horrendous, I really should refactor it, I repeat myself like 50 times.

For the smear, i use the function spek_rect() a lot. rather than drawing a rectangle, it just randomly fills in a bunch of pixels. This gives the smear effect, since I never actually clear the screen.

Thanks for playing!
MattDahEpic
MattDahEpic3 Oct 2022, 22:40
Always fun to see a pico8 game in LD! I very much enjoyed this one. The music is good at letting you know when a flare is incoming by "feel" and I started to get into the flow quickly.
Joe Bevis
Joe Bevis4 Oct 2022, 00:36
Wow, I don't know how you pulled off this graphical style - I couldn't understand the source code either and would love to know!!
LDJam user 243193
LDJam user 2431934 Oct 2022, 04:27
Nice short game! with the speed of 60 meters per 10 centiseconds, I could reach the end.
LDJam user 243193
LDJam user 2431934 Oct 2022, 04:27
Nice short game! with the speed of 60 meters per 10 centiseconds, I could reach the end.
42Xiao
42Xiao4 Oct 2022, 07:06
The ultimate simplicity, reminds me of looking for shade in the desert to escape the sun, the need to run up and down frantically, running and stopping, ten seconds of rhythm to pinpoint. It takes some skill to master the rhythm of the game.
martysarc4 Oct 2022, 08:52
This is pretty good!
indigo
indigo4 Oct 2022, 18:14
This is some top-notch Pico8 programming, me thinks. Great graphics, nice sound cues, simple gameplay, annoying chiptune, what's not to love?

The only thing I might want to improve is the controls, they are a little finicky and it can be quite hard to position the player behind a cactus, even when trying to correct the position after stopping. Although I suppose maybe that makes it challenging. :)
LDJam user 217184 Oct 2022, 18:34
Such a great game for the jam. Loving the visuals, didn't know it was possible to do this hybrid draw approach. Nice attention to detail with the shadow moving across when passing the sun. :v:
cogcomp
cogcomp4 Oct 2022, 18:56
You really aced the execution on this one. When I first read what a was supposed to do, I thought it was going to be boring but the combination of graphics, music and a really nice feel in the game play mechanics made this great. Well done!
PBG
PBGauthor4 Oct 2022, 19:06
@indigo thanks for the feedback. I wanted the controls to be a little slippery, since that is basically the only source of challenge in this game. I had originally wanted to have you jumping things too, like the google dinosaur game, but i only had like 2 hours to do this. I may adjust the size of the shadows so it doesnt feel cheap if you get wiped out.
Vykri
Vykri4 Oct 2022, 19:11
Very cool looking graphics. Never seen that kind of dithered effect on a PICO-8 game before. The effects from the solar flares was also very cool. I enjoyed trying to count out 10 seconds in my head to determine when to start looking for cover. My only complaint is that the character takes too long to decelerate. Feels like you're slipping on ice instead of moving through a desert. Very well done!
Rahtainka
Rahtainka5 Oct 2022, 14:50
I did it to the end! It's really nice to see with how few pixels and colors you have done a nice game! Great compo entry. The music was catchy ^^
lesinvisible
lesinvisible5 Oct 2022, 18:19
Fantasic special effects, especially the blur when you move. My only wish is that this game was a bit more challenging gameplay wise.
Corporation
Corporation5 Oct 2022, 20:06
So it is a game about how brave you are to risk it) simple concept, greart implementation. And I realy like the graphics style and effects you achived. Well done!
Matt Green
Matt Green5 Oct 2022, 20:15
The dithering in the sunset really made it feel hot. Magical.
Denzil Gomes
Denzil Gomes5 Oct 2022, 21:36
Nice little game, and the art worked surprisingly well! An addition if you continue it further could be to encourage a gamble..i.e. if you travel x amount of meters between flares you get some xp you can use to upgrade something, to tempt the player out of playing it too safe. Cool concept
PBG
PBGauthor6 Oct 2022, 14:30
@denzil-gomes very good ideas. I would have loved more temptation to risk running to the next cover. Alas, maybe next time.

For those of you down here looking for a challenge, here is my best time. You really have to take some gambles to get under 100.
Ale
Ale6 Oct 2022, 22:40
Nice parallax effect, and the colors look great! Gameplay was simple, but a solid risk-vs-reward setup. I also like how the character has some momentum when stopping, as that really makes it challenging.

I tried a couple of times but my best score was around 300~400. This is a hard game lol
CodeRaurus
CodeRaurus7 Oct 2022, 07:14
Cool runner. I always like the pico8-look and the audio reminds me of NES games in a good nostalgic way.

I'd personally prefer slightly less dithering on the ground level.

Good job!
chromaphase
chromaphase7 Oct 2022, 09:49
Very interesting graphics for this game ! And nice use of the theme !
Last Angle7 Oct 2022, 09:58
It's a simple idea, but it's fun! The graphics look great, I especially love the flare effect! The movement would overshoot a bit for me, making it difficult at times to get exactly behind the cactus. But that might have been intentional to add some challenge :)
exilegl
exilegl7 Oct 2022, 13:03
Interesting/unique idea, pretty fun too - also the music and art/sfx work well together.

I won on my first try :)
jk5000
jk50007 Oct 2022, 14:37
The idea is fun and the game is very well made game. I love both the visuals and the music. It is a bit difficult to hide from the solar flare. Overall a good compo game. Well done.
Majadroid
Majadroid7 Oct 2022, 17:29
The grafic is really nice and the sun flare effect really cool. The music is a bit repetitive but also cool. The simple game loop matches the theme well. Great job.
Rawb7 Oct 2022, 21:14
Really awesome game. The graphics are so impressive. All the cool effects from the sun and the cactus shadows and the solar flare. I've never seen something like it in a pixel art game. That was super impressive to pull off with pico 8. I did find the controls a bit hard to use. When I tried to do small movements I would hardly move at all but when I was trying to stop while running the player would slide a lot. It made it sort of tricky to do what I wanted (though maybe that was intentional).

All together this was a really cool game with a unique style. Nice job!
pianoman373
pianoman3738 Oct 2022, 01:57
The graphical style really makes this. I've never really seen anything like it before. Very creative!
sergilazaro8 Oct 2022, 17:22
I love the consistent pixel noise, it feels like the real world heat visual effect, plus something like radiation when it hits the camera sensors and generates grain-like noise. Helps the mood a lot.
PurpledArtFrog
PurpledArtFrog10 Oct 2022, 11:07
Very simple entry... but it gets the job done and the fact that you're aiming at a fixed goal actually encouraged me to play to the end. Very good job - nice palette. Actually really like these PICO-8 entries. Only thing is that it might have benefited from something to break the routine ... just little. Random vulture in the sky... prairie dog, just something.

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:
noi14 Oct 2022, 23:26
cool game ! I've (specially)loved the music.
DGSpitzer
DGSpitzer21 Oct 2022, 18:12
125 seconds! I always want to make a Pico-8 game! The mood is very cool and the music is super cute!

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