Observatory 85 is a difficult climbing platformer inspired by "White Knuckle". The "Old Tech" inspiration largely fed into the level design and art with an old steam/clockwork style observatory.
Much like White Knuckle, you must manage your stamina for each hand as you climb throughout the level. If you run out of stamina, your tired hand will let loose, potentially causing you to fall at the most inopportune time. While I tried to tune the level design to be relatively generous, this game is not for the faint of heart. I also raged while playtesting so you aren't alone.
Controls
* WASD: Move * Left Click: Grab with Left hand * Right Click: Grab with Right hand * Shift: Sprint * Spacebar: Jump
I love it! gave up after getting stuck behind the sign for the 3rd time, but this is very fun and also extremely frustrating. kinda like getting over it.
The graphics are fantastic, gameplay was solid and polished and the overall level design was well delivered. My favourite entry so far and felt the most like a finished game. Great stuff!
@enad96 Wow thanks for the callout about the sign. I didn't realize you could get trapped back there. Still a little bit of time in the jam so I tweaked that spot so you don't get stuck.
Hands down (ok, poor choice of words here) one of the best experience of Ludumdare #60 so far.
The gameplay mechanics is really fun;
I really loved this lowpoly textured scenery, the night, the lighting, the rust machinery, all together to build an amazing mood - my only complain it's the music - a cool song but somewhat out of place in this game. But that is just a detail.
Pretty good, even if I struggled figuring out where to go at times. Didn't reach the end, got stuck up in some geometry at one point and didn't feel like running it all again. Quite pleased with the visuals, really good for a jam entry!
I'll give a full rating once I actually complete the game. I'm a bit lost... where do you go after you climb the series of handles that wrap around the corner of the wall twice? It's like a consecutive series of like 15 of them sticking out of the wall. I got to the top a few times but it doesn't look like there's anything new you can reach from up there? I see some hanging machinery and a ramp deadend off in the distance towards the structure but I think those are out of reach.
What an awesome climbing game! Reminds me a bit of some of the climbing mechanics in VR games, though of course this one is in 2D delivery. The environment and art was really cool, and the climbing mechanic felt very well realized. Impressively done, and this would make for an excellent full game (if there were some way to checkpoint progress frequently on larger maps, of course). The places this game drops you far behind and erases lots of progress can be a bit of a bummer. Still, awesome job!
Very beautiful graphics; I wasn't sure where to go next around the middle, but otherwise, it’s very beautiful and atmospheric, and the mechanics are great^^
Great atmosphere and familiar gameplay—simple yet engaging. It’s really addictive; well done, guys! That said, it could use a bit more innovation in terms of gameplay mechanics.
Personally, I also ran into an issue with the controls: in the Chrome browser, the mouse cursor would occasionally jump around, which made it impossible for me to finish the game—it got pretty frustrating at times!
Still, I really like the visual style—big thumbs up for that!
Finally! Done without any cheese, and everything done as intended.. (I think?)
..... uh, I finished it 8 minutes later, but apparently the screencap took the last time I unfocused the game, not what I was looking at currently. Got a 58:38
Anyways, really cool submission! I liked the climbing mechanic a lot. The atmosphere set is really neat, gotta love giant cogs! Obviously I liked the game a lot, to actually keep coming back to it and finishing it, I think overall it took me like... 2, probably closer to 3 hours? I like the mechanics you put in. Super satisfying doing giant swings off of huge ropes, and also climbing on ropes secured horizontally. Really felt great when you could pick an angle, then just grab left grab right grab left grab right and make a ton of progress. I liked the mechanic of being able to throw things into the wall to add as extra platforms. I can definitely see why it was used sparingly and telegraphed so well when it was used. I was... VERY confused when there were a few of them just sitting in the spot right before the 3 cranes where you have to swing up to the bridge above. I didn't know if you had to use them for something, but I got by without.
Some critiques/gripes.
Sometimes your momentum absolutely destroyed some things. You could get so much speed that even with holding on to something, it will fling you. The angular momentum aspect was very hard to control. Sometimes you'd be holding onto a ladder, but wrap around it to the other side. Sometimes when grabbing a rope above you, you'd fly up and through it. Obviously game jam code, but it definitely made some things quite difficult.
I wish you could *consistently* hold both mouse buttons and W to try climbing on top of whatever thing you're grabbed onto (assuming there's a standable surface very close to where you grab) - trying to get on top of a pipe you're hanging from was insanely difficult, and sometimes you'd have a grip hanging off of a small ledge, but you'd keep bonking your head or just not going high enough to actually get to the top. When it worked, it worked perfectly, I just wish that experience was the norm.
I did have a couple issues with telegraphing where you need to go next. Obviously I had to ask about jumping on the bridge. But there were a couple other points. Right after you climb the ladder with the sign in front of it, After you jump across once then jump across again, it was tough to know exactly where to go. I ended up learning how to cheese the game because I didn't know you were supposed to go back AGAIN, and instead I just jumped over the mound of dirt and skipped that whole next section (taking me right to the base of the structure I was on when I asked you for help the first time) Also, there's a spot when you're going to the spot right before where the giant cogs are right above you. There's a pipe you have to walk across, I thought you had to climb on top of it and do something else? The fence you climb when on the pipe didn't really seem like where to go, but I was definitely just overcomplicating it at that point. Overall though, I had a good sense of where I was supposed to go next.
Some of the falls are just.... brutal......
I'd also like for you to maybe have a small bit of momentum control while in the air. There were many times I felt like I could just jump over something by holding forward and pressing jump, but since I was right next to it, I jumped straight up and had no horizontal momentum. This was especially odd in the places where you had dirt mounds on stone. They were surprisingly difficult to jump onto.
Despite the criticisms, I really dug this game. You set a mood very well, you made a game that's challenging and encouraged me to see it to the end, despite being way longer than I spend on most jam games. Super solid entry, great work! Looking forward to seeing what you make in future LDs!
Comments20
Thanks for playing!
Hands down (ok, poor choice of words here) one of the best experience of Ludumdare #60 so far.
The gameplay mechanics is really fun;
I really loved this lowpoly textured scenery, the night, the lighting, the rust machinery, all together to build an amazing mood - my only complain it's the music - a cool song but somewhat out of place in this game. But that is just a detail.
Edit: Nevermind, I figured it out. "The bridge that spans across" ..... DUH
Personally, I also ran into an issue with the controls: in the Chrome browser, the mouse cursor would occasionally jump around, which made it impossible for me to finish the game—it got pretty frustrating at times!
Still, I really like the visual style—big thumbs up for that!
..... uh, I finished it 8 minutes later, but apparently the screencap took the last time I unfocused the game, not what I was looking at currently. Got a 58:38
Anyways, really cool submission! I liked the climbing mechanic a lot. The atmosphere set is really neat, gotta love giant cogs! Obviously I liked the game a lot, to actually keep coming back to it and finishing it, I think overall it took me like... 2, probably closer to 3 hours? I like the mechanics you put in. Super satisfying doing giant swings off of huge ropes, and also climbing on ropes secured horizontally. Really felt great when you could pick an angle, then just grab left grab right grab left grab right and make a ton of progress. I liked the mechanic of being able to throw things into the wall to add as extra platforms. I can definitely see why it was used sparingly and telegraphed so well when it was used. I was... VERY confused when there were a few of them just sitting in the spot right before the 3 cranes where you have to swing up to the bridge above. I didn't know if you had to use them for something, but I got by without.
Some critiques/gripes.
Sometimes your momentum absolutely destroyed some things. You could get so much speed that even with holding on to something, it will fling you. The angular momentum aspect was very hard to control. Sometimes you'd be holding onto a ladder, but wrap around it to the other side. Sometimes when grabbing a rope above you, you'd fly up and through it. Obviously game jam code, but it definitely made some things quite difficult.
I wish you could *consistently* hold both mouse buttons and W to try climbing on top of whatever thing you're grabbed onto (assuming there's a standable surface very close to where you grab) - trying to get on top of a pipe you're hanging from was insanely difficult, and sometimes you'd have a grip hanging off of a small ledge, but you'd keep bonking your head or just not going high enough to actually get to the top. When it worked, it worked perfectly, I just wish that experience was the norm.
I did have a couple issues with telegraphing where you need to go next. Obviously I had to ask about jumping on the bridge. But there were a couple other points. Right after you climb the ladder with the sign in front of it, After you jump across once then jump across again, it was tough to know exactly where to go. I ended up learning how to cheese the game because I didn't know you were supposed to go back AGAIN, and instead I just jumped over the mound of dirt and skipped that whole next section (taking me right to the base of the structure I was on when I asked you for help the first time) Also, there's a spot when you're going to the spot right before where the giant cogs are right above you. There's a pipe you have to walk across, I thought you had to climb on top of it and do something else? The fence you climb when on the pipe didn't really seem like where to go, but I was definitely just overcomplicating it at that point. Overall though, I had a good sense of where I was supposed to go next.
Some of the falls are just.... brutal......
I'd also like for you to maybe have a small bit of momentum control while in the air. There were many times I felt like I could just jump over something by holding forward and pressing jump, but since I was right next to it, I jumped straight up and had no horizontal momentum. This was especially odd in the places where you had dirt mounds on stone. They were surprisingly difficult to jump onto.
Despite the criticisms, I really dug this game. You set a mood very well, you made a game that's challenging and encouraged me to see it to the end, despite being way longer than I spend on most jam games. Super solid entry, great work! Looking forward to seeing what you make in future LDs!