2015-12-14 02:22
Really interesting gameplay, but the controls are not very easy to use.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD34 → From the Deep
By scorched
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 1 | 100 | ||
| Theme | 73 | 4.25 | ||
| Innovation | 155 | 3.72 | ||
| Overall | 193 | 3.63 | ||
| Fun | 260 | 3.46 | ||
| Mood | 267 | 3.30 | ||
| Graphics | 351 | 3.34 | ||
| Audio | 418 | 2.77 | ||
| Humor | 443 | 2.44 |
Really interesting gameplay, but the controls are not very easy to use.
Nice! Fun little game, with some cool graphics. Really like the theme interpretation.
The sound effects can be a bit jarring though.
Really cool. I like the movement mechanics.
Very nice! Only thing negative is the sound of the island growing, which is a bit "screamy".
The visuals and idea are cute, but gameplay suffers due to the controls.
And yes, island grow effect was rather... violent.
I appreciated the challenge at the end there. The controls are a little shaky as others have mentioned, but every other aspect is great.
Very addicting, and interestingly creative use of controls! Fun, could play for QUITE a long while if not for other games to play :)
Hehe at first I was thinking that Hill might be a face :D
Really nice, I like it. Except the controls go odd in some parts of the map. Like dropping through the small areas of the map.
MY EARS! Cool game otherwise, though.
I really like the way to squeeze some more functionality out of two buttons, well done! Nice gameplay. The view felt a little...distant though, more than necessary.
not bad, but it was so tiny it kinda made my eyes hurt. overall pretty fun :)
Fun game, but difficult controls.
I didn't think it was possible to get a good jumping and moving mechanism but your take on it was super smart! It makes the game quite unique and super challenging (those purple monsters are super hard to pass!). Perfect for the themes. My only issue was the sound made when a seed was collected. You might want to decrease its volume by a bit :)
Awesome job!
can be a little hard to control sometimes (as lots of other poeple have said) but its still rather fun
fun game, the sound effects will give me nightmares though ;)
*very* clever way to squeeze a couple more inputs out of just two buttons. Mapping short hops to light taps of the button was especially elegant given that it has about as much horizontal movement as you'd probably want out of a brief press of the button.
I thought the game built around the control scheme was a little vanilla, but still well built with a nice difficulty curve.
Great job, overall!
Good uses of both themes! Controls were a good experiment but I dont' think panned out. Good growth interpretation.
Controls are hard to get used to, but at least it fits the two-button theme. I like the music.
The ending was quite frustrating, aside from that really cool game.
why cant you swim
VERY nicely done! Props on the level design, it was pretty good, ESPECIALLY the THE END part.
jumping is initiated by double left or right? i cannot stand it. it also autojumps over gaps and corners, making some parts very difficult. would be very nice, good design / sound, but the controls made it impossible for the casual user.
Really loving the graphics, I enjoy the tininess of it all. Controls are a little tough but concept is simple enough to make it workable. Super cute!
Well, the game has pretty innovative idea, but it physically hurts to listen to island grow each fricking time. Please, replace this sound with something less annoying. In terms of gameplay, I wish the island would be different in every game. And... current island is heavily separated, by two parts, making it hard to obtain corns from right part in mid-game. These purple enemy-thingies are hard to dodge, should be nerfed a little.
Good luck!
Very Good!
Really like the island growing mechanic. Awesome setting. That said, the controls get in the way of enjoying the game. Also the difficulty at the double-enemy section is much higher than anything before. Not only is the small block hopping difficult, there's now two projectiles to deal with. Needs a little better pacing too!
This is pretty fun. I really like how you set up your movement controls, however they can be cumbersome at times.
This is a solid entry. I like the graphics and the camera. You could have added some variety to the clouds. I thought it was using procedural generation but its actually the same level each time. Great use of the themes.
cool concept
I really like this, except the controls are a little hard to use. Great game!
Very interesting controls. Enjoyed how the island has to rise to progress.
I love the use of 2 buttons :) I passed this entry 3 times in the list and kept telling myself to see what it was. And i'm glad I stopped :P although it can be annoying when it picks up a jump when you mean to walk, after playing a little I got the hang of it. I really enjoyed it.
This is very challenging, and nicely using the two themes together!
Good job! At first I thought scale small, but when the island grows it makes sense. Ah! Play and rate my game.
Very cool! Obviously when you have the entirety of a platformer functionality in onl two buttons it's not gonna be as smooth as a D-Pad but it's really well done here. The level design was also pretty cool and challenging.
Graphics and sound can be improved though IMO.
Good entry, good luck!
Great game, good audio love the idea. New and innovative!
The starting menu is not the best, sadly.
Good overall score! Well done.
Nice use of theme and nice level design! The layout of the island really makes the best of the strange controls and teases you with what's to come. The controls are kind of interesting but I think forcing in the two button theme kind detracted from the game rather than adding to it.
Excellent minimalistic game with interesting mechanics. Really like it!
Very good level design but the controls made me ragequit after a while. And that screen-shake :D
I like the idea. Simple graphics with solid gameplay.
very nice idea. the collisions feel good. graphics look good.
but please tell me. the sound effects.. :D
did you put a microphone inside a pinpall table and then drop it from a great height? or is this your imagination of the sound of an emerging island :D
This is pretty cool. Controls nicely and the music is groovy. The one thing negative thing I would have to say about this is the noise when the island is growing is a bit too intense for the ears. But other than that nice job!
This is awesome! I like the gameplay and the aggressive way the island rises.
Very clever idea! The controls worked brilliantly, congrats on that. really liked this, though the sound was kind of annoying.
finished it, liked it a lot, but sound are a bit violent, and the jumping mechanics sometimes makes thing easy, but most of the time provokes unpredictable behaviours, like when dodging enemies bullets, especially in the last 2 sections. You probably should have ditch the tow buttons constrains and made the controls differently.
Anyway, good entry!
Well, that escalated quickly.
A potentially interesting and fun game, but sometimes the controls weren't really responsive.
I really liked the concept. There was a brief learning curve on the controls but they worked just fine. Who knew you could have multi-directional running and jumping with just two buttons? Brilliant!
You really didn't leave much room for error with the timing near the end. Thanks for the checkpoints though - they were the difference between a challenging experience and me rage quitting. Also, I hate you for those last two clam things. The island "growing" sound effect could use some work. Great entry.
A fun and interesting game, would love to see more of it :) Controls were a bit buggy from time to time when jumping, but other than that I think you did quite well.
Nice one. Everything is very small on my high dpi screen though. Good idea to use the same two keys for both jumping and running. It's still just two keys even if the two keys do two things each. Clever!
I thought the growing island was a good idea. Good, simple tile graphics. I had to give up after the first few checkpoints because I couldn't complete a series of jumps (the middle item, first time you can see three on screen).
Neat game, fun to play. However, the sounds nearly destroyed my ear drums. The controls were difficult at times when I wanted to drop down into certain areas.
Awesome game. I like the you rise the island to advance and that opens up the next platforming puzzle. Those purple monsters are rough but challenging.
Cool little Game!
I'm really surprised, how many comments there in just a day! Thank you guys, I'll return after a while and check out your entries! ;)
Cool game, very unique. Controls are a little weird though.
Sound of the island growing is horrible (too loud) but all in all the game is great
The game is actually quite fun after the pink enemies start to appear. Only thing I would point out is the sounds: they're waaaay too aggressive, and kinda break the playful mood that the music itself gives
Great game, i like how you made it like a platform game
I liked this a lot! Managed to get past two of the pink blobs. Charming graphic and really nice atmosphere. Two small complaints: The sound effects has a bit painful volume which makes it hard to enjoy the music and the initial instructions was kind of hard to read. Other than that, I liked it a lot. Keep up the good work :)
Love love love the growing island concept. It's a neat way to gradually reveal the level and it's on-theme.
The two-button controls I'm not too sure about... they don't seem to add much to the gameplay, like they were just added on to fulfil the theme requirement.
Managed to get to the double pink projectile shooters before calling it quits, but I did enjoy what I saw.
I really like the concept
Cool concept and fun to play!
Very nice game idea. Mice puzzles. The enemies are very good placed obstacles... very hard to beat them... cause there is a problem with my controls... some times it makes a double jump from out of nowhere :D Nice Game I like it very much!
Nice! I like that you managed to fit four controls onto two buttons; was a little tricky to move downward sometimes. I like the difficulty scaling as it goes on (addition of monsters, trickier puzzles).
Great design here. I love this concept... The music... not so much! ;) Lovely entry tho.
Nice little exploration game, I kept playing because I just wanted to know what comes next. I think it would have been better if you kept normal control scheme, this system was just... annoying. The graphics were pretty good. Also, could have been a bit longer.
Kinda hard to control but very fun!
Nice concept :)
I find it difficult to follow the player though since he's so tiny.
Idea of the game is awesome. But it is hard to play in small window. I think you can evolve your submission into something more bigger.
Original concept, and great graphics and music. I liked the background details, like the flock of birds. Raising increasingly more of the island from the depths felt great. The "tap to jump" controls felt like an artificially imposed difficulty, though. (Admittedly, without it the game might have been way too easy.) Another nitpick is that the death sound effect is a bit too loud.
I like how you put in respawn points, though towards the end (the jumping section with two monsters at the end) I would have liked a few more.
Those nitpicks aside, it's a very attractive game with a pretty innovative idea.
Weird way to circumvent 2 buttons theme, never thought something like this, although it's kinda confusing, but I made it to the end.
I like the idea of the island growing and revealing more. Very atmospheric.
Controls are a bit finnicky, but there was not much you could do about that. The art and sound design are splendid, and you really nailed that effect when the island rises out of the ocean.
Woah, that was an awesome game. I loved the moving mechanic, and the controls fit in perfectly with the theme, meaning this game hit both themes, which is awesome.
The controls are oddly intuitive, although the sounds are very obnoxious (in a bad way) and the enemies are annoyingly difficult (a bad kind of difficult). Although the level design is top notch.
Really cool mechanic! Although fitting, the land growing sound effect was ear-raping.
Great concept & idea but the controls feel weird.
took me a min. to get the controls but after a figured it out it was very fun, I really liked the island growing effect.
Takes a bit to get used to the controls, but once you do, it feels sort of like magic when they work, I guess because I've just never moved a character like that before, but it was cool.
usually in games with such a tiny 'view' like this, making some those jumps can be infuriating, but somehow, by removing some of the control from me, you made it better... this doesn't sound like it should work on paper, but you pulled it off very well here, excellent job.
nice graphics, good audio, fun and creative gameplay, overall great job! :)
Yeah, the controls are weird, and i'm not sure if i'm playing it the right way it should be played. But the idea and the art is really cool, keep up the good work!
Very cool! The graphics are cute, love the island rising up effect, and the mechanics, although a bit tough, were fun. I liked the challenge, though I could not get past the two pink guys side by side. I'll try again later! Good one.
Interesting and challenging game! I like how the game is so tiny (didn't zoom in to play) and the whole island rising up effect. The level design is excellent. Although I think the game would be better to play with a separate jump button, I really enjoyed it once I got used up to the control. I couldn't get past the two monsters side-by-side near the end, but I'll try again tomorrow :)
Interesting and challenging game! I like how the game is so tiny (didn't zoom in to play) and the whole island rising up effect. The level design is excellent. Although I think the game would be better to play with a separate jump button, I really enjoyed it once I got used up to the control. I managed to get to the end, but the two monsters side-by-side near the end were a real challenge! (took me 15 minutes to get past them!)
Overall, I like it, just a shame about the controls being a bit tricky and the sound volume being too high. Other than that, great job.
Good gameplay but the death sound is a little violent. And I have a question, what is this green thing I controled ? :p
This is a very innovative idea for the theme! Great work!
The controls do need a little getting used to. Otherwise a pretty fun game to play.
It was kind of difficult to control the jumping :(
Very innovative concept and nice graphics! Controls are a little tricky but we get used to it. Well made :)
very cool platformer, controls are very fluid once we get used to them, well done
This is an adorable little game and it's really fun to play! I got the hang of controlling the little guy pretty fast. He is super cute and your level design is smart. I like how you introduce new jumping challenges and enemies as the island grows. Great work!
The only thing I didn't like was how the sound effects scared me. xD
Really nice use of both themes. Good graphics and very well laid out map design.
Don't really agree that the island "grows", but the game obviously conforms to the two button control theme, so it's fine. The game itself is quite a lot of fun and challenging. So yeah overall, I think it's a good entry.
Thanks, guys, I've made some fixes and put the new version as a separate link above
@Silvio, it's just LabChirp :-)
@caleb_gl, no, the jump is started when releasing the button shortly after pressing it
@Tipyx, he is an alien :-P Not green, but black with green hair
Very cool game !!!!! I liked it, its a very nice concept
very nice game, good idea!
the controls are not very easy thoug, and you should definitively add the zoom in option
Nice game, until it becomes impossible...well maybe not, but...hard! Character maybe a bit too small though.
Like how you really put the two button theme into play! Cool mechanic!
Really enjoyed the movement, thought the island animation was a bit much however.
It needs some practice to find how to use the controls well, but it worth it, interesting entry, well done !
After you get familiar with controls, this game is pure pleasure to play.
It's a fun game, a bit small on the screen, but I like the gameplay.
I have no problems with the controls, it felt fine for me, but the sound of growing is really jarring.
Cool concept, creative and effective controls. Audio is probably the weakest point: the growing sound is unpleasant and the music is minimal.
i really like this game even though the controls were tough - great work here
The control was sooo frustrating that like it. :3
Cool game, love how the map changes, was a bit difficult as the everything was so small on the screen but a very fun game
Clever use of controls. Took a while to overcome the first purple wave. Reached "THE END" eventually :).
Cool concept! My natural inclination to jump was to long-press the button, so I found it difficult to control :(
Nice game, I think it was a really creative use of the commands.
I couldn't ever get past that first purple monster. I tried and tried and tried and tried. But I just couldn't do it. I think the timing of the quick tap run-and-jump is extremely difficult to learn. It's too bad, because the game was overall really nice :(
I like the graphics a lot, it's nice to see such tiny sprites but still on a huge area, and growing the island was fun (at first).
The dying sound is kind of too much to hear over and over, butthe rest of the sounds were nice and minimalistic. The music is really cool too!
Thanks guys, a little hint for those struggling with the first monster: you don't need to jump over bullet, just dive under it ;-)
very smart idea - i liked it a lot
A little bit trouble with autojumps on the edges and double keypress - perhaps usual jump-key will be on its place if you continue to develop this game)
Wow, the island slowly showing up is really cool idea, definitely something you could build on!
One thing: the enemies did get freaking hard quickly, would maybe be nice to get into that a bit more gradually
Keep up the good work!
Interesting concept, though it's hard to play and had a convoluted control scheme. Very cool though, well done.
Really cool concept - I was skeptical of the controls at first but after a while they felt really good. I also liked how the checkpoint system worked.
Sound effects are a bit unbalanced in terms of volume, but good otherwise.
Nice job!
Could your sprites be any smaller?! :P
Like the concept, and while I find the platforming controls to be a bit unusual, they work really well here! Great job!
Cool entry. Not sure what I picked up, and it was a bit "leading" (only one possible way to go), but good job.
I like it more then your previous entry :) It's challenging, the length is neat, controls are ok, theme is included. The canvas could be bigger. I had to be pretty close to the monitor :) Great job, sir!
At first I found the controls difficult to use, but I realized that the level design accommodated for places where the controls were tricky. Well done with the themes.
I loved how sum both theme into one and the level design was really complex for the timeframe and yet with a awesome flow. I really like this one!
PS: Thumbs up for the checkpoints idea being the same thing that made the islands grow
This was very very cool. I wish the web version had a larger screen size or that you had a windows download because the screen in my browser was tiny and I couldnt figure out how to fix it-- which is a shame because I love the sprites and tiles.
Great entry ! The level going up from the ground is genius (not so much from a gameplay PoV, but the feeling of discovery is awesome)
This game need lifes,randomised map and highscores.Then the game is ready for taking our money.
This game needs lifes,randomised map and highscores.Then the game is ready for taking our money.
Very unique gameplay, Trying to inch towards platforms would often result in jumping off the edge instead.
Nice entry! I love how the hills is growing and give you access to new area, I find it really innovative! The two buttons is well made despite I would have prefered to have a jump button (I know you wanted to use the 2 buttons themes, but I think it was already fine with just the growing theme). Anyway, I am sure there is something to do about this concept so it is turned in a game with more levels. Good job ;)
Interesting implementation, but using the same keys to jump and not jump is slaving to the theme and not real wise. Also, black and brown and small is not good for a character.
Thank you guys, I have finally tried all your entries (to date), rated most of them, found many cool ones! Keep rocking!
fantastic! controls are a bit difficult, though.
Fun game, and good idea for the movement with just 2 controls! It was kind of difficult to move the ways that I wanted to, but still good. The music was nice but some of the sound effects were not too good, kind of loud and scary =O good job though, this was a lot of fun :)
Hey this game has a GOOD IDEA. And is entertaining too! sadly become hard (very hard) after 10 minutes going down. Well done!
Really cool idea, music was kind of creepy, in a good way though! Took a while to get used to the controls, but enjoyed it a lot once I did get used to them
A great idea, very easy to learn but difficult to play. I love this little game !
I really liked everything in the game. The level design was perfect!
Just the sound of the island growing was a bit too loud.
BTW, how you made to jump <3
This is probably my favourite game of the compo so far! Well done!
The pacing and progression was really well-crafted. I like how the island rose and enabled me to learn the double-tapping technique. The caverns became more and more complicated as I went, which was a lot of fun. The double-tapping was a bit hard to pick up though; my game was like that as well, haha. I'm sure some tuning to make it more fluid would help greatly.
I'd love to hear how you composed the music and generated the sounds. They were really interesting.
Cool idea and veeeery nice level design. One of the best I've played, I like how it expands and how the difficuty gets higher and higher.
Really great! I love the idea of that growing island.
The game begins very plain and simple, but drags the player right in a mysterious growing experience that I just want to explore. The gameplay is nice, you hold the buttons to walk, and release them when you want to jump, I found that interesting. Something else that's cool is the enemies that spawns later in the game which makes the gameplay much better. The game is a solid 5 stars, well played
Cool concept, had some trouble jumping. I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you’d like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/iU4q-3Z4nkI
Thank you, you're all awesome! I'm working on improving jumping, but it appears to consist of several sub-issues, so a bit more work to do, and hopefully, I will bring the controls to the higher level
Very interesting game! Controls have a bit of a 'reversed' feel, but that makes for a unique experience. Loved the tininess of the world. The jump puzzles were pretty good, only the one with the two purple mounds in a line was bit too much for me.
Super interesting, I really liked it. :) The jumping controls only had issues in a couple places, but otherwise felt really good.
Fun and clever little game, but I found the controls to be a bit annoying and difficult.
It's a little game so simple but really really fun!! I'm love it!! :)
nice concept and use of both themes. Controls are a bit difficult at times, but the game is forgiving enough to let you retry. Quite addictive!
Great idea, very good execution...
It is just too small, and I get it is so you can see everything, but still too small :)
Hey! Nice game :)
Liked your use of the two buttons and I though the idea of a growing island was kinda cool. Found gameplay a bit dull, but liked the rest.
In this game you reach a target place and then the island would rise a bit from water.
Control scheme, left and right to move left and right, double tap to jump to move in that direction.
As ld34 entry, this game explores (successfully) adding more action under the two-button-limitation.
It also use the grow theme uniquely with terrain gradually emerge from water generating more gameplay (or change existing gameplay).
Like the controls, a lot! Great visuals and cool game overall! c:
The island growing sound was a little loud, but neat concept. Kind of frustrating to do the jumps sometimes though..
Great use of two button controls to make a functional platformer! Although at some times the controls led to some awkward moments (e.g. wanting to walk forward just a small amount but jumping instead), overall they were intuitive and worked well with the game.
This entry gets both themes right in a great way. I've seen many games here that have been very hindered by their attempts to create more than 2 interactions with only 2 buttons but with this game I feel it is integrated properly. It's not easy, but doable and does not feel forced. Simple idea taken to completion. Really nice.
What an amazingly cool idea! This is like no other platformer I have played. You successfully stayed within the two button and growing themes and the limit on controls The scale and the peaceful birds flying across add to the mood. The graphics are simple but within the time I think you did great well done :)
Damn that last part of the level was annoyingly hard. Despite the rather difficult control scheme, this was a rather well polished entry and I liked how you've interpreted both themes.
I dont really like the jump controls, but I get why they are the way they are. I liked the graphics and audio, and the gameplay, but it got old pretty quickly for me. Good job!
Boy that last challenge is tough, but I'm glad I stuck with it. This game is very addictive and rewarding to play. I wasn't sure about the controls at first, but I came to appreciate that that was the challenge of the game, wrapping your head around this unusual control scheme and figuring out the rhythms required to overcome each obstacle. Very well done.
Oh my goodness this game is gorgeous. Love the idea, love the music. The controls either really work or kind of don't, but I commend you for the effort.
Awesome game ;) Great job!
I liked it, but I feel like it suffered a bit as a result of the two-button theme.
Cool game. Love the island rising up as a mechanic. I think the game would have been better it you just had the island rising as the 'growing' theme, because the two button controls are just kind of awkward and don't really help the game. I quite enjoy the tiny pixel graphics, reminds me of the 'all on one screen' theme from a previous LD.
Loved this. Great mechanic for the jumping and a great idea for the setting and what's happening. Had a lot of fun with this one.
The music sounded like the ghost tower from pokemon to me - it was really innovative though. Great use of both themes.
See you next time ;-)