Shelton's Detour

ryguydavis 2017-05-01 16:23

I really love your game window. The circle window + radial level design was really fantastic. I would have liked to see more of it, but I just couldn't play for long without finding unpassable areas. The first cold area, for instance, had too many elements and the puzzle became punishing rather than difficult because of the bees. In the future, you might consider not including two new elements in one room, especially if one of them kills you. It looked like you had a LOT of really cool ideas (radial level/gravity, temperature, jump height variance, time pressure, etc.) but because they all came in at more or less the same time they confused each other and became difficult to learn. I think separating them out would help a great deal.

Also, the intro made me laugh out loud. Really funny fourth wall stuff.

ace17 2017-05-06 09:31

I only get an empty redish/brownish ball with nothing inside (I'm using Firefox 45).

cheesymoo 2017-05-07 23:53

Good premise and design of gameplay... The art is good too!

I tried for a while but kept dying, the platforming is unforgiving...

eli-delventhal 2017-05-09 17:02

Cool idea, I like how you wrapped the world in a ball. Nice visual effect.

The platforming itself leaves much to be desired. It's super simple, the temperature mechanic doesn't feel like it does a whole lot, and the game really really needs checkpoints. You start with it being really difficult really quickly, especially given some art cues are off (the cactus blocks look extremely close to regular platforms, for example). I think a post-compo version of this game where you spend more time tuning could be really great.

papaver 2017-05-10 17:52

@ryguydavis: Thank you so much for your great feedback! Indeed, our level design needs a lot of attention, we wanted too much in too short time... ;)

@Ace17: Thanks for trying. We didn't test our game in older browsers... :(

@CheesyMoo: Thanks for playing. We should have made it easier indeed. :)

@eli-delventhal: thank you for your comment. Now that I click on the link in Chrome, I see that the blocks are not drawn properly! That is why the normal and cactus blocks looked so similar. The blocks should look as in the screenshot. If I refresh, everything is fine, so maybe you can try that. Weird... We didn't see this problem before. We will try to fix this! The platforming is sometimes indeed a bit weird. We use polar/radial coordinates, an this gave us some unexpected problems... which we will try to fix for a post-compo version. There are actually checkpoints - the green flags!

pikopik 2017-05-11 02:50

I don't know why but I love that the astronaut is just a regular turtle. I also really like that you used the sun as a sort of time limit!

I was going to comment on the cactus blocks looking almost the same as regular blocks but it seems it's a rendering issue, and the player hitbox seems weird too sometimes. sideways platforming is a really fun challenge though.

pankamil 2017-05-11 17:47

The idea of heat-based jump height (and heat-based survival) is great, but it mostly meant just waiting n seconds to cool down while avoiding annoyances. I wish this game had some more forgiving level design at the beginning, just so I could screw around a little more with this fun concept. I hope I will see this design explored further, maybe in your next project :)

Anyway, I also liked the idea of round world, and the humour you put into it. It also has quite nice jumping mechanic, and graphics, especially for a browser game.

mihaylovartem74 2017-05-11 18:14

turtle-astronaut is awesome! i really liked gameplay and graphics! Great work!

doomshmuck 2017-05-12 03:04

I felt like the controls were too floaty and I didn't really feel like I had good control over the character... and for a platformer, that can be a big problem. The checkpoints felt pretty unforgiving, and I got stuck on the first cold part... it felt like I had to wait for the temperature to drop before I could move forward? That part didn't feel all that fun to me, and with the checkpoints, if I got hit, I had to start over the waiting game.

papaver 2017-05-12 09:13

@pikopik and @mihaylovartem74: thanks for your nice comments. :) I made a quick half-fix for the art to load properly (but only after you hit space :S).

@pankamil: thanks! The level design indeed needs some attention.

@doomshmuck: if you mean the cold chamber with the 'bees', it is not just a waiting game, you should also do something with the crystals. Indeed, the controls and the platforming have some issues still, sadly. :( Thanks for playing!

tajamsoft 2017-05-12 19:12

Loved the circular design! The controls were a bit floaty, controlling the jumps was not really pleasant, the heat mechanics are very interesting, it's a nice mechanic.

snowdrama 2017-05-14 01:43

Dang! I'm getting a "This site can’t be reached" error! I'll try again soon, maybe the site is just busy.

qzqxq 2017-05-14 07:43

I'm also getting an error when I visit the site. :(

holyblackcat 2017-05-14 12:04

Same, the link is broken. ;_;

dining-philosopher 2017-05-14 19:05

@snowdrama, @qzqxq, @holyblackcat : Thanks for pointing this out! Apparantly the server went down this weekend when we were away. It is up and running again! :)

inigo 2017-05-15 18:40

Nice entry. In my view, the inertia could be decreased a little since it makes a little hard to control. Anyway a solid entry. Good job

kolkav 2017-05-16 19:55

I love the idea with the window, the game has a good sense of humor, good controls, however, I could totally jump over that rock in the beginning, I know it!

bog13 2017-05-16 20:13

Very nice game but a bit too hard for me. Good job !

scriptorum 2017-05-16 20:31

The rotation is disorienting but also part of the charm, so it's not a complaint. :grin: Liked the art. More sounds and music would improve the experience. Controlling the turtle could use a little more polish, coming to a stop takes a bit long. I could not get past the cold checkpoint, no matter how cold I got, even waiting for the sun to drop, I still jumped too high to clear the passage. Great application of the theme and a solid entry.

dragojt 2017-05-16 20:46

I found the idea of the rotation while platforming very good and innovative, so good job! The point is that the collision box of the enemies is a bit weird and it kills you without touching you. I couldn't get to the rocket but I think it's a good flashgame for this contest :)

symmsaur 2017-05-16 20:48

This game is super hard! I really like it :)

Very ambitious with with the different enemy types, the solar heating and cooling off and circular level. I also like the difficulty :grin:

The controls could be a bit less floaty and more precise.

But, on the whole, one of the best games I've tried this time around!

zener 2017-05-16 20:51

Cool game and mechanics, just quite hard for me