pareidolia 2017-08-01 16:55
Wow, what a great game! It pays respect to Cave Story and Kero with a little Metroid Fusion thrown in. The gunplay and platforming was engaging, with good level design to boot.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Plagued Station
By mr-field and juicybrucey
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 7 | 4.43 | 55 | |
| Fun | 43 | 4.01 | 55 | |
| Innovation | 179 | 3.50 | 54 | |
| Theme | 44 | 4.18 | 55 | |
| Graphics | 14 | 4.72 | 56 | |
| Audio | 21 | 4.23 | 54 | |
| Humor | 262 | 2.80 | 47 | |
| Mood | 41 | 4.17 | 55 |
Wow, what a great game! It pays respect to Cave Story and Kero with a little Metroid Fusion thrown in. The gunplay and platforming was engaging, with good level design to boot.
Wow, what a great game! It pays respect to Cave Story and Kero with a little Metroid Fusion thrown in. The gunplay and platforming was engaging, with good level design to boot.
@pareidolia Holy shit, you got my inspirations to a tee. Is it that obvious?
I'm glad you liked it! Thank you.
This game **looks** and **feels** very nice, well done !
Very clean little game. Doesn't try to be too ambitious and succeeds at what it sets out to be. Unfortunately, I feel like too many mechanics were quickly introduced and never used in conjunction. For example, combat is barely used throughout, the moving platforms are only ever used in one area, blocks you can break are only seen in one area as well. The air vents were ok, sprinkled throughout forcing you to backtrack a bit once you've enabled them. The power/electricity mechanic was cool at first but became old rather quickly when I had to keep going back to step on the pressure pad. Graphics were very nice and the color palette sets the mood really well.
What an incredible entry! It looks great, it sounds great, it controls great, overall an incredible package to deliver in only three days. I don't really know why you are dissatisfied with this entry, I am blown away with the quality presented!
This game wears its inspiration on its sleeve, with it's retro look, jump-n-gun action and exploration gameplay it presents, and you managed to pull it off masterfully. The main gameplay idea that ties it to the theme is particularly interesting, forcing the player to manage their time well while exploring the plant. Yet, if the power does go out, the ambiance that sets in with the nightmares slowing approaching makes for a very tense feeling, while still giving the player hope that they'll manage to reach the main room to return power to the facility. To help with this, the trams offer a very nice way to quickly jump around the facility.
The second main gameplay idea - using the gun's recoil to extend your jump (and possibly other uses that I'm not aware of) - not only gave the gun a very satisfying humpf when using in any context, but pulling it off felt really nice... That is, if my keyboard let me press Z, X and Down at the same time, but it appears that isn't the case. As such, it was actually too hard for me to consistently pull it off, which meant that I couldn't advance past a certain point. When I did manage to pull it off (by releasing Z just before pressing Down just before releasing X), I could see how well crafted the implementation was (outside of the specific keybindings), and the potential it has (even for speed-running/sequence-breaking, which is a plus in my book).
Finally, activating different systems in the facility, such as the air vents, in order to progress is a unique take on how to design "power ups", as it were.
Quite frankly, I would love to see this game developed further and given a full release, with a big map to explore. What I see is the beginning of a really compelling metroidvania game. (just make sure to allow key mapping! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)
Good game! Sprites look realy greate. The mechanics of the recoil of the shot works perfectly. The only thing I don't understand how to turn on the power when you're quite far from the beginning.
Great mood and interesting gameplay) I found "out of bounds" in one moment and drop out from map) Good job)
This is just amazing, congrats! Graphics it's fantastic, and I love the way you can jump higher with the shotgun mechanics. It's just clever. Also a loved the music and the mood in general. I don't think it is too difficult, it is just fine to me. Keep up the good work! :)
Great game! I loved the graphics!
Like, I don't know whether to congratulate you on a fantastically well made game that astounds me that it was made in 3 days, or to hate you for bringing this torture into my life. The art style is beautifully simple with multiple types of environments and various enemy types, the effects are awesome and compliment the actions perfectly. There are sounds for everything and they're all great and consistent and tie everything together. The level designs are clever and don't repeat themselves and the way the theme is built in as a timer is brilliantly done.
The controls though... I agree double jump in most games requires no skill and I did eventually get use to the double jump in this game (I refused to be beaten) but although skill-full, it felt like I was fighting with my keyboard most of the time. Timing the jump while also removing the correct fingers from certain keys was very annoying at first and I can imagine most giving up because of this (I wish I had, but I'm too stubborn...).
I must admit I didn't finish the game, I would've even if it took me all night, but when heading for the final person, I hit "R" while in a tram and broke the game. I also hit "F" a few times by accident which was a little annoying but that's more my fault if anything.
Anyway... games a masterpiece, 5 stars all around, make a full game and I'd probably buy it and cry some salty, salty tears.
:star::star::star::star::star:
I loved! This is the best entry that I played in this LD. I would definitely buy this! Nicely done guys!
Great game, I liked the graphics and the gameplay, continues to make games
Favorite game so far! I personally had a problem with when to let go of the fire button and when to jump. But that's pretty much my entire gripe with the game. It's extremely well polished and feels clean. Everything was satisfying. Especially aiming the gun downwards as a second jump. It all feels awesome. The SFX and Music was also not to in your face, and still added a-lot. Everything is just soo good. I wish it was made into more. If you were disappointed by this, I wonder what projects you guys've made that are better, because I'm looking forward to them! :)
One of my favorites of the jam! Really nice use of the theme, quality art, and fun gameplay!
This game was excellent! So much polish and content done over such a short time, really impressive! Love the cave story style visuals, very well done, with good tactile feedback on player actions. Amazing job all around!
Niiiice! I really like it! But why i save 5 peoples, and escape with 4?
I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said a number of times, but here goes :sweat_smile:
This really does seem like the beginning of a pretty interesting Metroidvania, and I actually would like to see it developed to a full release. There were a number of things I liked, from the diverse use of the gun mechanic, to the way the function of many things was implied by the environment so the game didn't really have a tutorial but still taught the player what to do.
Unfortunately while I was trying to get my last person I took the tram back to the main part of the station and remembered while I was travelling that I could press R to refabricate, which ended up breaking it. But that is my only negative, which isn't really much! :slight_smile:
Awesome game! Both audio and art is great. But it's kinda annoying to restart the game everytime you die
@wolderado
You don't actually lose any progress when you die, you only lose the person you're carrying, this is what the tram is for. I should've explained that in the game, since it's not very obvious.
Thank you very much for playing!
I didn't get all that far but, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game.
Very nice game! It is really fun and very polished. I would like to see this game in a post-jam version.
Amazing game! pity I fell in the moving crates zone and became stuck, even the monsters could not kill me to respawn. I wish I had been able to finish it! the music is awesome, the mechanics are polished, controls are good... a bit frustrating, I must say, due to far checkpoints and having to repeat some zones over and over (and the tram animation).
Reminded me a bit of Cave Story but with its own different style. Congratulations! great job
You can't make so much content in so few time! Did you made a deal with the Devil or something? The puzzles are well think, but it took me some time to understand exactly what I could do with this power gun. I played it a long time (maybe half an hour) but didn't manage (yet) to reach the end. It's amazing to make a game that quality and with that amount of content in only the time for a LD. Very well done!
This was a wonderful Mertoidvania. I especially liked the end where I was carrying all the people on my back out of the facility falling down around me. The mood was excellent throughout with the decidedly darker theme when the power was out. There were a couple of times I wasn't sure I was going to make it. At first I didn't realize that I could power up the station and spent a long time running around trying to get the guys with the ghosts everywhere...
Suggestions: (These are all small things because the game is excellent) - Make less of a reliance on the shoot jump. It seemed like you couldn't make a regular jump anywhere in the game. I wish that the shoot jump came out in fewer places to make it feel a little more awesome when you pull it off. - Make the people you rescue match the sprites that appear in the safe room. The first time I rescued a guy and a girl appeared in the safe room and I thought the game glitched and I was missing one. But then I realized that the safe room randomly reassigns genders too. :smile:
Bugs: -I didn't find any. Nicely done!
I literally made an account just to say how impressed I am with this game. It plays very well especially for something done under 72 hours! All contributors deserve praise. The art, music, and game play meld together to deliver a cohesive game. It felt polished for the little time you guys had.
I played the game for over 40 minutes and finished it. As much as I enjoyed it, I have to rant a bit about the final section of the game. The randomized falling boxes and black monster spawns made the ending scene too reliant on luck. Everything else was very well made. Great job!
This is really a great entry, it reminds of the cave story, I think you guys could make it a extended version of this game.
Wow, you shouldn't feeling let down by that. It's a really great entry.
Really charming artwork/graphics, mechanically solid, and great audio to boot. As many have said already, real cave story vibes going on.
Congrats on the entry - be proud!
Great entry, although the mechanics weren't immediately obvious to me
Wow man, this game is so cool ! The ****graphics(5/5)**** are perfect, the ****audio(4/5)**** is great, the ****idea(4/5)**** is nice. You worked hard on it ! Great Entry at ****overall(5/5)**** !
Really nice looking game. Played it for a while then gave up on the last huy in the conveyor room.
Let's start with the graphics... Looks really great (I wouldnt be able to draw this even in full 72 hours), even wobbling player and different people.
Nice maps and level design and nice tricks. You could get stuck in the conveyor room if you left to the left or the right side of the screen (but im sure you can fix it later)
Movements are crisps and you even have 2 kinds of monsters. :)
As for the converyor belts, I don't know how they works but sometimes they kill me for no reason. The posters with keys could have been used in a non-camouflaging colour. And I gave at almost the top of that conveyor level because this double jump is too much for my hand.
It's a really nice game, just not very fun for my hand.
Amazing game! A brilliant idea and an extremely polished execution. I have no suggestion on how to improve this apart from the missing "down to interact" tip at the beginning. I love how you tackled the double jump mechanics. Great job!!
I am impressed by this game and I having not played very many platformers myself (yet loving the genre) I learn quite a few things from your entry. The mechanics and feel of movement and jumping is nice (it did take me a few seconds to figure out about holding Z though, and I kept forgetting which was firing and which one was jumping as I was reaching for space to jump constantly =) Also about the subtle and classic pixelart feel of the character mmovement, the little dust pufs, the breathing animation, etc. Felt great! The artwork and music was matched the game mechanics perfectly and it felt polished. I did reach a point where the tutorial said hold Z for strong fire, which I did, but I couldn't blast through the rocks or rocket jump over the spikes in that room so I'm not quite sure if I'm missing something or if it's a bug. What engine/tools did you use to make the game?
@imphenzia
Hey! Thanks for the wonderful comment.
I really appreciate that you learned some things from my game! Platformers are a genre that I care about a lot, probably because they're the only games I can actually play alright enough, so it means a lot to me.
I feel the mechanic of the 'turbo blaster' is a bit of a weird and clunky mechanic to get used to, especially if you're not used to platformers, but when charged, you can jump and release your blast mid-air to gain an extra boost, kinda like a weird double jump.
The game is programmed in Game Maker Studio 2, art was done in Paint . NET and my buddy did the music in FL Studio.
Thanks for asking! ;)
Great job! Good level design, great art, really good game overall, congratulations! That shoot down while jumping mechanic... you got me there<3 Btw, the monsters are really creepy :S
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PrvQzCwG63k/T2Z9fpQ-OOI/AAAAAAAAA1o/iGzc2P7v9MY/s1600/friday-damn-gif.gif standing ovation and junk! really nice.
pushing down is a bit finicky with a xbox360 controller tho.
Perfect score from me! Thank you for making this game it was inspirational!
Seriously great! If one day you make a game like this but bigger, I'd happily play it! Is there a way we can see the source code? I'd like to learn from that :D
@pyokoanarogue
Oh shiet! I completely forgot I even added controller support, I added it in at the start before I thought of the gun mechanic and forgot about it. I'll have to take a look at fixing it up.
Thanks a lot.
;)
Really beatiful art style - cool game Idea.
itch.io tells me the game was uploaded 16 hours ago but the jam ended two weeks ago. That is quite a gap!
86 MB is quite a download, you should try to compress your music, which is usually the largest assets, for your next entry.
Trying to run the game tells me it cannot find d3d11.dll. I am running Windows XP which only supports D3D9. Are you using anything that really needs D3D11 capabilities? I am pretty sure from the screen shots that you do not so next time you could try to go for the lowest common denominator which today is still D3D9.
@gonutz
I updated the game recently to fix a bug that allowed the player to leave the level and fall through the map, so that's probably why it says 16 hours ago.
Sadly, I used Game Maker Studio 2 to program this entry, so I don't think I have control over what D3D version it can use, my apologies that you cannot run the game as a result.
I appreciate your input! Thanks for the tips on compressing the music, I didn't really think about it.
Fantastic entry! The visual style was quite Cave Story-esque and I loved the color palette in particular. I enjoyed the music quite a bit as well, and the sound effects contributed to the atmosphere, too. Gameplay wise everything appeared to be working as intended and the only issues I have are mostly polish related. I will have to agree with some of the previous feedback about the gun jump being a bit tricky to pull off, although I managed to mostly get used to it. I'd say it's probably downright impossible on a controller especially because of the requirement to push two directions at once. I wouldn't know because I didn't bother with using my Xbox 360 pad due to the B button being used for jumping which threw me off completely. Another issue I had was the fact that when backtracking though certain areas it felt as if the enemies were positioned in such a way that they could immediately attack you as soon as you enter the room. Other than that, I was very impressed with it! I liked the power mechanic (even though it felt like at certain points I was cutting it way too close), I liked the rescue objective and I really enjoyed it as a whole! Fantastic work!
Heeey, some linux version? :'(
This is a really amazing CaveStory-like game. Great use of the theme, and great job doing it in 72 hours only. Loved the credits! :D
- Amazing graphics - Amazing sounds - Amazing gameplay - Amazing mood - The controls are maybe placed a little strangely, making it hard to "rocket jump" i think - 18 / 20
Many players are looking for online casino sites for an opportunity to have fun and try their hands at no risk. Therefore, a self-respecting casino offers its visitors a no deposit bonus so that new players can safely enjoy the games. If you want to try it too, read all the details in the article https://polskie-kasyno-online.pl/bonus-bez-depozytu/ and learn how to choose a reliable gaming platform with great bonus offers.