Player in the Dark

zelos 2017-07-31 17:54

I really like this one. The graphics are very good, the music is very fitting and the gameplay is enjoyable.

The sound effects are a bit too load and you really shouldn't have put jumping on shift, since it turns on sticky keys after hitting it five times. Also I'm not sure if I can use fullscreen mode, which would definitely be a plus. But other than that I can't say anything bad about this.

So the timers feel pretty tightly tuned and it's very enjoyable to try and reach the next one. Normally I don't like 'not seeing much around you' mechanics, but here it works, since memorization of the path to the next lamppost is part of the game.

You're definitely getting high votes from me for the mood as well.

This is an awesome entry overall. Great work.

vehem 2017-07-31 18:02

Solid graphics and music really adds to the feel of the game. Tough in a few places, but feels rewarding to progress. Good stuff.

sivael 2017-07-31 19:43

Like the mood, but the stones, oh the stones...

taffaz 2017-07-31 19:45

Cool game, died a couple of times and didn't realise there were falling rocks as I was trying to conserve power which really nails the theme.

hhsaez 2017-07-31 19:47

Great game! A bit though at the beginning. But the good kind of hard. I kept dying before the ending of the first screen because I wasn't noticing the energy bar.

Nice work!

hilvon 2017-07-31 19:57

Have you intentionally map the jump to Shift key? The window kept throwing a popup at me after pressing it 5 times in a row at the most inconvenient moments...

But other than this, quite a fun game.

pbg 2017-08-08 05:19

Even when using the flashlight, the game is extremely dark - I couldn't see any of the platforms, especially tough when they were moving. This is a shame, cuz its a pretty cool game! I like the intermittent save points, the character, and the lighting effects. Maybe consider making the flashlight effect much more pronounced.

patrickd3121 2017-08-08 07:47

Really like the mechanics involved, The flashlight could make things a little brighter though cause I still had trouble seeing things despite using the electricity.

hugimugi7 2017-08-08 09:17

the problem was I didn't know where to go after tutorial

sokette 2017-08-08 19:47

I managed to get to the 4 screen, damn is this game hard !

But it's pretty cool, I liked the atmosphere and the graphics. The battery bar is unloading pretty fast though, I felt the game was all about getting the information by camping at the charging station and then rushing as fast as possible across the map :D

morphine 2017-08-08 20:18

Great game and I spent a lot of time with it. My main complaint is that it's sometimes difficult to tell what your current "challenge" is. For example, after the 2nd checkpoint where you get the message to watch out for flashes, I kept dying shortly after landing and couldn't figure out why. I still don't know exactly why, but I just moved really quickly and was able to get to the next screen. Audio is top notch, graphics top notch, great job!

fwazle 2017-08-08 20:42

Very interesting game! The art and sound effects complement each-other well. Well done!

thefunattic 2017-08-08 21:45

Greetings !

Very nice little platformer, I didn't expect much when I read life was calling during the jam :D But I was surprised !

The only thing I have to say, appart from "well done", is that the game is waaaaaay too difficult and more precisely, too unforgiving of mistakes. It gets very close to a "die and retry" kind of game, except you don't die because of the traps ahead of you, but rather because you checked if there were any with your suicide flashlight ;) Otherwise the controls are fine, maybe increase the jump height a bit ? Some jumps were hard to make, the first one for example.

Good entry !

Feel free to check our game out : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/berzerk-hunt We need the criticism too !

pedro-romero 2017-08-08 22:04

“Player in the Dark” is a cute little platformer that, despite its cutesy looks, is actually quite challenging.

The mechanic of flashing with the flashlight is a lot of fun to use. From getting the stage to light up to burn down opponents, it is a great tool that makes the game quite unique. The atmosphere of the game is also fantastic, with fantastic sprites and backgrounds and a music that sets the mood perfectly. Also the use of the Thinking Emoji to block the path made me laugh way too much.

The issues I had with the game were the RNG element of some of the challenges (the falling boulders, for example) and the use of Shift as the jumping button. Besides that, this was a great game. Keep it up!

rialgar 2017-08-08 22:41

I like the idea, but I had to use both 1 and 2 to beat the game. I like myself a hard game once in a while, but this was frustatingly unfair. Look at "I wanna be the Guy" for an excellent hellishly difficult and even partially unfair plattformer, that is still very enjoyable.

A couple of tips:

The distance between savepoints was too short compared to the power meter. Give the player some slack, so that one or two misshaps or even jsut a small break do NOT immediately result in a restart. When there were enemies, I even had to go back and forth to kill them and then have enough power to reach the next savepoint.

As a rule of thumb, the game should be darn easy for you to play, at least the first couple of screens, if it starts getting difficult for you, the player will have a very hard time.

Introduce only one mechanic at a time. Here are some examples where you introduced two at the same time:

* double jump - going backwards * moving platforms - falling rocks * climbing from movable to movable - movables that go behind spikes

Use separate keys for separate actions. I would like to use my flashlight from the savety of the savepoint, so that I can see the area before I start walking.

Do not use the z key for anything, it moves around in other very common keyboard layouts. (E.g. french and german). X and C are fine (at least in qwertz, qwerty and azerty, to my knowledge the three most common layouts).

Have contrast between background and foreground, I like to see where I can go. (When the flashlight is on, of course)

Have contrast between hazzards and background, dark grey rocks on black background are really hard to see

Have a full screen version. I prefer huge pixels over a tiny game window everyday.

Do not make insta-kill hazards random. I can not best it with skill, since they are different each time and in the worst case they are impossible to beat. When they are scripted patterns, muscle memory let's me beat it.

tiberiusuciu 2017-08-09 02:42

Great Game, I love the errie feel from it.

My only suggestion for you is to make things more clear about what we are supposed to do. Like point with an arrow or something where we should go for example.

Otherwise, graphics are good so thumbs up for that :^) Perhaps avoid making things so dark, it's a nice concept, but it's hard to keep players interested when they can't see very well.

Good Job Nonetheless!

mryamz 2017-08-09 21:50

I liked the over all feel. If I can make any critique it would be that maybe the jumping is a little too sharp. Great job otherwise.