grace-winkle99 2017-08-01 02:08
I love the art style
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Temple of Illumination
By johngun
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 166 | 3.75 | 117 | |
| Fun | 143 | 3.66 | 116 | |
| Innovation | 598 | 2.75 | 114 | |
| Theme | 642 | 3.13 | 116 | |
| Graphics | 281 | 3.87 | 117 | |
| Audio | 92 | 3.85 | 116 | |
| Humor | 380 | 2.48 | 103 | |
| Mood | 254 | 3.52 | 114 |
I love the art style
This feels like a really solid start to a bigger game, which is exactly what a Ludum Dare game is supposed to be. The controls were pretty good. With a little bit of polish, the wall climbing could be really fun. I couldn't get past the falling level though- we tend to make games that are way too hard!
SO GOOD
Really addicting mechanic. felt like playing super meat boy all over again, the art was neat and easy to understand, the light from the portals gave me a clue about the level difficulty and size. Level difficulty was just right, but about mechanics I feel like it's a bit punishing that when the character lets go of a wall It won't grab any other. Awesome entry!
Great art style and great lighting. Amazing work, especially in the amount of time we had.
Pretty good game! I really liked the platforming challenges you created with your level design. It was a fun experience. Thank you for the game!
Really good work, and solid content. Nice job, especially for such a short game jam. (However, the wall jump mechanic really needs some polishing, it is very often frustrating :( )
This is a beautiful piece of work. It looks great and the controls are very snappy. Though, there are a few things that could be touched up. Firstly, the wall jump could be more reliable (the controls were a little awkward). Secondly, the hitbox of the spikes was a little unforgiving, especially when it is on top of a block and try to jump over it. I got stuck at the spikey level. All in all, great work and good luck! :smiley:
Beautiful game! I love the artstyle, the light shafts create a lot of athmosphere. The music fits perfectly. The only thing I don't like is the wall jump mechanic, it just doesn't feel "right".
Good work!
The game is fun, but the "out of power" mechanic doesn't add to gameplay. Great art style!
Very beautiful game, the music is impressive, the art is impressive, the controls are very impressive.
It is also a very unforgiving game! Still very fun.
nice game. strangely the wall jump became a wall clim b;p
It was really cool how you squeezed so many mechanics in. I really like the unforgiving platforming and loopy mood you have going with the lights and the choir songs. There were a few things that didn't feel completely fair. The spike seem a bit too prone to kill you while you jump alongside pillars they're stuck on top off. In 3rd is the charm, the spikes furthest to the right would even kill me while walljumping 1 tile below me. That same spike returns in Spikey Up on the walls to ruin my life and playthrough (I was playing in the OpenGL build) ;( Also in the first falling level, for the first drop you have to make. If (and when I multiple times) miss the first landing, the spikes on the buttom are multiple blocks down. It would've felt a bit tighter if that spikefloor was moved up a bit, so that after I failed the challenge of reaching safety the game just quickly kills me and I can try again. I'm just mentioning these minor things because the game is really good. It's a jam game and it was actually a fun challenge spanning multiple levels. You even had some fun with the mechanics like in Just Get In There. Highly recommended. Great job! I'm looking forward to seeing the game again with even more polish!
i love the tile art! the controls feel very smooth and polished, which is perfect in a game with unforgiving mechanics like this. the wall jump was a little wonky, but manageable.i died a lot playing it, but didn't feel frustrated. the time limits of the levels could be stressful, but still felt just perfect when you do a level well.
First thing when i tryed out the game: Dying is too funny!! :D The sound design is solid and entertaining. I love the fluid and smooth mechanics, easy to get into and the difficulty level is hard enough! i played 6 levels then i give up, but i think that a portable version for smartphone could be very cool, Great work guys!
Really nice platformer, great level design. The only complaint I can think of is that maybe the theme is a bit of a stretch
I absolutely loved this, found myself playing it over and over! The graphics are beautiful and I love how the darkness fades in as time ticks by. The music and concept are beautiful and I loved how you interpreted it.
i very much enjoyed the meatboyish gameplay, although the wall climb isnt perfect ;) Nice Visuals and this awsome soundtrack really helped to create a cool atmosphere :)
Loved the game, but I'm on the phone to marvel and they say they want their wall climbing mechanics back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0D3AOldjMU
This game looks great - some really nice lighting going on. With the cool lighting and setting, i was a little disappointed that it was just small, bite sized levels - I think the game could have done well with a big temple to explore. I realize thats really hard in a game jam, but the setting seemed to point to that. It plays well though, so thats good. Nice game.
I'm a fan of super meat boy, so this hit close to home. I like the overall feel of the game, but I feel like mechanics really have to be polished so it's not just another platformer. Good job regardless, it was fun!
Ok, I don't know if it was just me, but the music was pretty loud. It was excellent, but very loud. The gameplay itself was enjoyable. I got stuck on a couple of levels for a while, but they were never really unfairly hard. Might just be me bad at platformers x3
The sprites looked amazing, and the light scattering from the portal really added something to the graphics. Maybe they were a bit OTT, but no less mysterious.
Liked it, felt responsive enough to be enjoyable but still realistic to make in the allotted time.
I manage to get myself to the end however it was quite difficult, not bad difficult just difficult. I had a lot of problem with the last level "spikey up" escpeialy. anyway great stuff!
It wasn't waste of time when I have played this game, good job
Really enjoyed this. Really nice graphics and music. A very solid platformer, good job!
Great game! It's a lot of fun playing it, the lighning is really well done and the levels are really good designed. Keep it up!
The background music was one of the most memorable song I've heard in games I've played in this LD. Very nice song, would love to have the soundtrack if possible :P The lighting effect was nicely done and the animation quality was high.
Gameplay: The control was tight and feels responsive for a hard platformer like this. However I found that I was confused by the shape of the collectable at first. I thought it was an arrow pointing down in the first level. I was very confused why the game tells me to jump onto a spike and I did and I died :p After a few trials I then realized it was a collectable. The hitbox of the spike also seems a bit too big for my taste. I'm very bad at plateformers so maybe that is why, so for me this was a very difficult game due to the large hitboxes.
However, I can see that it is a well polished and very high quality game. Well done!!
PS: don't forget the soundtrack :p
I really enjoyed your game, so much fun. Congratulations!
Wow ! It's such a great game ! Graphics are super cool, the music is one of the best i've heard on this ludum dare. Congrats !
Also, the gameplay is very cool, easy to controll, hard to masterize ! I achieved to accomplish 5/6 levels, maybe a bit more. The hitboxe of the spikes were to big, so it was very continue.
Good game, even more for a game jam !
The level tiles graphics are well done and the lighting effects are nice; I like that lighting also serve as an indication for the portal direction.
The character responds well to control. I found that not being able to cling to the same wall after you begin to fall a bit unfair. But not as unfair as spikes hitting you when your to the side of the block that holds them! Spikeys Up was where I gave up.
The "running out of power" mechanism was a good idea, but I never felt challenged by it, even in "Don't collect them all at once". Also, it may just be me, but I never let go of the Run button the whole time.
For the levels I played, the level design was fresh enough to keep me interested. And most importantly, the music was fantastic.
Good job overall!
Great game! I really enjoyed playing it, but I wasn't able to finish it :( I got stuck on the level with spikes in the ground. The difficulty is fine though - it reminds me of Super Meat Boy a little bit. The snappy controls are amazing, it makes me feel really in control so I can't blame anything other than my lack of skills for dying so many times :D Overall a very polished game with lovely effects and atmosphere. Good job!
Just one minor thing - I didn't like that you put controls to Z and X buttons. I play on a qwertz keyboard where those two keys are not together so I have to switch to another keyboard to play the game properly.
Well I had to rate 5/5 in each one of the categories, I tried a lot of games and this one is the one that make me play twice.
One thing that I would changes is the collider of the spikes, sometimes I get killed by just getting closer to them, not jumping, just getting closer.
But woah, good game mate, impressive!
Cool idea with having a time limit instead of just looking to get the shortest time in games like Super Meat Boy. It gives more of a sense of urgency to finish the level! I like the music and art as well. One problem that I had was on the level where you fall down the pit of spikes and have to steer through them. The camera got pretty wonky and made it hard to see.
Nice environment art. I think the colission for the spikes is too big, maybe it's also in the block that has them? I died several times withought touching them.
Really nice visuals and lighting. My only complaints were about not being able to grab a wall without jumping first.(like if i wanted to just drop down a bit) and strange hitboxes on the side of pike blocks. I would be on the side of the blocks, not near the spikes and would die.
I like the music and visuals, next time try to think more about the theme and on making a more original concept or adding some original mechanics (Or combining already-seen mechanics in an original way). You get the point. I like the game, but there's still lots to improve. Hope to see you next Ludum Dare!
Easily one of the better entries I've played so far. The music is great, and the sheer number of levels you managed to get in there is impressive! My only gripe is with the controls, which took me a while to get used to and never felt very intuitive. Great idea, great execution -- looking forward to seeing what you put together for #40. Thanks for sharing!
Got some super meatboy vibes, felt pretty good. Really liked how fast it was to restart a level.
Really fun challenging platformer, I love the wall grab mechanic a lot
Really well put togheter. Solid, challenging, entretaining.. Well done! If I have something to say is the "hitbox" of the spikes. Another thing it is worth commenting is that I didn't use the run mechanic one single time (becaus didn't affect the character when jumping). Amazing art an music, the mood was excelent. Nice entry, good luck!
It's a really good platformer. Easily one of the best uses of light effects in an LD entry I've seen. I got stuck at the level Spikey Up because of the spike hitboxes though and rage quit. Also, I felt the controls weren't tight during the wall jump mechanic sometimes.
Otherwise, the visuals, audio, gameplay were top notich.
Amazing game!
I like the music and art. The shadows really add to the mood. And the controls are great too.
This game has a lot of potential. I only played the first couple of levels, but it would be nice to have different challenges.
Great work!
Great job with this one! There are a lot of things I really love about this game. There are a few things that could be a little more polished (mainly just the spike hitbox and the strange-feeling wall-jumping mechanic), but everything else was masterfully done, especially for your first Ludum Dare entry. I love the soundtrack, and the lighting effects were awesome - they really added to the mood of the game, as well as the tension in the levels.
A side note: I did manage to jump straight past the kill plain in one of the levels, and just fell into blue... but hey! I didn't have to wait long for the timer to expire. I just thought I'd let you know in case you decide to develop the game further!
Just perfect. Looks like a pro game ! I finished the game and I could not leave it unfinished, awesome graphics, feel, gameplay, mood, lights !, audio. Really like a pro game (ye Unity, well np), congrats and thanks !
Very polished, well implemented 'super meat boy' style game, only the controls could be a bit more responsive when jumping. Good job!
This was REALLY FUN.
The title screen hooked me immediately, looked just fantastic. Really set the mood from the start.
I loved the little names for each level. They gave each one a bit of flavor and sometimes humor. It's a really classic sort of style that I want to emulate myself sometime.
I'd say my only gripe is the wall jumping was a little difficult to learn at first. The timing was a bit strange to me, and the sliding along the wall if you had enough momentum led to some confusing moments; level 2 took me a while to beat as a result. But once I got the hang of it, I had a lot of fun with the rest of the game.
As you say its very similar ti super meat boy, but the setting is nice and it has some really tricky platforming sections but overall its really fun. Had a blast playing it. Wall jumping could be a bit smoother but its ok.
First of all, let's get the "bad" out so we can get onto the important stuff. The wall jump felt kinda... sticky? Like the character was greasy. He slid a lot upwards, and that caused a lot of silly deaths, against spikes that were on top of the wall i was sliding along.
However, the game itself it's a lot of fun! It feels good, the idea is interesting, and the levels are cool! It has kind of a "Meatboy" feel to it and, personally, i really like the lightning choice. It really reminds me of "Thomas was Alone". It's simple, but it's really effective, and helps you always keep the goal in sight!
The aesthetic feels clean, and the animations are clear! Impressive, to say the least, didn't expect to find something that feels this polished! Gj!
Kinda felt as though I was an 8-bit Indiana Jones, which is a pretty good level of thematic immersion for such simple mechanics and graphics. I say simple, but I think some of the intentionality behind the mechanics was pretty clever and subtle.
What stuck out to me is how natural the movement, clinging, jumping, and even dying all felt. I liked the somewhat "floaty feel", and it made playing over and over on the same level pretty enjoyable no matter how many times I made dumb mistakes and died.
The art was simple, direct, effective. It did it's job without getting in the way.
If I had to provide any criticism, which is difficult and maybe even a stretch, it's that I'd be interested to see the temple setting change slowly over time so that your only variable from level to level wasn't just the layout itself. I think with that idea would come the idea that perhaps the music, while good, did get somewhat repetitive and could theoretically change little by little with the backdrop.
Nice game, look forward to seeing more from you.
Amazing game with epic graphics(those lights and particle effects are just awesome) and with simple, but very fun gameplay. The only complain that I have is that wall climbing mechanics is a little bit frustrating. Overall really nice entry, great job!
Nicely done/ There is something tricky about the controls as you can't wall jump back after falling and trhe difficulty escalated quickly but the levels are smart and stay playable :thumbsup:
Great game! Nice mechanics, sound and graphics!
I don't know if this was a bug, but I can't jump from one wall to other, and because of this, I didn't know how to pass some levels... :/
Good job!
Lighting is really nice and used well to highlight where objectives are when offscreen, I really like that. The platforming controls on the other hand are very unresponsive wall jumping and sliding in particular is very finicky and inconsistent, a lot of the level design is repetitive and the extremely harsh spike hitboxes make it a bit of a chore to play.
Needs a lot of work on refining the platforming mechanics.
The art style was decent, and the portal/pickup design was nice and had nice animation.
Damn! That was Super Meat Boy good! I really enjoyed that. You tuned the levels to perfection, getting progressively harder with each level, making me feel that I was getting just a little better myself. There wasn't a level that I felt that I couldn't do with a bit of practice, although I did eventually get to one that had me stumped - for the time being.
The music was spot on and suited the game.
Very polished. Very nice. Damned good job. It was a pleasure to play and I wish that I could be more eloquent in my comments.
Not bad. Controls not responsive and game has strange collision boxes... Love the finish level effect and sounds!
Pleasing graphics, sounds, it was fun to play ^ _ ^ would be nice to have spacebar as an option to jump. I was hitting it sometimes accidentally in place of Z at the beginning =P
Great game music! Sfx were ok. Right away I realized that the spike collides are not very forgiving in the least. Had to give the character plenty of space to make a jump involving spikes. The first few levels were great. The wall climb needed polish, but it was intuitive enough for a game jam. The tile sets were not bad but could have had more tinted and shaded pixels. The player was lacking eyes, just had sockets. I felt it took away from the immersion a lot more then I suspected, and it was the first thing I noticed. Its a design decision tho and up for preference.
My real issue with the game came at the level where you have to fall thru narrow passes with spiked walls. first off the game slowed down like crazy there, cutting the fps in half. I can deal tho, I know my system isn't great, and I cant expect total optimization on a jam entry. But even at half speed I couldn't make it down the second fall. It was ridiculously hard out of nowhere. All the other levels were easy. Could have had me playing a bit longer if that was a later level. Also there was a invisible wall of death in that level right above the player when you start. why not just put a regular wall if your trying to block the player. why block the player tho? I liked when the light source got dim, but it def seemed like theme was an after thought. This game was fun, but could do with some polish. I liked the fact that you named the levels. Great job on a one man entry! the portal and pickups were very cool. I liked that the pick ups followed you and the lighting on the porthole.
Likes:
- Incredible mood - Lovely tiles - Great tension, the portal power timer was a good call! - Great platforming - Fantastic level design - The music is phenomenal - Named levels! I love those! - The orbs following you until you get to the portal were a fantastic touch
Only dislike:
- you can't cling to the wall if you're falling. You have to start a wall cling with a jump, and that's very counter intuitive (and hard) when you're going down. It kept me on the "Wall Skills 2" level for quite some time
All in all, fantastic game, very very fun
This is a really strong entry. The jumping feels nice and controllable, the music sets a very strong tone and sound very cinematic, the art is very cute.
The main mechanic is clear instantly, but the tie-in into the theme being that time runs out feels slightly like a cop-out. ;) I'm not too bothered by that, you ended up with a really cool game.
In the end I couldn't figure out how to pass the level where you immediately pick up the crystal (*is* it a crystal?) that unlocks the exit, and you have to go around and underneath. I just coudl not figure out how to go around that first spike block.
Very solid entry!
I'm not a fan of platformers, especially the spikes-filled ones, but yours maybe made me go further than any! Nice mechanics with the luminosity going down as the orb is powering down, making it more difficult to progress, and a nice trick on the more usual limited time principle often used. The shadows helping to locate the orb are a nice touch too. The game feels quite polished, with good music (thanks for the links!) and graphics. Quite a fun and good game!
Very polished game for a LD entry! I really liked the Meat Boy-like physics. :)
This game is huge!! It's great that you made it in the 72 hours of the jam! The level design is really good and have a really nice increase in difficulty level, you did a really great job here! The graphic is also really nice, the level of polish is quite good. Maybe the player animations could use some work, but they don't feel too bad. Unfortunately the wall jumps didn't fell good to me at all, it took some time to get used to it and in the last 2 levels the game feels unfair because of it, and because the spikes (or the player) have a huge collider. Except this the game is extremly good, I also liked a lot the last level with "the end"!
Overall the game is really good, congratulation on your work, and keep making games!
PS: @johngun did you used some assets for the tilemaps?
Very great work and impressive gameplay. Keep it on.
Sorry, I gave up. Movement was too weird and unintuitive. Maybe if I had more time to adjust or learn, but it was too hard too fast with too janky mechanics. Looked good though.
I really loved your game. Nice art and audio. congrats. Very well done work.
This is an awesome game. I like the subtle lighting effects and the music. I wish that the explorer could jump a little bit higher.
Relentlessly addictive and a whole mess of fun! Amazing game, a few simple mechanics and you have yourself a game that is very hard to walk away from without passing every level! Pretty deceiving as well, the later levels got REALLY hard for me hahaha, excellent work - kudos!
Thanks for this cute platformer! The spike colliders seem a little bit bigger than the sprites, so it's tricky to avoid them sometimes. Nice idea with the reducing power, though the core mechanics are too simple for me. Cheers!
Very nice game! The music was nice, the art was good, the theme was ok, and all the details that went into it were awesome! (Like the light from the portal leaving a shadow behind you, and getting dimmer when the timer runs out!)
I really liked it, but I couldn't really see the whole screen at once, so I just didn't see the timer at the top. A downloadable version would be nice! Other than that, no negatives! Well done! :smile:
Very well done. A bit hard to control but not impossible to play. Graphics/Aesthetics are solid, sound and music is enjoyable, levels are bite size which makes it more enjoyable, and the stage becoming dark as you lose power is a very nice touch. A solid entry
The controls felt slightly wobbly at the start, particularly the wall jump, but the game was a very enjoyable experience. It vaguely reminds me of the days of Nitrome.com. The graphics were fun as was the gameplay, accompanied by some solid music and SFX. I think bits of the gameplay are open to a tad of polish, but it's an impressive entry to Ludum Dare, let alone your first! Good show! :grin:
Really nice graphics, and well thought-through levels! Well done! Did you make the music? It's really good and sets the mood.
Technically I have some problems. I have quite a good PC, and I get about 15 FPS. Also the controls feel really sluggish (perhaps because of the low frame rate). The collision detection for the spikes is really weird, sometimes I die when I'm not touching them, other times I can get quite close without dying.
Overall, with some technical fixes this would be a really polished game.
What an amazing entry ! Congratulations for your first LD ! Addictive gameplay with awesome graphics, music is perfect, putting in the mood instantly. Level design is great, polished, it is an amazing game you created !
Good job! Very nice game. Good work with lighting.
I enjoyed this game very much. Its super challenging and the mechanics takes some time to get used to but the game is still amazing!
Hello everyone, thank you so much for playing my game, the ratings and all the feedback you have given.
I agree that the hitbox on the spikes are too big. I did change the size a lot while designing levels, but after reading your feedback and seeing others playing the game, I realize that it was far from enough.
The wall jumping mechanics definitely took the most time and was the one thing I kept tweaking throughout the entire game jam. I'm not super happy with it, but I just had to stop at one point, or else I would probably still be tweaking it. :grin:
In an attempt, to implemented a way to get off walls a bit easier/fluent, I introduced a bug almost right before the deadline a and it seems like some of you found it pretty quickly. The wall cling / slide mechanics got at bit messed up, where sometimes you will just slide up the wall and others you will not even cling to the wall at all. The stupid thing is that I tried to fix a problem by tweaking the mechanics once again, where the easiest way would have been a quick change in the level design.. Well.. Lesson learned :grimacing:
As @eric-florio and @sbeif mentions, the theme was a bit of a stretch and I wish I had implemented the theme more into the mechanics and gameplay. It took a long time before I got an idea I like and it started to stress me a bit. I had a good gut feeling about the portals running out of power, so I just went with that.
@pbg wished there was a big temple to explore and that was initially my first idea. I started designing levels when I had about 5 hours left and I had a bit of a creative block at that point. It then seemed a bit easier to make small levels, that had a smaller theme and move on to the next, as soon as I was happy. As an example the theme of the first level was jumping, just to introduce the player to the jump mechanics, the theme of the second level was wall jump and so forth. I tried to introduce the mechanics step by step but as the deadline came closer I started to stress a bit.
@jackyjjc I hope you have downloaded the soundtrack :smiley:
@dege I used Super Tilemap Editor :wink:
@zyxer Yes I have made the music myself. It’s made in Logic Pro X using a mix of virtual instruments from EastWest, specifically the Quantum Leap RA instruments, the Symphonic Choir instruments and Storm Drum instruments. I do a lot of music in my sparetime, which is the reason why that part might be the strongest part of this game.
So sorry to hear that. Could it be an issue with your browser? The game has been developed on a 5 year old iMac, where the browser version runs fine in both Chrome and Firefox. Also it’s been tested on Chrome and Firefox, on a old PC with 4 gb ram, a Core i3 processor and a Geforce “can’t remember the series but pretty old” card without any problems. Your PC must be far better than both those machines? :thinking:
Again a big thanks to all of you, I'm sorry that I have been so slow to respond on your feedback, I wish you good luck with your games as well!! :smiley: