Whale Dive

nyunesu 2020-04-20 04:02

Heyo vilcans!

Loved the whale dive, I wasn't expecting an atari submission, but this was great. I'm not from the Atari age but I've played a lot of atari games on emulators when I was a younger. I really like the feel of the game, the speed sense increasing while the whale falls is great.

I'm not sure how to properly handle this feedback because this game was completely unexpected for me, oops. But that's great, you did great with your innovation and the game's atmosphere (:

The design was a bit unforgiving, but being able to explore different levels without the requirement to beat the previous one was great, so I was able to take a look at your game! I'd have more levels and facilitate the design a little bit so it wouldn't require an extreme amount of skill.

Hope that helps, and if you happen to update this game, come back here in your comment section to remember me and drop me a tweet or something!

If you have time, please click on my profile and give me some constructive feedback on my game (:

See ya!

devparty 2020-04-20 22:45

This is really good! I dont know how to code with atari

shyguyberlin 2020-04-20 22:47

Nice gameplay, nice idea, nice platform, but I think the movement is a bit to slow.

fiakaiera 2020-04-20 23:01

I was not expecting an actual atari submission! I was expecting more of an atari-esque than anything. I'm so happy you gave us the ability to try it out without even having an atari.

I would give more feedback, but how it's designed it's already been addressed by Nyunesu like before. How the game works feels like it's unforgiving, more so if there's increasing speed throughout the whole thing. Not sure if that's your intention or not but even the whale doesn't have that fast reflexes or movement like the dev does! (unless you need the joystick to move faster/slower better)

Anyway, it's amazing for someone to make an Atari game in 48 hours. Especially since Atari programming is already challenging to do since it's on older hardware. (As a sidenote, I am rating graphics compared to other Atari games, which is already pretty alright.)

brandann 2020-04-20 23:02

I think I really needed an Atari joystick to get the full effect of this game! Good premise, and a double hit on the theme (save the whale, but I mean if you sit here wading through all the plastic maybe your takeaway will be saving the earth?!) I appreciated the throwback to original games. That said, I was on a keyboard, and at least for this mode of gaming, the controls cannot respond fast enough to get more than 10-15 seconds of gameplay. It feels like maybe the intensity ramps up too quickly. Maybe taking some of the speed progression a game like Galaga uses would be appropriate to apply here? All in all, fresh game, good ideas, just wish I could get a better feel with a longer play-through.

flamus 2020-04-23 16:14

wow. Im amazed, congrats on providing such a game! This is a really original entry!

sanjuro 2020-04-23 20:22

I really love the fact that you made an actual Atari game, in such a short time too. The only thing that I didn't particularly like was the fact that the speed was a bit to high, such that it was quite unfeasible (for me at least) to rely just on reflexes to not die, as you would necessary need to perish a couple of times to get to know the level a bit and know what was ahead. Great job anyway!

trusty 2020-04-23 20:30

Simple yet fun, should add some whale pals to celebrate your return to the ocean.

p-r 2020-04-26 15:16

That isn't a sperm whale, jk, very nice to play a game for a 40 year old system.

vilcans 2020-04-26 21:00

Thanks for the feedback everyone! @nyunesu, @fiakaiera, @brandann and anyone else who thought the game was too difficult: Yes, it's supposed to require you to play the game repeatedly until you know the level by heart. But you may be happy to know that I've made an updated version that supports two difficulty setting. In the easier setting, the gravity is lower so the whale doesn't accelerate as fast. You may want to try that one to see all content.

vilcans 2020-04-26 21:01

@sanjuro Yes, exactly, my idea was that you should have to play the same level several times so you learn it before you can complete it. Thanks for the feedback! You can try the version that has two difficulty settings (see above) if you like to see if it's still a challenge.

artur-hawkwing 2020-04-26 21:29

What can I say...it was A WHALE OF A TIME :D

It would have been nive to have a few more levels, but the ones you had were definitely fun

garys 2020-04-26 22:20

Ahhh, clearly those posting about difficulty didn't grow up during the era of home computing... I actually found it kinda easy - certainly I think the levels could have been a bit longer, but these would have been great as starting levels. It's a fun game. I thought the controls were good on both keyboard and gamepad, and I thought the gravity was set well to give a nice sense of speed as you progress. Would have been nice to have had more levels and perhaps a survival mode - with no lives, progression from one level to the next and see how far you get. Also I can always appreciate a HHTG reference. ;)

knason 2020-04-27 18:40

Impressive! Worked very well with the keyboard, two levels completed thus far.

filip-bergkvist 2020-04-29 17:06

I find it amazing that you made an Atari 2600 game for a ludum dare! I would love a breakdown video or post similar to that of Micro Mages or something to go through how a game like this is structured, code wise.

thedouche 2020-04-29 17:10

Very cool! That you made an Atari 2600 game! I completed all the levels! :D

zondarg 2020-04-29 17:18

Yay a real Atari 2600 game! Impressive. Found it a bit hard to control, and of course you need to repeat the levels often until you know where the dead ends are. And there is one glitch - especially in L3, when you hit a wall you get stuck often inside the wall without being able to move - then its essentially game over. But otherwise: great! :thumbsup:

vilcans 2020-04-29 20:33

@zondarg Thanks for the feedback! But what do you mean with getting stuck inside a wall? You're always able to move freely horizontally as long as you have lives left, or at least you're supposed to.

vilcans 2020-04-29 20:58

@filip-bergkvist I don't know what Micro Mages have done, but I've been considering doing a retrospective, maybe going through the history of the game commit by commit.

filip-bergkvist 2020-04-29 22:53

@vilcans Please do! I'd read it!

henrycgs 2020-04-29 22:54

Really cool! Impressive to see an actual atari game made for the jam. It's quite hard, which is appropriate, considering the difficulty level of the games of that age! Great job.

8bitcharlie 2020-05-08 11:21

It looks simple but there is a lot of interesting details (color changes, background "fade in/out", behavior on crash, ...). Good entry! And pretty hard game! :)

vilcans 2020-05-11 20:07

@8bitcharlie Thanks for noticing! I wanted it to be polished in details like that.

khopa 2020-05-20 21:15

Really nice game for the Atari, that's a really impressive entry and actually a better game than some that were released full price for the system back then !

As a fellow retro dev enthusiast, i'm really tempted by the Atari 2600, do you have any resources to recommend to get started ?

vilcans 2020-09-22 19:36

@khopa Sorry, I didn't see your comment after the last Ludum Dare until now. If you're still interested in 2600 coding, [Atari 2600 Programming for Newbies](https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tutorial-andrew-davie-01.html) is a good start. And the interactive IDE and examples on [8 Bit Workshop](https://8bitworkshop.com/).