jcmonkey 2020-10-05 03:32
since your using arrow keys to move, could you add UP as jump too, would be alot easier to play with
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → Tower of Madness
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 493 | 3.05 | 40 | |
| Fun | 434 | 3.00 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 591 | 2.43 | 41 | |
| Theme | 473 | 3.16 | 41 | |
| Graphics | 584 | 2.35 | 41 | |
| Humor | 184 | 2.97 | 36 | |
| Mood | 543 | 2.44 | 36 |
since your using arrow keys to move, could you add UP as jump too, would be alot easier to play with
Can't say I actually enjoy rage games, but this is a good example of the genre at least, you're got the tight platforming controls and forgiving hitboxes down.
@jcmonkey Thank you for the feedback! I initially went with the WASD+Space+Shift scheme but then I realized that my left hand was doing all the work and was getting tired haha, so I tried to balance the commands between the hands and maybe ended up restraining too much. I made a new version implementing your suggestion, I think this qualifies as a minor fix on the compo rules. Thanks again!
@zachary-barbanell I appreciate that you played my game even without liking the genre! I put a lot of effort on trying to replicate the difficulty of those hard platform games, so your comment made me happy, thanks!
Wow that was difficult. I think I made it pretty far but I couldn't get past one of the last rooms. Celeste is my favorite game of all time. :) So this was a good challenge. Jumping off ledges was a little tricky; I sometimes missed my jump window and would just fall down instead. You had me paranoid about moving spikes after a while! Good job on your submission.
@diego-escalante HAHAHA! When I implemented the moving spikes I imagined that people could get paranoid and I laughed out loud, all alone in the middle of the night, like a maniac. I'm very happy that it, indeed, happened! You are right, I intended to improve the ledge jumping by implementing the "coyote time", allowing the player to jump just over the edge, but there was no time =(. Thanks for playing!
A very funny game!
I couldn't play very far, really bad at this genre. What comments I can give based on my short playthrough is:
* The controls felt nice and precise: I could control the height of the jump and stop moving horizontally to land exactly where I wanted. I would maybe increase the walking friction or simply remove deceleration altogether. I'm not very versed on platformer movement though.
* There should be a more immediate feedback for death. I often would keep trying to move asking myself whether it was lag or collision, only to be respawned and finally understand I had hit a spike from the side.
* On that note, maybe the art could be improved to help antecipate where collision bounds are with more accuracy. Also I love *tsukkomi* characters.
* I enjoyed the color palette used.
* The small remarks from the character were really funny and were my main motivation to keep going - like, what'll he say next? It was a good idea to have this comic relief in such taxing gameplay.
* I would maybe autosave even more, since - at least with my horrible game skills - the spot I died most was the very first jump that was always the same every stage. You can tell me to git gud though, I'm aware I'm not quite the target audience.
All in all, a solid entry for the compo!
I can't beat it lol what about an easy mode with smaller hitboxes for noobs (such as myself)?
Did you draw the assets? I think it looks cute :) I also like the silly remarks made by the player character. I think it's a pretty all-around game, congrats and great job!
@kazuo256 You are definitely right about the feedbacks, I intended to do them when I was going to implement the polishing effects like particles, screen shake, sound effects, but there was no time xP. I didn't know what a *tsukkomi* character was, but now that I've researched it, I see that my character fits this category very well haha. You are right about the autosave too, I planned to follow the VVVVVV style of checkpoints: many of them, spread around the level, but I was desperately implementing it on the last 30 minutes hahaha.
@kazuo256 @makiyoshi Thank you very much for the kind words! It means a lot to me that you guys liked the humor and the art <3
Nice start to a platformer. I found there seemed to be a delay when pressing up and when the play jumped, I think that is what kept slipping me up.
I liked the part where there were spikes
You get bonus points for putting in effective and fair mid-level checkpoints. That shows a degree of consideration for the player which games like IWBTG don't always have, so it's nice to see. Also very consistent with the jump physics and controls, and I think you've succeeded at everything you intended to do with this. Definitely a hardcore platformer.
I would ask though, if a tower is going DOWN instead of UP, isn't it technically a cave?
@schraf Hmm, do you played on the web version? Sometimes I experienced a bit of lag there too, when I had many tabs opened, but on the Windows version I think it was fine.
@cryptomnesic This was the best short compliment that I have ever received, thank you hahaha
@judgezedd I playtested with some friends a couple of hours before the deadline and they mentioned that it was frustrating to respawn at the beginning everytime, so I thought about adding checkpoints. I'm very glad that you noticed it and extremely happy with your kind words <3.
About the tower thing, you are right hahahahaha. I only noticed the incoherence in the middle of the jam and decided to shrug it off. If I made the player start at the top of the tower, would it be better? hahahaha
It became interesting when spikes started moving. Solid controls. Graphics could be improved somewhat though. Anyways, nice job!
super fun, can't believe how long you were able to make this for a compo game. you implemented a ton of different mechanics, good work!
@eduardo-yukio yes, I was playing the web version, maybe that was the problem.
This was just far too difficult for me :/
Pretty funny game, though the platforming is super difficult. Some of the jumps are super precise and I think the spike hitbox should only be at the tip instead of the whole thing. I did like that you put in checkpoints though, they definitely help a lot! The controls also felt pretty good, it's just that the spike placement made the game a little too difficult.
Hi, there! :) I've finished the game and it is a great platformer experience! At first, I thought it would be rough and dirty as I looked at screenshot (the visuals are too basic), but the gameplay is very solid and good. I enjoyed playing it.
I feel frustrated from some time to time, but levels are fair. Some levels are very creative. I've attached a screenshot of a level I like the most.
At the beginning I thought it would be good to have an indicator of a current level, but you've added dialogs and it is brilliant as they give you a sense of progression.
I played with a gamepad and it works just fine, but I don't know how the game feels with a keyboard.
The physics of movements is true to genre. Custom and feels responsive. It has some vibe of Celest as you wanted.
I really like that you've added checkpoints I felt granted when I used them.
Overall, I think the game has very good level design and physics just works right. Well done! Image 2020-10-08 11.21.56.png
@nethead Thank you very much! Yeah, I pretty much spent the majority of the jam implementing mechanics and doing level design haha, there was no time for audio or polishing... Next time I will do something like you did and balance things out.
@szabe I understand, I actually intend to do less difficult games next time, more like *Super Meat Boy* and less like *I Wanna be the Guy*. I think these types of games are too frustrating for the majority of people and I want everyone to have fun!
@thewinrawr You are right, when I was making the spikes I saw that *Celeste* have more thinner spikes but I chose to go with the *I Wanna be the Guy* spikes and they are, indeed, much more cruel hahaha. I think on my next games I will stick with the *Celeste* ones. Thank you for the kind words!
@dmitry-mozgin Hello!! I agree with you on the art aspect, those visuals don't help to sell the game. I really intend to work on my art skills for the next one. Thank you very much for the compliments on the gameplay and level design, I worked veeery hard on both of them and it makes me very happy to see that it worked! About the gamepad, actually I have forgotten entirely about it!! I implemented the support to it, but forgot to test, so, I'm glad that you did hahaha. Now that I've played the game with a controller, I noticed that a huge coincidence happened: in the dialog that teaches how to dash, I wrote "Press X to dash" and X functions both for the keyboard and for the X Box controller lol
Good job on putting out a full game in 48 hours.
I appreciated how you kept the changes to the level interesting, and you put generous checkpoints exactly where they were needed. I don't normally enjoy these sorts of games but this was fun!
That's a fun little platformer. It reminds me a lot "This is the only level". The difficulty curve is nicely done, and the checkpoints in the later levels are very welcome. One thing about the interface, it feel weird to use the mouse for clicking the "Continue" buttons. Why not closing the text by pressing a button?
@jordan-kelly This is a great compliment for me, thank you very much!!
@toulou Ohh, I didn't know *This is the only level*, but it's very similar to *That level again*, which was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the theme hehe. Actually, to close the dialog window, you can click on the *Continue* button, press *Jump* (Z, Up), or press *Dash*(X). I think I should have made it more clear, putting it explicitly on the text like "Press any button to continue". Thanks for the feedback!!
This game would really benefit from some audio/background music but I do know that compo rules are strict, so I will not hold that lack against you :).
The controls felt good and you get many additional points for mid-level saves. I liked that the character commented on his adventures and I totally agree with him: Who would put all those spikes in the tower? It's a very clever and nice idea to take exactly the same base and create increasingly difficult levels on it - very nicely done. I bet your game will satisfy platformer aficionados!
I didn't like the background graphics much. The colors, while compatible, work together to create muddy, dull environment. Your own game character put it best "The interior design was not very creative" :wink:
Platformers are not my genre, so I couldn't really finish it. This is the level that finally defeated me :). Does the boy get out of the tower and all ends well? Or does he finally die on a loopy spike? Screenshot_2.png
@fabula-rasa Your criticisms regarding the graphics and lack of audio are completely reasonable: I used to make games with a team in which I only programmed and, now that I'm doing Compo, I'm still learning the basics of these things :sweat_smile:
I'm very happy that you liked the controls and the level design! I worked very hard on them!
Ohh this level is very hard indeed. About the story, **SPOILERS**: The boy eventually finds an opening to break the descending loop and gets out of the tower! Then, he continues to walk to the right and eventually gets bored of his repetitive routine; until he finds a small tower! Hehehehe.
Thank you very much for your valuable feedback!
Thoroughly enjoyed this - that first spike flying out of the ground brought back painful memories of iwbtg :). I think the balance you've achieved here is brilliant - I really like how the difficulty drops slightly when you introduce a new mechanic, then ramps back up over the following levels. I think that a soundtrack would definitely help, but that's always tricky in 48 hours. Also, I feel like the hitbox on the red boxes could be made be just slightly more forgiving, just by a pixel or so. But overall, I had a great time with this game.
I loved the level design and the difficulty curve. The art was a bit distracting, I'm guessing this is mostly programmer art, it was very clearly telegraphing everything, but it felt just a bit too scribbled. I wish there was some sound and music, it definitely felt a bit too quiet when I played. But I did have a lot of fun with the challenges. Thank you for the game :)
@eduardo-yukio That's a very smart ending. A loop within a loop. I like it! Thank you for the spoilers :smile:
@thesedatedprince I was curious if someone who played IWBTG would like my game, so your feedback means a lot to me! Yeah, the level with the red boxes is the only one that I'm not satisfied with, I definitely should've made what you suggested. Thank you very much!!
@ubershmekel Yes, those were all programmer art hahaha, I intend to learn proper art and music creation someday. I'm very glad that you had fun! Thank you!!
Great! Simple and tasteful!
Nice, tough as nails and a lot of screens. Thank you for adding checkpoints!
I had the red box fly off through the ceiling on some occasions. Helped me a lot :D
Really tight controls and precision platforming. I got to where the three spikes fly to the right and had to throw in the towel. Great work putting together an enjoyable game!
Snappy controls and a cool and simple take on the theme. I could not finish the game as it got too hard for me. Pretty impressive Compo submission. Some Sounds could do wonders but with the limited time that is understandable. Checkpoints were a great idea!!
Really fun game though these types of games I've never been great at. Was really happy that I got checkpoints!
For Celeste-like games you need to be very careful with controls and challenges. Despite its difficulty Celeste is very player-friendly, your game still needs polishing.
Nevertheless, great job.
I love the idea behind the level design and my greatests thanks for checkpoints on different stages of levels.
The controls were very precise but the level design was brutal and downright player-hostle at points. I think a challenge can be good but sometimes it just felt unfair.
That difficulty level spiked (pun not intended) very fast! Not that my game is any better in that regart :sweat_smile: Good and precise controls though! Well done 😊