Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → Dante Slumbers
By jimbly
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 66 | 3.91 | 33 | |
| Fun | 109 | 3.79 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 104 | 3.79 | 33 | |
| Theme | 40 | 4.25 | 33 | |
| Graphics | 152 | 3.80 | 33 | |
| Audio | 146 | 3.51 | 32 | |
| Humor | 106 | 3.37 | 31 | |
| Mood | 135 | 3.60 | 32 |
The controls are so weird but almost immediately intuitive. Nailed the theme, and that you have an online leaderboard as well is quite amazing in such a short time. I haven't heard of GLOV.js but I'll have to give it a peek as I code mostly in js.
@phlip45 Glade you enjoyed it! GLOV.js is my own engine, used mostly for game jams/prototypes, and a few commercial projects as well. I like it because it's what I'm used to, but your mileage may vary. A high score system/back end is part of the engine, as I find adding a high score list is good for almost any game, and is "cheap" analytics for seeing how far people make it =).
Dante must be a deep sleeper because I crash into a lot of rocks. This is a nice little game. Plane controls surprisingly well for being stuck doing barrel rolls and all. I appreciate the faint outline giving some idea of what direction you will be heading in based on what buttons your holding. Your sound for when you complete a level is also very nice.
@theseusinabottle It's possible Dante is no longer actually asleep, but just pretending. It's warm there and he doesn't want to move.
This is classy and totally has a great 80s Amiga feel to me. its actually sophisticated especially for being a 2 button control scheme. The game is full of character and charisma and polish (even in the menus and presentation at the beginning) and I'm really impressed. Oh and did I mention it was lots of fun? This could be an NES game (but graphics are better here). Way to go!
This was fantastic. Such a clever mechanic and use of theme that turned out really fun. Very frustrating in the QWOP-way, where it feels immediately unintuitive and yet imminently conquerable that I had to keep playing to master it. I loved the cat noises too! My main critique - crashing was way too punitive on your score, my rankings should be higher!
Nice and addictive game! I enjoyed playing all the levels, and then played them again, trying to beat my own scores as well as the scores of others. I like that you can't die in a level, you can just keep on playing, and try to improve on your next attempt. I like the sound effects when getting a ring or completing the level, I also enjoyed the changing background and the smooth end of a level. The prediction of where the plane is going is very useful. Well done!
As it turns out, we had similar ideas for our games, it's fun to see how different they turned out to be!
@fabdynamic Glad you enjoyed it! It was a nice and simple concept (I actually had a [prototype](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/dante-slumbers/i-might-be-on-to-something) after an hour!) so I was able to spend a lot of time on polish.
@fronwewq I really deliberated on whether the primary sort for score should be collisions or time. In retrospect, maybe it should have been time with a penalty (5 seconds?) for each collision or something like that, that would have made high-score chasing a more interesting game of "would bouncing off that rock save me 5 seconds in the end?". Glad you liked the cat noises, they were a last minute addition (the cat theme only occurred to me about half way through the weekend =^.^=), and they play either a single meow or a low purr half way through the level depending on if you'd had more than 3 bumps or not, but I'm sure no one would notice that, so they just add some charm.
@papaver Glad you enjoyed it enough to play again! The plane path prediction I added as a debugging thing, and I'm still not completely sure it helps (you can toggle it with F2 if you really want ^_^), so I made it really subtle, but I didn't actually end up getting better scores with it. However, it makes you *feel* like you've got a bit more control or information, so I left it in in the end.
Took me a while to figure out the controls, but definitely felt like I was getting better the more I played, which is a great accomplishment. It was particularly satisfying to come zooming down between a field of rocks and nail a ring perfectly! Great touch with Dante meowing in the background. Very nicely done!!
@11thpenguin Thanks! Yeah, I really like the feeling of pulling off a maneuver perfectly. Not sure if it's just me getting lucky or not, but it at least feels like skill =).
That was fun. Super charming. I enjoyed the simplicity of the mechanic and you captured the theme perfectly. The addition of a leaderboard was very effective and I also really appreciated that the different levels each had a different "feel" to them.
It turns out that I *can* beat all 7 levels! As long as I'm allowed to hit basically every rock along the way. I did manage to get the record on the first level, though. Come get it, suckers!
A lot to like, here! I like the theme fit, I like the leaderboards being ranked by damage and then by time, I like the art, and I like the disconnect between the name and the gameplay. Someone should check on that cat, though. It sounds like something's horribly wrong with it...
This was a very fun game to play with nice art and music. I only had time for 4 levels but had a blast nonetheless... and blasted a bunch of asteroids with my plane too. Really need to check up on the cat, I am not sure if its sleeping or its dead i mean he has got to be a good sleeper if he can take 18+ hits without waking up! :smile: Great job with this entry, especially for the compo!
@caeonosphere Yeah, I like challenging games, but don't really like "you lose" screens, so anyone can "beat" all the levels, the high scores suffice for my challenge needs. Glad you liked the name disconnect, I hope no one comes here thinking this is about elder gods or something... @cursedsoldier or is that why the cat slumbers so soundly? Glad you guys enjoyed it!
Also, nice high score!
@jimbly Makes sense, its like trying to get back in the sleep zone! :smile: Oh and yeah I figured level 1 was my only chance haha
need to make movement smother i think you should play paper plane in this jam play it and see the movement
good game
Nice! I beat all 7 levels and got decent scores. Great work, I don't really have anything to complain about. The leaderboard was a great addition and kept me wanting to retry.
Clicked because cat. :3
Very unusual control scheme, but pretty straightforward once you figure out what you need to do to move a given direction. Also appreciated the purring sound effect. :D
Lovely story and original mechanics.
As others said : it is a good idea that rocks only lower your ranking, and does not make you lose so you have to restart the level. Because the ship control is quite difficult.
Would have been even more fun if you could go upper, to catch some ring high on the sky. And maybe even in spaaaace. You have to avoid big planets and asteroids.
@firetwoonenine Despite the click-bait theme, the game's not very cuddly ^_^. If you were hearing the cat purr instead of meow though, you were doing pretty well!
@recher Yeah, going up higher and more varied environs was something I thought about doing - or even having the world loop in all directions instead of just horizontally, but ended up settling on this =).
A very creative game, the operation of changing the track by changing the radius makes me feel novel, and the audio is also great. I think increasing the playing time when you hit a rock might be a better way to calculate the ranking?
@zilulu Thanks for playing! Yeah, adding a time penalty would have made for more interesting high-score chasing, I think!
I can't claim that I mastered the two buttons, but I did finish all levels without crashing into _every_ rock. Just ten or twenty here and there :sweat: I like the game, it has a very novel premise (to me at least), and the music is peaceful and cute. Definitely made me come back and replay some levels!
@eldar Thanks for playing, and glad you liked it! As for crashing into every rock, interestingly one of my early playtesters, before I added a score, decided the goal *was* to hit every rock! Admittedly, they didn't look quite like rocks yet...
Great game. Nice that you made it in your own engine. Simple yet inovative idea and the execution gave much attention to important polishing details.
Man it's tough. But I love it. Somehow I had not trouble hitting the rocks :D Nicely done, it's very enjoyable game. And the sound effects are cool too.
Cheers
Tough to get to grips with at the start but a very well made idea and very polished throughout! Great Job!
Very good and complex game for the compo. I really like how it feels in general :) 5/5 for the mood and best of luck!
Love it, hard to master gameplay, rocket and cat
Nice art style and surprisingly challenging gameplay. And online highscores are always a nice thing to have. All in all it's very polished.
This reminds me of the old Rovio Game 'Retry' - it had similar controls. This one's more realistic , as you can't fly backwards haha.
I couldn't get past the opening level! :frowning: retry_aa.png
@johnnysix Heh, thanks for playing! Most people couldn't pass the first level with 0 hits (just the top 15 or so could ^_^), so don't feel bad, just go on to the next level =).