Anti-Bomb

remco 2021-10-04 10:22

If this was the only game I needed to play today, I think I'd definitely try and become a bit better at the central mechanic, so I could pass more than the initial 3 jumps that you actually need an antibomb for. As it is, I think I gave it a fair shot, but whether it's me or the game I could not really get past that point.

I think largely ignoring the players current velocity when an explosion goes off (just mostly take the direction the explosion is going in) would have already helped me a lot though, as when I jump in the opposite direction what happens now is you just basically stop. Or just make the physics a bit slower?

This has dome good potential though I think! (You show of at least a lock/key mechanism in the trailer.) The controls also feel nicely polished for a compo game.

Lastly, it would be nice to have some way to properly exit the game, as it is in full screen.

P.S. Seems the single row of games shown on top of the main LDJam page are not ranked by # of ratings right now? Huh.

icylava 2021-10-04 12:08

@remco thanks for playing and for the feedback!

There's a lot I wanted to do and so I didn't spend too much time working on the explosion mechanic.

I did notice it was very hard to predict where the bomb is going which is why I implemented the feature where you see the bomb path, but even then it's hard to time your jumps with the explosion (and you **must** jump in time with the explosion in most cases).

I've spent the last hour or so of my time on music and title screen art, because I placed more importance on those than tinkering some more with the game physics.

cinderblock 2021-10-04 20:14

There's a lot to love here. The simplicity of the mechanic plays to the benefit of the game. A good jam game has one very polished and refined mechanic, and this game does that well.

One thing I would love to see is a split second of seeing the arc before the bomb timer runs out. My brain is just not quick enough to react sometimes. Another solution would be to "ready" the bomb with the left mouse button, similar to how it is now, and then the right mouse button can be used to "arm" the bomb, which would be what starts counting down the timer. What this means is that we could find the "arc" that we want to throw on, and plan it all out, and then use the RMB to "pull the pin". This preserves the speedruning-compatible feel of the game, while also allowing more casual or inexperienced players to plan out their moves a little bit more.

I could see something like this exist as a cute little party game. With modes like "last one standing", "get to the top first", "don't get hit", etc.

Overall a really cute jam game.

reiqy 2021-10-04 22:45

I really enjoyed this one albeit not being able to finish it. I think I spend more than half an hour playing it. The graphics are lovely, music fits, but gets a bit repetitive. This game was really difficult for me, but I also played with touchpad, I still feel proud about myself for getting so far. Well done.

3mpty 2021-10-05 07:57

Good minimalist art style and some light music but the gameplay mechanic is really finicky and gets frustrating, I wasn't able to finish the game sadly as the jumps were just too demanding.

2021-10-05 08:35

Challenging and interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 49 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/6UdIqDKcGPw

denhette 2021-10-05 13:49

We have really similar control schemes ^^ It's nice to see how you implemented it in 2D! Had fun with it!

uncle-j0ker 2021-10-05 22:24

definitely love this game, at first i was getting annoyed on how to play but shortly i got the hang of it, it was hard to get my timing right on the bomb as well as positioning myself towards the bomb when leaping. but i do love a challenge and especially this one.

jazzathefoss 2021-10-05 23:11

I really enjoyed this game, the controls were a little bit hard for me to get used to but I go the hang of it. The bomb mechanic was really well done, I especially liked how it visually shows where the bomb will explode.

mabuschka 2021-10-06 15:08

I love the mechanic, it feels great when you get the hang of it

frozendoze 2021-10-06 20:06

Hey its a similar game to our LD entry! I loved figuring out the mechanic, its definitely a challenging game, which I really enjoy!

ekilibr 2021-10-06 21:00

Nice little concept! Definitely improved my skill when I understood that you can keep the bomb and decrease the range before throwing it :) As it's already been said, a bit more predictability on the physics and a small tolerancy on the momentum vs bomb trigger would increase comfort, but really enjoyable already.

Thanks a lot for the game!

ogelgames 2021-10-07 04:47

Amazing game, super clean and minimalistic graphics, and really fun to play! The bomb-jumping was fun and challenging, but I was able to complete the game :)

voodinator 2021-10-07 06:07

This game was really fun to play. The first minutes where a bit frustrating because its not easy to get the hang of the mechanics. But once you know what to do its a lot of fun and quite challenging aswell. Without save points it would be really annoying so nice you added them. Very satisfying to finish it. Well done!

simon-rahnasto 2021-10-07 09:06

I don't think I have ever seen a game where the trajectory indicator is as important as it is here :D Makes me want to check out how you coded it, it looks and works perfectly, had you not nailed that part the game would have suffered a lot. This is a really cool entry, I love games that are simple with few well fleshed out mechanics, but which uses those mechanics to create a lot of varied content. Basically the cliché "easy to learn, hard to master". The entire package feels polished and solid!

I did not manage to win the game yet, going to give it another try in the weekend. I wonder if there will be a place where you need to perform a double bomb jump, initially I thought it was needed fairly early on and was so happy when I managed to pull it off. Later when falling back down I noticed you could also do it with a well placed single bomb.

Great entry as always! :trophy:

xeke-death 2021-10-08 13:06

Such a simple mechanic makes such a difficult game. Good work, it took a bit to get through the whole thing.

ladymistleaf 2021-10-08 14:45

I really didn't think I would make it to the end, but I stuck it through and made it! Very good little game, the jumping mechanics using bombs was definitely "unstable", but the minimalistic character and animations were very charming and fit well with the music, great job!

mhorth 2021-10-08 22:39

Really great game! The art is very simple but refined, you made it work well. I wanted the bomb to completely cancel my current velocity and send me purely based on the outwards direction, but maybe you tried that and it was too easy? As is, it was a bit frustrating at first that my timing had to be just right while considering the bomb detonation timer, where it will be, where I want to be, and what velocity I'll have during my jump at that time.

Still, I got the hang of it and got it completed, so maybe it is the right level of difficulty. Either way, had a lot of fun with it. The sound design is really good too!

rufson 2021-10-08 23:33

This game is a :gem: Great mechanics&and idea of ​​using it in the next levels.

fear-games 2021-10-09 10:13

Good game. Love the concept. The controls start off hard but once you get the hang of it they are quite fun.

ollieoa 2021-10-09 10:14

This was a really fun entry, loved the music and the mechanic was really interesting.

monado 2021-10-09 10:25

Really loved the bomb mechanic! Was super satisfying to improve at and managed to get some pretty neat jumps off of timing it right. Amazing work overall!

jackaljk 2021-10-09 21:17

This is fun and has great potential! It's really hard and might turn people off, but I like hard games so if that's the niche you're after it's fine as it is. What I thought was harder than it should be is actually aiming the antibomb, but I don't know how to make it easier or if it can or should be. Part of it was that I had to fight the instinct to drag the opposite way. Anyway I think this is really good, nice job!

simon-rahnasto 2021-10-09 23:28

Thank you for submitting it to the stream, was a lot of fun to play the game again. It was always my intention to return to it and beat it, extra fun to do it while you watched!

If anything, I appreciated the game even more the second time playing it. I feel like the skill ceiling is really high, which leaves room for a lot of interesting ideas in which you could expand on it, and I hope you do!

jvdwijk 2021-10-10 12:49

This was a solid mechanic! Using the bomb to move was very interesting! Pretty difficult to master but fun to get to the end!

Nice entry!

debone 2021-10-10 20:59

First, thanks for playing my game over stream :) Also, thanks for the game! I managed to finish it, that last jump + bomb timing so you could pass the drop was just evil :D I know it's a compo game so I assume none of the following feedback is an oversight but the time limitation.

- I appreciated that even though being Compo, you prioritized the checkpoints so playing it was much less frustrating. I had my rage moments that some surprise checkpoints made me not quit it. - I appreciate some small details you also put time into like using a gradient on the line that shows the bomb path, without it it'd be much harder to tell it was shortening. - I missed a background so we could see how far we are flying on the top of the level. - At first I thought the anti-bomb would be a reversed bomb, pulling me instead of pushing. Maybe some idea for more mechanics. - The mechanic of timing the bomb is really interesting, but for me it felt it got on the way of the game more than it was making the game more fun. Eventually I had positioned my mouse on the screen just right that I could just press and the bomb would explode on my feet, I played the game out and took some of its fun given the bomb became just a delayed jump. - Continuing on the timing, I think the fixed amount of time for it to explode was limiting. Imagine that you could somehow control it such that you could make two bombs explode at the same time. You could make those switches timed and a fast action would be required from the player. Also, it would save time on the moments that we are just trying to make a quick jump. - I liked the bouncing, but I was expecting a bit more crazy moments where I'd just crack laughing at a bomb just yeeting me somewhere unexpected... but the air friction (I think?) was too much and the bombs never really send you yeeting to another part of the level. That would bring some humor to it I think.

elysiagriffin 2021-10-11 14:47

Hi there! Thanks for submitting your game for me to play live during my Twitch stream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1173717245?t=3h59m31s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin