FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Helmet Man

Helmet Man

By sevadusk

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4673.5039
Fun2053.7339
Innovation2623.5439
Theme3653.8139
Graphics7152.8939
Audio4693.0539
Humor1363.6739
Mood6573.1838

Comments

vladimir-ins 2025-04-08 12:57

Very short but works well.

nuelijarma 2025-04-08 20:53

It's fun, congrats! I like that you added a leaderboard.

athospap 2025-04-08 21:30

Ah the main character reminds me of my childhood! Jokes aside I really liked the concept and gameplay, perhaps the rules should be a bit more clear

flinge 2025-04-09 14:21

Interesting concept with the direction-swapping — but it slows you down and doesn’t really let you build momentum. Still, the idea itself is pretty cool!

raynorr 2025-04-09 18:24

The intro was a good idea !

nicekot 2025-04-09 19:38

Cool approach to introduce the game and flip it on it's head. Very unique, quiet liked it! The game itself is simple but fun and done well! Respect!

jojkeee 2025-04-09 21:05

An interesting and fun game. A new way to review the mechanics of platforming, instead of constantly climbing up we go down all the time, there is an opportunity to change states. An interesting game design solution.

penguinmunch 2025-04-09 21:17

Very cool idea with good gameplay! Good job!

majomirez 2025-04-09 21:32

I really liked the starting sequence, and the leaderboard. The gameplay is simple and intuitive, and I liked the switching mechanic. Visually I think the colors could be more balanced, it feels everything too dark (except the pickeables)

ausstein 2025-04-09 22:02

Very nice Idea!

How do I change my name for the leaderboard? just saw it as user01 didn't ask me either. Or do I have to play non Web version for leaderboard?

sevadusk 2025-04-09 22:08

@ausstein its embedded into the intro, npc will ask you for your name. I didn't think of that when I made skip intro an option. Also, usernames with spaces won't register.

jelch 2025-04-09 22:13

Very novel! I felt like the collision for the player could be a little tight on the sprite, but I love the swapping mechanic!

ausstein 2025-04-09 22:18

@sevadusk Okay thx must have missed it when I played the intro the first time. Then I used skip into :D

ausstein 2025-04-09 22:30

I know what happend now after the intro i pressed reload and then did not want to do the intro again, but never talked to the guy at the bottom xD

I am going to sleep now but I'll go for highscore tomorrow :)

Screenshot 2025-04-10 002857.png

deadcode 2025-04-10 06:11

Really nice game! Interesting gameplay and unique idea! Great work

angstjaegerstudio904 2025-04-10 06:19

11th I love is really fun! great game! fun idea and gameplay!

cammin 2025-04-10 06:55

Art style is nice. A unique intro before getting into the real gameplay is neat too. Neat little falling experience.

ausstein 2025-04-10 11:00

Screenshot 2025-04-10 125945.png

@sevadusk ping me if someone beats it xD

sevadusk 2025-04-10 11:08

@ausstein yoo that's a really wild score. I appreciate you taking the time to do that

ausstein 2025-04-10 11:15

@sevadusk

You can just play it safe and collect score, no need to go for any risky points close to the death blocks. Maybe you could introduce some difficulty progression so that ou actually have to go for some of the riskier point pickups early on.

Maybe something like slowly increasing gravity the lower you go so that it gets harder and harder. (You can then somehow counteract that with the upgrades but not fully). But that is just one idea, could go about it in many ways!

sevadusk 2025-04-10 12:17

@ausstein yea, I already have gravity increase based on depth in there. I just capped it at a certain amount thinking it would be too much, but that ended up creating a slow and capped difficulty ramp up. I can also add more risk to the take it slow approach by adding some sort of enemies/threat, but I didn't have the time nor did I think it was a good idea to implement that many mechanics haha. I appreciate the feedback!

p1x3lc0w 2025-04-10 21:25

Very creative idea! Adding a leaderboard is also really cool and a great idea for a jam highscore game. Switching between the movement makes for some really interesting platforming and the intro does a great job of teaching both movement modes effectively, well done! Visually i think the game could benefit from being more cohesive, though i am no artist so i can't really give any solid advise on how to achieve this (there are probably many great resources on that out there tho). Quite a fun experience overall; good work and thanks for the game!

jona-scheidig 2025-04-11 01:07

Stella! It took my sweat time to get 3rd place ^^ Love the bonk sound, we're bonk brothers, haha

Live by the bonk, die by the bonk, made pure by the bonk

floppynub 2025-04-11 01:19

Cool game, fun idea, worked really well! Appreciate the inclusion of a leaderboard, that's always worth the effort for a jam game, they're great fun. Good work, solid entry!

rhoka 2025-04-11 08:43

Good job on your entry! I really like the hand drawn art you did. It gives it a 2000s era flash game feel. It was quite an interesting idea to have to switch between the two falling modes and that there were some challenging bits that you could only start to do after buying a few upgrades. I'm not sure I entirely understood the point of some of the long sections of blocks with a corridor down. You didn't seem to get points for smashing blocks and I don't know why you would opt to walk down so I usually ended up just bashing through those to get to the next area to grab money and stars so they kinda felt unnecessary. I was also a little unsure of the distinction between some of the upgrades like reduced gravity vs jump height. Those two kind of seem like they could be lumped into one. Overall solid entry. Managed to snag first place too!

helmetman.png

(P.S. don't tell Ausstein I took first!)

rincs 2025-04-11 09:23

Solid, fun time! I love the little helmetman. LOVE the sounds xD

helmetman.png

sevadusk 2025-04-11 18:21

@rhoka That's some really valuable feedback, thank you! I'll consider these points. You scared of @ausstein? 😇 fr though, it becomes a grind after 10k, post jam balance/content patch will help (edit: there is another high scorer now XD)

jake-g 2025-04-13 00:50

Although my score wasn't the greatest (these games are hard for me), I really like the concept a lot. The dual mode, the fact that different objects and tiles flip state when you flip.

The mechanics and movement are all pretty good, and there's an endearing humor to the art and animation style.

IMO it's a creative and original entry!

coleslaughter 2025-04-13 01:06

[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2430455310?t=04h05m14s)

I like the risk/reward of the mechanics here. Still pissed I screwed myself out of a high score with one simple mistake :cry:

ausstein 2025-04-13 10:59

@rhoka @sevadusk

Screenshot 2025-04-13 125648.png

almost got highscore but it really is a grind at that time. Will wait for post jam patches before attempting again

btw A few times I got this bug where I get super jump abilities. It always resets when I upgrade jump and gravity the next time. (not sure which one specifically since I tend to upgrade them together)

ezgif-8abb878576a67d.gif

sevadusk 2025-04-13 13:12

@ausstein oh that's weird I'll look into that, 46k is crazy too! The post jam patch should be out by today. I'm making a ton of changes to the movement system so it should be fixing that bug and the level of grind. (Post jam patch is pretty big, will be up soon)

bongard22 2025-04-13 21:38

Had a lot of fun playing the game on stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2429489125?t=1h27m24s

I would love to see some number popups when you collect things or loose points as I definitely did not understand I was loosing 100 points by hitting a bat lol.

I think it's a very innovative mechanic that I enjoyed using in interesting ways!

sevadusk 2025-04-14 21:20

just published the post jam patch, the changelist is on the itch page

- here is a quick rundown:

- overhauled movement system

- new levels/rooms

- new and useful upgrades

- revamped art - sfx - vfx

- time limit on certain rooms - before being consumed by the void

- new, more challenging, mechanics

- an official ending

- username can now be changed in settings

- misc bug fixes and redesigns

hexstart 2025-04-15 21:06

Played the jam version. During the intro it appeared like a rage game about platforming higher and higher, so it was a fun surprise to see it flip to a different setup. The world switching between two different states is definitely a cool concept, although out of platforming and falling - the latter engaged me more.

empyreans 2025-04-16 02:00

https://youtu.be/RXi5e26Zm0s

From the stream :slight_smile:

Fairly challenging game with a nice game-design twist which I don't think I've seen done before.

Well done!

~Xp

agraffs 2025-04-21 21:57

Interesting entry, liked the concept. As you go deeper and faster the whole thing becomes real challenging. Well done ! :)