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ForeShift is a puzzle platformer that takes place in a mystical forest. Manipulate the environment to achieve your goals by swapping the shapes of items you find in the forest! This game leans towards the cerebral, but someone with good twitch reflexes may have an advantage too...
There are seven levels. Instructions should be self-explanatory when you play the game, but to summarize:
- left and right arrow control the character
- up arrow jumps
- space bar "does stuff"
Several people get stymied at level 6. Scroll to the end of this description to get some spoilers. It's worth it, because level 7 (the final level) is pretty cool!
The game is meant to be played in 16x9 resolution (so choose one of those if you run the Windows version).
I wrote up a post-mortem here: https://mtnphil.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/foreshift-ludum-dare-35-post-mortem/
Update: 4/19/2016: I uploaded a build with a fix for the multiple ball spawning bug that some people noticed (just a one line change).
Update: 4/21/2016: Additional fix for multiple ball spawning bug, and adjustment of collision rect so player is less likely to get hung up on platforms when jumping.
SPOILERS FOR LEVEL 6: The balls need to collide. You only need to switch the shape that starts on the right side of the screen. You can achieve careful placement of a circle more easily by switching it back and forth.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 71% |
| #118 | Overall | 3.73 |
| #120 | Theme | 3.90 |
| #141 | Mood | 3.48 |
| #149 | Graphics | 3.76 |
| #266 | Innovation | 3.45 |
| #288 | Fun | 3.38 |
| #318 | Audio | 3.00 |
| #427 | Humor | 2.30 |
Comments
Wow, really liked this! Clever puzzle mechanics and a beautiful aesthetic! Well done!
@undefinist, yeah that's probably the toughest level, maybe I should have put it last. You need to switch right hand ball to a square after it goes down the shaft and before it rolls off to the left. Then swap back and forth between square and circle to inch it to the tip of the platform. Then switch it to a circle just as the left hand circle flies toward it, it should launch it to the right with just enough speed to make it to the correct spot in the lower platform..
I loved the intro, how the letter becomes the main character!
Cool concept and good visuals. Good achievement for the compo :)
Really neat mechanic, and well-designed puzzles. The graphics and sound set a nice mood, too.
I think I got past one of the levels simply because the balls were spawning fast enough that they hit the ramp faster than they should.
@dylanwolf ... oops, I know for a while I had a bug where more balls were spawning than were originally on screen, but I thought I fixed it. Is that what happened? The balls should only spawn when one of them hits the bottom and dies.
Great use of the theme, the puzzles are very challenging, nice job.
Really nice game. Feels quite complete. I got stuck about level 5 or 6. Not sure exactly. At one point the repeating rolling ball on the left went crazy and started coming out in multiples (bug?)
Thanks for playing! Yup, that's a bug. I'll see if I can repro and fix it....
Solid entry, but a bit frustrating due to the physics! I like the idea a lot!
This is a really cool mechanic, and nicely presented with unique artwork. I definitely liked this one! Nice work.
Intro is super neat. Puzzles can be a bit tricky because of the unreliability of physics, but very good nonetheless.
My only complaint is getting suck on the sides of cubes when jumping.
Cool game ! A bit short but nice mechanics, few collisions bugs on jumping or sometimes the puzzle resolves itself.. but love it !
Until the very last level I did not understand there is an order to shifting. When I finally found out, it was obvious, though.
Great game, enjoyed it very much, would like to see more :)
Only issue I had, is that the jumping control and collisions with platforms acts a bit weird in some places.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I should have made it more obvious that the shifting swaps with the object in your thought bubble. Maybe by visually moving them towards each other or something.
Agreed that the platform jumping collisions need more work!
The visual style comes together really well (I enjoyed reading your blog article about creating the textures). The puzzle mechanic seems promising - I wonder how much scope there is for creating more levels with it?
Quite a fun puzzle idea. I liked the general mood, animation etc. too, it's a well polished entry. If there's some issue, then maybe that it's too short. ^^'
Still, pretty good job overall!
It was fun. reminded me of abe's odyssey for some reason.
Great work :)
The best entry i've seen so far. Nice ambient, simple and upgradeble concept.
the last level was very tricky, i almost gave up :D
Almost 5 points in every disc. good work mate.
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
Very creative, well done. Love the character animation, and the levels are cool. I got hard fast at "first screenshot level" and I think the left bolder made it kinda stressful. But overall, very good job
Fun physics puzzler and great idea! Not quite sure how to beat the last level... Character design is very neat. Would be cool to have a timer or some way to make it possible for people to compete, and give an incentive to replay levels.
Physics puzzles! So the first level, you walk to the door yourself, then thereafter you just have to roll a ball to the door, which I didn't understand at first. It seems like rolling the ball to the door is not the most intuitive visual language. But the core concept is pretty solid.
You can't reach the door in the subsequent levels, because the space around the door isn't large enough for the player. But agreed, the visual language could be clearer.
Ok. To summarize my point of view - this is one of my favorite entries for this 35th LudumDare session. I played and achieved all levels which was really enjoyable. There is a good work on the player. Maybe you could fix these problems about sprites (I see a line around) and some bug when the player sometimes jump on colliders. However, it's very fun. Well done ++
Good puzzle game and nice game design. i stay stuck in the 4th or 5ht. when a ball is falling from top left and top right. I love the scribble man too :)
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Neat concept! I got stuck in the first screenshot level, not sure how to continue